Hello long lost friends! Sorry it has been forever since I
have updated this blog. I hope all is well in your part of the world!! As I
write this it is almost 8pm at night and I have spent the day on a bus heading
back towards Thailand via Cambodia. We are about 1 hour outside of Siem Reap
where we will spend the night. I have spent the past month in Vietnam. I walked
into this not knowing exactly what I was getting into. Actually, I had NO idea,
at all.
Vietnam is a very communist nation. Which meant everything
we did there was illegal. No one could know why we were really there, what we
were doing, or anything like that. It would put not only our team at risk, but
the teams we were working with there. Communication of events was highly
limited. Anything that might have God
mentioned was only done behind closed doors where we knew all the people there,
or when we had one on one time with people we had taken the time to build
relationships with and thought we could trust. Communist flags where everywhere
seemingly reminding us of the restraint we had to use in all conversations and
relationships. All internet conversations, emails, chats and even skype was
monitored. We could mention nothing; especially not names, times and places.
We’ve been asked to still keep much of it to ourselves or only face to face
conversations to help protect the missionaries who are there long term.
We worked with a place that allowed us to build
relationships with people through teaching English conversation and by doing
events with this place. We would take the group of students(most people we hung
out with were college age) and go to different local orphanages, special needs
homes, and elderly homes. These experiences stretched the whole team to a new
level and showed us so so much. One event we all had a blast at was playing
ultimate Frisbee with them. We all had a blast. One time, my team decided we
were the “Chickens” and we ran around doing the chicken dance(they had fun
learning it) and we ended up doing really good. It was so much fun!
We lived in the heart of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City on the 3rd
floor of a guest house. Everything in Vietnam is straight up and very narrow. I
think I have walked more stairs this past month than I have in my life! There
were mopeds EVERYWHERE! It was truly insane. Crossing the road was like the old
video game, Frogger. By the end we were pretty great at crossing, but I don’t
know if I’ll ever get used to having a moped speed by me, only inches
away. There was also an abundance of
sunglasses. (yes, you can laugh) But seriously, there were so so many people
walking around trying to sell sunglasses! It was kind of funny. It was really
different for me to live in a city like that. Building were packed like
sardines and you just have to walk downstairs and down the street just a little
bit to get to whatever it was you wanted. There was an abundance of incredible
fresh fruit sellers and sugar cane juice. It was so tasty! But the city noises
at night and the constant commotion made me miss the sound of crickets and
frogs with the occasional mooing of a cow of home and the stars! Coming into
Cambodia I am seeing stars again for the first time in a month!
The people in Vietnam are so open and friendly to
foreigners. I went running every morning at this park 1k from our house and it
was rare that a morning went by that I didn’t have some sort of conversation
with people there. I even played badminton with an old guy one day. I was
terrible. They also just loved to pick us up on their mopeds and show us the
city and take us to their favorite fruit smoothie or noodle place. One of them
is going to a beauty school and she cut my hair along with all the rest of the
girls on our team. Many crazy and fun memories from our time there. Goodbyes
where hard.
We are getting really close to Siem Reap now. Tomorrow we
will spend all day traveling to get back up to Chiang Mai Thailand. We will
have 10 days of finishing up our DTS and then we graduate. I can’t believe how
fast it has all gone by. It seems like just yesterday I awkwardly arrived in
Thailand wondering what I had gotten into. I am starting to try to mentally
prepare for Christmas as it will be my first one away from home, and also
prepare for the coming 6 months that I will spend in Chiang Mai. I still have
what seems like so much to do to make that all go smooth. One of the biggest
being raising support. The more I pray about it, I feel like I’m supposed to
try and raise $400 a month to continue living in Thailand and be able to spend
more time on what matters at the farm. I also have to move into my new house
and figure out my schedule for the next 6 months and make it through
Christmas!!! (I have to admit, I have been listening to a crazy amount of
Christmas music and just can’t wait for it to come) I pray that your Christmas
season is focused on Christ and His wonderful incredible all sustaining love.
As always, feel free to email me @ cowgirl4christ17@yahoo.com or find
me on skype or facebook at Caity Midyett. Also, if you are interested in
possibly helping support me over the next 6 months, just shoot me an email! Thank
you all so much!
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