Lance and Kristen Baker

(Lance writing)

Tam investigating the new game

Our friend Robin informed us that Twister was available here in Da Nang.  At first, Kristen and I only joked about trying to play Twister at Promise House but then we later realized that it would actually provide for a great English lesson (hand, foot, left, right, colors, etc.)

We tried to keep the game hidden because the children are always so excited and eager to see new things but we needed them to focus on the English lesson first!  Kristen put together some sheets/posters to help illustrate the vocabulary needed to play Twister.  Once the children realized that they needed to know the vocabulary in order to play the game, they were a little more attentive.

Eventually, we rolled out the colorful mat (which was so much smaller than I remember as a child) and with the help of our friend and translator Chau, we kept the children off of it long enough to explain the game.

Listening to the instructions

It took them a bit to get used to the rules.  At first, we forgot to explain that you had to keep your hand on the declared spot until told otherwise.  Each time we called out a hand/foot and color combination, they would just casually put that hand or foot down and probably thought, “What a silly and simple game.”  Once they realized that they had to keep their hand/foot in the same place they smiled and laughed as they realized how the level of difficultly would increase with that new rule.  We played in groups of 4-5 children and soon they were stretched out, tied in knots and falling on top of each other.

Lance and Long playing

Trieu trying not to fall over

So far so good

Here is a short video clip.

It is always so much fun when we can introduce something new to the children at Promise House.  Tony, who founded Orphan Voice, was just telling me a story today about visiting one of the children’s home before they came to Promise House.  In a small one-room house, the teenage brother was taking care of his younger brother while their mother left for weeks at a time for work.  She would come every few weeks, drop off a bag of rice and leave again.  The older brother was struggling to keep them both fed.  Many days, it was just a small fish and some rice to be stretched out for two-three meals.  They were both complaining about always being hungry.  The younger boy had a small piece of broken plastic that he carried around with him as a toy.  Most of the children you see in these pictures have a very similar pre-Promise House story which is why it is so wonderful to see them laugh and smile.

Kristen was a bit puzzled about what to do for my birthday this year since my birthday fell on the first day of the Lunar New Year – the biggest holiday in Vietnam.  For the first day, the entire city basically shuts down and nothing is open.  So Kristen’s gift to me was to make me three delicious, home made meals.  Now, that’s pretty special in of itself, but it is even more special when you rarely get “western” food.  For breakfast she made me an omelet, for lunch pizza and for dinner tacos!  Thank you wife!

That cake I am holding was made in a rice cooker! I know, who knew?

Today, the second day of the new year, we woke up to one of the most beautiful days we’ve had in the last 2 months.  We decided to go for a walk on the beach.   (We have this week off in celebration of the Lunar New Year).

They only added the English a few months ago. Good to know.

This lady brought hats out to these three girls playing on the beach.

Despite the beautiful day, there were just a few of us enjoying the beach.

I never get tired of these boats.

The greatest wife ever.

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*A side note about blogs and keeping up with them.

I know many of you are already well aware of these tools, but for those of you that are having trouble following multiple blogs these can really help.  I have over a dozen different blogs that I try to stay up-to-date with and Google Reader/NetNewsWire keep them all in front of me on one page.

Google Reader

You just need a google account to take advantage of Google Reader.  Just add the website’s feed from whatever website or blog that you want to follow and it will automatically show you new updates in your Google Reader.
NetNewsWire (Mac only)

For those of you that are on Mac, Net News Wire is an awesome blog reader.  It is an actual application that you can keep open on your desktop and check for updates.  I love it.  Even better, it syncs with your Google Reader account.

For some of you this may be common knowledge, but for others, these tools are a great way to keep track of multiple blogs.  Just thought I would pass it along.

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.

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!

(Lance writing)

My parents sent a box of beanie babies that someone was giving away at their work.  They thought it would make a simple and fun gift for the children.  After waiting and waiting for about a month, the post office finally called us on Friday and told us that we had a package.  It worked out perfectly because we were planning on spending all day Saturday at Promise House with the kids.  With the help of the manager at the orphanage, we made a small production out of delivering the beanie babies.  We laid them all out on a table and had all the children sit in a large circle.  Then, one by one we would draw their names out of a hat and they would walk over to the table and pick one out.  They were so excited to have them and carried them around all day.

I can think of so many children who have huge baskets of toys that they can just dump out all over the floor in a moments notice.  In other families, there are children who are lucky if that have one or two decent working toys.  Even though I grew up knowing that, it is harder and harder for me to make sense of that difference.  We can’t help or control what family or what country we were born into.  I don’t mean to make anyone feel guilty about what they have, just don’t forget about those who are extremely less fortunate.  Even very simple things that hardly cost you anything can really impact someones life.  It’s so easy, we just have to give a little of ourselves.