Trip to "Jaydenville"

(Norman) The Journey continues. Tonight, (Friday) we are back in our hotel in the village. Angie has had some trouble with her stomach so I am blogging tonight. Let me take you back to yesterday and some of our experiences. The day began early with a 7AM trip to the "Floating Market". This was a very relaxing enjoyable trip of about 1 hour. You will see pictures of this on the blog, but it is a fascinating view of life in Vietnam. First, the tour boat we were on was small and not easy to board. There was one little man helping us into the boat. I went first and then it was Angie's turn. She about threw the little man overboard as she grapped for him as she lost her balance. After that was over, we settled in for our trip down the river. It was a private tour as we were the only ones on the boat that early in the morning. The air was fresh, not too hot, and the smells were poignant. the whole idea of the "floating Market" is that these people live on their boats where they make their livelihood. There were perhaps 50-60 boats and each one was loaded with fruits, vegetables, and other types of sellable merchandise. At one of the boats we stopped and Thouc bought a pineapple. It was cut for us on the spot into 4 pieces. It was really delicious. There were a number of fruits we could not identify. All along the banks of the river were dwellings made from various materials; sticks, thatch, tin, cardboard, whatever. it is a picture of utter poverty at its worst. But even in this land of poverty, there is a beauty about it all that you can not really put into words. The whole simple way of life; no hustle and bustle, bills to pay, deadlines to meet, the worries of a capitalistic society, has a certain warmth and innocense to it that we have lost in our culture today.

Afer we returned to shore, we returned to the riverbank and rested a few minutes while Thouc went to take care of some business. We sat in a beautiful park and were not there 2 minutes before a little Vietnamese lady approached and started talking. Everyone we meet is fascinated at us. We are definitely an oddity. She began rubbing and beating on Angie's back. Angie thought it was great but I knew this was her way of making a little money. After she finished Angie she started on me. I gave her a 20,000 bill in Vietnamese currency (@1.50) and she started working even harder. I think she thought she had hit the jackpot. After a few minutes she disappeared, Thouc returned and our day continued.

The trip to "Jaydenville" was basically uneventful. Tom, our driver, was his usual self honking our way down the highway. Motorbikes ruled the road. We listened to CD's on the way down. We heard, John Denver, Dolly Parton, Glenn Campbell, Johnny Mathis, Don McLean, and other notable singers from the 70's. As we were nearing "Jaydenville", I thought it was appropriate that suddenly John Denver was singing, Take Me Home Country Roads. The Road there became more narrow with each passing mile, and at one point, almost impassible due to the pot holes and uneven gravel. Interestingly, there were piles of gravel all along the road but apparently no one had found the time to spread it out. After about a 45 minute ride from CanTho, we pulled off the road and we had arrived at the baby home.

The boy we had prayed for, the one we had saved for, the one we had only seen in pictures, the one we had traveled (finally after 20 months) half way around the world for, waited just inside the door.