Mekong Delta Region

Today was the start of our big trip to the Mekong Delta Region. The bus ride we took was around two and a half hours… thank goodness we had a really nice bus where the seats reclined. I sat in the front end in hopes of getting some sleep which didn’t end up happening. I wrote in my journal for a bit and then ended up just talking to people around me. Two of the Vietnamese students told me that from day one they had guessed I wasn’t American, and that I looked French! I was so surprised by this, because I had never been told before that I look French! I’m still not even sure what a French person looks like exactly… but apparently they have some French exchange students that go to HSU so maybe I looked similar to them. They told me how there were similarities between the two languages, and even spoke some words which were exactly the same in both!
Once we arrived we hopped on a boat and cruised along the Mekong Delta along with a tour guide that explained the everyday lives of the people living there. We bought watermelon from one of the boats which was absolutely delicious! I found the cruising along the river really relaxing, and the people living around there seemed really peaceful and were always waving or smiling. We stopped at a house/factory off of the river where they made snacks. One of the snacks were these rice krispie looking things, where we got to watch how they were made. They actually took raw rice, put it in a pan where it would puff up, then they would filter out the hot sand to reuse it, followed by filtering out the rice husks, and adding a caramel sauce to the puffed rice to give it a solid state, finishing it off by rolling and cutting it into squares. I found it amazing how these were made. I thought to myself that nothing in the U.S. is made like this. Nowadays it seems like nothing is natural anymore, and I would bet that less than .5% of commercial foods are handmade! Not to mention that we don’t even use real sugar anymore, we use highly processed corn syrup to sweeten our foods. I really envied Vietnam in the way that all of their foods were so natural and without additives, because in the U.S. not only is it hard to find, but it is really expensive when you do find it.
Lunchtime came and we went to eat at this old preserved home that had been around for hundreds of years. They even earned an award of merit for conserving it so well. We got to eat elephant ear fish which was the popular fish for that region. I will never forget the look on Auntie Pand’s face when she saw the fish get ripped out of the pong and beaten to death with a stick, and ten minutes later show up nice and golden fried on our table! She was mortified! On the other hand, I was excited because I knew it was the freshest fish possible! Rob and I had fun eating the inedible (by American standards) parts of the fish like the mouth and eyes. After our delicious lunch we headed off to the school where we would be donating some stuff to. It was really remarkable to see how thrilled the kids were to see us. We later found out that it was the first time that they had ever met foreigners so I understood why they were like that. When we split up into different classrooms to play games with the students it made me wish that I knew how to speak their language, because I really had no idea what was going on, and it was the Vietnamese students saving the day by leading everything! The gifts we brought really seemed to please the schoolchildren, they were jumping up and down and trying to see what was on the table. It felt really good to see how happy we could make them with a few simple donations from the U.S.
On our way to the home we were going to stay, we stopped at a plant nursery where they fed us some fruit and REALLY strong whiskey! That day I discovered my favorite fruit; jackfruit. I’ve really never had anything so good, I want to describe the taste but since it’s so different from anything I can’t really think of anything to compare it with! The students were so funny with the whiskey though, they took the tiniest sip, and then put it back down! It’s crazy how much of a difference there is between them and us and the general culture of alcohol. I learned that drinking is not accepted at all by the Vietnamese and only on very special occasions is it acceptable, but not in too big of amounts. Julie warned me when I drank my full glass (which was the size of a mini-mini shot glass) not to drink too much or I could get dizzy! It was so cute how they thought that as college students, we had no idea of the effects of alcohol!
When we arrived at the home we were told to pick our bedrooms. There were three different rooms and I chose the biggest of them all and laid my stuff down. The room was just as we were told it would be; cots with mosquito nets hanging from above. When Dr. Eder (Scott) came back from using the bathroom he smiled and warned me that the bathrooms were very “simple.” I was expecting to walk into a bathroom where there are the two foot stands and a hole in the ground, but was happily surprised to find working toilets! I have definitely been through worse bathrooms than this! After my much needed shower we had dinner and Dr. Eder (Lauren) asked me to present the family of whom we were staying with their gifts from Rider University. I thought to myself, the one time I am having dinner in my pajamas, great time for a picture opportunity! (kidding J ) After the presenting of the gifts, we sat for dinner and were brought out these really interestingly hand-crafted dishes. Each course had some sort of little accessory on the plate made out of all food! One was a fisherman, some Vietnamese women, etc. I thought that it was pretty ironic how the best presented food we had was at the home stay! Following dinner were some music players, which was a relaxing end to a long day. I laid in the hammock for a little bit until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and I went to bed early, around 9pm or so.