This weekend we took a long break from working and went to spend a few days in the beautiful city of Hoi An. Hoi An is known for many different things so we thought we’d try out a sampling of them all. We began the journey on Friday with a trip to a local tailor. This town has clothes-making down to an art. We entered the store and were greeted by a host of employees ready to make for us whatever article of clothing we desired. There seemed to be an unlimited number of styles, colors, fabrics, and designs. After we had our pieces picked out, they took our measurements and told us to come back the next day to try everything on. Tailor made clothes in 24 hours!
After we were finished at the tailor we spent some time in the town of Hoi An. It is as if this town were made for taking pictures. The architecture is unlike anything we’ve seen thus far. The store fronts were filled with leather shops, boutique stores, shoe shops, and more tailor made clothing stores. In all of them you could get them to make custom designs (we even had a couple of people have some shoes made). We also enjoyed some American food at one of the local restaurants. We then ended the day with a night swim in the pool.
On Saturday we signed up for a Vietnamese cooking class. After a boat ride down the river to a more secluded place out of the city, we were taught how to make a variety of Vietnamese dishes. We learned how to make ban xeo, spring rolls, Vietnamese salad, and rice paper. And, to top it off, they also taught us how to make a tomato rose. We all mastered it. After we ate more food than we could handle at the cooking class, we went back to the tailor to make sure everything fit well. Our clothes were then finished off and delivered to us the next day at the hotel. We’ll have a fashion show later in the program for everyone to show off what they bought. We finished the day off with a trip to the night market and a chance to see the river as people release candles into the water in little paper boats. Eventually the river becomes full of candles and it’s a pretty beautiful sight to see.
We’re now on our way back to the village for our third and final week of work. The houses should be done by Thursday and we’ll have a closing ceremony party on Friday. We’ll keep you posted!
— Rusty & Janie
