Our first day in Vietnam, we went on the Mekong River tour in the Ben Tre province. We left from the Hotel Majestic Saigon and drove an hour and a half from Ho Chi Minh City past many rice paddies to the jungle of the Mekong Delta. An interesting thing our tour guide pointed out was that graves were situated in each rice field. These graves are how farmers who have passed return to the land they tended. Each year after they pass, the family brings gifts to the grave on the anniversary of their death.
Upon arriving at the delta, we boarded a long, narrow, wooden boat with a roof to protect us from the intense heat. All along the banks, palm fronds hang towards the middle of the canal and grow right out of the water, making a very lush scene. Our first stop was at a brickworks. The workers were local to the area and only make bricks when they are not taking care of their children, their household and their garden. The process of making the bricks was hard, intensive labor. The process included: making the clay mixture, pushing it through a mold to hollow some of the middle out, and cutting the long stretch of clay into small pieces. After the bricks are cut, they dry in the sun for a few days before getting fired in a high heat brick kiln shaped like a dome. The fire in the kiln is created from burning rice shucks, and the ash left over is then used for fertilizer on their agriculture.
The second stop we made was at a coconut processing workshop where they were making coconut candy. The guide showed us how each part of the coconut was used and there was no waste. The various products made from this nut are abundant–from coconut milk and water to taffy like candy and fertilizer for crops. We ate local fruit and the candy while a few of the group got friendly with the pet python there.
It became apparent that the Vietnamese believe in the idea of rebirth and a cyclical life of people and resources. Each instance–the farmer returning to his land in the afterlife, ash from brick making being used for fertilizer, and the coconut shucks also being used for fertilization–mimics this cycle and puts a value to things we might discount or discard in America.
Written by Jessica Odom
