Ohs noes :'(

Today was a sad day. I lost my wallet. Sorry mom and dad. We put out a search party on the bus and UEF, so hopefully tomorrow yields something awesome. I don’t think I left it at breakfast, because I think I had it upon getting on the bus initially. That means I lost it either on the bus or in the classroom. Time will tell. Anyway. We had a guest lecture on the Mekong Delta today, which supplies a surprising percentage of Vietnam’s agriculture. If my memory serves me correctly, the Delta represents 50 percent of Vietnam’s rice and 70 percent of fruit exports. Rather impressive, no? This lecture was intended as a intro to our trip to the Delta tomorrow. Language class included months, days, and overall review of things we learned. I’m a tank at tones, just saying. And dancing. Hu said so. Bam. After lunch we headed out to ACDI/VOCA to experience a smaller scale business than that which we have previously seen. AND WE GOT HATS AND BAGS. Phu My Hung is trash compared to this operation. Almost kidding. Almost. ACDI/VOCA stands for something, and they have been active in Vietnam working with cocoa growers since 2003. Since then, they have invested around $10 million dollars in training and expanding smallholder cocoa plantations through funding donated by USAID and USDA. They helped to set up and operate hundreds of “cocoa clubs”, where farmers can receive seedlings, training, and avenues of sale for their cocoa crop. We’re all pretty much experts on cocoa farming in Vietnam now, kind of a big deal. After this presentation we had karaoke with Tuan and Khuong! The building was legit. They care about their karaoke here. It was a good eight floors of just private rooms for parties of people who want to do karaoke. It was awesome. We had to pay a 150,000 dong cover charge, but that included any expense up to 150,000 dong, which meant that we essentially paid for food and got two free hours of karaoke in a baller establishment. A man that looked remarkably like myself ordered a dry coca-cola (confused, yes, I know) and was the classiest lad in Ho Chi Minh City. We also sang “I’m in Saigon Bitch” by LMFAO. Great times all around. That was my evening. I lost my wallet. Sad face.