Saigon (very short time for a very big city)

HIGHLIGHTS

- Hung out with a kid Aaron (friend of a friend) who's American but lives in Vietnam. It was so cool to have our own personal navigator, translator, food-recommendor. And I finally got to ride on a scooter in the crazy streets.

- The food! I had the most amazing shakes and smoothies of my life. An Oreo and a Snickers shake-type thing (best chocolatey dessert in Asia so far) and then, on Aaron's recommendation, a Strawberry- Avocado Smoothie. Changed my life! I can sense the skepticism in people so don't worry, I got the recipe and I'll make it at home for anyone who doubts.

- Got to interview a kid Toc to hopefully do a story for the church mags. SOOO cool to learn about the beginnings of the Church in Vietnam. This kid is probably the first full-time missionary to go out of Vietnam and comes from this tiny branch with now 6 other missionaries out. Way cool. Talked over the amazing smoothies.

- Had a guy on a bicycle turn all the way around while peddling the busy street and wink at me. Based on how we all look this trip, I can't applaud his judgement, but it does say much for his talent on a bike.

LOWLIGHTS
Just goes to show it isn't over til it's over. I almost blogged this day last night at like 11pm, but then I would've missed so much of the action.

- We love transporting! From 1am-8am we took a taxi to a city bus to a van to a ferry to a van to the streets of Chau Doc (or wherever we ended up). The best was that there was really never an explanation any time we got off one vehicle and onto another. We'd just get dropped off and they'd point somewhere and we'd start walking. We were with our 3 Aussie friends so we were at least in good company. Probably the lowest of lows was at 2:00 when we were dropped off at a less than sanitary bus station and told (from what we could understand) to wait in the parking lot for our 3:00 bus. Camped out on our backpacks as little islands, I think a quote from one of the kids sums it up quite well: [insert aussie accent] "Are we acutally standing in a toilet?"

- Not a low point so much, but a sobering moment. We went to the War Remnants Museum, which is all about the "American War." It was mostly focused on the destruction to civilians caused by the US military during Vietnam. There were many photos and stories that were, of course, hard to digest. While the politics of this topic run very deep, the main lesson I learned was just how much healing is available through the Savior and how His gospel is the only thing that can create permanent change, clarity, and comfort.