Emotions

 One of the reasons it is so good to be here with family is to share the depth of emotions.  Not that I have much choice in the matter.  Rusty, Marianne and I careen between tears and laughter, depending on topic, circumstance and fatigue.  Just being in Viet Nam brings back images and emotions of Nixon-era US involvement, newspaper and tv photos, and all our shared feelings of guilt, sorrow, rage, and deeply held grief.

Perhaps because, as he said, Huy was borne in 1976, the year after reunification, and has learned about that history through books, or more likely because that history is cellular and just part of who he is as "baby boomer" Vietnamese, he does not show emotion.  Other than humor and gentle wit, and a broad smile.

Yesterday over lunch (an elegant and very tasty,multi-course seafood meal on board a boat as we circled the remarkable karst rock formations of Ha Long Bay -- another story), he told us of earlier tours he led with returning Viet Nam veterans.  He brought them to battlefields, to places where they had lost buddies.  To places, he said,where they had left body parts.  His remarkable empathy, even as a 20-something, taking these former enemies of his parents to lands still uncleared of land mines,is something I cannot contemplate without welling up in tears.  Yet Huy tells a joke:  "After you!" he says the vets joked, teasing him about clearing the field first.

Last night over dinner at the hotel (a large bowl of pho, the traditional Vietnamese soup) the three of us sat and talked and wept and laughed hysterically until it was clearly time for bed.

I doubt any one of us will be able to adequately share how deeply moving and important this trip is.  We wish each f you could be here with us.  

Lessons from our Guide Huy (whee)

From Marianne:

1. To say "Thank You" in Vietnamese, say "Cam un."

2. Vietnamese people like to see a smile. Smile and say "Cam un" to them.

3. When buying an item from a street vendor "everything is negotiable."

4. One of our group members asked Huy "How do you say, "No, thank you." Huy's reply, said with his infectious smile, was "If you say 'No, thank you" to a street vendor, they won't understand it."

"Sticky Rice"

Comment from Marianne:

One of Huy's lessons to our group, on our first day in Hanoi, was how to be a pedestrian. Here's the lesson:

"Motorcycles NEVER stop for pedestrians. So...

• Totally ignore motorcycles.
• Move slowly across the street.
• Never run.
• Once you step off the curb, never turn back.
• If you stay together as a group you become a "recognizable force."
• When I say 'sticky rice' I want you to stick together tightly as a group.
• If you are alone and trying to cross a street, the best way is to walk across with a local."

We have used Huy's "sticky rice" method successfully so far.

Anniversary

Along the roads in HaNoi are red flags with gold lettering,fluttering from the utility poles.  They note today's 58th anniversary -- 10/10/54 to 10/10/12 -- the liberation of Viet Nam from the French.  Unification lasted one year.

Another anniversary:  In 1010, the  king was crossing the Red River and saw a huge dragon rising out of the water.  Taking this as a good omen, he founded the city of HaNoi which means (correct me if I am wrong) city surrounded by a river.  So two years ago, HaNoi celebrated its 1000th birthday.  Now that's history.  Sort of puts Conway's 40th anniversary in perspective.

To learn of Viet Nam's long history also puts US sordid involvement here into a larger perspective, one of continuous occupation and its struggle to become one country. This vision of unification and independence has been the reason it seems that Viet Nam has eventually and continually prevailed over its would be conquerors despite the odds.

Rice In Vietnam's Economy

Vietnam is the world's second largest exporter of rice, following Thailand. It is the world's second largest exporter of coffee after Brazil. It is first worldwide in black pepper!

Rice is incredibly important to Vietnam not just as an export but as a dietary staple, of course, for the Vietnamese. As our guide Huy says: "We are a country of rice." Over 200 varieties of rice are produced, and production varies from region to region in the country depending on growing conditions as they change seasonally. In fact, Vietnam's Rice Institute is developing a type of rice that can grow in water with 10% salt content in anticipation of higher seas affecting coastal areas due to global warming.

Almost all of Vietnam's rice is cultivated by farmers living adjacent to their fields, an indication of the importance of rice to individual family as well as national economies. Relatively small farm fields are plowed by water buffalo; germination often begins in homes, then shoots are planted, water levels are controlled, the grains harvested by hand. Two to three crops are cultivated each year in three month cycles. Once the stalks of rice are threshed, by hand, the leftover straw can be used as fuel. We were able to view the harvesting process as we traveled to Halong Bay from Hanoi. It is amazing to me that such enormous production levels can be sustained by small farms as opposed to industrial-size enterprises.