Vietnam....it's been a pleasure!

Well I need to apologize in advance for any grammatical errors I make in my writing. Many of you are better writers than me I am sure. I just want to keep in touch with those I love, and this blog seems to be a pretty good way to do so. These keyboards are goofy and I may misspell words. If so, please turn a blind eye. I just want to document this trip the best I can. Now....back to the good stuff!

Oh wait, another thing. Mama, just so you know, I'm not going to censor the stuff I put on this blog either. Nothing crazy has happened, but if it does, it's definitely going to be posted. That is the stuff people want to hear :)

So yesterday we went on a tour of Saigon. We hit up all the cool historical sites...and also some places that weren't really interesting at all.....like the post office. We went to Ho Chi Minh's old palace. It was a pretty cool place, but the best part was definitely what I found in his office.....

It turns out that Ho Chi Minh was a huge BYU fan back in his day....who knew?



I made a buddy to take us around the city named Manh. He was a really goofy guy, but super nice. My favorite part was the fact that he thought I was Justin Timberlake. Any guy that mistakes me for JT definitely deserves a picture :)

Bubba, do you recognize the hat he is rocking right here? Ya baby!

Outside of the post office, I was approached by this news reporter and camera crew. I always seem to find myself in interesting situations lol. This one was definitely interesting. They were interviewing me about the public restrooms in Ho Chi Minh. Do I speak Vietnamese? Nope. Did I give it a go on camera? You know it baby. Rocked it hard. This was the result...

Well finding food in a country like Vietnam is pretty easy....if you speak Vietnamese. I am not a fan of getting roped into eating at the tourist places that charge you 4x the local price. I make it a personal goal to get the local prices everywhere I go...even if it takes a little extra effort. The last two days I have been down every alley searching for the local hot spots for food. This lady even took me on her moto to one of the local rice places. The only problem with the local spots is that you get the local food...and on this particular food run, it was cricket legs and deep fried roaches. Ya baby!!! Steven was, umm.....pleased with dinner?

After a hard day's work, I always crave crickets and roaches baby.

While Steven is still sleeping, I sneak in a little early morning snack.....

Nothing better baby...papaya and mango.

Today we went to church. I gotta share a quick little miracle. All we had was 200,000 Vietnamese Dongs. That is about 10 USD. We had to get a taxi to church because it was on the other side of town for sure. Well it didn't take us long to find a taxi. Everyone in this city knows how to say "How are you?" or at least a simple "Hello" in English. I managed to find the one man in this huge city that doesn't speak even a word of English. It made the trip to church really interesting. Well after finally getting there, I realized what the meter in the taxi read...."195,500 VND." Another block and we would have been over our limit of money and not been able to pay. Cut it close for sure, but the Lord is mindful of His people in every country. It was a huge miracle for us. So we got to church with just enough money.....which made getting back from church, umm, interesting?

Well I gotta get to bed. This is the latest I have stayed up since being here. Jet lag is still a factor, but I am getting closer to Asian time. Tomorrow morning we are off to Cambodia. Home court advantage baby. We will be eating like kings soon :)

Quick little thought to end the post. These people are so sweet. They are more Christlike than I am and they don't even know who He is. They don't have anything, but always smile and laugh. So many people come to this area of the world to see the temples and eat the food, to drink the cheap alcohol and party late into the night. I come here for the people. Yesterday in the interview at the post office, the reporter asked me why I came to Vietnam. At first this question puzzled me; I didn't know what to say. It wasn't for the cricket dinners. It wasn't for the humidity. It wasn't to be sweaty all the time. It was for the people. I came back to Asia so I could be with the people. I learn so much from them. I learn so much about myself from them. I learn more about Christ just from being around them. I love just sitting down and talking to these people. I love hearing their stories. I love their facial expressions. I love their smiles. I love their humility. This is what I come here for. I am so lucky to have spent two years of my life with these sweet people.

Looking forward to homecourt advantage tomorrow!

From across the ocean blue,

Kory