Sunday in Saigon

Our first day in Saigon was Sunday. We visited a great local church but were asked for obvious reasons not to post photos.  

This was an interesting place that we went to lunch at and had some fancy Vietnamese food!  I ordered cold noodle salad but somehow Emma ate it and I ended up with her french fries--boo!  All was good and we had a great laugh over it.  Mindless eating.

Here we are at the reunification palace.  The US airlifted the President of South Vietnam out just before tanks rolled in.  Also, two bombs landed on the place but neither exploded!

They kept things just like they were when the Communists rolled in which is unusual.  We enjoyed a blast from the past when we saw these old telephones!

This rug was made in Hong Kong!  It has the Chinese Symbol in the middle and dragons.  I had no idea that the Chinese occupied Vietnam long before the French and then Japanese in World War 2.  There were many Chinese people among the Vietnamese.

This is the Notre Dame Cathedral.  You can clearly see the French influence here from the architecture to the French Baguettes!  Of course all of it has an Asian twist or two!

This is the famous Central post office built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel!  (He also built the Eiffel tower in case you have not guessed.)  The former phone booths are now functioning as cash machines.

The "bones" of this building are amazing to look at!  Still a marvel of architecture.

Now we head to the busy pick pocket haven of the uproarious open market--ugh!  Stuff we must buy though so we go!

This is the famous photographer Randal Hale!

After the heat we head for drinks--here is a luscious cup of passion fruit juice--please pass me ten I am sooo thirsty!

Now we head back to the villa amidst motor bikes galor.  I could never stand driving here!

A bakery that we hit on the way home to get fresh baguettes and treats for breakfast.

The wheels on the bus go round and round!  Here we go!

Up, up and Away!

 Here we are getting ready for the adventure ahead!  Grandma and Grandpa Hale joined us as did our good friends--the Leungs.

 

 Where are we headed?? Vietnam!  Going to get some history lessons in first person this time!

Here is the room that Tim and I had!  This villa was amazingly gorgeous!  I just had to have the Chinese bed.  Jason liked the claw foot tub in our bathroom.  So here we are first night in Vietnam.

Passover Seder

Heartwarming days with homeschooling happen frequently!  We are so hugely blessed.  One of my favorite days this week found the Hale family celebrating a kid's style Passover.  Now, I do not claim to be an authority on the subject but we learned together what Jesus was doing at the Last Supper.  What a great hands-on experience!

 Here you can see the Matza, hard boiled eggs, lamb shanks, bitter herbs, Charoset, and "wine" as well as our place mats showing the order of service and picture of all the parts of the Passover Seder.

 The youngest reader prayed.  He also asked the questions and poured the first glass of wine.  Then we washed.

 There were two hand washings during the celebration.  So, we passed basins around and everyone washed.  Then we dipped the bitter herbs in salt water to remind us that the Egyptians were cruel slave masters and made the Children of Israel cry tears as they cried out to God.  God heard the cries of His children and sent a "redeemer" named Moses to rescue His Children.  Here we paused as we remember that God always hears the cries of His children--cry out to Him and He will hear and redeem.  God sent us Jesus as the ultimate redeemer to rescue mankind.  Still today if we can just remember to cry out to Jesus, He is there to help!

Yes, the herbs and salt water were bitter!

 Putting the middle Matza in a bag to hide for later.

 Here our 10 year old girls did the Passover play to remind us of the story when God sent the 10 plagues with the death of the first born being the last but the blood of the lamb on the doorpost made the angel of death pass over the houses of God's children and a few of the Egyptian believers that left with them.

 Here we are eating the main passover meal with a boiled egg to remind us that the more God's people are boiled or troubled the stronger they get.  The Charoset has already been served with some bitter herbs reminding us of the mortar the slaves made to use in brick building before being freed.

The lamb symbolizes the redemption sacrifice and sin offering of the children of Israel.  Jesus, the final perfect lamb, paid the price so we will not face judgement.