Like a horse that can see the stable I can feel my heart turning towards home. Or maybe it is slight dread of tomorrow - a 24 hour airport marathon with already tired children.
Today we flew into Ho Chi Minh City - METROPOLIS. We experienced the tail end of the typhoon in the form of a thunderstorm in the market this afternoon. And had our last meal in Vietnam stretching our money out to the last dong to each have an eclair.
Having two daughters means I have spent a lot of time in toilets this trip. They can never quite seem to co-ordinate weeing at the same time, so I have done a lot of traipsing to the little room, tissues in hand. We have got quite good at squat toilets as well.
After spending four weeks in Asia I am much more comfortable with using chopsticks at every meal, jostling for position on the bus, not wearing seat belts in the car, using the car horn as an announcement, bargaining for purchases, crossing the road into a wall of scooters, having a chat to everyone and attempting Chinese or Vietnamese. Brisbane will seem quiet after this!
Chris' Cultural Tip - There's No Place Like Home
It sounds trite, but as the end of our trip is in sight it seems very real. I'm not sure what it is, but no matter how long you are away when the end is in sight you feel like breaking out the red slippers or slipping into your best Peter Allen impersonation. Traveling is a great cultural experience. And I can also see us being able to live overseas and call somewhere random like Wuhan home. But for now Brisbane is home for us. It is where we have wonderful friends, a great church, and opportunities to minster for God. We could live for God anywhere in the world, but right now we have many wonderful people who we are invested in, and wonderful people who are invested in us. So as I sign off from my cultural tips and this blog, I can say without a hint of cynicism "There's no place like home".
PS thanks Chris for the guest appearances on the blog - you have provided a great balance! And thanks for being a wonderful husband for 16 years (celebrated on this trip!).
What a joy it's been to share your experience through the blog. Well done.
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