Lost in translation?

With our lack of Vietnamese language, we at times had to get creative to communicate.  One day we were the only guests at the Eco lodge restaurant for lunch.  We were served the set menu, and our server, Nu, was the only one on duty. We got to know each other a little. Her name means "flower bud."

Having become accustomed to pho (delicious Vietnamese soup), Brad needed some chili or hot sauce for his soup. We beckoned to Nu, who spoke very little English, and asked for chili sauce.  No luck.  I pantomimed something hot in my mouth and reached for my beer.  AHA!  She went away and brought Brad a glass of water.

Hmmm, we tried again - B pretended to sprinkle something over his soup, and was offered a dish of salt, then pepper.  OH!  Brad remembered the Google Translate app on his phone!  Nu saw the word, tried to teach us how to say it, we all laughed, and she came back from the kitchen with the bottle.  Later she agreed to pose for a photo:

In the picture below, we had breakfast in the courtyard, at a different place.  We were on the other end of the charade performance.  There was no printed menu.  Our server probably didn't speak Vietnamese, only her own dialect.  She came to the table with a brown egg in one hand, showed it to us, and made a motion with the other hand.  We understood perfectly - "yes I'll have a scrambled egg please!"

In the photos below, our guide took us on a walk to an isolated village.  We saw these two boys, on the left in the picture, then they ran way ahead and joined a bunch of other kids.  We could hear their laughter echoing.

When we caught up to them, the children were all sitting on the rocks.

Our guide took a picture, then showed it to them - much laughter!

We took a page out our guide's book - taking a photo then showing it to the person - sharing a laugh, makes it more of an exchange