Earthquakes & hurricanes & fires -- OH MY!

It was quite a week in Ol' Virginny!

The 5.8 earthquake in Mineral (about 45 miles NW of Richmond) last Tuesday was crazy... I was sitting at my desk at work (downtown Richmond) when it happened. We've had a lot of construction going on around our office building lately, so at first I just assumed the rumbling was something related to that... that is, until the stuff on my desk started to dance around and my coworker Liz yelled to get out of the building. That evening, I was at rehearsal at Swift Creek Mill Theatre in Colonial Heights (south of Richmond) during the first major 4.2 aftershock. I completely slept through the other one around 1 a.m. There was another early morning aftershock (4.5) on Thursday, which I also slept through.

Hurricane Irene wasn't as brutal to Richmond as Isabel was in 2003, but Richmond suffered the highest percentage of power outages during Irene (371,000 people in Richmond, 973,000 total in Virginia). Robb and I were part of the small percentage of the city that didn't lose power. The lights flickered regularly and power would go off for 30 seconds at a time, but came back on again. We are so thankful that nothing major happened to us. My coworker Tony's neighborhood south of the river was hit hard. One home had its roof completely knocked off (see photo). Lots of downed trees and blocked roads. We had a dead branch come down in our front yard, but that's nothing compared to what some people are dealing with.

Robb's sister Jennifer and her family, as well as his mom and step dad, live in Gloucester County, near the coast. His mom and step dad evacuated, but his sister stayed. They are without power, but no major damage. Gloucester had a horrible tornado rip through the area last spring causing over $7 million in damage, so a lot of people were still trying to put their lives back together after that.

One positive thing is that all the rain has seemed to put a damper on the 6,000+ acre fire in the Great Dismal Swamp in SE Virginia that has been burning and growing for three weeks. Smoke is still visible but no flames have been spotted, and the fire doesn't seem to have spread. We could smell the smoke here in Richmond prior to Irene.

Seems like the only thing we need to check off the natural disaster list is a volcano! (And maybe some locusts...!?)

We're grateful for all the thoughts and prayers -- Robb and I feel extremely fortunate in all this!

Oh, MONEY.

I have never been very good with handling it. There's a song by Twin Cities band, Greazy Meal (popular in the late 90's), that has the lyric, "I don't like money, but I sure like what it buys." Ain't that the truth.

I will also admit that over the years, I have racked up some hefty credit card debt, particularly when I did AmeriCorps*VISTA and my monthly income was $700. I'm still paying for those groceries on my Citibank MasterCard. My divorce also took a toll on my credit. Plastic is NOT my friend.

The pastor at my church is doing a three week series called "ATM" -- Attitude, Treasure, Mission. The underlying theme is that we need to re-think money, particularly its value and purpose in our lives.

I totally get that. I fully understand the benefits of living a life of generosity and selflessness. But how can I truly give AND live generously if I am still, quite literally, paying for past mistakes?

I can make budgets and expense lists till the cows come home. The majority of my income is spent on "necessity bills" and "debt bills." After that, if I have anything left, I give to charity, and (maybe) buy groceries and cat food.

When the economy tanked, Theatre IV was in the same boat as many other nonprofits, which forced some difficult decisions: layoffs, pay cuts and increased employee out-of-pocket health care. For many of us, that translates to salary levels at or below where they were five years ago.

I realize that having a lesser-paying job is still better than having no job and that all things considered, I am incredibly blessed and face better circumstances than many. But for someone like me, who has never been particularly savvy regarding money matters, I am finding myself constantly stressing about it. Usually, most of my money is gone the Monday after payday (which is every two weeks).

On the drive home yesterday, I was wishing I could figure out how to sell more drawings or stained glass to supplement my income. But then I realized that if I want to sell more art, I have to make time to create it. Another scarce resource these days.

I'm in rehearsals right now for "Keep on the Sunny Side" at Swift Creek Mill Theatre. When the show starts, the extra income starts. However, the four weeks of rehearsals are unpaid and it's a 20 mile drive to the Mill five or six times a week. When the show is running, it will still be three to four times a week. I haven't done the math, but I'm guessing it's pretty close to a wash in terms of extra income compared to money spent on gas... or "money out the tailpipe" as my grandfather put it.

Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine, thank you.

This is pretty much a vent session. I know many other people are in the same predicament. I just wish one of us had a universal solution.

Tạm biệt, Việt Nam

Had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the bank to exchange some money. Went to SS3 after that to say goodbye to the kids and bring them the personal care items (soap, hand sanitizer, shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, etc.). Some of the kids were at school when we got there so we didn't get to see them (including Zoom, boo). But Tee and Yen and An were there and lots of other familiar faces.

We also got a chance to spend time with the babies and hold them. I held an infant girl who was four weeks old. So sweet. I didn't want to let her go.

It was difficult to leave the orphanage... but at least we know the kids are in good hands and also that Area 10 will be continuing the relationship there.

After SS3, we at lunch at Pho 24. It was ok, but not as good as Pho 79 in RVA, in my opinion!

We went back to the hotel and had a debriefing with Tan (who is taking over for Sherman at GVI) to talk about the past week, and also discuss plans for next year.

We had some time to go shopping afterwards and get massages! I got a bunch more souvenirs for my sponsors.

For dinner, we went to Al Fresco for a western meal. I got pepperoni pizza. It was DELISH.

We left for the airport at 8:00 p.m. Dat, Pink, Xu and Bic came along and said goodbye to us at the airport. I got teary.

I was thinking about the likelihood of going on this trip next year... I just don't know. I told Marci that I could save up for a year and if it worked out that I did go, I'd have the money; and otherwise I would be able to donate what I'd saved toward the team that does go. Just have to wait and see what God has in store over the next year.

We're now on the plane from Hanoi to Seoul and will land within the hour. We have a 5-hour layover in Seoul before we board to fly 15 or 18 or however many hours it is back to Dulles. In all, we will have traveled 25 hours to get back to the U.S.!! I will probably sleep all day tomorrow, when I get back... or will it be yesterday...or today?!

At any rate, I'm so glad I was able to go on this trip. It has been an eye-opening, heart-moving experience and I am looking forward to writing more about my thoughts when I get back.

MONKEYS!

Had an early breakfast this morning at the hotel and took a bus & a boat to Monkey Island. Got some great shots of the floating fishing villages, boats & rock formations.

We were the only group at Monkey Island. Light rain the whole time. The beach was pretty with lots of coral & fairly clear water (no trash like Do Son!). We hiked up a steep rocky trail to get to the monkeys, which came out to greet us. One jumped on Marci's back and she totally freaked out. :)  The monkeys were extremely social and not afraid of us. Keith especially had a good time egging them on. I got some great photos, including one of Marci which I have a feeling will be a Facebook favorite, haha

After Monkey Island, we headed back to Hanoi. Our original trip to Cat Ba involved two ferries; the way back to Hanoi, just one. We stopped at a center that sold all kinds of products and souvenirs, the proceeds of which go to support programs for the disabled kids that live and work at the center. I bought a few things there.

When we got back to Hanoi, we immediately went to the hotel, dropped off our bags and went to the hotel where Diane [Wolf] is staying -- Bic's sister works at the restaurant there, so we met up with people from the Northwood, TX group for dinner at Jaspas. Tomorrow is Bic's sister's birthday, so we sang to her. :) Jaspas has American food (and other western food) on the menu, which was a nice change! I had carbonara and a glass of pinot grigio.

Went to Fanny's after for ice cream -- had "Lotus" -- the array of sorbets was decorated with a real lotus flower. Very beautiful AND delicious!

Tomorrow a.m. we go to SS3 to say goodbye to the kids. It's going to be sad.

Cat Ba

A long bumpy ride and two ferries later, we are in Cat Ba! It's beautiful here -- the rocks in the water are spectacular. As we were approaching Cat Ba on the ferry, Chris and I shared his iPod earphones and listened to Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah." It was appropriate. :)

We ate dinner at the hotel and then went out for karaoke. I am feeling a lot better, despite the cough, but I still have laryngitis. Even so, I was able to squeak out a couple songs.

On the bus ride to the hotel, we were playing and singing a bunch of Christian songs. I wonder what Mr. Tu thought!

Tomorrow is a trip to Monkey Island and some sight seeing before we go back to Hanoi.

Goodbye Do Son, Hello Cat Ba!

Woke up with a cough. BOOOO! Laura said I coughed during the night too.

Had breakfast and played some more games with the kids while Laura printed photos so the kids could put them in the picture frames they made yesterday. Laura's little photo printer was quite popular among the hotel staff too and they kept asking for photos of themselves and their kids. It occurred to me that maybe photos aren't such a common thing here??

We went to the beach one last time. Today is hot and sunny. The kids didn't want to come in. We had lunch and packed up our things. We said goodbye to the older kids who we won't see on Wed. when we go back to SS3. It was emotional!!

Now we are on the way to Cat Ba on a tour bus with a tourguide named Mr. Tu and bus driver named Mr. Tee. haha