Yesterday and today have been days of meeting harvesters and middlemen of rattan, among other things. We met with three sets of people yesterday and two today, had long conversations about the products they harvest, their relationship with the forest, the support they need to be successful. Each one of them was very kind to us. They offered us water, green tea, fruits and most importantly time and knowledge. Some of our meetings were at home, one at a coffee shop, and we visited one of the forest areas today. It is evident that people are poor - in one of the meetings we asked why some households do not harvest rattan. The village headman wryly replied it is because only the poor do it. In the forest today we saw young and older rattan trees, oui trees (the tallest in the forest), lon bon trees and some coffee trees. We also saw many, many ants, several of which feasted on us. We went to one village and one plantation first. We then started walking to another site which in the past was a rattan nursery but now has no support. Our walk attracted quite a bit of attention - children and adults looked and smiled at us, a pack of mangy and scrawny dogs that barked continuously at us and followed us a little. This was definitely a lot of forest and foliage. It started to rain a little but stopped soon which was good because being drenched in a downpour in the forest would have been quite the adventure but not as much fun.We went to the restaurant from last evening for lunch and dinner and they have quite a collection of food (and a very grumpy baby that hit us all and when I touched her hair, threw the rubber band on the floor :D. She is going to grow up with quite the temper). I have a ton of notes to transcribe but my favorite points are from our meeting with a middlewoman for rattan today morning. She described Meagan as 'big of size and small in age.' She encouraged our translator to marry a boy 4-5 years younger for happiness and wealth. She knew I was Indian from my face. She also told us that if any Vietnamese boys fell in love with us, then we couldn't leave the country. All in all, a very entertaining conversation :D. Oh and she also guessed my age absolutely correctly!
Enjoy the pictures!
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| Auto awesome in Google is a good counter for my poor photography skills |
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| The very kind Mr. Ruoc showing us rattan seedlings at the nursery |
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| Our wonderful translator Thuyen |
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| This one is for the hot pot and the drinking bowls. |
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| The grumpiest toddler :D |
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