Content includes:
1/ Giving Vietnam's street kids a chance
2/ Photo journal, life stories of people who happened to be in Vietnam.
3/ A letter of a Saigonese from USA
4/ Endlessly cheerful
5/ "Pan cake" boy captures Vietnam's heart
6/ Vietnamese style: Life is sharing
4/ Endlessly cheerful
5/ "Pan cake" boy captures Vietnam's heart
6/ Vietnamese style: Life is sharing
1/ Giving Vietnam's street kids a chance ( By Danielle Berger, CNN)
Hanoi, Vietnam (CNN) -- Five years ago, Pham Binh Minh was a 15-year-old spending his nights on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam's capital.
With his father dead and his mother too poor to adequately feed or clothe him, Pham survived by collecting and selling scrap.
"I didn't have time to make friends," he said. "The friends I did have ... would take me to do work that wasn't good. ... We would rob and steal from people. ... I was scared I would get arrested. I was scared people would hit me. I felt unsafe."
It's an all-too-common story in Hanoi, where many Vietnamese youth -- often poor children from outside the city -- seek opportunity. If they're lucky, they're able to get by working odd jobs such as shining shoes or selling trinkets.
"Kids come to the streets hoping that it'll be better than living in poverty in the countryside, but often they find that things are much worse for them here," said Michael Brosowski, whose nonprofit foundation helps Vietnamese street children turn their lives around.
It was through Brosowski's Blue Dragon Children's Foundation that Pham was able to graduate high school and enroll in college. Since 2004, Blue Dragon has helped more than 350 Vietnamese children get off the streets and into school.
"(Our) job is to make sure that the kids are safe and protected, first of all," said Brosowski, 37. "And then once they are, we've got to make sure they're working toward something, whether that's education or getting a job or improving their health."
A 2006 report from Human Rights Watch estimated that 23,000 street children were living throughout Vietnam. Brosowski said he has encountered children -- some as young as 6 -- sleeping under bridges and in trees.
"Mom's in prison, dad's a heroin addict. The kids (are) thinking, 'Well, that's my future as well,' " Brosowski said. "Our biggest challenge is to stop the kids from accepting that fate -- to fight their own fate and make their own future."
On the streets, children are susceptible to a wide range of threats and pitfalls: gang violence, bullying, child trafficking, the lure of a booming heroin trade. Blue Dragon tries to combat these issues by giving children what they need to get off the streets and stay off them. Some common examples include safe housing, food subsidies, school sponsorships, job training and medical attention.
"Our (initial) goal was just to get them back to school," Brosowski said. "We realized that to do that ... we would have to take that place of providing an income, giving them money for food, providing the shelter. We would actually have to take care of all aspects of their life."
In Hanoi, Blue Dragon's center offers food, clothing, classrooms, play space and a computer lab. There is also bed space for 20 in the group's nearby shelter. Each child who comes through the center is provided with a dedicated social worker and has access to a psychologist, counselors, teachers and lawyers.
"Child by child, we've got to work out what we can do and what they need," Brosowski said. "And we've also got to be careful that if the child has a family, that the family is as involved as possible."
In addition to the Hanoi center, Blue Dragon also has three other locations throughout Vietnam that help street children and those living in extreme poverty. Funded by donations and grants, the foundation has assisted more than 2,500 children in all.
"I grew up in poverty," Brosowski said. "I often used to think to myself, 'I could do something good with my life if only someone would come and give me that chance.' And then I was here in Hanoi ... and I realized now I'm the guy. I'm the guy who can help these kids and give them a chance."
Brosowski, an Australian, moved to Vietnam in 2002 to teach English at the university level. Within several months, he met a few street children shining shoes and was inspired by their untapped potential. He befriended the boys and began teaching them with the help of one of his university students, Pham Sy Chung.
As he met more and more street children in need, Brosowski eventually decided to quit his job and devote himself full-time to Blue Dragon. Today, he has a staff of 44, several of whom have been helped by the foundation in the past.
"There really was no thinking at that time that this would become something big," he said. "It was just a case of, here are these kids, there's no one else to help them, but I can."
Want to get involved? Check out the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation website at www.streetkidsinvietnam.com and see how to help.
News: According to Tuoi Tre newspaper 13th May 2013, Blue Dragon has helped 2629 children get off the street, go home and into school
Pics: Tuoi Tre newspaper
Watch CNN video at http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/05/12/cnnheroes.brosowski.cnn
2/ Photo journal, life stories of people who happened to be in Vietnam.
"Hi, I'm a young man who happened to live my 20s in Vietnam. Im having greatest years of my life and then it strikes me, what if the 2012 apocalypse thingy really does exist? i'll be dying before knowing every fine bit of this country. So i decided to make a blog before its being washed away by a huge tsunami by the end of this year.
There're about 88 millions people living in Vietnam, and i do believe that, everybody has at least one lovely story that makes they proud of talking about. So there's no way i could make a suck blog after hearing all those lovely stories :)
I dedicated this blog to the one and only amazing Vietnam, to all the nicest people on earth and all the crazy traffic photo that tourisms take :)"
Cà mên (Gamelle)
I came across this old shiny mesh tin container ('gamelle' in French) replete with delicacies one early morning outside my door. Not letting this rare occurrence pass by, I jumped to the camera. It has been a while since the last time I saw such a historical, bona fide 'gamelle'. While I was playing around to get the perfect optical setting; the girl next door, appearing out of nowhere; softly asked for her food back. She could barely hide the embarrassment so evident on her rosy blushed face. I pressed on with a few questions, only to find out that her birth mother, knowing too well of her forgetfulness, had been discreetly preparing food for every ceremonious occasions at the in-laws. (It is worthy to point out that in most Vietnamese homes, the daughter in law has to prepare food for the husband's family, especially on ceremonious occasions.) At the crack of dawn, the mother would drop the feast, packed neatly in a 'gamelle', in front of the door so the daughter could set up the meal.
Before I could pass on any judgment -- what a carefree daughter-in-law my neighbor is, what an overindulging the mother was in pampering her daughter -- I asked myself a simple question: "How deep is a mother's love?". Must not be deeper than this 'gamelle'.
Before I could pass on any judgment -- what a carefree daughter-in-law my neighbor is, what an overindulging the mother was in pampering her daughter -- I asked myself a simple question: "How deep is a mother's love?". Must not be deeper than this 'gamelle'.
Street market
This is a spot of a little off-street market in Vietnam. They are set at a fixed location for only a while of the day. After that, most of the vendors walk across a small city to sell small bunches of vegetable 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some of them maintain great relationships with the community they pass by, part of what defines the purchasing behaviors of the Vietnamese.
That’s made my Halloween night
You know what I like most about children? They are unpredictable. This little guy, although seemingly naughty, he kept blushing and refusing to be taken picture the whole time, until his father, being proud of his son, gently tell him to be “one of the power ranger that you watch on television all the time”, the kid smiled and made a god damn cute ranger pose and obviously forgot that he's wearing a cast). And when I put away my photo gears, he whispered to his dad, slightly pouted: “But I’d like to be Mickey Mouse better”
That’s made my Halloween night
New year in Hanoi
Hoi An in early Morning and its people
3/ A letter of a Saigonese from USA
Homesickness named Saigon of a girl who now stays in USA!
4/ Endlessly cheerful
The editor at TuoiTreNews set me a challenge. What does Vietnam do better, that other countries could learn from? I thought about this for nearly two weeks; there were many themes to choose from: Hard working, strong family culture, determination and ambition.
Most countries share these ideals but few have that ‘magic’ characteristic of ‘optimism’; that feeling that no matter what quality of life I have now, I still believe in a better future.
Vietnam had slogans like “land of smiles,” but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Vietnam has a young population, as do many other Asian states. The majority of these populations are under 40 and in these economic times, that’s a huge advantage. Yet Vietnam has already been though war, economic depressions and much more, long before many other nations, still, people are endlessly, magically, unbelievably cheerful.
You could say the westernized world is depressed. Europe is self-obsessed with an unstable economic union. America is busy pondering its future, electing a new president and its role in the world. Africa is split by economic woes, a growing political spring and the tragedies of failed states. China, South Korea and Japan face slowing growth, a rapidly aging population and potential unnecessary conflict over the East Sea, and South America isn’t yet sure how to best use its growing economic power.
However the Vietnamese, faced with a lack of modern education, poor infrastructure and climate change, are moving at an extraordinary speed to develop themselves. I’m sure some people will say, ‘Hey…Vietnam’s got problems!’ – So who doesn’t around the world? Yet they battle on to grow, learn, organize, plan and develop an emerging economy, all with a big grin, a motorbike, a phone, tools borrowed from a friend and an unshakable belief that somehow they will sort it all out.
The pockets of prosperity are blooming and spreading. Sure, coastal cities seem to do better in some ways than the mountain regions yet anywhere you go, the Vietnamese, young and old, still giggle, carry wheelbarrows, build a house themselves, grow food everywhere and lean on a shovel to have a chat with the neighbors.
I sent the SOS (emergency call) out across Facebook for ideas from my friends living in Danang and Hoi An for this story. What emerged out of nearly a week of posted ideas was surprising…
Kids rule…
Often as I ride though the waning red and gold sunset shining down between the thick deep green branches of the old trees towards the pub, I see young dads cradling young babies, walking slowly and whispering songs in their baby’s ears. It’s something missing from the west these days – public displays of family togetherness.
The Vietnamese could be accused of letting their kids wander the roads – but that’s not quite true – kids are simply left to make their own fun. In the western world, you won’t often hear the regular giggles and yells of kids playing in the streets, sitting calmly with their grandparents trimming the dinner vegetables, picking up bugs and insects in Vietnam’s open session biology class or just sleeping peacefully next to the busiest road around town – on the seat of a motorbike. This is something the west has lost to some degree. That sense of just living with the world and being at peace with it – not endlessly questioning it.
Family is not a word here, it’s a world, grandparents have jobs - to mind the kids. Children have jobs - to help mum and dad with the business. Young adults have jobs - to help out their parents on the local farm plot during school holidays. It’s obligation but I’ve never heard any youngster resent or complain about it – and as I, (strange foreigner), pass by, everyone just gives me the biggest grin and races the sleeping babies, madly waving an unaware tiny arm, up to me for “hello, hello” practice…
I can do it myself…
I once met a woman in her mid-thirties; disguised by a face mask, wearing rubber boots, on slim, short, strong figure with great legs and a deep blue jacket (uniforms say a lot here: deep blue is ‘construction’) and a shovel taller than she was, waist deep in a pit. She looked up, pulled down the mask and showed one of the most beautiful grins I’ll ever see. She was probably lucky to make 3 or 5 dollars a day for her work but still had the energy and the enthusiasm to smile at me… amazing. I should have married her on the spot, but you have to be careful about things like that in Vietnam!
I’ve seen laborers almost dying in the midday heat yet still waving like school kids as I ride past. I remember a very cute woman looking after the motor on a primitive rope crane for winching bricks and mortar to the upper floors of a building, who smiled too long at me as I rode past (I really can’t tell you what she was thinking…) and almost let the wheelbarrow flip over on the top floor!
And behind my house there’s a grandmother who still cooks on a wood stove and sleeps on an old, wooden hard bed, who smiles like a chuckling secret at me every morning! I’d love to know what she thinks of me but I’m too afraid to find out!
Houses (and a lot of small hotels and businesses) are still built mostly by hand and brute labor, vegetable gardens are lovingly nursed while hunched on old knees, precious wood is collected for fuel, and building scaffolding is pushed in carts by people in their fifties and older. And even here, there’s that’s endless chatter, giggles, jokes, side cracks and gossip.
All my neighbors can dig, build, make concrete, lay bricks, fix the wiring, repair motorbikes, grow and catch their own food and maybe a dozen other skills we’ve lost in our detached from nature, ultra-convenient worlds. Tough life? Not really - they sing, chatter and hum.
You want it, we’ll figure out a way…
One of the strongest traits of the Vietnamese is to just begin something and work it out as they go. This doesn’t work well for highly technical things such as modern highways, massive bridges and the like, however, it’s an enormous advantage when you want to make money and develop an economy fast, and it is all done with a smile. The Vietnamese actually want to help and do something good – it’s not all rip-offs and stuff-ups.
They do, almost relentlessly, track down a way to deliver, supply, make or get something. It often is not what we originally wanted but some strange version of what they think we want. But you can’t help but admire the effort in trying to satisfy you. It’s far better than dumping the problem back in your lap and telling you to go somewhere else. So don’t complain so much when your smiling waitress brings you ‘ba-con’ instead of ‘but-ter’! She’s just trying to make you happy!
Sharing…
It may sound odd to a foreigner but this is a ‘group culture’ – the society is maintained by the way people think and share the ordinary things. I don’t mean offering or sharing food – most of the world still does that. In my street most of my neighbors are farmers, although quite a few of their children go to high school and university – which does cost a fortune despite their ‘on paper’ land wealth. But they are not ‘stingy’ about the things they own.
Every day I see them borrow the ladder, return the garden tools, lend the water pump and ask for their friend’s bike… and… I’ve never seen a bad argument upon returning damaged equipment. While it’s often irritating to me when they yell across the street to say hello, I don’t want them to change… there’s something very comforting about being noticed by your neighbors as you ride down the street. In Australia, I would barely know any of my neighbors.
Once they know about you – it’s no problem to come back with the money later if you forgot to go to the bank – if you borrowed the tools on Monday – bring it back by Friday!
Forgiving…
This too is an odd one. There are many times when I’ve gotten angry about the traffic, or I didn’t get what I ordered in the restaurant, the shopkeeper can’t help me with something simple and I fume, the Vietnamese don’t reply, respond, answer, confirm, arrive… in a quick manner… I yell, stamp my foot, mutter under my breath – and they know it’s not nice – but the next day, it’s all forgotten. Unless it’s a serious money, family or love feud, Vietnamese don’t hold much of a grudge. Oh… we are so happy you are ok today!
Finally, simply being themselves…
Now, I am not talking about the ‘super rich’ of Vietnam, they can be very arrogant; just ordinary people with some success and a decent business. I know quite a few ‘well-off’ people in Hoi An who just say hello and talk normally about life – they don’t ‘show off’ or talk about money much. And there is the other end… the little grandmother with the wood stove who smiles because she wants to, not because she ‘has’ to. And one of my neighbors who works two jobs to put his daughter through university, still offers me coffee anytime.
Go to the country coffee shops at the weekend and you find rich landowners and young students chatting happily. No one is trying to impress you because they have a supreme self-confidence and the thing that we in the west could sorely use - endless cheerfulness.
Stivi Cooke
(Source: http://tuoitrenews.vn/features-news/2284/endlessly-cheerful)
The photo below was also shot in 2012. This is a Dao couple lighting a fire to boil water to make tea for us when we visited their modest mud home in Ha Giang. Unlike Sapa which is tourist-shocked and quite unfriendly to zillions of tourists visiting Sapa to shoot the ethnic Red and Black Hmongs, the Dais and the Tais, who walk around the town in their exquisite tribal dresses, the Daos of Ha Giag are still visitor friendly, because the area is not so easily accessible, and because permits are needed in view of the proximity of the porous Vietnamese-China border. When we returned to Ha Giang last week for a PhotoSafari, this was one of the photos I printed and gave to this very nice couple.
Below, is another perspective of this
same Dao lady. I like to shoot photos with this kind of mood lighting. I
call it my pseudo-chiaroscuro series.
Vietnam is a very looooong country. North to south, the country spans more than 2500 km, from sea level to around 3 to 4 thousand meters above sea level, so the diversity in climates, landscapes, tribal people, geography, and even cultural practices, are very great. Which is why, despite visiting Vietnam dozens of times over the last 15 years, I’m never tired of Vietnam. While it may be hot and humid with temperatures around 30°C in the south, it could be frosty and even snowing in the mountainous north. When we were there last week, the temperature was in the mid to low twenties in Hanoi, but in Ha Giang and the mountainous North, the temperature hovered around 2 degrees in the mornings, and never went above 12 to 15°C in the afternoons. Below is a photo shot in the hilly mid-country region around Dalat, on one foggy morning.
The photo below was shot at dawn in 2011 at Long Hai Beach in Vietnam. Veteran PhotoSafari participants Kwai Hoong on the left and Qool Mama Roziah Sam on the right are busy shooting Long Hai fishermen hauling in their catch from the night before.
A Bamboo Pipe Smoker exhaling . This was shot nearly 20 years ago during one of my earliest photo outing in Vietnam…
And here’s one of my favourite photos from Vietnam … a Dao farmer, relaxing with his bamboo water pipe. I swear I know what was mixed with the tobacco. Same aroma as you’d get in many of the pubs in Canal street in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Sometimes you get a little light headed if you breathe in this type of second hand smoke …
Dao
Farmer smoking his Bamboo Pipe in his modest home. The Smoke gave
texture and substance to the light rays streaming into the dark home.
I love the juxtaposition in this next photo. This poster, advertising Samurai beer, was all over the cities of Vietnam .. on giant mono poles, at shopping Malls, on street corners …. and in dark alleys like this one, where a hole in the wall was a tiny Pho Hua Vietnamese Noodle Hawker stall….
And here’s another one in the same series ….
The next photo was shot in 2011 at the Nha Lon ancient Temple, at the commune of the Followers of Tran. Lee Van Muu, or more fondly known as Tran by his followers, started the ancient Nha Lon Temple for the followers of the Tu An Hieu Nghia religion. The followers of the Tu An Hieu Nghia religion who regard Tran with much reverence, all wear a basic black ba ba costume. They walk bare footed and keep their hair as buns, and many have beautiful long white beards like in this next photo. They consider Nha Lon their sacred common house which they work hard to preserve. This is a unique place to shoot, and several photos I shot at this temple are included in my book, Dep Qua Vietnam. The very friendly people at the House of Tran in Nha Lon, Long Son (10° 27′ 16.99″ N 107° 5′ 45.16″ E), were very happy when I presented one copy of my book to them, when I revisited the House of Tran again in 2012.
At Dai Ninh lake in the Dalat Highlands in 2009, all the PhotoSafari participants were busy shooting a lone fisherman in the misty lake in the morning. I was on another peninsula of the lake and I shot them instead. Below is the photo I shot, which was used on the cover of my book, Dep Qua Vietnam, which means, You are Beautiful, Vietnam.
5/ "Pan cake" boy captures Vietnam's heart
By Duc Huy, Thanh Nien News
In early 2013, Lan developed symptoms of metal illness and On took over her business.
Vietnam on my mind
Over the last 15 years I have been
privileged to visit Vietnam more than a dozen times, initially as
country leader for the PhotoMalaysia Team on our annual International Crossing Bridges event, and in subsequent years, on private visits mostly hosted by my very good friends Peter Pham and Haipiano Nguyen from
Vietnam. The photo above is yours truly, shot in a Hanoi street by
fellow PhotoMalaysia Admin, Maxby Chan, during yet another PhotoSafari
to Vietnam, last week.
As we’ve just returned from a
PhotoSafari to Vietnam’s Ha Giang province last week, and with Vietnam
still fresh in my mind, I’d like to share with you, a few photos I’ve
shot in Vietnam during numerous visits to that beautiful country over
the last 15 years, including two Crossing Bridges events which were
hosted by the Vietnamese in previous years..
The photo below is the 1400 years old
Chua Tran Quoc Pagoda on Kim Ngu island near the southeastern shore of
Hanoi’s Ho Tay or West Lake. When it was built in the 6th Century, it
was originally located on the banks of the Red River. It was moved to
the present site in the 16th century to save it from collapsing into the
river because of erosion. There is a Bodhi tree on the grounds of the
Tran Quoc Pagoda, grown from a cutting from the original tree in Bodh
Gaya, under which the Buddha sat and achieved enlightenment. The cutting
was a gift from India to Vietnam, to mark the visit of Indian President
Rajendra Prasad in 1959. I shot this photo in infra Red nearly 10 years
ago, using a borrowed DSLR camera permanently converted to shoot in
Infra Red. Infra Red photography has many nuances, withe the strange
colours created dependent on the type of permanent IR filter placed over
the sensor.
The 1400 years old Chua Tran Quoc Pagoda on an islet in Hanoi’s West Lake.
Multiple Exposure shot of Fire Walking Ceremony of the Pa Then people of Ha Giang
The photo below was also shot in 2012. This is a Dao couple lighting a fire to boil water to make tea for us when we visited their modest mud home in Ha Giang. Unlike Sapa which is tourist-shocked and quite unfriendly to zillions of tourists visiting Sapa to shoot the ethnic Red and Black Hmongs, the Dais and the Tais, who walk around the town in their exquisite tribal dresses, the Daos of Ha Giag are still visitor friendly, because the area is not so easily accessible, and because permits are needed in view of the proximity of the porous Vietnamese-China border. When we returned to Ha Giang last week for a PhotoSafari, this was one of the photos I printed and gave to this very nice couple.
A Dao couple lighting a fire to boil water to make tea for us.
A Dao lady building a fire in the kitchen-cum-living room of their home.
Vietnam is a very looooong country. North to south, the country spans more than 2500 km, from sea level to around 3 to 4 thousand meters above sea level, so the diversity in climates, landscapes, tribal people, geography, and even cultural practices, are very great. Which is why, despite visiting Vietnam dozens of times over the last 15 years, I’m never tired of Vietnam. While it may be hot and humid with temperatures around 30°C in the south, it could be frosty and even snowing in the mountainous north. When we were there last week, the temperature was in the mid to low twenties in Hanoi, but in Ha Giang and the mountainous North, the temperature hovered around 2 degrees in the mornings, and never went above 12 to 15°C in the afternoons. Below is a photo shot in the hilly mid-country region around Dalat, on one foggy morning.
One Foggy Morning in Dalat …..
The photo below was shot at dawn in 2011 at Long Hai Beach in Vietnam. Veteran PhotoSafari participants Kwai Hoong on the left and Qool Mama Roziah Sam on the right are busy shooting Long Hai fishermen hauling in their catch from the night before.
Long Hai Beach, early one Morning…..
A Bamboo Pipe Smoker exhaling . This was shot nearly 20 years ago during one of my earliest photo outing in Vietnam…
A Bamboo Pipe Smoker exhaling ……
And here’s one of my favourite photos from Vietnam … a Dao farmer, relaxing with his bamboo water pipe. I swear I know what was mixed with the tobacco. Same aroma as you’d get in many of the pubs in Canal street in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Sometimes you get a little light headed if you breathe in this type of second hand smoke …
I love the juxtaposition in this next photo. This poster, advertising Samurai beer, was all over the cities of Vietnam .. on giant mono poles, at shopping Malls, on street corners …. and in dark alleys like this one, where a hole in the wall was a tiny Pho Hua Vietnamese Noodle Hawker stall….
Little Girl next to a Samurai Beer Poster in a Dark Alley in Hanoi
And here’s another one in the same series ….
Eating Pho Hua Noodles in a Dark Alley in Hanoi …
The next photo was shot in 2011 at the Nha Lon ancient Temple, at the commune of the Followers of Tran. Lee Van Muu, or more fondly known as Tran by his followers, started the ancient Nha Lon Temple for the followers of the Tu An Hieu Nghia religion. The followers of the Tu An Hieu Nghia religion who regard Tran with much reverence, all wear a basic black ba ba costume. They walk bare footed and keep their hair as buns, and many have beautiful long white beards like in this next photo. They consider Nha Lon their sacred common house which they work hard to preserve. This is a unique place to shoot, and several photos I shot at this temple are included in my book, Dep Qua Vietnam. The very friendly people at the House of Tran in Nha Lon, Long Son (10° 27′ 16.99″ N 107° 5′ 45.16″ E), were very happy when I presented one copy of my book to them, when I revisited the House of Tran again in 2012.
The Followers of Tran, at the House of Tran at Nha Lon, Long Son
The
followers of Tran, doing calligraphy on Red Paper, in preparation of a
major festival where hundreds of the followers of Tran will congregate
at this Temple.
The photo below was shot in a temple in Ho Chi Minh city in 2009At Dai Ninh lake in the Dalat Highlands in 2009, all the PhotoSafari participants were busy shooting a lone fisherman in the misty lake in the morning. I was on another peninsula of the lake and I shot them instead. Below is the photo I shot, which was used on the cover of my book, Dep Qua Vietnam, which means, You are Beautiful, Vietnam.
One cold morning at the misty Dai Ninh Lake in the Dalat Highlamds
One more photo from Long Hai Beach, where Fishermen land their catch
very early every morning. This one was shot during a photosafari to
Vietnam in 2011.
Photo
of the Writer, Yusuf Hashim a.k.a. Digitalartist, shot by fellow
PhotoMalaysia Administrator Maxby Chan, in Hanoi, during a recent
PhotoSafari to Ha Giang.
( http://www.photomalaysia.com/2014/02/28/vietnam-on-my-mind/)
5/ "Pan cake" boy captures Vietnam's heart
By Duc Huy, Thanh Nien News
Huynh Trong On, a fifth grade primary school student in the south-central province of Phu Yen, has spent over a year selling banh xeo (pan cake) at his mother's market stall to help support his family.
The boy lives with his single mother, Huynh Thi Lan, his 90-year-old grandmother and his disabled uncle.
In early 2013, Lan developed symptoms of metal illness and On took over her business.
The boy gets up early every day and heads to the market where he cooks banh xeo over a wood fire. His regular customers all say they feel sorry him. Some occasionally give him free vegetables to bring home.
There are days he makes as little as VND10,000 (47 US cents) doing the job.
When he gets home, On also cooks for his whole family and takes care of his mother.
For the last five years, he has achieved great marks at
school and has been exempt from tuition fees due to his family’s
financial difficulties.
On told Thanh Nien he wishes his mother will recover from her illness so that she can rejoin normal life. Ultimately, he wants to continue attending school so that he can make money in the future to support his family.
Phu Yen Television has called on good samaritans to donate money to help On fulfill his wishes.
A bank account has been opened in his name.
6/ Vietnamese style: Life is sharing
Life is Sharing. Not just time or money or food, but everything. I
agree in principle, but I like to decide what it is I want to share ~
and how much, how often, and when. I have much to learn from the
Vietnamese. Here are a few examples of sharing.
Vietnamese style:
•
Three women need store-front space to sell stuff to support their
families. They are poor. The first woman sells pho early in the morning. A
few hours later she leaves when the next woman comes to sell water and
cigarettes. After a few hours, the last woman comes and sets up a
mini-cafe when the cigarette-seller leaves. They all get to use the
space, at a time when the products they are selling are most likely to
be bought.
• A shoe-seller is serving a customer but doesn’t have
the right size/style shoe for her. She knows the shoe store next door
has it. She “borrows” the correct shoe from next door and sells it to
the customer. She then lets her next-door vendor have a pair of shoes
(of equal value) in exchange.
• Many families share “apartments”
in the alley-ways of old tunnel houses in Hanoi's Old Quarter. Each
“apartment” is just a small room that serves as a living room and
sleeping quarters, which is often just a make-shift sleeping loft. In
the center skywell area, all the families share a common kitchen, which
is not even a kitchen ~ just a small sink or cement tub and a faucet,
and perhaps a few cooking utensils but not a real stove or fridge.
Dishes are washed while squatting on the floor, which may be stone or
cement or cracked tile. There is no counter or eating area in this
"kitchen". A single bathroom at the back of the building serves all the
families.
Imagine sharing one bathroom with more than a dozen
other people?! This is very common. Yet these alley-apartment dwellers
still manage to look presentable and reasonably happy. Many of them work
in shops and offices, and have to dress up and look good for work. It is
common for them to bring their toothbrush, cosmetics and toiletries to
work so they can use the facilities there to finish getting ready for
work. The poorest country folk probably are better off in some ways;
they at least have space and fresh air.
By Rebecca Woodland
Born in
California and raised in Canada, Rebecca Woodland settled in Hawaii in
1981. A graduate of the University of Victoria in Canada and Living
Light Culinary Arts Institute in California, she has also studied
intaglio print-making and creative writing in Greece, culinary arts in
Vietnam, and Spanish in Mexico. She revels in learning new things in new
places, considering the process more valuable than the outcome.
Author
of The Blonde Vegetarian, Rebecca's writing career came about by
accident following a bout with cancer. Frustrated by the lack of tasty,
easy, healthy, user-friendly recipes, she developed her own and wrote a
book. Rebecca also edited and co-authored Hawai'i Regional Cuisine ~
Celebrating Today's Chefs of Aloha, and has completed the text for two
other books. In addition to cookbooks, Rebecca writes inspirational,
often humorous stories based on her own experiences and travels.
A
former school-teacher, some of Rebecca's current responsibilities
include owner-manager of Hawaii Educational Resource Services, board
member and volunteer for several non-profits benefitting children and
women, and culinary instructor. She is passionate about writing,
photography, food, and travel. Rebecca Woodland has traveled the world
and her favorite place to return to is Viet Nam.
(http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/your-vietnam/98470/lessons-from-vietnam.html)
No comments:
Post a Comment