Finding Our Way

We really weren't sure what we were getting into when we got into the taxi. The evening before, we'd sent Nhup off with his relatives on their motorbikes back to his village, while dad & I stayed at a hotel in the small town of Kon Tum (Vietnam), about an hour's drive away. Nhup had given instructions to the hotel receptionist so she could help dad & I get a taxi to the village the next day. The taxi driver didn't speak a word of English, so we didn't know exactly how much he knew about where we were going. We didn't quite know what to expect when we arrived in the village -- what it would be like, what we'd do there, how we'd find Nhup (Nhup hadn't seemed concerned the day before that we'd be able to find him, or the village itself).

We drove for almost an hour, down progressively smaller and bumpier roads, until we finally came to a fork in the road and the driver turned to look at us. I pulled out the phone number we had written down for one of Nhup's relatives, but it had the international dialing code at the beginning, and we couldn't figure out how to dial the right prefix for calling within Vietnam. Just as we were pondering what to do next, Nhup's brother in law drove by on his motorbike! We had met him the day before in Kon Tum and luckily we recognized him and he led the taxi driver just a few hundred yards up the hill, down the correct fork in the road, to our destination.

A large crowd was gathered outside Nhup's mother's house, and they led us inside and sat us down on mats. Nhup wasn't there at the moment, but clearly this crowd was expecting us, so we all shook hands and sat there and smiled at each other. I remembered I had brought the photo cards that St. Paul's made, so I got those out and started passing them around, pointing out the pictures of Glun, Jum, Neh, Nip, Loi, and others that they would recognize. Everyone got excited and had fun looking through them. I pointed out the kids born in the U.S. and said the names of their parents. Nhup's mom was excited to see the pictures of her granddaughters. After a few minutes, Nhup got there, and there was also a teenage girl who spoke decent English who arrived and became our guide for the day.

It felt like we spent the rest of the day eating and drinking our way around the village! We went to Nhup's brother's church, then Hnam's family's house. We went to Glun & Jum's old house where Glun's brother lives now. We went to Hon & Biyu's son's house. At each one, we were given something to eat or drink, or some kind of gift. We couldn't converse much, but we at least exchanged names and handshakes and did our best to communicate a bit. We definitely felt like local celebrities. All of Nhup's family, friends & neighbors have spent the week celebrating in honor of his return. Dad & I have visited the village for a few hours each day, making the rounds to different homes. More stories to come!