Little English class, VN heritage and revelations

Trip Start Jul 09, 2008
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Trip End Jul 26, 2008


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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Had a small English Class/Bible study today with some teen folk. One was teaching me about the heritage of VN via postcards he had bought showing Halong Bay, the Mekong Delta and the Imperial City...really cool stuff. Halong Bay is featured in alot of movies that want an exotic shoot. We also discussed traditional music and clothing, including the "ao dai" (pronounced ow y'eye) long flowing outfits that women wear. Apparently all high school girls must wear them on Mondays. In the old times only rich women could afford them so it is somewhat a symbol of higher status..now education. Students must wear white (symbol of purity/virginity) but school teachers can wear colored. Men's version of course is baggier for comfort while women's are tighter and as my student described it "charming". I can hear the women's libbers screaming across the ocean..... 

We had a very good study on the birth of Jesus (they have only heard of "Virgen Mother") and Paul's discourse on Mars hill. They had never heard of the Jewish religion, no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned it. Their lack of knowledge about world history was on some levels shocking, on some levels expected in a communist country. They were more familiar with Buddism and Islam, there are many mosques and temples here in our neighborhood and throughout Saigon.  There is a Baptist church up the street and a Catholic cathedral downtown, so there are some Christian chuches..not sure if SDA's still have much presence here, they evacuated out their hospitals around 1975 when Saigon fell. At the end they asked for me to summarize everything, so I gave them the simplest overview of Bible and God's plan of salvation that I could in about 10 minutes. The rest is in His hands... there will be another study tomorrow night, but these kids will not be back due to work conflicts.
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