Nam muoi, nam muoi!

Just back from two days in Long Hoa, where we saw a replanted mangrove forest, extensive shrimp farming, and the legend that we call rice wine. "Nam muoi, nam muoi" means "fifty fifty" and refers to the way the farmers drink rice wine - you invite someone to drink with you, and you try to drink exactly half the shot, leaving them the rest. It gets pretty nuts. I got a lot of good pictures, so the rest of the story is found below. There was important ecology to be learned, yes, but let's not slight the cultural exchanges. They love the game "Vroom" now!

Breakfast on the morning we left.

Ladies at the ferry.

Adam proudly going to use the boat toilet i.e. hole in the floor that you try not to fall in to.

A hammock that cost me $6 USD may end up being the thing that contributes most to my good spirits here. When it gets hot, prop it up between any two poles and then wait out the heat. As you can see, it helps me blend in with the locals.

Walking in the mangroves, which have been replanted by farmers/government organizations since 2004.

Doing some discovery-based research/catching a snack. A few of us ate live shrimp as a dare. I swear my tongue was bitten, even after I ate his body off.

Nat Geo part II, sure, but watching this happen was riveting. I kept trying to time the waves with her turning around; this is as good as I could get it.

Touring our homestay for the night - Long Hoa is all around gorgeous. There is always a breeze, slightly salty, wide open spaces, hardly any trash when compared to other places we've visited... It was just fresh and beautiful. To some degree, this is what I was looking for when I came here, although I didn't know to ask for it. 

Nap before dinner.

Rice wine. The neighbor brews it. Don't try to finish a bottle to make it stop, because there is always another bottle waiting. It is somewhere around 30-35%, so it doesn't hit quite as hard as other things, but I still had to cram myself full of rice noodles to make sure I could function. I held my own, sharing shots with the commune level chairman and other high ranking officials. Amazing, there was no hangover, at least for me - and it even made sleeping on a bamboo mat bearable. Win win.

So to stop the drinking after dinner, I promised our host that we would drink at lunch the following day. He didn't forget. So after lunch, from 12:30 to 2:30, we invited each other to share drinks, and then played "Vroom", an easy-to-translate drinking game with two rules. So much laughter, and so much liquor. Insanely fun. Now, I don't mean to make it sound like this trip was about drinking, because it wasn't, but there was really something cross-cultural about having lunch together and then partaking in a drink that we all knew would make things a little goofy. It is wonderful having student translators to help make sense of Vietnamese, but sometimes all you need is a smile and a big nod "Yes".

Our most extremely gracious host, Mr. "Work", the hardest working 26-year old farmer in Long Hoa. He can say my name, "Sit down", and "Fifty fifty". He taught us how to throw traditional shrimping nets, brought us to bat guano farmers, shared his home and dogs, and made sure we had fun. He asked when we will return, and I said, "Soon".

Our fantastic cook for the trip, Mr."Work's" mother.

Continuing the lunch party on the top of the boat. 50-50!

Until next time...

The other thing that I realized I love doing is interviews. Imy and I got to interview a high-ranking official and farmer in the local commune level government, and we went in with about four minute's preparation. We ended up talking for an hour about information extension, sea level rise, trust in the government's abilities to help the people, and how farmers learn from each other. It might not be what you all, as readers of this blog, want to read about, but that is the basis of our field research here: working with student translators to ask the locals about their lives, in the hopes of understanding how they view their world. It is really thrilling.