Today's reflections...

Today is Aug 1...and I can count down the days til I leave this beautiful country. With all it's gorgeous people, delicious food, awesome scenery, (and crazy drivers)..mixed emotions, as I'm really hanging out to be with my family again. Lauren and Tristan, Ali and Simon. I miss all the fun that unfolds around the kitchen in the centre of our home. I also know that part of going to new places and making new friends, also means saying "goodbye" as well.... Already the ladies in the workshop are saying they don't want us to leave, and that they'll be sad when we go....we have a lot of fun in there some days. Its a lovely work environment. Sometimes too much fun....no actually, that's not possible. If our being silly can put a smile on the faces of these less fortunate yet beautiful people, then it's all been worth it..

I can still remember, like yesterday..being in my kitchen back home...and thinking.." Could I, should I..do it.." Give up my job, my family (albeit temporarily). The security of everything you know and take for granted.

And yet here we are, loving it...

we've made so many lovely friends, thru Lifestart and through other avenues. The house we're renting in, has over the past 2 months filled up with other tenants, all of which are lovely. Miss Susie, has fast become a close friend. Along  with other ladies sharing houses with other volunteers around town. We seem to be a collection of random individuals who gather for coffees, lunches, drinks, early morning bike rides etc..

All of which I'm going to miss terribly when we're back home.

Random acts of kindness by people who don't speak the same language as we do. Like, the very pregnant lady who works in the furniture store downstairs, who came over and fixed my bike for me, when the chain fell off. And the older lady at the post office, who cleaned my hands of bike grease when I arrived there the other day to post a letter back home.

Tan our landlady, who just grabs you without warning, and sits you down at the family table, and starts feeding you....and feeding you, and feeding you !!

Nice things happen back home too, and I have many nice friends in Australia, yet somehow within a very short space of time, you are made to feel so welcome In a foreign country. Where everyone immediately knows. 'You're not from here'...

and yet it doesn't seem to matter.

I popped into a small hardware store on the way to the shelter this week, Andrew asked me to find some washers, so he could anchor something to a wall. Well I selected 3 washers, after much sifting through piles of nails, screws, washers etc...I pulled out 10000 vnd (50c) and offered it to the man behind the counter.....he took a 1000 vnd note from me, nodded and smiled. 

THAT'S FIVE CENTS- 5c

Going home..in many ways, is going to be so hard..

No more 15c beers

No more $1.70 veggie curry

No more free transport..ie: peddle power, not petrol

No more 2 minute bike ride to work

No more phoning a friend for impromptu coffees (without planning in advance)

No more riding past the local, and waving to friends

No more 'long nails' back to housework

No more rides through the rice fields, or along the river, 

Ferry rides, adventures of getting totally lost, yet still having fun

No more $1 bus rides into Big city (Danang)

No more 75c Iced coffees (Saigon style)

Etc etc etc

WE HAVE BEEN TOTALLY SPOILT....

not to mention ALL the lovely faces we will miss !!

Mumma bear...wherever you find yourself today, be thankful and for goodness sake

HUG SOMEONE!!!!