Happy Thanksgiving!

Of course by now your turkey is long digested and you are probably back into the routine of a five day work week. We are very sorry we haven't been able to post in a while but for some reason we couldn't get on the blog. We're in Hoi An, Vietnam and we are doing well. If you get a chance check out MAPS adoption www.mapsadopt.org. Click on the Vietnam aid link on the left hand side to access more specific information. Or go to www.mapsvn.org This is the NGO that we are volunteering with.

When we walked into the organization on the first day we were immediately put to work and after a short time there we have had some incredible experiences. Leaving Saigon, we were equipped with a bit more information on the war but walking into a computer lab to greet two young Vietnemese brothers severly deformed because of their fathers exposure to dioxins was a greater lesson than we could have known. Anh Trang means bright star and these two are just that. Mateo was Trang's teacher and I had Anh. They spoke very little English but every Tuesday and Thursday, for an hour and a half, we taught and they made us laugh. One of the sweetest things I've ever seen is my husband slumped down in his chair close enough for Trang to lean his head against Mateo's and pull down on his beard and say "M-aa-theyow" in a high pitched sort of sigh. It just makes me smile thinking about it.

We teach English to a handicapped class every morning. Our youngest student is 23 years old. The class has been taking very good care of us. Neither Mateo nor myself had ever spent an extended amount of time with handicapped people. I don't even think "handicapped" is politically correct but that's what they call themselves here so respectfully we follow suit. You wouldn't believe the innovation, independence and generosity they have. There are seven students and every morning we get "Good Mawning Tea cha..." as they make their way into the classroom. It's great!

We help out the Vietnemese teachers in the evening and on the eve of Thanksgiving we were asked to teach about the History and Traditions of this U.S. Holiday. Well, let's just say it was a challenge. Besides the fact that the students are learning English and we were using words that make no sense in Vietnemese we had to stuggle with how much of "why do we celebrate thanksgiving?" do we give them. We kept it pretty simple throughout the presentation but I just couldn't let them go away with only the word "Indian" in their Thanksgiving vocabulary. So I gave them the choice of "Native American" or "American Indian" same same but different. What happened next was all about unsatisfied Americans meet confused Vietnemese class, with limited English. Teacher Laura our travelling buddy so gracefully steps to the front of the class and shares the dark side. The Thanksgiving we don't talk about back home. shhhhh! The vocabulary words in this conversation began with 1. Protests then moved on to 2. Genocide and finally ended with phrases like 3. They were mad, mean Pilgrims and New World. The class really enjoyed the presentation. A lot of them work in the tourism industry and wanted to know about the holiday since the hotels are getting into presenting the U.S. holidays.

Please don't think we were standing before a group of 9 year olds. The students are working adults who mostly go to school at night to improve their communication for work. I think I learned more about Thanksgiving than they did. Do you know who Sarah Hale is? What year was the first Thanksgiving? Did the Pilgrims celebrate Thanksgiving?

Well on Thanksgiving day we celebrated it with our morning class. They didn't know it was our holiday but they invited us for a big lunch at one of the Pagodas. This is a popular place and we ate non touristy Vietnemese food called com chay - a rice and noodles dish with vegetables. I was very thankful to be sitting in the presence of such generous people. We left the school in an entourage of steering wheeled wheelchairs and three wheeled motorbikes. This became a familiar site on Phan Dinh Phung St. on several occassions after this day but for me it was the first time I had hopped on the back of a motor bike that was kick started by hand by a driver who gets around on his hands. We had so much fun that day!