Annie's Adventures in Vietnam: Birthday Party with my Nam Phap Church class

Even though it was pouring rain, most of my gorgeous Wednesday morning class at Nam Phap Church rocked up today for a party to celebrate my birthday! My darling Khánh organised it last week and he wanted it to be a surprise, but some people aren't very good at keeping surprises... Regardless, I had a wonderful time...

This is Khánh Dao. He gave me a ride this morning... as you can see, it was pouring rain (still is this evening). But in spite of the heavy rain, a lot of people turned up. Xuân was the MC and he organised a variety of games and songs, which were enthusiastically enjoyed. Sáng, a friend of Trung's brought his beaut sound system, so we had music and the tables were all pushed to the side and spread with nibblies and there was a soft drink for everyone, balloons...

First up the first person to burst their balloon by sitting it won... Yup, that would be me...

Then Khánh sang Nồng Nàn Hà Nội and everyone joined in. Then he amazed me by playing and singing Kate Wray's gorgeous song Deeply In Love. He had surfed the net for Christian songs and found this one and learned it. What an absolute blessing... I love that song! And it was written by a friend from my church in Coffs Harbour! It didn't matter to me that Khánh and I were the only two who knew it - we sang it regardless. Beautiful.

This is Ba.

He also has a great voice and sang a few songs (including You're Beautiful...)

Then Xuân and Linh got the pace cracking with some great games. This one required as many people as possible to stand on a single sheet of paper about 25x35cm!!! Would you believe seven? !!

Then it was the classic game of Knots and Tangles with ten in each team...

This game had four girls on stools holding cucumbers tied to strings, and four boys racing to be the first to eat their cucumber... again a lot of fun and great enthusiasm.

Then Madam Tra made a lovely speech and gave me a gift from the class... a lovely pair of shoes.

but sadly, my feet are way too big for VN shoes :(

And Angie gave me this trendy handbag, too.

This next game was hysterical. The guy had a cucumber tied to his waist and hanging between his legs, and the girl had to guide him into position straddling the candle. Then the idea is to swing the cucumber and put out the candle...

... much harder than you'd think!

Then Linh and I were blindfolded and had to pick up these lollies with two pens ('chopsticks') and drop them in the bowl.

Linh has volunteered to teach this class two mornings a week. She's a Hải Phòng girl who won a scholarship to study high school in Singapore, where she has been for the last four years. Now she has won another scholarship to continue on in Singapore at University. So she speaks English fluently and has kindly offered to work with these students during her Summer holidays... Fluent in both Vietnamese and English, she is inspiring them to continue working hard.