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...