Dear brothers and sisters,

One evening 3 years ago, my friend and I walked in an area near Ba Chuông Church (Saint Dominic Church), Phú Nhuận district.

It was an intersection in a residential area. The sidewalks of the two corners of the intersection were places where a street foodstall selling snails, soft drinks and beer. The sidewalks of the remaining two corners were empty, except a group of 5 men ranging from 35 to 70 years old were drinking on one corner. The street lights were just right, not too bright and not too dark. Continue reading Playing music at an intersection →

Dear brothers and sisters,

One evening before Christmas 3 years ago, I went to the Đức Bà Church (Notre-Dame Cathedral) with my friend.

On one side of the Đức Bà Church are the Central Post Office and the Book Street. On the sidewalk of the Post Office, there was a man about 50 years old singing and playing a guitar. In front of him was a small box for people to put money in. Continue reading Playing music at Đức Bà Church →

Dear brothers and sisters,

When the Romantic Road was still the trash road, one evening, about 6pm, I walked the road.

Darkness, no street lights, no moonlight, high and big mountains of trash, growled dogs, countless potholes, scattered bottle shards, large container truck and driver, and the unknown ahead. All of things reminded me of Psalm 23. Continue reading Darkness →

Dear brothers and sisters,

When the Romantic Road was the trash road, there were many daisy flowers. Sometimes I wanted to pick them to put in a vase, but I thought it’s best to let them live here with their world.

Every time I saw small daisy flowers with white petals and a yellow centre that were swaying in the wind and in the sun, I often thought about Matthew 6:25-34. Continue reading Daisy flowers →

Dear brothers and sisters,

From the corner where two red cotton trees used to stand, turn left, at the end of a road, there is a coffee shop. The shop has appeared after someone cleaned up the Romantic Road.

An area around the coffee shop doesn’t have street lights, so at night it is quite dark, only a few houses have a light bulb in front of their door. When the coffee shop appears, the area looks brighter. Continue reading Live music coffee shop →

Dear brothers and sisters,

From the corner where two red cotton trees used to stand, turn right, there is a small bridge spanning a small canal. There is a house across the bridge – the house has a colorful paperflower tree and a fruity mango tree. And on this side of the bridge is a coffee shop, right on the bank of the canal, its front facing the road. Continue reading Yellow lights →

Dear brothers and sisters,

From the corner where two red cotton trees used to stand, turn right, there is a small bridge spanning a small canal. The canal is 3m wide and 10m long. The canal is partially blocked at both ends, so its water becomes muddy, black and smelly.

There is a house across the bridge. The house faces a small road and stands right on the bank of the canal. In front of the house there is a fence. Along the fence and along the small road, there are many aloe vera plants. And along the canal, there are a mango tree and a paperflower tree. The mango tree is in a yard of the house, and the paperflower tree is outside the fence. Continue reading Next to the black canal →

Dear brothers and sisters,

At the corner of the Romantic Road and a small road, there were two red cotton trees (Bombax ceiba – cây hoa gạo).

The first time I saw the trees, it was winter, the sky was gloomy and going to rain and I just got to the end of the Romantic Road which at that time was the trash road. I saw the trees because their red flowers stood out in the whole space. They both welcomed me to my new home in Saigon and gave me a feeling of closeness as if I were in Thai Binh, my hometown. They made me emotional. Continue reading Red cotton trees →

Dear brothers and sisters,

At the corner of the Romantic Road and a main road, there is a lady selling sugarcane juice on the sidewalk under some rain trees (Samanea Saman trees – cây me tây). The sugarcane juice cart has appeared after someone cleaned up the Romantic Road. Continue reading Rain trees →

Dear brothers and sisters,

After someone cleaned up the Romantic Road, a flock of chickens appeared. They were one rooster, one hen and eight chicks. They belonged to a house that I couldn’t see clearly from the roadside.

The house was at the end of a small path perpendicular to the Romantic Road, at a middle part of the road. The path was about 15 meter long and nearly 1 meter wide. There were many trees and weeds on both sides of the path, and at the end of the path there were many banana trees. You couldn’t see the house through that jungle. Continue reading Flock of chickens →

Dear brothers and sisters,

My neighbour’s house has a signboard on their wall. The sign has just the letter D and no light. It has broken in the middle a bit.

My neighbour’s house is next to a road. Across the road are rows of Samanea Saman trees (cây me tây). The trees are tall and give a lot of shade. Continue reading New home →

Dear brothers and sisters,

When the Romantic Road was the trash road, at a middle part of the road, on the right side, there were many Panama berry trees (cây trứng cá). No one planted them, they grew on their own.

The trees were about 5m tall. Their branches spread long and drooped down to the ground. Their foliage dangled softly. The flowers with 5 petals were small and white. They bloomed every day. Every time I saw them, they made me happy. It seemed they were saying to me: “How are you?… We miss you…” Continue reading Panama berry trees →

Dear brothers and sisters,

Near the market that I go to every day, there is a coffee shop. Several months ago, there was a feral kitten often lying outside the shop.

Kitten was yellow, not fat, not thin. It liked to lie under the foot of a plant pot, next to a tiny brick house used for decoration. The first time I saw the kitten lie next to that tiny house, I thought it was the kitten’s house, so I wondered why did the kitten not stay indoors. Then I discovered that the door of that house was too small for the kitten. Poor kitten. Continue reading Feral kitten →

Dear brothers and sisters,

A year and a half ago, at the end of the Romantic Road, there were a duck family – five white ones. Their boss was the owner of a restaurant on the Romantic Road.

The first time I saw them, they were one mother duck and four baby ducks. At that time, baby ducks were small, about the size of an adult’s fist. Several months later, four baby ducks became four big ducks. Mother duck took the lead and the four children followed. They looked for food together, then rested together under tree shadow. Every time I saw them, I was happy. Continue reading The last duck →