As I write this, we're in the middle of TVO (pronounced like the popular TV-recording hardware, TiVO) which stands for "Team Vietnam Orientation." Currently we're at a hotel perhaps an hour outside of Hanoi, on the banks of the Red River. We're here with a group of great people--individuals and families who are dedicated teaching and serving in Vietnam. For some, it's their first week in Vietnam. Others have been here 5, 10 years or more. It's our fourth year coming back, and it really has begun to feel like home.
Our flight went fine, with Micah proving once again that he's a great traveler. The stewardesses on Korean Air only had to employ their patented baby-calming tactics four or five times on the entire 15-hour journey. Our first few days in-country were spent with our old Quy Nhon teammates, the Fizzards, at their house in Hanoi. The Fizzards' two girls, Ella (4) and Madeline (2) were thrilled to the squeaking point to have a new playmate around. For Micah it was a bit of a transition from the Transformers, trains and trucks of his cousins this summer to the dolls, kitchen set and pretty princess blankets of the Fizzard girls but he handled it well. For a one year old boy, a Barbie is just as fun to throw against a wall as a ball is.
With the tropical summer still in full swing, the backyard inflatable swimming pool at the Fizzards offered some relief from the heat and a good deal of fun as well.
One of the favorite new toys, however, isn't really a toy at all (go figure). It's a baby bed/tent that Joelle's folks got Micah for his birthday just a few days before we returned to Vietnam. The tent folds up into something the size of a kid's bicycle tire but, when expanded, has plenty of room for Micah...and a few friends.
(In the picture you can see the Fizzard girls, Micah, and the newest member of Team Quy Nhon, Ezra.)
Speaking of friends, Micah has around 89 million of them here in Vietnam. Soon he'll need his own tour bus and roadies. Although reaction to him was halfway subdued while we were in big, cosmopolitan Hanoi, we moved an hour outside the city and all stops are removed. Micah is the cat's pajamas and the bee's knees all rolled into one cute little frame.
Joelle and I made the classic blunder of showing up about 10 minutes early to lunch at the hotel's restaurant our first day here. Since the wait staff had nothing else to do, they swarmed on Micah, coo-cooing with cellphone cameras at the ready. Micah--who's grown a little more attached to mom and dad over the summer--wasn't quite sure how to take all the attention. It's something he's going to have to get used to, whether he relishes the attention or not.
Being back in Vietnam has been great and we're enjoying our time together as Team Vietnam, but we're even more excited to get back to Quy Nhon, unpack our bags, meet old friends and students and stay in one place for a while. In the one and a half weeks between leaving the States and settling in Quy Nhon, we will have spent the night in seven different places. We're ready to stop moving for a while.
Our journey south begins tomorrow as we take a bus back into Hanoi. We'll spend one more night in a hotel in Hanoi, then fly out for Quy Nhon with our new teammates, the Bankstons, on the 6:30 flight Sunday morning. Looking forward to it.
