The Many Sides of Vietnam

Another week has come and gone! It's hard to believe that we're more than 1/2 way through October. Allen and I went exploring again on Monday for p-day and were amazed by some of the things we saw. It's so hard to describe Vietnam that I decided to go at it in a different way today...

PEOPLE

English activity is every Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon.

This was a Family Home Evening service project with some young families in the branch. We're working on loving everyone in the branch and making them all feel welcome and included.

Hanging out after school with their buddies.

This is our North Zone after Zone Conference. These are all the missionaries who cover the city of Hanoi with ~6 million people.

One of the coolest things we got to do this week was to go to the first baptism we've witnessed here in Vietnam! It was in a neighboring branch and our district sisters invited us to go with them (or, invited us to take them with us in a Grab car--haha). It was a rainy evening and took an hour and 15 minutes to travel 7 miles. Ugh.

This was a two-way street that the scooters decided could best be used by turning it into a one-way street going their way.

This is a typical, portable baptismal font in Vietnam, designed by the father of one of the missionaries in our mission, when HE lived here years ago. The font is in the front of the building, open to the outside air.  It really was a special event.

The Branch President, Mission President (in the center), and Mission President's wife. 

The sisters who came with us, plus their friend, eating dinner after the baptism.

Oh, wait... That's some of my kids. How did that get in there??

FOOD

There's so much to choose from! Sometimes it's hard to choose; other times, not so much...

At a restaurant we PASSED.

We went for the burgers this time. 

While we enjoy Vietnamese food, we crave familiar foods sometimes. Last night we made pancakes.  

Some food we passed on after the baptism.

It's sometimes like playing Russian roulette when you're guessing what a food item is. Yes, we're familiar with... the familiar dishes; it's the stranger ones that have us guessing!

French fries, pate, egg, ham, ...???

PLACES

Closer to Home...

A wood carving outside of a shop.

We first thought these might be for neighborhood barbecues. They are quite frequent around the neighborhood, and some have countertops and sinks near them. Then a missionary explained that these are for the local residents to burn offerings for their relatives. We don't look at them the same any more, but they're pretty cool looking.

This is across the fence from our high-rise apartment complex: Very small, very ordinary, very tall, very skinny homes.

This picture shows how skinny the homes are. Allen was reading about the history of Vietnam and discovered that at least in the 1800s, the people were taxed according to the width of the house on the street. Hence, they built very skinny houses. They were also referred to as "tunnel" houses or "tube" houses because they went so far back from the street. The average house is 9 ft. wide, 10-30 ft. deep, and 3-7 stories high. They are also sometimes called "rocket" houses. We see this everywhere we go: the store fronts are very narrow, then the shop goes waaaaay back in the building, and then becomes the dwelling at the back. 

 Another fun fact: houses were at first limited to one story so as to not give an advantage to assassins who could get up high to see and kill people.

There are many water features on every block or two, and many playgrounds, as well as exercise features like chin up bars or sit up benches, etc.

There is a LARGE underground mall a few blocks from our apartment, with a large pool/pond in front of it. We recently discovered that on some evenings (we're not sure how many) at 7:00 pm, the pool has a show with lights and fountains that goes on for about 15 minutes while popular songs are piped into the area. 

This was really fun to go watch last Sunday evening.

Further Afield...

We discovered the markets of the Old Quarter in Hanoi. The streets surrounding the market were FILLED with shops of all kinds. Some, like this one, specialized in one kind of product (candy, here). Others were filled with tourist items (which we will take advantage of in 16 more months) or clothing. We managed to escape with only purchasing one pair of pants (me), one shirt (Allen), one dress (?), and one small fan (me). JK, the dress was mine.  Oh, yeah, and a small necklace.

The pictures that follow were either outside of the mall, or inside, with wall-to-wall stores. Totally amazing!!

We also managed to visit some more shrines.

Some panels had birds...

Some had... bats.

I love the beautiful bonsai trees everywhere.

Our last stop of the day was at The Traditional House, an Old Quarter heritage spot. 

This house was built at the end of the 19th century and is typical of the traditional architecture in the Old Quarter. (Yes, I got that right out of the brochure.)

 It is one of the "tube houses" and has an open-air courtyard in the middle of the house with trees growing there.

Notice the crane is standing on the turtle--2 of the sacred animals we find everywhere.

On the street front is the shop and above that is the living room and ancestors' altar.

Past the courtyard are the bedroom, back shop, another courtyard, the kitchen, and the bathroom at the very back.

This is the headboard of the bed.

It would be hard to imagine this place in the rain!

And back down the very steep staircase...

We live in a beautiful place, and we definitely enjoy our view! But we're missing wide open spaces with places to go hiking, or ride a bike without fear of death. And we miss our kids and frequent phone calls and I miss watching movies (sorry, Allen).

But we wouldn't trade right now!

Bye for now!