Turns out...

Well, once again so much has happened that it will be hard for me to get it all down, but I will do my best.

Two weekends ago, we found ourselves in a van bouncing our way up to the border town of Chau Doc. This might possibly be one of the most beautiful places we have been so far. As we drove north, the countryside had more and more rolling terrain until we finally saw some small mountains, hills by Colorado standards, but were still refreshing to see after the flatness of the lower delta. Along the sides of the road, large bunches of homemade incense were drying in spirals of bright red, yellow, and fuchsia adding some color to the country side.

When we arrived, we explored some huge pagodas, and went up to the top of one of the “mountains” to get a view of the country side. Rice fields and water stretched as far as the eye could see, all the way into Cambodia, which made us excited for the upcoming travel there. For dinner we were joined by a professor from the university, and his friends, one of which was the Director of Agriculture for the entire province. Through the course of the evening, they taught us some of the finer aspects of wining and dining in Vietnam, complete with laughing, singing, and toasting. The next morning while we were eating breakfast, we were asked by some of the local villagers if we wanted to stay at their house so that we could see cow racing the next day. Yes, that’s right, cow racing. Unfortunately, though, we had to get back to our studies. So, we spent some time touring other parks in the area, and after a good trip we headed back to Can Tho. [Our professor and friends at dinner]

Back in town, I found out that the priest of my host family had passed away. They are devout Catholics, and all of the children had known him since they were children. His death was very hard on them. It was probably good that this corresponded with the end of the home stay so that I would not be in their way as they mourned him. I had a fantastic time living with them and couldn’t have asked for a nicer family. They still invite me over for lunch and dinner, and I know that we will continue to be in contact for the remainder of my trip here and hopefully into the future.

After another full week of study, we were on an excursion yet again, and this time it was back to Ho Chi Mihn City. After spending so much time in a small city, it was exciting to be in such a big, bustling place. They have everything there and we decided that we would be total tourists while in Ho Chi Mihn, and then keep working on blending in when back in our “home town”. So, we bought postcards and t-shirts, walked around, went to touristy restaurants, it was fun. Of course, we also went on some excursions while we were there. [poster of Uncle Ho Chi Mihn in a ferry station]

The first and most shocking place that we went to were the tunnels at Cu Chi, originally made by the Vietnamese in the war against the French, and then later expanded by the Viet Cong during the “American War”. At the height of the war, there were over 250 km of intricate tunnel networks with many different layers, meeting rooms, storage space, living areas, kitchens, and hospitals. It was an area that thwarted the US for a long time, and is now turned into a tourist area. They expanded the tunnels so larger framed foreigners, like ourselves, can crawl through. It was one of the most harrowing experiences that we have had so far. After visiting some of the meeting rooms, we crawled through 30 m of tunnels underground on our hands and knees, just barely seeing the person ahead of us when they weren’t blocking the sporadic lights that were placed in the walls. I was pretty scared, and those were the expanded tunnels. After the tunnel tour, you see a lot of the old propaganda from the war, and then the path ended in a firing range where you can use many different types of guns. We were all pretty shaken up by the experience. [Becca climbing into one of the tunnel's left in it's natural state]

The next day, we went to an area that was affected by the war in another way. The Can Gio Biosphere was created from an area that had been destroyed by agent orange, and is one of the largest reforestation projects in the country. We stayed there for two days and learned a lot about how difficult environmental efforts are in a developing country. For example, the replanted mangroves are doing really well, but many people harvest them before they have a chance to live up to their full ecological potential. There is a bird sanctuary in the middle, which was supposed to be a preserve, but they were farming shrimp through it. They lead boat tours to see crocodiles that used to be native to the area, which they are cross breeding with crocodiles from Cuba. Doesn’t really make for ecologically sound practices, but that is what we are here to study, I suppose. We did get to speak with some of the clam farmers that live in the area, and it is clear that any development at this time has the economic value as a first priority, and the environment second. This is understandable when the environment is all you have to feed your family from. It was really interesting to learn about the environment from this point of view, which is different than any of us have ever been exposed to. [The painted storks in bird sanctuary, and house of clamming family]

Anyway, we saw a lot this past weekend, and after a mediocre western meal (our first since we’ve been here) we were relieved to get back to Can Tho, where we feel a lot more comfortable and we can ride our bikes everywhere. We have a week and a half left in Can Tho before we head up to the capital city of Hanoi and the Red River Delta for ten days, and then we start our month long independent study project. I can’t believe how fast the trip has been going, but I have been enjoying every minute.

Hope all is well with all of you,

Hen Gap Lai!

Julia


[Oi troai oi, that's a lot of bananas. Yep, it's still monsoon season. A lotus bud.]