Sickness Invasion

[Tim]

Mike and Linda Chase have been here more than a month and have just over a month to go before leaving Vietnam.  It's been great having them here, because they bring new energy into relationships outside of our family (as well as being good at the being-grandparents-gig).  My dad has taught at the Vision Cafe for English Club, on topics that are high-interest to the college-aged kids that come.  My mom loves the children of the neighborhood, and now when they come to the door they ask "Can Daniel or Linda come out and play?"

But there is sickness in the house.  On Tuesday both grandparents were feeling so lousy we went to the hospital to get a blood test done.  The excellent news was that neither of them tested positive for Dengue Fever, which is running around in our city right now.  But they both were struggling with bacterial infection and my dad was in such bad shape they wanted to admit him on the spot.

I know there are worse places to be when you're sick, but a Vietnamese hospital is a pretty lousy place to try to regain strength.  Even the private one I had taken them to was not going to be a nice place to recoup.  So they said "he should stay in the hospital 3 days" and I firmly and politely declined.  What a risk that feels like!  What if, what if, what if...  What if I take my two ailing parents away from the hospital and their condition spirals down?  At the risk of huge regrets, we left the hospital and headed for a pharmacy and home.

My dad improved, but my mom's condition has deteriorated.  Today is better for her than Wednesday was--it was pretty bad, but this morning (Christmas Eve), she is still not well.  Also this morning, Janet woke up to a sore throat.  So sickness is among us, and we need healing.  Jesus said that those who ask will receive (and those who seek will find), and we have seen the benefit from past prayers.  Thanks for praying for each of us!

Before they got sick, my mom was able to have a birthday party with the neighborhood kids.  It was a joint party, in between her bday and God's.  (I recently stumbled across a Christmas t-shirt that has the old, traditional picture of Jesus knocking, but he's holding a candle and is wearing a "birthday boy" hat.  It tickled me!)

Here are some pics from that birthday party:

Sloppy Joes for dinner.

Games to follow.  This is a Q-tip shooting contest.

My dad, already feeling the sickness, but still up and about on that party day.

Although it looks like she is warming her hands to the fire atop her cake, there was no need for warmth (it's still plenty warm here!).  Explaining game rules and birthday customs took patience, as the only translators on hand were 12 years old...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Danang!

[This one is from Tim's mom, Linda.  Parents are here to share life with us for several months, until late February.]


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Linda Chase


Greetings from the hot country!

We​ arrived here in Da Nang and were a little jet-lagged, but recovered in a hurry and​ were plunged into a busy swirl of meeting students in the University, at the Vision Café and here at home.  What a good answer to questions we were asking and thinking about before leaving!  Part of that busy swirl revolved around a Christmas pageant that Tim-Anna-Michael were part of last week: Merry Christmas, Danang.

Several groups of foreigners and also some local companies funded the free program ​last​ Saturday and Sunday, renting the city's best auditorium.  The theater holds only 1,200 people, and this year they were able to raise enough money to rent it for two days, to allow more people to come and share the spirit of Christmas.  The free tickets are handed out to friends in the month before and, as you can imagine, attending it is a highlight for our relationships with people.

We were met at the door decorated with wreaths and tinsel and given a greeting card with a candy cane on it by two Santa Clauses (that was a HOT job!!) and one elf.  Inside was a big Christmas tree and on the inner steps a caroling group of about 50 Vietnamese dressed in red shirts, many with green and and red and white neck scarves.



The program began with thanks to the government for giving permission (there had been a private showing to the government officials earlier Saturday morning and they had also OK’d the script) and then the opening number was the Silent Monks “singing” the Hallelujah Chorus with flashcards​ that Tim, Michael and Anna were in​.




Then a blacklight presentation of Away In the Manger – the white gloves and hands formed angels, stars, manger with baby, and spelled out words – hard to describe but pretty spectacular.

The curtain opened then to a very large stage with a backdrop which was a street scene from an ancient nearby city, Hoi An, with vendors working in front of their shops, a few bushes and park benches near the middle of the stage, a setting for a manger scene near the left front and a simple room of a house near the right front.








There were 2 intertwined story lines, well-seasoned with wandering carolers, ballet dancers dancing to Christmas songs, etc.  The story line on the right was a rewrite of O. Henri’s “The Gift of the Magi” – a  poor but loving pair of newlyweds trying to figure out how to buy a meaningful gift for the other for Christmas.  He ends up taking his bicycle to the shopkeeper on the streets of Hoi An to get enough money to buy a beautiful gold chain for the pendant his wife's mother had given her.  She sold her pendant to get enough money to buy a needed replacement chain and a horn for his bike.  In the end, they celebrated the most important thing, which wasn’t material possessions but the sacrificial gift that had been given to them to share with each other:  love.  The spoken lines were displayed on screens on each side of the stage in English and Vietnamese.


This story was told in several small scenes, each acting as a stepping stone for remembrances of the first Christmas, in one form or another.

Some of the remembrances of course took place over on the left of the stage.  A couple with the sweetest 2-month old baby came out as Mary and Joseph.  Later, the wisemen found them.  A childrens' choir came and serenaded them with some darling solo work.  At the end of the show the audience was invited to turn on their cell phones and the flashlight app if their phone had one, and wave them in the air during ​the singing of ​Emmanuel.

The big finale which was a rousing success was at the very end when it was OK to flood the stage and get selfies with the actors and selfies against the stage props.

Then the most important time began: the post-show parties.  Everyone invited their friends home for treats or they went out together.  We went to a café that sold a special type of local noodles and had a round of iced sugarcane drinks which we used to toast the people who put on the show and also the Jesus that the show was about.  Much good conversation followed.

Peruse the complete photoshow of Merry Christmas, Danang pictures here:  Photo Album

Shocking Times

My friends from China came the day before yesterday to visit us for a week.  Sam and Ruth Shock.  They are AWESOME.

When we moved to China in 1997, the Shocks were already old-timers there in Guiyang.  They had been there in the early 90's, when people were still uniformly wearing blue Mao suits and under even more intense government scrutiny than when we arrived.  They have crazy stories.

While we were in China, they continued teach at the university for the sake of the all-important work-visa, but really they had already transitioned into the orphan-care that was to become their true calling.

You've heard stories, I'm sure, of desperate conditions at Chinese orphanages.  The toddlers-strapped-to-potty-chairs-for-hours-on-end type of stories.  In the 1990's, the Shocks began to visit the local orphanage to offer what help they could.  The help that they could offer was to take the infant orphans into their home.  The mortality rate of infants (even ones without physical disabilities, but most of these children suffered from one disability or another) was extremely high--entering the orphanage as an infant was a near-100% chance of being a death-sentence.  So the Shocks arranged to take the infants home.

They cared for and held them.  And some of them lived and flourished.  And some of them passed into eternity ... being held by two Pennsylvanians whose hearts were big enough to embrace death and still go back to the orphanage to ask for more babies.  We were and are-still in awe of the amount of heart this family had (they were raising two red-headed kids of their own).  They lived across the stairwell from us in the other 2nd-floor apartment, so we were naturally integrated into their lives for three years, and with them we first learned to live in community.  I'm sure that many of my life-values have been shaped by three years with the Shocks.

Over time, they recruited caring Chinese families who could serve as foster parents.  When the infants had regained health (or had received a needed surgery, etc), they could be fostered by Chinese families rather than being returned to the orphanage institution.  That team of foster parents grew into a network, and the apartment they had has been upgraded to a purchased house where they care for 8 babies at a time.  They are amazing people.

So it's our privilege this week to care for the Shocks.  They have come away from the long-underwear and dreary-days region of China and we have the ability to host them in sunny-days style here.  We took them to the old walking-city of Hoi An yesterday, and today is more designated beach-time.  It's our hope/prayer that they experience rest here and can re-enter China fully revived on Monday.

The pictures below are from our dinner tonight.  Some of us got frogs & noodles, I wrapped fish in rice paper with veggies, and others got duck drumsticks with noodles.  But the best food on the table was the stewed fish and noodles.  Yummmm.

Thanksgiving+

[Tim]

Today I said goodbye to my students for a month.  They are all college freshmen and must go serve a month of Military Training.  They'll come home on Christmas Eve, but of course that's purely coincidental as Christmas is not a celebrated holiday here.  Nonetheless, I taught them all "I'll be Home for Christmas" along with many other carols.  I'll miss them!

I was able to do something cool with them before they left, though.  I created a DVD and made a copy for each student, and on the DVD are some videos of Christmas Carols (with lyrics) and the Nativity Story (2006).  I explained the difference between the religious and secular meanings given to the holiday traditions, and showed them a preview of the movie in class, which they seemed to enjoy.  Jesus' birth may be the global "reason for the season," but they really know nothing about it here.  Not even the jetsam and flotsam of words like "Bethlehem" or "Emmanuel" are known here, so I hope I did it justice, to talk about both sides of the holiday and list important vocab-words with them.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we celebrated well.  We invited a group of volunteers that work in the Vision Cafe to come and create a Thanksgiving meal with us.  These are students who are in their final years of college or have recently graduated and are looking for work or preparing for advanced degrees, and they donate their time to help the English Club of the cafe be successful.  We roasted a chicken and ate green beans and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, salads, and brought-in-our-August-luggage cranberry sauce.  Janet represented us in spectacular style, and the students were excellent helpers to cut and mash and prepare.  It reminded us of home (all but the heat and humidity) and we miss dear family and friends.

Tonight I'm writing up on the roof.  The temperature is pleasant, and I am feeling peaceful, if tired.  We're in a good season, both literally (the rainy season is diminishing and nice cool-ish temps are coming) and figuratively.  Kids are happier and it seems they are finding their emotional footing for being here and investing themselves into the family business of relating to people.

Merry Christmas, Danang! is a musical/theatrical show that the expats of the city put on each year and invite a couple thousand friends to.  We know one girl who now counts herself as a daughter of God and she says that MCD was a key part of that journey.  Anna is in the choir and improving her skills of music-reading and parts-singing, and she also has one of the few speaking roles in the show.  She's quite the thespian and I'm proud of her!

A Month of Doings

Hello, friends and family and folks back home!

The last time I wrote it was early October and I showed you a picture of a plant with new growth.  At that time we were two months in and still getting used to life here.  We were expecting a drenching month (all the weather charts say that it rains twice as much in October as any other month of the year), and Tim was working at learning his students names and adjusting to his schedule.  We had been warned that the third month can be a really hard one because the newness has worn off, but things still aren't familiar and comfortable.  I don't know if I would describe it that way precisely, but I can say that the first three months were like wading through a pit of peanut butter that got gradually more shallow as we went along.  There were places along the way where we found a solid rock and jumped to another solid rock, but then it was back to being ankle deep in peanut butter and chugging along.  Now we're out of that mess and we've changed our shoes and we're feeling fine.

Locals still tell us that we're in the rainy season, but they admit that this has been an incredibly dry rainy season.  We were looking forward to a break from watering our plants on the roof and being hot, but instead we keep having sunny days with only occasional rains, most of them at night when we're asleep.  Tim is grateful he's not motorbiking to and from class in a poncho.  A handful of times is enough for the novelty factor--more than that gets old.  The weather has cooled to being in the mid-80's, so most of the time we're pretty comfortable.  Sometimes the humidity has us damp all over, but a half hour or so in the A/C sets us right again. We can't wrap our brains around the fact that next week is Thanksgiving.  We are enjoying a really long summer and can't believe that the rest of you are finishing up with fall and beginning winter.  Ok, that's enough of a weather report (I realize that I always start by talking about the weather--I can't help myself!  It's the backdrop to whatever else I may tell you about.)


The daily routine for me and the kids is pretty simple.  We're home every morning while Tim is teaching.  The kids do their schoolwork, and I help them as needed.  I fill the rest of the time with bits of language study, laundry, shopping, etc.  I've learned to drive a motorbike, so now I can do some of the simpler errands without Tim.  Fortunately, the part of town we live in is light on traffic, and it's not hard for me to get around.  Driving in the city center still freaks me out a bit, but I've gotten a lot more confident with it. I still hate parking, usually because there is someone standing there watching you do it!


The other day we had a sudden inspiration to drive up Monkey Mountain.  We only saw the backsides of two monkeys disappearing into the underbrush, but at least we know they live there!  The kids and I had a long time at the top because Tim had to take care of a flat tire (rolling to the bottom of the mountain, finding a repair shop, waiting for a new tire, etc.).  The flat occurred when we were about halfway up, so I ferried the kids the rest of the way and he went down to get it sorted.  

  

Vegetable and pork skewers for grilling

We've gone on several outings now with Tim's classes.  He teaches Freshmen, so they are in the important stage of bonding with new classmates and forming a class identity.  They will study with the same 20 or so students their entire 4 years, so it's important that they like each other!  Tim has helped with that group bonding by doing trust exercises in class and helping them to organize picnics and such.  Some of the classes would have done that anyway, but others have needed the nudge toward getting to know each other outside of class time.  Our two favorite outings were to the beach (an area we hadn't been to before) and to a mountain spring. The students prepared the picnic foods, and they've done a great job.  

 

"Ants on a log" trust exercise

We're collecting places to go with people who come visit us--it's not too late to make your Vietnam travel plans!

Janet

Lions, Witches, and Wardrobes

[Tim]

I went to school early today, since yesterday I waited until 6:40am and had to ride through heavy, pelting rain.  At 6:28 yesterday, it had actually been almost not raining at all, and I was frustrated to have to go through the hardest rain because I had waited the extra 12 minutes.  So today I went early when it wasn't raining hard.

I have a large purple poncho that we call our camel-back, because it's big enough to cover one or two passengers riding behind on my scooter, and when you ride with a head sticking out of the poncho and two humps behind, it reminds us of a camel.  That poncho is fantastic--it saves my life!

I got downtown (west of the river) by 6:30 and didn't need to be at the campus until closer to 7am, so I went to a noodle shop for some My Quang noodles.  I paid more for them ($2) than I would have at a plastic-stool shanty-shack, but they were very tasty and there was a lot more meat-to-noodle ratio than I normally get at the $1 noodle shops.  I have mentally put it on my list of "places to take people when they come to Vietnam on a visit."

After noodles I parked the motorbike in the teacher's lot and took the elevator to the third floor.  I teach on the fourth floor, but the #4 button in the elevator doesn't work.  Sometimes I go to the 5th floor and walk down, but today I needed to stop at the teachers' office and check out a radio for my speech class.  So on the 3rd floor I picked up the remote for the digital projector (my three classrooms all have a ceiling mounted projector) and a radio and a stereo cord, then I went up to my classroom on the 4th floor.

Only four students were there when I arrived at 6:48, though by the time we started class at 7:03 there were about 16.  Three students were absent today, and four students came in late together, at 7:12.  I had just been asking the class what Christmas Carol they wanted to learn today, so the four latecomers got to stand in front of the class and sing Silent Night karaoke-style.  This is culturally normal--losing a game or coming late to class is rewarded with gleeful giggles and the group imposing a penalty on the loser/latecomer.  It often happens that the loser ends up leading the song and then everyone joins in.  It's cute.

We're learning Christmas Carols early for two reasons.  For one, I hope to organize Christmas caroling later on, and so my Viet friends need to know some songs.  For two, my students will all be gone at a mandatory military service training for the whole month of December.  They ride home on the bus from the military service on December 24th--that's not a day with much special meaning for them, but I've already taught them "I'll be Home for Christmas" so they can croon it to each other on the bus ride home.

Okay, there's a third reason to sing the carols. Christmas carols are just a huge part of the Culture of Christmas.  They teach about Frosty the Snowman, the First Noel, and the Jingling of Bells.  It's these songs that let me explain so much about the beauty of the season to my Viet friends.  Try teaching about the culture of Thanksgiving holiday sometime.  "Well, we mostly just eat food.  We travel from all over creation to get to a relatives' house, and we eat the same 5 foods we ate last year and have abstained from (mostly) in between times.  It's awesome."  But with Christmas there are more layers of meaning, and the Christmas carols help me teach all this.

Today's classes were Speech and Pronunciation.  I teach four groups of students, all Freshmen, in a week.  Each of these four classes has between 20-28 students, and I see them a total of six hours in a week.  Two of the six hours are for Speech and Pronunciation and four are for an Integrated English class that includes the four elements of language: reading/writing/listening/speaking.

When I was finishing up the first morning class by telling stories from my own freshman year of college, I spontaneously invited them (any that wanted to) to come to my house for lunch.  Several of them were game, so we met here at the house and went out to buy take-out lunch boxes.  We went down to the corner and got boxes of pork chops and sour vegetables on rice, and brought them back here to combine with things from our fridge.

They stayed through the early afternoon, playing games like Nertz and another card game.  But that's nap-time for them, and I could see them drooping.  They were planning to leave at 3pm but it was 2pm and they were needing to lie back and rest, so I had the idea to read them a story.  :)

The book I picked out for them was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis.  I have enough copies that each could read along while I read to them.  I did all the voices, and I gave Tumnus a pretty good Irish accent.  The students understood at about 70%, because I was reading at full speed so they didn't have time to slow it down and try to learn all the arcane words like Nymph and Faun and Dryad.  In this way I read the first three chapters to them and they've each taken copies to return to me next week.  I'm looking forward to any follow-up Aslanian conversations that we may get to have with these kids in the months ahead!

If you have an extra copy of that book (Wardrobe) that you wouldn't mind donating, I may have you send me a copy in the spring with some friends who are coming over for a visit.  Or if you have an idea for other books that you'd want to send over, let me encourage you to keep those ideas incubating.  It may be that donating a book to a lending library in Vietnam is one way you can participate in spreading light and inspiration in a global way.

Janet has just now braved the rain to ride out to the local supermarket for shredded cheese and something else.  I can't remember what the other thing was.  But we're having our neighbors over for dinner tonight, and tacos are on the menu.  We brought taco seasoning blends from the States and there is a foreign-foods store here that sells frozen tortillas that you thaw and cook before serving.

Wrapping a wrapper around meat and vegetables is nothing foreign to the Vietnamese--they have a hundred permutations of the idea and it's a cultural way of eating here.  But their wrappers are all rice-based, and the seasonings are different enough that we hope it will be something the neighbors can appreciate as "special foreign food."  These are the neighbors that helped me buy two guitars last month and with whom we interact a fair amount as families.

They'll come in a couple of hours, and I just checked--I've got over 100 student submissions to grade this weekend.  So I'll sign off and go be responsible.  Thought you'd want to know what my day was like.  And I wanted to get you thinking about sending me books for a lending library when the next visitor(s) comes this way.


[Michael]

Today was a special day. Our Vietnamese neighbors came over for an American experience, and what better way to have an American experience than with Mexican food! It makes you think that, since America doesn't have any native food other than the double cheeseburger, we celebrate with other people's foods.

The ingredients were surprisingly hard to find, but my mom made some beans and pork and salsa, and we were good to go. We got some tortillas and taco shells, and other ingredients, and our neighbors brought over desert: homemade coconut jelly. It was delicious. I have to sign off now, we are watching Mr. Bean with the neighbor boys, and I don't want to miss out!

Random Pictures from Halloween Party at the Chases'