Same Same a Woman

March 2, 2014

 

Sorry I don't have too much time to email today because I'm going to...THE ZOO! Yeeeheee! If you're my friend you probably know that I am like obsessed with the zoo. Elephants and tigers are my favorite in case you care. I can't do the snakes though. Not about that life style.

 

Here's a recap of the week:

Everyone is FINALLY back home after doing who knows what for the lunar new year. You may be asking yourself, "Emily told us about the lunar new year over a month ago, why are people just barely getting back home?" WELL THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING. It's been like a month since the holiday and things are just barely getting back to normal. The Viets really know how to party hardy.

So the work is finally back on track and we have been able to teach lessons more regularly. The mission goal is to teach 20 lessons a week because this year is the 20th anniversary of the church in Cambodia. Teaching 20 lessons a week is super difficult though. Most everyone works at least 12 hours a day so they cannot meet in the afternoon, and those that are available in the afternoon live fairly far. Lots of time is spent biking around the city trying to meet with everyone. Then in the evening after hours of wandering the city we go back to the church building and teach two or three lessons in a row. Exhausting to say the least. I still have yet to teach 20 lessons in a week though. Whau whau whau. My record high is 14. I am determined to get 20 in a week though at least once in my missionary life. BTW, my missionary life is down to less than a year now. Tomorrow is my six month mark. I've got the wrinkles and heinous tan lines to prove it.

Gosh, I wish you could all see my calve muscles. I'm jacked from all the peddling around.

Saturday we didn't have anymore to teach though so we went out contacting in our neighborhood. Like I've shared because we're not allowed to just go up and down the streets and make the initial contact with people so a great way to make conversation is through shopping. We went to a really nice western pharmacy to but Muscle Milk. If you're my friend you probably also know that I am a muscle milk addict. Too bad so sad they didn't have muscle milk but I bought a few other things. While paying I had a hard time figuring out my money and I jokingly told the two girls working at the cash register (in Vietnamese) that I'm an American and I couldn't figure out their darn Vietnamese money. They gave me a few courtesy laughs and asked how long I'd been living in Vietnam. When I told them four months they freaked and thought it was so cool that I could speak Vietnamese after just a short time. We got to talking and I invited them to English class and then they were hooked! They were so excited to be able to go learn English then their manager comes running out from the back room and asking me all about English class. These people flipped. It was sweet. Before I knew it they were trying to give me things for free because I'm going to teach them English for free. The manager is also a tour guide and offered to take us on tours of Vietnam for free and gave me a huge tour guide book - all because I'm going to teach them English for free. Haha What a fun contacting experience.

That's all for now.

-TheRadAsian

Line of the week:

Sitting at a place that sells drinks, talking to a potential investigator, and her 13 year old son walks out and says in English, "Trinh, you is same same a woman."

...no idea what that means.

Welcome to my life.