Well, yesterday was a very busy day, so I was unable to blog. We have moved to Tan An, which is where one of Mitchell’s aunts live. This town is much bigger than Ben Luc. I realize now how much we were in the country before. Size is different here. For example, Tan An probably takes up about as much land space as Rockwall, Texas, but has a population much like Dallas. It is much cleaner here in Tan An than in Long An. You can tell they are working hard to make their town nice and modern. (When I say modern, I mean for Vietnamese standards, not American.) For example, they are starting to construct public parks and malls.
Mitchell’s aunt took us shopping with her yesterday. This adventure was quite exciting since Mitchell’s aunt does not speak ANY English. She was making her son translate for us. He was having a hard time explaining himself. It was funny watching him try to figure out what to say and us trying to figure what he was saying. He would often get frustrated with himself because he could not think of the right words. We actually went to what they call a mall. We have a pic of it on our MobileMe Gallery. The main store in the mall is a supermarket. It is their version of Walmart. They had quite a few American items. The difference is that the American items are VERY expensive in Vietnamese money. They cost the same here as they do in the United States. For example, Pantene shampoo was $4 a bottle, which in Vietnamese money is A LOT! Outside of the supermarket, there were several stalls, which held clothing stores, jewelry stores, etc. The oddest thing about our adventure to the mall was the security. I was not allowed to take my purse into the supermarket. I had to check it in at the security office and pick it back up when we left. We had to carry our money in our pockets.
After we left the mall, Mitchell’s aunt took us to see her church. She was VERY excited about us meeting her church family. We arrived right at the end of VBS. Here VBS last for a week, and the children are at the church all day. This was the last day of their VBS this year. We were introduced to the children’s minister and the associate pastor. They both spoke English well, and they gave us a tour of the church.(Pics on MobileMe Gallery). They have just built this new church in the last two years. They are in the process right now of building a Sunday School building, but construction is at a halt until more funds are raised. They need $10,000 to put a roof on the building and $8,000 for the windows and the doors. We also were invited into the Senior Pastor’s home and of course served fruit and water. We spent a great deal of time speaking to their pastor. He had many questions about American churches and we learned quite a bit about churches in Vietnam. It was very informative on both sides. We had many translators for our meeting since the adults were always wanting their children to practice speaking to us in English.
I really enjoyed today. It was the first day that we actually left the house and did something.
More pics at: http://gallery.me.com/mitchellandwendy#100039
