Sunday Go-To-Meeting Day

A few more things...mostly to keep these posts from getting too long/tedious.  Because I'm chronologically minded, I'll start with Friday.  

We did 2 more touristy things on our last regular day before beginning our teaching assignments.  We started the morning at Ben Thanh Market. Built in 1870 by the French, the market was initially called Les Halles Centrales before being renamed Ben Thanh in 1912.  It is now the oldest surviving market and one of the symbols of Ho Chi Minh City, a "must" for visitors to this 300-year-old city.  It's a market where one is expected to bargain, and shopkeepers call out to shoppers that they can make a deal!  "Sir?  Madam?  Can I help you?  What do you look for?"  we heard repeated many times.  Bob did buy a hat there to shield himself from the sun while walking (he was the "first customer of the morning" and so he got "the best price first thing in the morning."  :)  So the seller assured us!  We walked several avenues in the large market but didn't really need to shop for anything specific so headed to the Saigon Zoo, which also contains botanical gardens.

Sign at Zoo Entrance

A baby monkey!!  Being groomed by MaMa.

Vietnamese preschoolers on a field trip, so cute!  Bob in his new hat from the market.

Camel at the zoo (one of 3, I think)

Some of the pretty landscaping

One of many bonsai arrangements.

Sleeping leopard

 We also saw tigers and hippos and reptiles...it was a bigger zoo than we expected!

Today we found a church to go to!  Bob felt better about attending after reading on the website that the church (named THE WELL) had been approved by the Vietnamese government to conduct worship services for Ho Chi Minh City's expatriate community.  It's advertised as an evangelical, multi-cultural, interdenominational congregation.  It was kind of far away from our apartment but I was happy we found it.  There is one other church listed in our google search but the address isn't given (we're instructed to email to ask for the address) so I'm not sure if it's any closer.  But The Well was pretty cool.  I think about 50 people were in attendance, and we walked in with a girl from Vietnam who was happy it was our first visit since it was hers as well.  She is a pharmacist and was familiar with our university we'll be teaching at.  We met a couple behind us from Washington DC (the man's business is seafood), and we met a couple from South Africa that are teachers at the Vietnam Australia International School.  3 tall young men that sat in front of us I didn't get a chance to meet but was impressed that young people would spend a Sunday morning in church; the South African teacher told me they were Dutch engineers working here.  We had a great worship team with songs we recognized (!), the worship leader was Australian (guessing by his accent) and the pastor was American but I don't know from which state since we didn't get a chance to meet him either.  He preached out of the book of Jeremiah.  It was a nice service and I thought it was cool to worship with people of all nationalities.  I took a short video of the praise team but then a slide on the projector overhead asked people not to post on social media without the permission of the people in the photo, so all you get to see is the sign on the fence (from their website since I forgot to take my own picture).  Oh well!

So, tomorrow is our first real day of going to the university all day.  The first few days will be observing; we have a big meeting on Wednesday and on Thursday we both get to help with a lab to teach students to read the power in spectacle lenses.  Friday is my first lecture on a Public Health topic:  Global Blindness and Visual Impairment.  Bob lectures next week on contact lens design and fitting.  We've been studying and reviewing the modules for teaching provided by Brien Holden Vision Institute all weekend.  I'll let you know in the next blog how our jobs are going; thanks for following us!