Independent Study Time

The final project and key component of all SIT semesters is an Independent Study Project (ISP), where we have about a month to complete a huge paper and presentation on the subject of our choosing and of our own design. It is a great opportunity to research an interesting subject, and it should be primarily field work. Although it has been a little stressful writing up my own schedule and everything, I have really enjoyed this opportunity, but I am going to reserve complete judgment as we are not done yet…

My topic is shrimp farmings environmental effects. I was originally going to do a project comparing the environmental effects of different types of shrimp farming, but because we are in a communist country with a large language barrier, things don’t always go according to plan. So, now I am doing a study on an intensive shrimp farm in Soc Trang, about 60 km south of Can Tho, and hopefully figure out what problems that is creating for the surrounding land. [shrimp (in the blue buckets) being unloaded from the ferry]

The days that I spent in the field were really great. My friend Nam (a masters student at the university who is helping me with my project) would pick me up at 6 am, and we would travel to Soc Trang, eat some breakfast there, and then travel for about another hour across a small ferry and then down a bumpy dirt road to a small town where we jumped on another boat which took us to the shrimp farm. We would spent the mornings taking samples, meter measurements, and making observations, and then we would retire to the house. The family that ran the shrimp farm were some of the nicest people I have met here. We would hang out and talk with them and the workers, and then sit down to a delicious lunch. I was pretty fortunate in that I was there during the shrimp harvest. So lunch consisted of rice (of course), some soup, and piles of freshly caught shrimp that had just been grilled up. It was delicious. Then a short nap and back to taking samples. [picture of Nam on the boat]

I would come back each night happy, sunburned, muddy, tired, and usually with armloads fruit that they had given me. The one pictured here is some sort of water coconut, which took us the better part of an hour to hack open, and we ended up with a small bowlful of fruit which didn’t taste that good anyway… but it was thoughtful of them nonetheless.

Because of the strict government restrictions, I was unable to live at the farm, which was my original plan. So Helen, Becca, and I rented a little house on the campus. It is a sweet little place next to the tennis court and complete with a swing in the backyard. It’s also great because all of our Vietnamese friends know where it is as well, and they stop by quite frequently. They usually end up making fun of us because they think we don’t know how to take care of ourselves because they see us eating fruit for breakfast, or not sweeping as much as we should. But it is really nice, and I get to hear all about their ISP topics, the women’s union and primary school education, both of which are very interesting.
We have also been managing to spend some time exploring the city and going to other friends houses to learn how to cook, or to just enjoy these wonderful people we have been meeting here. So, things here are good, but I can’t believe how fast the time is flying… oh well, back to studying tôm (shrimp).

Hen Gap Lai!

Julia



[incense drying on the side of the road; the black tiger shrimp, or Penaeus monodon; our house is a very very very fine house; cooking banh xeo, traditional Vietnamese pancakes]