Two weddings and a funeral

So sorry to have been gone for so long... I was having some computers problems. I can only access blogspot from a wireless connection - which is unavailable at the Center and only available when your computer can recognize your wireless hardware, which it wasn't until today. Everything is good now and I feel quite a bit more connected to the rest of the world. I think I take this computer/internet for granted...

So here's a quick update - Things have been going well. The past two weeks have been much better in terms of, well, everything. Work is shaping up - the structure of the document is taking shape and now I actually have seen some of what I am writing about. I have been going out with some of the staff to visit the farmers they work with...projects in organic farming, rice seed production, pig raising and aquaculture (small fish farms).

Getting off the Hoa An Center property and out into the community has made me much more comfortable being here. I have really getting to visit with the farmers and see their land and work. The Vietnamese farmers that I have met are incredibly devoted and hard-working. They are passionate about their work and their families. They are resilient and creative and very welcoming.... I am incredibly impressed by them.

Last weekend I had the chance to go to two weddings. The first one, Loan and Ngan's, was on Friday morning. The bride is an animal husbandry technician who works for the Center. She grew up near Hoa An Center and her wedding party was at her home in the front yard, across the canal which had were shuttled to by boat...food, rice wine and a beautiful bride in a bright yellow dress. It rained all week so the place was super muddy and by the end of the morning, Loan's dress was covered in mud up to her ankles. But we had fun and she looked very happy. I'll get some pictures loaded this weekend.

The second wedding, Cindy and Quang's, was in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday night. Two very different weddings. The wedding process here is a two or three day occasion involving rituals and traditions I don't fully understand. Loan's wedding party (about 40 people) was part of process that involves her having a party with all her friends and family and Ngan. Then Ngan's family comes to get her and her family and takes them to his family's home, where they have another party with all his friends and family...

For Cindy and Quang's wedding, we were at a huge reception in a restaurant. There were about 300 people there - full four or five course meal, a stage with lights and balloons and a raised walkway that the bride and groom and the 10 bridesmaids walked in on in. There were more servers and attendees than I have ever seen at a wedding. It was incredible. Lots of lights and bright shiny things everywhere. Cindy is a Vietnamese-American who came back to Vietnam to volunteer, met Quang, fell in love and now they will move back to Boston where she works. Only her mother and sister were there for the wedding so it was a little less typical than a traditional wedding. Most city weddings are at restaurants or hotels and most country weddings are at the home of the bride and groom.

But the former Prime Minister, Mr. Vo Van Kiet, who is revered and loved by many Vietnamese, died just a few days before the weddings and Saturday and Sunday were declared days of mourning in which no live music was allowed - So Cindy and Quang did not get to have the wedding ceremony or the live band for dancing... everyone ate and left, literally.

It was pretty neat to have the experience of going to not only one but two weddings and both very different and representative of the varied culture here.

Gotta run but I'll be back in the city this weekend for some R&R and hopefully a bit more wireless action.

Food, Part 1: Meals at the Center.

One of the most interesting parts of my experience thus far has been the food. First and foremost let me say that the food in Vietnam is incredibly fresh, incredibly local and incredibly real. Three things I value above all when it comes to eating. It consists, mostly, of rice, vegetables (onions, greens, green beans, cucumbers cucumbers cucumbers, chili peppers...), mushrooms, fish and seafood (yes, Amanda, including young squid), pork and an incredible amount of fresh fruit. But, BUT, anything you can find in Vietnam is up for grabs when it comes to eating. This is amazing.

There are certain "departments" of consumption here in Vietnam, for me anyway. Let's see, I would probably separate them into street food, city food, country food, fruit and beverages. So, for this blog post I am going to discuss what I have experienced so far in the most relevant category to my daily life, country food. More on city food, fruit, street food and beverages to come soon but first I must fill you on this. It might be a long one, so stick with me if you can... I promise very rich and exciting experiences.

I categorize city food as different from country food because my experiences in each have been pretty different. Let's begin with my first meal at the Center. After having been in the city for a good week, we head for the Center. The setting is much different.
First impression (and please forgive me, but for the sake of the story it's best that I am honest), it's like summer camp, kind of - outside dining area, flys, kitchen is both outside and inside a thatch-roof hut to the side. We sit in plastic chairs, everyone gets a small bowl and chopsticks. I am eating with the people I will be living and working with for the next two months, who I haven't met yet and I am excited to share a meal with them... There is a huge pot of rice, cooked greens in a broth with some tofu and mushrooms and a bowl of meat...

"What kind of meat is that," I ask.
"It's mouse," says Nghi, giggle giggle.
She's kidding, that's why she's laughing, I think.
"Are you kidding?"
"Kidding, what is that?"
"A joke. It's not really mouse is it?"
"Yes, yes," giggle, giggle.
Yes, a joke? Or yes, a mouse?
Why is she laughing, I think. So I ask again. "Really, mouse?"
She confirms, again, more seriously this time.
Okay, she's not lying. That's mouse on the table.
She says, "Mouse from the country, not the city. You can only eat mouse from the country. City mouse is dirty."
So true.

The other day, after an incredible meal, I watched, in utter fascination, the entire table eat a very common item: a cooked duck egg that containing a fetal duckling. The egg is boiled to perfection inside its shell and then delicately set into a folded napkin, still warm. The top of the shell is cracked open and then peeled off, the juice slurped out and the duckling and yolk eaten with a spoon. They are very high in nutrients and good for shiny and dark hair, as Nghi put it. I am still amazed.

I am not trying to make fun of, or sensationalize, these meals/meats, though, actually, it is quite sensational. I am incredibly impressed with Vietnamese cuisine, like I said, everything is eaten.... most animals and water-dwelling critters. Greens are often found growing wild. Though I don't partake, and do have a guilt complex about this, I am glad to be having the experiences.

I am also grateful for the Center and its acceptance of my eating habits and "attachments," to put it so bluntly. They take really good care of me and I LOVE the food at the Center. I eat every meal with chopsticks, even fish that has more bones than I have ever seen in my life...so much so that Nghi looks at me and says "You look very uncomfortable when you eat fish." And I think: I am. I am trying not to swallow these multitude of bones while simultaneously trying to look as deft as all of you who can spit out the bones into your awaiting chopsticks and toss them to the cats... and I, afraid of swallowing them and having them lodged in my esophagus, am too afraid to do anything other than spit out my entire mouthful, fish and all, looking completley disgusting and very un-ladylike, or just sit there paralyzed as I achingly slowly try to maneuver the fish from the bones while inside my mouth - managing a bite about every 3 minutes... all the while using two long pieces of wood that have only picked up sushi before three weeks ago. Ha! I can only laugh at myself (and be a litte embarassed, it's true).

I am forcing myself to eat every meal at the Center with chopsticks so that I can get better. I can now pick most of the fish off the bones and then dip it in soy sauce, dab it on my rice and get it to my mouth without dropping it. I still can NOT retrieve the bones from my mouth with the chopsticks when they do end up in there. And, I am by far the messiest one at the table. You are supposed to shovel the rice into your mouth from the bowl but somehow it just ends up coming out the side all over the table and me. And sometimes my chin, yes, that long pointy thing attached to my face that is not my nose, ends up in the bowl and instantaneously I have sprouted a beard of rice. It is quite comical at times and though spoons are offered I adamantly refuse.

The two cooks, Ms. Kieu and Ms. Sau, are wonderful ladies and they work harder than anyone at the Center, I do believe. The kitchen is very typical of a rural home - it stays that way so that anyone who comes to cook at the Center from the area feels comfortable, so I learned the other day and was very impressed with. The stoves are open cement bowls, essentially, and for each meal a fire is built for cooking over. Pots and huge wok style pans are blackened from the smoke and the tea kettle lookes just the same. The women chop faster and smaller than Tristan (which is teeny-tiny, by the way) on tree stumps or smaller horizontal sections of a tree. Lemongrass and chilis are picked from bushes nearby and chickens are killed minutes before they go into the pot for dinner. Fish comes from the market a kilometer from the Center where they are purchased swimming in bowls of water. I have had the very best lemongrass sauce in my life, served on freshwater eel, which I did eat (a little more meaty than fish). I love our meals together and I look forward to them everyday...though I rarely understand the conversation, I have learned to say "ngon," delicious, which Ms. Sau asks me everyday. There are pictures of them, the kitchen and the dining area in my picasa web albums if you want to see their pretty faces.

This is a LOOOONNNNGGGG post so I will stop here. There are many stories so stay tuned if you enjoyed...

I hope all of you are well!

Cat-scratch fever

Cats in Vietnam are everywhere, especially around the kitchen and dinner table. They like bones and scraps and they are incredible at killing mice. At dinner a couple of days ago I hopped up to get a bowl of rice and had to step over a ledge - cat crouched chomping down on its dinner, big Emily foot on its little body, cat scream, cat scratch... so sorry little kitty!

The scratch drew blood and so Thai and I decided to visit the doc here in Can Tho to see if I should get rabies shots. The cats are different around here and not nearly as spoiled and domesticated as the cats in the U.S. So, being a foreigner, he recommended it and now I just have started my round of rabies vaccinations! woo-hoo! It is a very simple process and very cheap so it's really not too big of a deal. Just wanted to share the exciting news before I head back to the Center...

Stay tuned for Food: Part 1....

Quick overview...

Holy macaroni, I am sorry it has taken me so long to write! I had such a hard time with this thing last weekend and then, thinking that I could work on it at the Center, came to find out I can't even access blogspot or email posts to my blog from Hoa An... so, I am in Can Tho today and this evening and hope to be able to write a few posts to update everyone.

I have now spent about seven days at the Center, officially working on my "project." Dr. Ni, the director of the Center, and I met last Saturday for the first time. He has been in Thailand at a conference to discuss the wetlands of the Mekong River. This area of Vietnam is called the Mekong River Delta. The river runs through five (?) countries, ending up in southern Vietnam where it empties into the South China Sea. This area is characterized by many many tributaries, canals and waterways that run throughout the delta region. Many people still use the waterways for transportation of goods and people... more on that later... but the area around the Center is also characterized by highly acidic soil, which makes it incredibly difficult to cultivate much of anything. The acidic soil is beneath the topsoil and as one nears the coast the topsoil becomes less and less, hence the level of poverty increases as the topsoil decreases. Very interesting. The Center has spent a lot of time researching local trees and plants that help the soil, as well as the fact that pig manure works incredibly well as a neutralizer of acidic water, making it much easier to grow fish. Damn, that is so cool.

The research Center has been an acidic soil research station for many years but only since 1994 have they opened their doors to involve themselves in community development. Starting with education and building schools, they have now moved towards finding ways to keep families on their land with a stable income - organic farming, animal husbandry, aquaculture and rice seed production. Their work is often in partnership with other organizations or universities - Michigan State University has a reformed education project that focuses on group work, service to the community and a school garden as application of theory in a primary school. OXFAM UK helps with a micro-credit program for the women's unions in the area. There are German water projects and, of course, Peacework - who will be bringing two groups of students from Duke and UNC to teach sports camps at the secondary school with Can Tho University students and local high school students. The first group arrives on the fourth of July... they will be living at the Center with myself and some of the staff who also live there full-time...

I have had lots of meetings the past couple of weeks to try and get a good overall understanding of what the Center does. The next two days will be spent with Dr. Ni trying to create a framework for my project and writing, as well as identify the specifc areas we want to focus on and how I should go about doing so. I very much so look forward to spending that time with him! He has some incredible ideas and I am inspired by him...

Quite a ramble of a post, my apologies. More ramblin' to come...