Jade Jewelry and the Know It Alls

Well, we still have our spotted boy. Called Quoc this morning and he went to get Benadryl for us, but only came back with adult dosage. Fortunately, Joan did bring some and we used hers. He doesn't seem to be getting other spots, but it'll take awhile for the others to fade. We were walking through the attached shopping center today. A group of young Chinese girls who were working at a booth, insisted that I come back tomorrow and they'll have creame for Eastin. I thought this was nice.

It is a bit odd here. Everyone offers their opinion all the time, regardless of the language barrier. We get-- baby too cold, baby need hat, baby nails need clipped (One older man was panomining this too Matt earlier today. He thought the bald place on the back of Kyna's head was from her ripping out her own hair with her nails. Then and old women came up and told the old man that it is from her sleeping.) If there is a spot of drool, someone is telling you to wipe it up. The big thing we noticed is they do not like the babies' hands in their mouths. Men and women will reach down and take out their hands themselves. It's nearly impossible to stop with two teething babies. We just smile and nodd our heads in a slight bow. The day after we received the babies, our waitress at the resort inspected Kyna's hands and pointed out a bit of dirt under her finger nail. UGH. I wanted to say-- she just came from an orphanage about 12 hours ago. Yet, again I just smiled and nodded. I do think I have a permenant smile and nodd of the head going on. It will be relief for others to understand us and us them.

We did get good news. Quoc says that we are leaving 9am Saturday for Hanoi. We'll fly from HCMC to Hanoi at 11 am. We'll be staying at the Horison. Not sure when our appointment in Hanoi will be. Quoc had a lot of work to do today with all our stuff.

We went to a directly across the street from the hotel and bought some jade jewelry today. Joan showed us where it was at. This is the first time we went out of the hotel by ourselves. We were instructed not too, but this was so close to the hotel door and in broad daylight. Matt stood watch while the 3 of us, including Viet and the babies shopped. Matt kept his hand on his wallet the whole time. An elderly man came up and stood right against the back of Matt while talking to the babies. Not sure of his intension, but Matt was taking no chances. Pickpocketing is a real problem in HCMC, as is scooters who will drive by and slash your backpack from you. Thankfully we've not seen any of this, but we try to be very aware when out.

We booked an all day tour tomorrow. We go to the tunnels and to another temple. Tell more about it tomorrow. Debra and Viet are going too. Hopefully, it's just our small group. The babysittters are coming to keep the babies. They stay right in our hotel room. I think they probably love it since it is airconditioned and we have a TV, plus they make good money. Joanne told us to pay them $10 per baby for the day. There are also bringing our laudry tomorrow. We sent it out this morning. I think this will get us through until home.