The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

Each year I'm in Phat Diem for the celebration of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of the cathedral. Here if Fr. Minh walking towards us.

Some of the kids hanging around before mass.

More kids.

The priests and altar servers getting ready.

One of the boys from summer school.

The bishop joins the group. He waits until the last possible second to get dressed. The temperature at 10 a.m. is 95 with a heat index of 112. Dang hot!

The seminarians are altar servers for this important mass.

 Fr. Bo and I posing.

Girls from summer school. I tried on their hats but they said I didn't look good in them. Oh, well.

Down the center aisle for the cathedral. The entire archway is cut stone.

More boys from summer school hanging out in the shade under the bell tower.

 A full on view of the cathedral from inside the bell tower.

Looking out  from the bell tower to the lagoon opposite the cathedral.

These guys wanted their picture taken...best friends.

View from my seat in the back of the cathedral. You can see the beautiful carved wood and the door along the side.

My Pronunciation Pals

Every evfening after prayer, Bon and Huy join me for pronunciation practice. Tonight, our last lesson, they brought me a good luck egg with a painting of the Phat Diem cathedral on it and a post of the bell tower of the cathedral. The saying on the bottom of the  poster is: "There are many places to go, but only one place to come back to." Thanks, guys.

Sr. Kim Lien and Japanese Curry

 Sr. Kim Lien is a Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart. She is Vietnamese but is stationed in Japan. Sister has been coming to my English class. Tonight she made real (REAL!) Japanese pork curry. It was incredible.

I had eaten so much junk food at the party that I could only eat one, very delicious bowl. However, Nam (whose name means five) had five...and he finished the bowl. Now that's the way to eat, my friend.

The Last Class and Party Time

The last day of class. I  let them vote all the activities for the day, so, of course, hangman had to be high on the list. They also wrote poems to their parents, six-word stories, and we sang The Hokey Pokey. Kids!

We've been playing Whoosh Bong!, so they wanted to end the class with a game. Lots of laughing and everyone was so loud.

They played tournament style, with those who made mistakes going out and being replaced by those in line. Way too crazy (see the video at the end of the post).

Then it was time for the party. There was soda, cookies, chips, candy, and fruit (fresh watermelon). The class gave me this present as a going away gift.

It's and inlaid picture of a typical Vietnamese farm scene. I have never seen that shade of red before in these pieces. Very beautiful.

And here's the bunch. Crazy, funny, and ready to work at any time. You gotta love these kids.

We did lots of single shots.

Another...

And another...

And another...

Yet another.

You gotta take a picture of the paparazzi.

Then we were invited to the elementary class next door where we all performed the Chicken Dance. You'd think it was an American wedding.

Posing with the little ones.

More Than Just Soccer

I was taking a stroll during free time and found that there were games other than soccer. These girls were playing a game with stones, throwing them up and catching them, sort of like jacks.

This guy decided to channel his inner artist and make a heart from those same pebbles.

This game involves a can of Red Bull and everyone's shoes. It's a long playing field and I can't even figure out the rules.

One team throws their shoes down the field, apparently trying to hit the can, while the other team stands ready to run toward them. Life is full of mysteries.

Update on the New Construction

The new building next to the present entrance is really shaping up. Here they have finished the drop ceiling. All that is left to do here is hang the doors, shutters, and then paint.

 I took this picture of the garage because you can clearly see the roof. First the length-wise timbers are put up, then a lattice of cross rafters. Then a layer of small, thin ceramic blocks which is covered in the outside tiles.

 In the second classroom, you can see the drop ceiling going up. Bamboo is put up across the void. It only bears the weight of the thin ceiling that is merely sandwich fiberglass...easy to clean, lightweight, and helps to insulate from the hot sun.

 This is the men's room being worked on. On the left is where the two urinals will go and in back are the two toilets. From the floor to about 6', everything is covered in tile. Easy to clean.

Just Thanh practicing. He's in the porter's house just next to the new construction.

At the end of the day, they finished the ramp to the garage. Within a month it should be all done and then it only needs to be painted and the lights put installed.

The Latest in Class

The best way to disrupt the traditional Vietnamese classroom is to get everyone moving around. After being in teams writing one-word-at-a-time stories, I posted each on the back wall.

They were to then check out the stories and decide which was the funniest and which had the best grammar. There was a three-way tie for funniest but the best grammar story won hands down.

We just finished practicing the pronunciation for the Lord's Prayer and then used it for the end of class. Brought a tear to my eye.

Now I'm being subversive by having them peer edit. I had to actually stop them or they would have continued through the break.

Often, they erupted in laughter when the realized what they had written. A misplaced word can make a sentence seem completely random.

What was most interesting was how they took apart each others' writing and no one got upset. The students valued what was said and quickly rewrote. I have to say I am darn proud of all of them.