Village Life and the Streets of Hanoi

We spent the morning biking around the village to the Farmer's Market where we juiced our own sugar cane and bought fresh pineapple and all of the villagers gawked at our large family. Vietnam has been quite the boost to my body-image because everyone comments on how small I am for having 5 kids and how I still have a "good form." (I think she meant figure). I am flattered by the compliments! ;) A group of men sitting around smoking laughed and told us how the old man in the group shot Americans with a machine gun during the war. The young men laughed and spoke to each other in Vietnamese. The old man was more somber and did not laugh. I don't think they were being hateful but it was still uncomfortable. Everyone else we met was very kind and friendly and showed no animosity towards Americans. At least not to us.

We visited an ancient house where an ancient lady told us about Ancestor worship in Vietnam. She showed us her family tree and pictures of generations of her family. I told her that we do family trees too! ;) I could see that family history would be a great way to connect with the Vietnamese people! 

We ended our stay at the village with a traditional water puppet show depicting rural farm life. It was cute and only 35 minutes so most of us could stay awake for it. 

We were back in Hanoi by 5pm but the kids were done. They are ready to go home. They stayed in our hotel while Jeff and I explored the city for a an hour or two. We took a ride on a bicycle rickshaw and a moped through the crazy streets of Hanoi. It took courage just to cross the street, there is so much traffic!

...

Some local boys fishing in the river.

The group of men we met at the Farmer's Market. I think they wanted to be friendly but weren't sure they loved Americans.

The quiet old man, who was a Veteran, offered the boys each a small Vietnamese bill. I don't know why. I think they were trying to be nice.

Dragon Fruit

Fresh Mangoes.

These are the finished product of the type of brooms we made yesterday.

Mikey shaving the sugar cane, preparing it for the juicer.

Rice noodles.

The water puppet theater.

The puppeteers.

Thuey took us behind the scenes after the show so we could see the puppets.

Back to the big city. 

Scooter taxi in Hanoi.