LAST MEKONG TRIP WITH CET STUDENTS IN SUMMER 07

I can't remember how many time I've been to Mekong with friends or with my students. But it's good for me to get out of the city life for a few days which is noisy and polluted. Here is the river, rice fields, orchards... and good food too.

We departed for Can Tho City on Thursday(26/7) around 4 PM then stopped in Cai Lay town at Minh Phu restaurant for dinner. I've been to many places over Viet Nam, I can tell this place has the most beautiful and sanitary public bathroom I've seen (This is my favorite bus stop in Mekong, Sorry I forgot to take photo this place, but trust me ;)). This restaurant has specialty "Ca com chien gion". It's little fried crunchy fish. I don't like fish but with this kind of fish I can eat a package hehe

Arrived Can Tho city at 9:30 pm, Most of us were tired cause we had to sitting in a tiny bus during 4 hrs. We (Hao, Dave, Long, Tien, Tam and I) decided to go on the 5th floor of the hotel to have a group sauna and massage. After that we just walked around the town at mid night to find some xoi ga then go straight to hotel for bed time.

Next morning (27/7) we left early for Hoa An - Biodiversity - Application - Research Center 20 Km further from Can Tho City on the way to Hau Giang province. This is really cool research center which is operated by Dr Truong Van Ni. He is a professor at Can Tho university. He went to Philippine for master and U.K for his PhD. He has run this center since 1993.

One aspect of his research that I am really interested in that is Socio - Economy. Dr. Ni gave land for poor families in his research area. This is a unique model, they live next to a canal, take water from the canal for daily use by pipes then they use some kind of chemical to make the water clean and safe for using. They also make fish bond and raise fish next to their house. Waste water after using are taken to smaller canal next the house. It's filtered by water hyacinth (cay Luc Binh) then lead to the rice field. They also raise goat for meat, milk. The goats' dung are used in many ways. First, it used to raise worm for raising chicken and duck. Second, they put rice straw and dung together. It takes few months to become organic fertilizer. This is type of model "Vuon - Ao - Chuong" (Garden - Bond - Cage) where farmers can live and make income at where they are staying.


On our way to visit families in research center Dr. Ni and Rylan



Fish bond next to the house



We left Can Tho at 3 pm and arrived Vinh Long at 4:30 pm. All together, we jumped on the boat which can carry over 20 persons. The boat drove across Mekong River. It's amazing when the sun set reflects on the river. That's the best scenery.

We arrived Mr. Muoi's house for one night home stay. Everyone hung out until 7 then had dinner. Dinner was fantastic. Every time, I come to Mr Muoi's house I am crazy for vegetable soup which is cooked with pork. It'a simple but very delicious. After dinner, next program was Cai Luong show by local singers which was appropriate with Mekong environment. The show last 45 minutes. All singers ended up with a song Viet Nam - Ho Chi Minh.

Slutty Hao suggested a poem game. Every one had to write and perform a poem in front of the group. I came up with a poem which has 2 sentences:

"Neu khong di tu
Hay su dung bao cao su"

After the poem game, Rylan(My boss) started the game "Psychologist with patients with mental problems". The symptom was when the psychologist asks the patient - he or she has to answer all the questions but that belong to the person who sits next to the right of patient. This is a cool game I've ever joined in a group, we laughed so much that night.

28/7 We caught up with Robertson students in Ben Tre for "FUN RUN FOR POOR CHILDREN" in Dinh Thuy commune. Surprisingly, we raised 19,700,000 VND = $12300 more than last year was 7 or 8 millions dong. All the money will give to poor families and help Dinh Thuy elementary school repaint all the wall and make new table top in classrooms.





I can tell Robertson students looked exhausted because they have to work all day. They get up at 7 am, have breakfast then bike from Mo Cay town to Dinh Thuy commune around 4 - 5 km to build house for 1 poor family. Everyone has a break for lunch around 2 hrs then get back to work like teaching English for kids in elementary or middle school. There are some students working on social work which is associated with local government. This year, Green Summer Campaign runs smoothly so far after 2 weeks. Everyone enjoys working with friendly local people in Dinh Thuy.

In general, besides the slow government system in the countryside. I had to work out side the office at 7 pm at a Bia Hoi place with 2 authorities guys to have our plan approved , but that was last year, this year, it's getting better. That's a good sign ;)

We headed back to Sai Gon at 1:30 pm, arrived SG at 4:30 . Right after I arrived home. It's a big heavy rain started. That's end of my Mekong Trip. Hope I can go back there again soon in the future, back to the place has fresh air and GOOD FOOD. ;)