Get ready for all your current newsworthy travel topics, covered in about as shallow a depth as possible, right here on:
Your Daily I.V. (Images of Vietnam)
This series is from the infamous “Weasels” day. As usual, we covered a lot of ground. From an ethnic K’Ho village visit, to the burgeoning business of flower growing, we were treated to several slices of daily life in rural Vietnam. In this village of Buon Chuoi, we were able to sit with the Deacon of the local Catholic Church. O.A.T. has been involved with this village for the past twenty or so years (they built the school here) and because of that, is allowed by the government to make regular visits to there in order to bring us just that much closer to these people. Otherwise traveling into the back roads is forbidden, or shall we say, “discouraged”. I’m not sure who would have enforced any intrusions, but we all know that infractions have a way of being reported in a communist society. However, it is obvious that a change is at hand as freedom of religion is alive and well all over Vietnam and organizations like the Church and O.A.T., that have demonstrated that they have the best interests of the populace in mind, are allowed to flourish, just don’t rock that boat…. yet.
Our destination was the home of the “mayor” of sorts, a position with no pay, but tons of respect. His wife is quite prolific when it comes to weaving as you will soon see.
She worked on this article for the entire time that we were there.
An average piece takes her about five days to complete, and that pattern (or similar ones) have been handed down from generation to generation so much so that after a little education on the subject, even we could identify a certain village or people’s style.
Several pics here from the main road through the village. Does everything look orange to you? That’s not me playing with the color saturations, etc. that’s the color of the local soils and as you can see, it is pervasive!
This is for home consumption as around here, the cultivation of commercial rice’s has given way to more profitable crops such as avocados, dragon fruit, coffee, and flowers.
Hey! Why not get all the help that you can?
Liem was our Local Guide for the day, working us through the flowers, coffee, (weasels!) and villages.
The deacon explained that there were about sixty villages that the traveling priests need to visit on a round-robin type of schedule. Phil was very excited to tell us that the last time that he was here was at a Christmas Mass, all 600+ villagers were there and it was quite the event!
Can’t tell if she’s laughing or crying because she can’t come out and say Hi!
I suspect she just got reprimanded for something!
As casual observers here we have noticed the deportment of the kids seems to be significantly better than that of our own home-grown variety. Maybe it’s the resect for elders that’ driven home as a part of their daily life, or just good manners instilled from an early age, but whatever it is, it is noticeable.
All of these villages have a matriarchal society where the woman decides all the important things like marriage. The kids inherit the mom’s name, and everything is passed own through them.
That is why this little guy is at work with his dad! When we entered the home of Mrs. ‘Weaver’ there was an unhappy little one because she could not go out with her Dad and work!
These people are related to the Lach (Musicians) but have a totally different dialect and skill set.
This loom is at the “Weasel” place where articles can be found for sale.
I can take an engine apart and put it back to together again, but if you stacked a million dollars on a table and told me it was all mine if I could figure out this process, well, let’s just say that your money would be, indeed, very safe!
We were fortunate because these little smelly (nicely!) guys only pop out for three days and then go ka-put
This is how our day started. We visited one of the gazillions of green houses that blanket entire square acres/miles/ regions of this area. Not too long ago, the ‘discovery’ of the advantages of these giant science experiments was had. Some very smart Dutchmen came up here and said: “Hé! Deze plek is geweldig om bloemen te kweken en al onze grond staat onder water, dus waarom helpen we je niet op weg? (We laten je niet alles zien, zodat we de controle behouden.) En je kunt er toch flink wat geld mee verdienen!”
Translated: “Hey! This place is great for growing flowers, and all our land is under water so why don’t we help you get started, (but not show you everything so that we’ll still be in control) but/and you can still make tons of money!”
And so it happened. The acreage that is under wraps is so extensive that the government has had to curtail the number of greenhouses in this area because of the reflection/absorption/of both solar and water. It has actually altered the local climate to the point where it is measurable.
*(unofficial tally reported here strictly for the sake of impact on unsuspecting readers)
We’re not sure if that’s a gross or net number but either way in a country where an average income can be measured in the hundreds of dollars a month, she’d doing just fine!
And finally…. to help brighten your day, some assorted colors from Vietnam!
3 replies on “Another Full Day”
I can’t believe your photos 😍😍😍
The visuals are incredible…. glad you like them!
All too familiar with the “orange” dirt…..stains everything! Been good and muddy here lately too.