News from Vietnam!

I’m back….writing on my blog!

inthenam — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:23:44 +0000

So I’ve been watching American Idol here in the Nam. I got to admit I’ve become a fan this season. I normally don’t watch this show but a man by the name of David Cook has turned me into a big fan. If anyone heard his rendition of Mariah Carey’s Always Be My Baby, you’ll understand. Now here’s the funny thing (if you don’t think liking American Idol is already funny) I hope he doesn’t win. Why you ask? Well the simple reason is that if he wins American Idol he’ll be packaged and controlled by the blood-sucking pop-machine that he won’t be able to have the freedom and creativity that would make him truly successful. I just have to point out to the success of Chris Daughtry and rest my case. I hope 14 year old Archuleta takes it home…yes take it home choir boy!

Been a while

inthenam — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:50:01 +0000

So its been a while since I last wrote on this thing and I figure no one reads it anymore…but what the heck lets give it a shot! I’m now in DaNang, Vietnam after being kicked out of Vinh with the rest of my team. The reasons for our leave apparently had to do with our visas…who knows. TIV (This is Vietnam) is all I say. Anyways prior to that I had a great month of traveling with my brother and some friends. 2 weeks in Thailand and then 2 weeks in Malaysia. Great to just visit and see these two countries with some great people. I was in Thailand to attend a conference which greatly encouraged me in my walk with God. Malaysia was simply a vacation. We spent most of our time in Kuala Lumpur and 3 days in Penang.

Life in DaNang is going well. The other Vietnam team is here so its been great spending time with them. I also rented me a motorbike which has been great! I so love to drive that thing around.

Well I really don’t know what else to say so I won’t bore the 2 of you who read this thing any longer.

Peace,
Joel

Mr. Ong

inthenam — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:41:42 +0000

So theres an old man at your school who I call Ong (Ohm) because thats how you address those that are around your grandparents age here. Anyways despite the language barrier I always have a hoot (yes I like that word and I’m leaving it there) with him. He likes to shake my hand and with the other pat me on my butt…I’m praying he’s going for my back and its just because I’m a lot taller than him that his hand lands on my buttocks. Tonight I believe he had been drinking and clasped my hand and kissed it! Haha, I think its just the culture here with men being very…and I mean VERY affectionate with one another. For me it’s rather funny.

Well I’m off in two days for Thailand and will be there for who knows how long as I’ve just recently discovered that I’m off for an extra week! One month off baby!! I’m pretty pumped for that. It’ll be good times traveling with my brother and his friends. Hopefully we don’t get sick of each other, and if we do I pray no one dies!

peace

out with the boss

inthenam — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:35:31 +0000

so the other night me and kenny invited our boss and two friends out for dinner. we went to a nice place and had a good meal of fish and vegetables. it was hotpot style so you cooked the food at your table. well after dinner our boss (who had been drinking) wanted to take us dancing. so we said why not and went. i have to say that the vietnamese are some of the funniest dancers i’ve ever witnessed. the club was dominated by men with only a few women being there. and as vietnamese men are very affectionate towards each other they tend to dance rather close together! it was hysterical for me to see two men holding hands as they grooved about the dance floor. guys would come up to me and kenny and try to grab our hands our would just step well into our personal bubble and start dancing or rambling off in vietnamese. our boss kept telling men to go over to us and hug us which i did not appreciate but thought hilarious at the same time.

the music of choice was not hip-hop or rap or even pop but straight techno which i really enjoyed. techno is one of my guilty pleasures and something i don’t admit to liking to many people.

thats it for now, a shout out to my friends Jevin and Ashley who just recently got engaged!!! God bless you guys!

happy new year!

inthenam — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:00:17 +0000

so my new years eve was pretty uneventful. went out with my team at about 11pm to get a bowl of soup, then watched some fireworks and said happy new year about 22,000 times to all the students roaming around the streets. it actually was pretty exciting. they were all grabbing leaves and branches off the trees as it symbolizes good luck. i thought it was a city-wide lets groom our hedges event.

so a few nights ago i killed a rat…WITH MY BARE HANDS! haha, not actually but i did kill it with a chair leg. 5 am i hear this rattling in the kitchen and go in to inspect the sound. a rat was running around with one of our traps snapped onto its tail. he flees the kitchen and runs into the storage room where he gets stuck jumping through a gap in a piece of wood because the trap is too big to follow. so with the rat unable to run and my heart racing i picked up a chair leg and proceeded to beat the rat on the head. every time i hit it blood spattered all over the wall. i think it was a very traumatic experience for both of us. anyways my adrenaline subsided and i cleaned up the mess. now i won’t have to worry about a pesky rodent ripping open our bag of Rice Kripies!

Hanoi part 2 014

inthenam — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:32:47 +0000

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Hanoi part 2 014, originally uploaded by sherman_tank7.

Christmas in Hanoi (I love the creepy guy staring at the camera holding the dog like a baby…yikes!)

i found this interesting

inthenam — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:23:13 +0000

What role does faith play in your leadership?

First and foremost, we should be governed by common sense. But common sense should be based on moral principles first. And it is not possible today to have morality separated from religious values.
- Vladimir Putin in an interview with Time Magazine

Hue 112

inthenam — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:33:38 +0000

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Hue 112, originally uploaded by sherman_tank7.

Funny sign in my bathroom in Hue

Hello out there

inthenam — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:33:15 +0000

so i know many of you have been waiting with anticipation for my next update. i’m sorry to keep you all waiting as Vietnam’s internet isn’t the…most reliable. when things go wrong here (as they often do) i don’t get upset but merely mutter to myself, TIV (this is Vietnam). yes i know i stole the expression from Blood Diamond but i’m just adapting to my culture…i don’t think theres a legal DVD for sale in the entire country.

so whats transpired since i last wrote, a lot and nothing. life here continues to roll along and i can’t believe its almost Christmas! for Christmas we’ll be travelling up to Hanoi as we’ve been invited to a Christmas dinner up there. Oh, speaking of Christmas we had a party for all the teachers and staff at our school. Singing, food, and some dancing made for a great evening. the highlight for me was sharing the Christmas story with them and having the opportunity to talk about Jesus and what he did for us. One of the teachers had many questions after which is very encouraging. I just pray God will work on her heart so that she may understand His truth.

you know the gospel is a crazy and ridiculous story. when i tell people it I swear they’re going to think i’m absolutely nuts. “Are you telling me some guy dies on a cross 2000 years ago and now i can have a friendship with God!”….”um, ya!” Just nonsensical is what it is! haha. but at the same time it makes perfect sense.

anyways i’ve been panicking about next year. what to do? return to nam, go to teachers college, join the army (seriously i’ve thought about it!). recently i’ve been looking into finishing my bible degree through correspondence which has me rather excited. it would be cool to finish something i started 5 years ago! haha, oh man it has been a long time.

well this is rather long and considering the attention span of most of my readers is probably 2 1/2 sentences they’re just skimming now or have completely walked away from the blog altogether.

for those of you that were given this blog because you are considering teaching here I welcome you to the workings of my brain and how random and delusional it can be.

take care everyone,
Joel

December already

inthenam — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:33:41 +0000

so the month of november has come to a close along with all the travelling. i had a great time in Hue (where we held our fall retreat) seeing the DaNang team and spending time together. most of the time was spent relaxing and unwinding but we did spend time in prayer and looking at God’s Word. I found both very refreshing. I’m back to teaching now and really enjoying my classes. The students are a lot of fun and i just enjoy spending time with them. I had the opportunity to attend a Vietnamese wedding which was really interesting, actually it was just the banquet after but still a lot of fun. I’ve also had the opportunity to share a bit with one of my friends here. The topic of Jesus came up and i briefly told him that I was a Christian and believed in God. Language is a barrier here even if they do speak a little English. I just pray that I’ll have more opportunities to share my faith and beliefs with him.
my time here is already a third over which is hard to believe. i know the next 6 months are going to fly by. if you could continue to pray that i’d be effective here and live for the Lord’s glory and not my own…which is hard because I’m a very selfish person.

take care,
Joel