Lance and Kristen Baker

Diep jumping for joy

This past Saturday we took all of the children at Promise House to the beach to play games (too cold for swimming!).  There aren’t really any good recreational parks in the city so the beach is the perfect place for the kids to freely run around and play.  We had a few organized group games, which most of the children really got into.  Some of the other children collected seashells.  Thue (in the picture below) found a plastic bag and had it completely full within the first 30 minutes. Some played frisbee, soccer, football, dug holes and played in the sand.  So below are just some of the fun things you can do on the beach (aside from swimming).

Shell collecting was a popular activity of the day.

The group games were full of laughter.

Some of the children buried themselves in sand.

Thue planted flowers in the sand.

Diep, Nghia and Nam used a frisbee to sort shells.

Phi drew a picture in the sand.

Minh was jumping in the sand.

Nghia and Vuong had just done simultaneous cartwheels and landed on top of each other in laughter.

Phi and Lance

Hanh and Kristen

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For Kristen’s birthday I wanted to do something special.  I decided to plan a surprise trip to Hoi An– a beautiful, quiet city about 35 minutes south of Da Nang.  The morning of her birthday I had a little scavenger hunt which eventually informed her that we’d be leaving after lunch to go to Hoi An.

I really love taking the motorbike to Hoi An.  Even though it is about 30 kilometers away, we literally only have to make about 3 turns to get there.  It’s a straight shot along the coast, through some small quiet neighborhoods.  I like seeing the street-side markets, the children walking and riding their bikes down the street, the fishermen working on their nets and the variety of homes along the way.

Spending most of our time in the 4th largest city in Da Nang, it is sometimes easy to forget how drastically different the rest of the country is.  There are areas in the Vietnam countryside that I don’t think have changed too much over the last 100 years.  I suppose I could go on about my thoughts on this but I’ll save that for another time.  Back to Kristen’s birthday!

View from our hotel room.

View from our hotel room.

When we got to our hotel (the Phuoc An River Hotel) to check in they said that they upgraded our room (for the same price) because apparently they gave away the room that I booked.  We weren’t complaining because the room they upgraded us to was the master suite!  It was a beautiful room on the 5th floor with a unique birds-eye view of Hoi An.  It was bit outside of the city so the surrounding view was mostly rice fields and a nearby river.

Our Master Suite

In Vietnam, you are required to leave your passport at the reception desk during your stay.  When they saw Kristen’s passport and realized it was her birthday, they told us they would have a surprise for us later.  When we left the hotel about an hour later they had a birthday cake waiting for us that said, “Happy Birthday Kristen!”

In Hoi An

Hoi An is a popular tourist city with hundreds of shops selling things like handmade jewelry, decorative dishes, souvenirs and clothes.  One of the most unique aspects of Hoi An is that you can have clothes tailor-made overnight.  They can make coats, jeans, pants, shirts, dresses, suits and shoes.  Once you pick out the style you want, they take your measurements and give you a time to come back and try it on.   The nice thing is that if there is a problem and something doesn’t fit right, they will correct it until it fits perfectly.   Our favorite part is that everything is very affordable (especially if you’re a good bargainer).

Kristen got some new clothes with her birthday money (thanks family!) and we had a nice dinner together.  In fact, we discovered a new restaurant called Al Frescos.  Apparently it is a chain that started in Hanoi but just recently came to Hoi An.  Food is one of the things we miss most about life in the U.S. (aside from family, of course).  We were ecstatic when we saw things like burritos, cheeseburgers and nachos on the menu!

Yes, that's us eating cheeseburgers, and yes we liked it!

Another thing we love about Hoi An is the chance to meet and talk to people.  Most of the shop owners speak English so it is easy to start up a conversation.  Usually they ask how long we’ve been in Vietnam (because they are accustomed to talking with tourists) so we casually say “Oh about a year and a half.”  It’s funny to see how their attitude changes when they realize that we live and work in Vietnam.  They are usually really curious to know what we do and what we think about the food in Vietnam, etc.  It’s actually a really good opportunity for us to talk about what we do.  Whenever we tell Vietnamese people that we are volunteers and we work with poor children without parents they usually tell us how thankful they are for the work we do.  I think many people in Vietnam have either lived through some element of poverty or have family members who struggle in some way.  When they hear about what we are doing in Vietnam it often strikes a very personal chord in them.

The next day we made a few more stops to pick up our clothes.  We had to go back a couple times to some of the shops because they had to make some final adjustments.  Since we had such a big dinner the night before, we never really got around to eating Kristen’s birthday cake and we weren’t sure how to take it back to Da Nang on the motorbike.  We had about 4 stores to go to in the morning so at each store we gave them a piece of the cake!  Everyone seemed so happy and we had fun sharing Kristen’s birthday with everyone.

See more photos from our trip in Hoi An.

A couple weeks ago I went around the city and took some pictures at night, mostly of two of the big bridges in town. Just something I’ve wanted to do for a while!

Home » Da Nang By Night » Da Nang by Night

The two Christmas parties at the orphanages had already made this Christmas season really special for us. However, with the planning and partying finished, we were excited to have some R&R over Christmas.

Christmas Eve

During the day on Christmas eve, Kristen and I took 4 of the Brewer girls shopping so they could buy gifts for their parents and sisters. Since we can only take a total of three people on the motorbike we had to make three trips (Cindy helped us with the last one). It took us 2-3 hours to take the girls to the different stores they wanted to so they could buy presents for their family. We had fun taking them around and helping them pick out gifts. I always like driving the twins (Faith and Joy are both eight years old) because they always sing on the motorbike. It’s like having my own radio! Sometimes I start a song for Joy (to the tune of “I’ve the the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” and I say “I’ve got Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy riding on my bike. Where? Riding on my bike. Where? Riding on my bike…” I think you can picture the rest of the song. She gets a kick out of it.

In the evening we had a special candlelit story-time with the children at Promise House. When we arrived we had all of the children go up to their rooms while we decorated one of the rooms. Once all the candles were lit, we had the children come down in groups of two and three while I played some Christmas songs on guitar. We wanted to create a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Once everyone was in the room together, Cindy told a story. She explained to the children how special they each are and how deeply we love and care for them. Normally our time at Promise House is lively and exciting, so this quiet time of reflection was a very unique and special time for everyone. We hugged all the children goodnight and wished them a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Day

This was the second Christmas that was just the two of us without the rest of our family to celebrate with. We each got one or two very small gifts for each other so we’d have something to open on Christmas morning.

Even our cat was feeling the joy of Christmas morning.

We also made a wonderful Christmas breakfast together. Kristen made potato pancakes and I made a scrambled egg omelet with a side of beef. After breakfast we watched a few classes Christmas movies (A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch Stole Christmas and Garfield Christmas).

Normally the only two options for a Christmas tree are fake or real. This year we made a new category: make your own. Charlie Brown would be proud.

In the afternoon, Kristen went over to the Brewer’s house to get her nails done with some of the Brewer girls (for a whopping 75 cents!) I don’t think Kristen will ever be able to get her nails done in the U.S. again knowing that she used to pay so little in Vietnam.

At 5:00pm about 25 people met at the Brewer’s house to celebrate a Christmas meal and gift exchange together. I think I’ve said this before, but I think all of us foreigners who are studying or working here are so thankful for one another. I don’t think many of us expected to find a like-minded community of people when we came to Vietnam. Some of us may know each other better than others, but it still feels special when we can get together on special occasions. They are our family away from home.

I know we are a little late on this post but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!