Happy Home in Vietnam?

I started this a few days ago with this part:

I'm starting this blog post at the English center I'm volunteering at while my students are working in three teams trying to come up with the longest list of words associated with emotions. I can hear them whispering "scared, afraid, wonderful..."

The range of emotions I have been through on this trip likely includes everything they will come up with and more. It's amazing how I went from desperately homesick and dreading another two weeks away, to horrified that I only have ten days left and wanting it to be longer.

The biggest hardship I have with my travels is wishing I could be with everyone and everywhere at the same time. I am usually pretty good at enjoying the moment, but there are times I miss my kids (the kids I have bonded with so closely on my travels home and abroad) so much my chest constricts. I know that once I adopt children I will have no issue in viewing them as my own and loving them as such. I already have bonded with hundreds of kids. I always cry when I leave them behind and have their photos hanging all over my room. It's much easier when I know I leave them in good and loving hands, like in Myanmar. 

And this is from tonight:

There are other people people I so want to share parts of my travel with! Normally seeing something I know a friend or family member would love goes something like *Whoa! That is impressive art on the side of that building. Katrina would love it! I will have to bring her here this week.* However, that becomes less possible when she is in New York City and I am in Da Nang City. Sure I can and will photograph it when it is not pelting rain, but a photo is not the same. A photo is even less the same when the thing you want to share is riding in the 14th tallest ferris wheel in the world and the view it has of the city lights. (which is a real thing I did last weekend.) So many experiences, so many friends I want to introduce to each other that live on opposite sides of the globe.

I had lunch today with an Australian girl descended of Vietnamese parents who is in the country working with an NGO. She is going home tomorrow and as we talked of what she and I were looking forward to, we also talked of the sometimes awkwardness of going home. You find that you do not fit quite as well as you did before. Your friends ask if you want to go to the movies, and theoretically you do, but then you see the price tag of $12-$19. I can get a hotel and food for the day on that here! I will think of my afternoon students in Myanmar praying for a truck so they no longer have to walk forty five minutes to and from school. They do it five days a week regardless of if it is pouring rain or not. Regardless of the lack of streetlights on muddy backroads. How can I justify $14 to entertain myself for an hour or two when that same $14 could buy a school uniform and help a child get their family out of poverty. So usually I opt not to go. I like the movies! However, I can count on my fingers how many times I have gone to the movies in the last year, and I do not thing I paid once. Do not get me wrong though, I am not some kind of saint who never self indulges. I bought myself a new ring today when I went to buy presents for my family. It's on my finger as I type this. I am much more mindful about money though. I try to only buy things that are needed, reusable, or will bring considerable joy.

My increasing sensitivity to money is just one thing that sets me apart from my peers in my "home" country. I put home in quotes because the U.S. is not my real home anymore, it never was. I am only visiting here until I die. The One who's face I will finally behold after death, the One who sends me trotting around the globe, He is making me love new countries and feel at home everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I have eaten breakfast in a home with a dirt floor and holes in the walls big enough for the chickens to fly through (thankfully they chose not to). Minus the language barrier, I was totally at ease there. I have eaten diner at Top of the Hub (a restaurant in one of Boston's tallest sky scraper where the cheapest dinner is $27 and you can pay $56 for another) more than once and felt comfortable and happy there too.

As I grow too tired to continue I have looked back and realized how deep this became. This was not meant to be such a heavy post guys! I was planning to tell you how much fun I am having. Look at this view from the hike I did this week!

Who could be unhappy when they have a tour guide as happy as this girl?

Best work buddy ever!

Especially when she tells you that you look like a princess so many times you've lost count.

Do princesses wear pink dresses?

I meant to tell you that I love my work. My students are fantastic! They challenge me, make me laugh, welcome me, tease me, share their country and their hearts.

Giving practice talking to a foreigner to a class taught by a Vietnamese lady

Every night we have a topic led by a foreigner, sometimes me!, and we sit in groups at tables to answer questions and discuss.

We talk about deep stuff in class some nights, and I think they like it as much as I do. (Or they are really good at sympathy clapping their thanks at the end)

This was my favorite topic! Passion.

I was meaning to tell you all that I helped with the little ones (1-4) at church this morning and how happy it makes me to spend time with little'uns.

They pick the craziest colors!

I have been meaning to tell you that I went on the 14th tallest ferris wheel in the whole world. There are only two taller than it in the U.S!

Da Nang's Sunwheel

The view from the top

It is so colorful and the refections it makes are beautiful

And I was planning to tell you about my little moth friend who decided he liked my hotel room so much that when I carefully caught him and put him out the window he flew right back in twice!! So I had to catch him again and bring him down the stairs, through the reception, and out the front door before releasing for the third time.

In short I am having a good time, but that is the simple, short, and incomplete answer. It is true though.