Today we went on a 3 hour drive down to the Vinh Long City. On our way there we stopped by the supermarket where we found very interesting local candy. On our way we saw cotton trees which we learnt was part of the name Saigon. The landscape was very tropical surrounded by the rivers and the rice fields. We crossed the Meakong Delta which comes down from Tibet all the way down to Vietnam. We also stopped at the Long Dinh Chau Thann Tien Giang café where there was a pond full of catfish with bridges and the architecture was very occidental looking.
Once we finally arrived to the new hotel we had lunch, across the street, where we had pork noodles, fried rice, and deep fried shrimp and curdle fish. Then, couple of hours to spare where we took cold showers and settled down. We then explored the local markets where many different things were sold; such as, fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken and clothes. The fish was still alive and the frogs were decapitated (YUMMY!). They also sold snakes which some of us held and we saw the cutest puppies.
We then went back to the hotel where we had half an hour to get ready for dinner back across the street. Dinner consisted of: spicy pork, fried and steamed rice, fish balls and bok choi soup, barbecued whole fish, salad and for dessert was coffee, cherry, coconuts and beats jelly which had a very funny texture.
After dinner we came back to the hotel where we came into the stadium and made conical hats. These are the traditional Vietnamese hats which are made out of bamboo, palm leaves, wood and plastic. We were all divided into groups where a local lady helped us make the hats. In order to make the hat you had to have a frame and wrap the bamboo sticks around it. After this you would place the palm leaves strips under the bottom piece of bamboo. Then you put a second layer on the bottom of the frame. The next step was to sew with plastic string, the layers of palm leaves together from the top to bottom of the hat. Once this was completed you removed the conical hat from off the frame and tied a chin strap. This is so the hat will not blow away in the wind. The local villagers can only make 5 hats a day taking them 10 hours a day and then gain a 5$ profit. They had given their time to create 25 hats for us to keep. We gave them 2$ per hat. They were really grateful for the donations and wished us all well on our project tomorrow.
Aglae and Tessa,
Friday March 25th 2016
