Wow! We're in Vietnam!

 September 21, 2024

Oh. My. Goodness. What a week!!

Our flight on MondayTuesdayWednesday was a marathon of airports and layovers and sitting and waiting and trying--and failing--to sleep. It was 34 hours from the very beginning until we reached our destination. We were very interested to look out of the plane window as we approached Hanoi and we saw water, water, everywhere; we just weren't sure if all the water we saw was supposed to be there or if it was left over from the typhoon. We found out later that a lot of it was from the typhoon, and the water levels had dropped a lot already, but were still higher than normal.

 We landed at the airport and were found by our personal helper who was able to whisk us through the visa process and got us to the baggage claim in record time. Then she disappeared and no one else reappeared. (Interesting note: our picture was taken at the baggage carrousel by a government employee who was making sure others knew we were there and could keep an eye on what we were doing.) We had landed 30 minutes early and so our Mission Leaders (who were on their way) were devastated to hear that we had landed and were all alone. Adventure!!

But they arrived within 15 minutes and we loaded up in the van. They are lovely lovely people who were so excited to have us arrive and who are already great friends. They took us to a place in Ha Noi that overlooks rice paddies, with the downtown area off in the distance, and then showed us around the mission office. We learned why there are no office missionaries in the Vietnam mission: the rules and regulations are so stringent and varied that no senior missionaries would succeed by themselves in jumping through all the hoops, so the Church has employees who take care of the details of finances, housing, etc. so no senior missionaries will feel like failures (and require constant supervision). 

The weather was not as hot as we were expecting and not as cool as we were hoping, and was quite muggy, as expected. It turns out we were lucky enough to have a few "cool" days that were only in the 80s probably, so we figure we've got a brief interlude to get used to the real weather.

We were then taken to our apartment, which is on the 31st floor of a very nice building in an extremely nice part of town, and we decided that we WILL be able to live here for 18 months! After we got a quick tour of the apartment, Pres. and Sister Howell (Mission Leaders) went with us to find our first Vietnamese lunch/dinner of... you guessed it, Pho! I think we're going to like it here. This all happened on Wednesday afternoon. We were finally ready to crash into bed around 9, pulled back the covers on the bed, and discovered there were no sheets! More Adventure! We slept on top of the covers.

Thursday morning, the sweet young Elders who live in the building across from us thoughtfully brought us some pancakes, jam, yogurt, and bananas for breakfast. This added to the meager supply we had managed to purchase the night before and was much appreciated.

Then the Howel
ls picked us up and took us back to the mission office to learn our new responsibilities, and how they'd like us to help them in the mission. We had another lunch with them before getting our first GRAB ride back to our apartment.

GRAB. Ah, the joys! Ah, the fears! Ah, the delight to make it back alive to our new home! We have never had such an experience before, but will many, many times in the months to come. The Grab App is how we will travel while in Vietnam. It's very much like Lyft in the U.S., but with shades of the Fast and the Furious, mixed with a sea of mopeds that all swirl around you, going in every direction possible and never colliding. It's fascinating and amazing to see the waves of humanity weaving in and out and round about, and it's even more amazing when we are pedestrians who, like Moses parting the Red Sea, are able to make it across the road without a scratch on us. We have learned that if we respect the other travelers, they will respect us and not knock us down. There's a lot of honking that goes on while driving the streets, or walking across them, but it's all very polite honking that is merely letting the other driver/person know that you are there and are ready to knock them over if they don't cooperate and share the road. It really is fun in spite of the fear!

Friday morning we spent in our apartment while I had my first official Area Medical Health meeting. This was followed by sitting around while our apartment was cleaned and some items were fixed and other items we had asked for were delivered. I bravely started a conversation with the 2 women who were helping with all the doings in the apartment. I find that I'm brave enough to make a fool of myself and tell people "chung toi muon hoc noi tieng Viet" which means (if the symbols were there) "We want to learn to speak Vietnamese." And then I proceeded to ask whatever questions I could about whatever I could, and butchered the language with a smile on my face. Luckily, there were smiles on their faces, as well, so I'll continue to be brave. 

We've had many chances to try out our meager language skills; we have attended 2 English conversation classes now with the young missionaries, one on Thursday evening and one on Saturday afternoon; we've met the Branch President at his home; we've spoken with many GRAB drivers; we've gabbled to many store clerks while in search of food or other supplies; and we've accosted people on the street or in the elevators. It's scary and intimidating and fun and exhausting, and we'll keep doing it until we get better at the language!

Today (Saturday) was our meeting at the Branch President's house, and an hour later we needed to be at the Church for English conversation class. We had the chance to walk to the Church and pass through some very authentic and culturally amazing areas. These places reminded one of ghettos and war years and poverty and making do with very little, and it was interesting to see the resilience of the people and their ability to live their lives despite their challenges. 

We have seen beauty in this country as well as poverty; we are in the city so we don't see jungles or mountains, but we do see trees and lakes and beautiful people--young and old. And we've seen some pouring rain a time or two, with amazing lightning and thunder! Luckily we've mostly been indoors for the rain! Tomorrow will be a busy day; we have been assigned to the Hai Ba Trung Branch which has around 40 people attending, and we meet at 9 am. Therefore, I am going to bed now!! 

More later! Chao!