the mexican food

(sorry for the delayed updates!)

Day 10

Mexican food. Its probably the cuisine that I miss the most. But hey, we have enough of the same ingredients so we are improvise and do our own Vietnamese version of it! (Personally, I am grateful to be away from Mexican food...allow me to explain...it has forced me to learn how to make it, I mean really make it...actually make tortillas and pico de gallo instead of just buying them :)

I spent my friday night eating Vietnamese-Mexican food and hanging out with the good people of team awake...doesn't get much better.
















Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the pigs

Day 9

We delivered pigs to a village today! Livestock raising as a micro-enterprise is one of the many facets of our child sponsorship program.

We believe that though the child is the one "sponsored"- programming needs to be approached from the entire family point of view. Its great if a child is given a uniform and backpack to go to school...but if there is still not enough money within the household, they still might be required to stay home and work.

Through our livestock program, families are given an animal (most often a pig) which they are to breed and sell for profit. They are also given the pig with the understanding that they are to pass along two healthy pigs to a neighbor.

Pig delivery days are some of my favorite at AOGWR! It might be hard to imagine the kind of impact that one pig has on a family...this analogy was told to me by a friend this week and it really put it in different terms. A pig to some of these people is almost the equivalent of say a grocery gift card that is supplied monthly to a family in need...

Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the graduation

Day 8

We had a SHINE graduation today! Shine is an incredible program that we do at AOGWR that speaks worth, purpose and value into girls (of all ages) lives. It is an 8 session course that is celebrated at the end by a nice luncheon. This particular course was sponsored by the church that I grew up in- Creekside Covenant. Besides the participants- my coworkers and team members of Awake (a team from APU) are also pictured here.














Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the see-you-later

Day 7

I said "see you later" to Becca today. My dear friend and sister gave up 5 weeks of her summer to come and stay with me here in Vietnam.

It was wonderful to have here her. She is another one of those people in my life, whose love teaches and consequently changes me.

I will miss her...but its only "see you later". Its only...on to the next chapter of our eternal friendship! :)















Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the early morning

Day 6

Here is the sunrise from this morning. Incredible, right? And believe me...this picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. This is the view that I have the INCREDIBLE privilege of seeing pretty much every morning as I ride my bicycle.














Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the room

Day 5

This is my room-well, my side of the room. Audrey and I share a room at the new house (and have been blessed with the company of a third roommate for the past month as Becca has been with us).

Messy, yes...guilty as charged.

A perk of the new house is that we have AC in the bedroom-quite the luxury!!!




















Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the kitchen

Day 4

This is my kitchen. Its a pretty typical Vietnamese kitchen-nothing built in...just a sink and counter space. Most people buy a stove top/burners. We have a refrigerator but often times even that is a luxury. Whats on the menu for tonight? Lentil burgers :)













Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the wheels

Day 3

My motorbike. This is how I get around town. We are feeling the affects of the storm in the Philippines right now so my wheels had to be accompanied by a poncho today.

One of my coworkers graciously gave me this motorbike. I like to say that my motorbike is like an old volvo- its a beast/indestructible :)



















Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

the beach

Day 2

This is the beach. It is about a 2 minute bike ride from my house.

I know, rough.

Did I mention that it is virtually uninhabited between the hours of 8am and 4pm? The Vietnamese don't want to be tan so they typically only go to the beach early in the morning and in the evenings.












Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

one a day

Alright everyone...here's the latest challenge that I have posed to myself...

Post one picture on the blog everyday for 2 weeks straight. I figured it would be a good insight into my daily life here. The ins and outs of my daily life are sometimes lost in my haphazard (at best) posting schedule. So, I thought...that I'll give this challenge a go!

On your mark, get set, go!

Wish me luck!

Day 1: My desk and beautiful coworker. Here it is, the place where most of my emails/skype calles/blog updates/etc. originate from. Hmm...it looks a bit empty, I think I need to work on that...maybe add some pictures?














Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait