The Mekong Delta

The MeKong Delta was very much an eye opener to the fact that even though I may think I understand the word poverty, I had no idea.  This was an excursion that I am very glad I took.  There are parts of it that is beautiful and then there are parts that will tear your heart out. It began with on a normal little boat and we were lucky enough to have 7 other people with us.  5 of them were a family from Canada with 3 children who were traveling the world for 3 months.  They took their children out of school to give them some world experience and to see this through their eyes was enlightening.  As we proceeded past the city we came upon a lot of I guess you could call them homes, they were big sticks in the ground on which these people had placed floors and walls made out of tin and metal.  They did this because they could not afford a home and since no one owned the river banks they could stake their claim and have someplace to live.  They used the river as their bathroom, and trash bin for what they couldn’t burn.  So it was very polluted.  As we proceeded further we were served sandwiches, fresh fruit and beverages, there were plenty of leftovers and as we moved down the river the children on the banks would wave to us, they are charged for schooling, which made educating these children impossible.  A couple of times the captain would blow his horn and pull over to the side and the children would come some carrying their baby siblings to get our leftovers.  It caused my heart to ache, but these children were smiling and happy because they knew nothing else.  We stopped in one village in Mekong and a family kindly invited us into their home.  There were no doors, there was 1 bed and 2 hammocks, a dining room table a picture of Jesus on the cupboard.  This 2 room home housed a family of 7.  Grandparents of 90 or so, of which the grandfather still worked every day cutting fire wood.  There was a measuring cup hanging off the gutter to collect water, which they would boil for drinking.  The all do have a TV, because that is the only way they get there news. The good thing was the government was now spraying for mosquitos so Malaria is not very prevalent anymore.  There is definitely a age gap on the Delta you are either very young or very old.  The majority of the young men go to live in city and the young girls are usually sold to older men from other countries for brides.  If these young people are lucky enough to make it in the city, they don’t come back.  We visited an orphanage which I was hesitant to visit but actually these children were well taken care of, received education, had physical activity we watched them play soccer and were fed well.  It is sad to think you are better off as an orphan than a child with a family.  The women of the village prepared the food that we brought and it was a little unusual but really very good, and when we were finished the orphanage children cleared the tables.  They were very happy to see us. One thing that really made me think is we watched a 70 year old woman that had a boat and that she paddled across the river as a makeshift ferry.  She did this about 100 times a day, I have never worked so hard. We returned to Saigon feeling very unsettled as witnessing those conditions and then walking into this amazing hotel and see such economic differences was hard to swallow.  This was a trip that anyone visiting Saigon should take as it shows the real Vietnam. We also learned that our tour guide who was about 24 was one of the lucky children that was able to leave MeKong where his family still lived.

Next article a complete turnaround the city of Dubia.