Bought a 3kg watermelon ystd for 10,000 dong, which is equivalent to singapore 60 cents. honestly, i doubt if u can even buy a slice of watermelon for 60cents... unfortunately, i have almost zero skill in choosing sweet watermelons so it wasnt as sweet as the one i had the previous time.
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| tons of seeds in this watermelon! |
while cycling along the road in Ngoc Hoi (sometimes referred to as Plei Kan. not sure which is the official name but both are understood by the locals) which is kinda like the last town before the remote Vietnam-Laos border, i saw a cross on the left side of the road. hmmm... guess i will try to sleep in a church again today and see what happens!
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| the church and the volleyball "court" is jus in front of the church. |
when i got to the church, there was alot of construction work going on and some workers at the back of the church churning out cement etc. there were some men about to start playing a game of volleyball at the front of the church and i assumed they were local villagers here for some recreation time. looked around and couldnt find anybody that looks like the Father or some1 from the church.
decided to ask the men playing volleyball and turns out that 1 of them could speak english, in fact rather well! he told me that i could sleep there and brought me to a traditional ethnic minority kinda stilt home within the church and told me i could sleep up there. had only planned to sleep on the ground in the church so i was very grateful for his offer to let me sleep under the shelter. anyway, i later found out that he was actually 1 of the 3 fathers in the church!
later in the night, after their game of volleyball, they invited me in for dinner with them. dinner was with the 3 fathers, 3 sisters and 2 deacons (no idea what this is but i think its similar to father but mayb a lower level?) had a really good chat with them because they could all speak english very well and most of them had studied in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) before going for further education in various places and then eventually coming to Ngoc Hoi, Kontum. Kontum is a province with mostly local ethnic minority ppl and most of them are farmers and are very poor. so the Fathers have to go around and get donations from ppl from other provinces like Saigon or Hanoi and the local ppl will contribute their time and energy by coming down to help with construction, cleaning up the place etc.
most of the catholics in the area usually gather in somebody's home for prayer session (i think that's what its called?) and now that the 1st church is slated to open, i think it would be very good for the catholics of the area for them to have a proper place instead of random ppl's home.
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| the blue guy was one of the deacon and he was very dedicated to his work and was learning the local ethnic language as well. |
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Coincidentally, the church was slated to open officially 3 weeks after, on 21st march. when i left the next day, Father Hung (i think the head Father of the church) came over and passed me an envelope with money inside and he told me that i could change the money at the border into Laos kip. i really appreciated his gesture and i think he prob wanted to help me with my trip but the amount was too big and i couldnt accept it.
went back to look for him and return him the money & i think the money could be much better used on the church and helping the local ppl instead of giving it to me to spend on my trip.
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| the front of the church was decorated nicely and jus waiting for the official inauguration ceremony |
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