Mother Pearls and Village Farm Life

July 15, 2016

Mother Pearls and Village Farm Life

Day 23 – July 6, 2016

Wednesday

WARNING: PHOTO OVERLOAD! ;)

It was a calm night on the Bay so we all slept great, aside from the air conditioning in our room tripped a breaker and we woke up at midnight sweating like pigs. We finally decided to move to the empty room rather than sweat it out.

The crew woke us up at 6:30am to start the day.

Our first stop was the Vung Veing floating fishing village where a tiny, teenage Vietnamese girl rowed us around the village for an hour in a rustic bamboo rowboat. 8 of us! Talk about a workout. She was one strong girl! We rowed through inlets and bays around the cluster of islands that shelter Vung Veing. The natural beauty was breathtaking. But their life is hard. They live off of the fish and oysters and clams in the bay and trade for rice and other goods with the ship that comes weekly to buy their fresh seafood. Some families can’t afford a floating house so they live aboard rowboats and fishing boats their entire lives. It was eye-opening. I think the older kids are starting to see things that make them think a little. Calvin asked, “Mom, what does a kid my age do all day if he lives here?” I think it made him a little more grateful for the life he has at home.

We packed up and headed to Yen Duc Village, about two hours away, for a village homestay. The kids were a little apprehensive thinking about our last homestay in the Karen village. But this village is very cozy and clean and nice. Still simple and humble and rustic, but it is all very well kept. The home we are staying in was built by Indochina Junk five years ago. The layout and architecture follows the same pattern as the traditional houses, but ours includes some modern day fixtures and facilities. It feels both authentic and very comfortable.

Our tour-guide, Thuey (pronounced Twee, but she had us call her “Tea” as an easy nickname for us to pronounce), was so awesome! Her English was great and she had such a fun sense of humor and was always smiling and laughing. We loved her!

We got to get a good taste of village life, biking around the village, learning how to make a broom from dried rice grasses, how to shuck the kernels from the rice so you can eat it, and how to catch fish in a basket. Basket fishing was actually so fun. We pulled on rubber pants with boots attached and mucked around in a muddy pond trying to catch fish. We fished for nearly an hour and I'm telling you, it's kind of hard work. With the rubber pants, water, heat and humidity, we were dripping with sweat! But everyone got to pull a fish out of the basket. Jeff and I each caught our own and the man helping us caught several and let the kids pull the fish out.

Poor Calvin has not been feeling well so he stayed home and slept for most of the day. Later in the evening he broke out in a rash all over his body and we think he might have developed a seafood allergy. We gave him a dose of Benedryl and that helped.

After dinner the girls and Jeff and I made little floating rice balls for a snack with Thuey. It was simple and fun but they were not very tasty. We are used to VERY sweet treats. This was small, soft white beans with a chunk of palm sugar, wrapped inside a doughy rice paste and rolled in sesame seeds. Then you boiled the balls until they floated and served them in a sugar-water soup. Interesting, but not yummy.