A mission from God.

Thu Bay: Saturday
Vietnamese Word of the day: con trau: buffalo

So yesterday I was feeling a little homesick** and one of my bestest and wisest friends, Emily Kunkel, decided to google random things in Vietnam to pass along to me and hopefully aid in shifting me to a less blue hue.

This morning I received the following email, with the subject line BIG NEWS!:
"Was googling things to try to cheer you up--and here we go! There is a well known covered bridge in Hoi An, Vietnam (in the Quang Nan Province of Vietnam's south central coast), called Chua Cau--the Japanese Bridge.


"If you make a teary speech about it at your school maybe they'll name a water buffalo after you?
Love,
Emily"

When I was 19 I attended a town meeting in Mount Joy, PA to discuss the possible, but expensive, restoration of one of Lancaster County's covered bridges that had recently been destroyed by arsonists. The head of the coalition to restore the bridge had asked if I would say a few words and speak for "my generation"....I know... Well, I went to the meeting, and lets just say I was already having an emotional day. The meeting kicks off and all of these little old ladies start pouring out these long, heartfelt stories about their first kisses under the bridge, and their cousin who died under the bridge in the flood, and the year the snow was 10 feet high and they couldn't use the bridge, and it all just became a little too much. It came to be my turn to speak and I started choking up, then sobbing as I tried to explain how much covered bridges mean to all of the community, and how that bridge is part of our heritage, and I'm so proud of where I come from even if I went to school in New York City and would never, with God as my witness, live in Mount Joy again.

The phrase "I took a little part of that bridge with me when I left" may or may not have come out of my mouth.

Regardless, my little speech made the first paragraph of the front page article in the Lancaster New Era the next day.

All of this boils down to one important fact: There is an alpaca farm in rural PA, and on this farm there is a brown-wavy haired alpaca named Maddie whose owners were so moved by my speech that they decided to name her after me.

(Alpaca Maddie)

I now have a mission: inspire animal namesakedom in every corner of the globe, beginning in Vietnam...with the water buffalo. Hopefully one as happy as this guy:

Isn't he cute?:)

**Its gonna happen. We're all dealing. Its fine. Lets talk about it.