Downsizing Anyone?

Back in the 1st century AD, Paul wrote to his followers that he was learning to be content in all circumstances. He had learned to rely on Someone whom he trusted to provide all he needed.

Here in Hanoi, in our 300 sq.ft. apartment, we too are learning about contentment and the rewards it brings. This is the outside of the building, the rounded glass on the right is the stairway. The wall of glass in the middle is the common area of each floor.

Our Michigan garage was bigger than our apartment, but we also have One who supplies our needs, (graciously through the support of many of you reading this blog) and contentment is becoming a very liberating concept.

Our 300 sq. ft. includes a 13x12 bedroom/sitting room, an 8x13 office/study/mini-kitchen (no stove), and a 9x5 bathroom. The galley kitchen, in the common area we share with 2 other teachers, contains a 2 burner stove and sink when we need it.

Susan has used all her decorating skills to make it a cozy, comfy place to work and rest. We've even found a few handcrafted items to hang on our walls and personalize the place. It's our home, the place where we invite visitors, namely the students we are getting to know. Compared to their dorm rooms, we live in a palace.

This is where we prepare lesson plans for classes, email our families and friends, sleep and re-energize, have quiet times each morning with Him, and cook dinner in a toaster oven. It's where we watch dvds on a laptop screen while enjoying popcorn from our microwave.

In the mini-kitchen, Susan recently baked a chocolate cake, while a wide-eyed student watched in amazement. He had never seen a cake being baked or tasted an American-style cake in his life! (he likes it!)

We miss our home in Suttons Bay, MI, but Paul was on to something very important. We're gaining a greater appreciation for all we have at home, while learning that all of it is meaningless unless shared with friends. Here's a link to some pictures of our humble home.

Gotta go now, there's still some cake left and we found a classic collection of John Wayne westerns to watch. See y'all later, "Pilgrims".

A Time to Play

Making friends with students is a sure-fire way to fill up your calendar with fun!

This past weekend we had another dinner with our friend Ny and one of his roommates. Ny invited the American teachers to a Lao dinner in his dorm room. We sat on the floor around a hot plate as he cooked "hot pot", a delicious array of pork, chicken, fish, and clams...each cooked separately in a fragrant, boiling broth along with many vegetables. We ate our fill and then struggled to stand up and say goodbye. (Next time we'll get pictures!)

On Saturday evening, we joined a throng of students in the courtyard behind the school as they put on "The Shining Show", a talent show produced by 1st year students. It was American Idol in Hanoi! Many of Doug's students were in the show; we actually went to support one young man who has been emailing and visiting us recently.

He was nervous about his singing debut. After all, singing a country western tune by Kenny Chesney is not the usual fare in Vietnam! He did a wonderful job. We also met his older sister, 2 young cousins, and 2 of his friends from High School. One of them informed us she had visited Michigan last year for a summer camp in Grand Rapids!. We're hoping to have them all over soon to talk more about her trip.

Others sang, played instruments, or did their best break dancing routines, well enough for us to see the influence of western music! These students, so shy in class, are very talented performers when the spotlight goes on!

We had a ball seeing so many of our students having a good time!

And then came Sunday night. A 4th yr. student from English Club has been asking us to go with him to see the Rap Xiec...the Hanoi Circus! We finally connected and joined him for the Hanoi version of Ringling Bros. What a treat for us!

A small, old fashioned circus that has existed in Hanoi since the 1950s. Magicians, clowns, dancing bears, jugglers, acrobats, and elephants.

Such fun, and a good time with a student who
is eager to have a relationship.

There's a time to work, and a time to play.

A time for every purpose under Heaven.

Getting back into our routine

It's been awhile since we've updated you, the last 2 weeks have been frustrating and busy. Some of you know that there have been issues with the guest house where we live. We lived on the top floor, the 4th, and some of the rooms had problems with leaks when it rained. Our rooms were not affected, but the other 2 teachers were. The school told us they would take care of it once the tenant on the third floor moved out on September 30th. Well, on October 1st they started painting and redoing the plumbing on the 3rd floor in preparation for the foreign teachers to move down there.


Because of the "open concept" design of the guest house, it was very noisy and very dirty with all the work going on. On Tuesday the 13th we were told we would be moving the next day, we didn't move until Friday. It took us 2 days to clean the rooms in between Doug's teaching schedule and my time committments. Friday was a long tiring day of going up and down stairs to get everything moved. The weekend was spent organizing and getting settled in.....again! But we are now in our permanent rooms that will be our home for the next 20 months. This weekend we hope to get some pictures and post them for you to see the cozy 300 sq. feet we call home.


One very bright spot in all the cleaning and moving commotion was Ny, the Lao student who came and prepared the meal for us. He was here to help with the moving and the cleaning - he worked for close to an hour scrubbing the entire bathroom! This week I have started English tutoring with him twice a week. Tonight he stayed for supper, it was the first time he ever had chili and taco chips. He is a bright and curious young man and our conversation today, when the tutoring was done, was significant.



Doug is in week one of doing mid-term exams, he will finish up next week. This week and next he teaches for one hour and a half and listens to exams the last hour. Since all 5 of his classes are Speaking classes, the only way to test the students is to listen to them speak. He has to listen to approximately 150 students speak for 2 to 3 minutes on one subject from the lessons they've had. Each night he goes over his notes from all the listening and does the grading - another thing that has kept him really busy!

Food, Friends, Fun - Friday in Hanoi

What do you do in Hanoi when you have a day off? If you're lucky enough to know some students who love to cook...you eat!

On Friday at 11:30am, Ny, Jumjim, and Tony arrived with the fixins' for a traditional meal from Laos, their home. Ny is the master chef who did the kitchen work. Jumjim and Tony are his friends who prepared the veggies for the salad and helped in the kitchen, where Susan watched closely for a lesson in Asian cooking.

We ate around 2pm, after watching these young people work their culinary magic. Our small, limited kitchen makes everything take longer. First they washed and prepped the salad ingredients, which they purchased fresh in the market on our street. Check out the colorful array...yes, red peppers are red hot! And Laotian food calls for lots of 'em.

Ny used these peppers in an ethnic pork, liver and fresh mint salad pronounced, "larp". It's so tasty. He also used "a few" peppers (so he said) to prepare a fish sauce which he spooned over two large fish he fried in oil. The sauce was made of crushed peppers, salt, sugar, garlic, lemon juice, and water.

While he was doing his thing in the galley, J and T were preparing a cold salad made from shredded papaya and "the dressing"- (more peppers!) When it was ready to eat the kitchen crew posed by the dining table with our lovely hostess.

It was such a joy to eat and talk with these new friends, all around 20 yrs old. They're in their 2nd yr. at the DAV and miss their homes as we do ours.

On this day, Susan fixed a cucumber, tomato, red onion and olive marinated salad which we all enjoyed too. It was their first time to eat black olives, and they love 'em. After lunch we shared a few chocolate covered cherries from our neighbor's farm in Suttons Bay...the smiles on their faces told us they loved those too!

A picture is said to be worth 1,000 words. So gaze on this feast. The 2 dishes in the rear are the fish plates, "palart pik" and the salad up front is the "larp". Notice the wonderful creativity in their presentation, even rosettes of peeled tomato skin by each fish! Awesome!

We so enjoyed their company that we invited them to come again in 2 weeks, when Susan will whip up something Italian!

In case you don't know......

.....you can click on any picture in the blog to enlarge it. You may want to do that for the group picture in the post below - it's a great picture of the students. You can see in their faces how much fun they were having.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

It's 90 degrees outside and the trees in Hanoi are all green. Nevertheless, it's time for the traditional Vietnamese mid-autumn moon festival. At the Diplomatic Academy that means it's time for the student-run English Club to throw a party! Last night, 50-60 students and their American teacher guests enjoyed skits, music, decorations, and delicious holiday food.

Our hostess was a fictional old woman named "Ha", played by a 3rd yr. student. Ha tricked a suitor, who wanted to meet her daughter. She made him bring festive food for her enjoyment. To his surprise she soon revealed that all the party guests were in fact, her "beautiful children".

Teams of students competed in preparing decorative arrangements of fruits & sweets. One aromatic, hot salad was served up by four students from Laos. The Vietnamese plates were marked by the presence of a famous national treat - moon cakes. This energetic contest was judged by the honored guests, the American teachers.

1st place was awarded to a creative display of carved watermelon, which curiously reminded all of us of an American autumn holiday.

It was great fun, laughing and mingling with the students, many of whom are in my classes. The English Club is very active at the DAV, welcoming the participation of visiting teachers. What a wonderful opportunity to form relationships with these young people!