Chient Mot village in the Vietnamese highlands

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Hi there ladies and gents! Sorry for always taking a long time to post a blog. This blog will describe my adventures in Phu Tho Province about 100K"m from Hanoi in the Highlands of the northwest.

I spent over two weeks here in the highlands which is up in the mountains with Muong (ethnic minority) for my studies. I was grouped together with Brad and Valdis (both classmates) and we did some analysis of options for starting up a waste management program in the village we were studying - Chieng Mot (1).

Our conclusions show that at present an organized system is not feasable... But apart from that we had a great time with the help of our interpreter Lien who was fluent in English to translate everything for us during our interviews with about 10 households.

During the first part of our stay we were hosted by a family (everyone lives in traditional stilt houses) and the whole village only received electricity 2 years ago. Still no running water.

The house is minimalist with a floor made of bamboo so that the debris and dirt falls between the cracks. Bellow the house is usually where the animals live, and our household, owned some chickens, ducks, water buffalo and two cats. The man of the house - Han - was Vice village leader - and it seemed like this family was a little more well off that the average households here. Nonetheless, these villagers are extremely poor living off of their agriculture cultivation, farming, and raising animals.

The house is not really divided into rooms but has some sort of curtain to separate the sleeping areas which are basically raised by a wooden floor that is built about 10c"m above the bamboo floors.

People here speak no English whatsoever, and we had to rely on our interpreter Lien and hand gestures to make ourselves understood.

There was no real shower and the toilet was a squat toilet of course but that was still not too bad! 😊
The first week we were there it was freezing cold and I slept with all my clothes on. At night when we would retreat to our wooden raised bed, we would roll out a traditional Muong mattress (the bride to be has to hand make at least half a dozen to bring to the family she moves in with) and then the traditional blanket which I doubt has ever been washed. Slept quite alright nonetheless!

On top of that the food was delicious! Every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner it is customary to get DRUNK. These northern highlanders are what you would call alcoholics! Starting from breakfast we sit down on a straw carpet and take shots of rice wine (which our family served in coconuts which gave it a pleasant taste-kind of like Malibu Rum). So I would say that on average we had about 30 shots a day. I tried to say no thank you but for every no they conjure up a trick to make you drink.

For every meal the cats would join and the lady of the house - Bic - and her mother in law - Ba oi - would feed them the leftovers. But one night there was a big celebration with the village leaders and reputable community members - a big feast and party - and the cats were served on two plates... Another night they had a goat downstairs for a big event and of course that one was on our plate. (a goat only costs 250,000VND (roughly 20USD)

We also ate with the village leader a couple of nights! All in all the people here although very poor seem to live a very happy life!

We were also fortunate enough to celebrate two weddings! One of a groom and the other of a bride. The grooms wife was due to arrive the following day, and the bride to move out to her new husband the following week.

Lots of love and more updates to come! :D

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Comments

[jerry,gerry]

your adventures
Joathan, Its so good to get your blogs.We enjoy every word and picture. Love,