16th Day - 1st Day of Mid Autumn Festival

It's already Monday again ! But today was a very special day as it was the official beginning of the Mid Autumn Festival, which (I must have said it before) is huge in Asia (in Korea it's even bigger than New Year!). It's a time of giving love to each other and sharing with those in the need. In the evenings the streets are crowded with people (and with a lot of kids!), carrying colorful lanterns and eating special dishes, moon cakes, etc.

Today was also the death anniversary of Xuan Minh's (my host sister's) great grand father, and as each year the whole family (those who could come) was gathering for a meal in honor of the great grand father. Carlijn, Melanie and I were also invited, so they came to our house at around eleven, and there were already about ten women preparing the food. The entire house smelled of delicious spices and every body was in a very good mood ! We had lots of dishes and they all were very nice. The tables of the men and of the women were separated, and the conversations were so loud that we had to scream to hear each other ! After the meal we took a rest upstairs and then Melanie, Carlijn and me headed to the chinese area in district 5 (about 30min from my district) to have a look and buy some lanterns before the masses of people of the evenings would arrive.

At 5pm we had to be in district 12 (at the other end of the city!), for a Mid Autumn celebration with children from a shelter home (the other project from AIESEC in HCMC, "Hope for Children Project"). We were late so when we arrived every body was in a circle (about 80 children and 20 members), singing, playing, and taking pictures. It was lovely. Children all around, smiling, hugging, asking you what your name was and taking you by the hand to form a circle. They were quite excited to have all these people and the five foreigners visiting (the two others, Bori and Olfa, from the second project). We had a wonderful hour with them until it was finished and some of the kids were fetched by their parents, the others were going to have dinner and sleep there. It was really great, but also very exhausting !

The day isn't over, we still have the whole evening in front of us ! I went home and had dinner with my host family (they made tofu extra for me!), and then took my things (including a big cushion), and bargained with a motorbike-taxi-driver to bring me to Melanie's place near Ben Thanh Market. Carlijn was already there and we installed our stuff for the night, got ready and went to have a drink in the backpacker's area, we had a fun night ! The three of us slept at Melanie's (on the floor), it was very funny !!