Sapa. A place trapped in time.

Sapa - A place trapped in time.

VIETNAM | Monday, 24 November 2014 | Views [168]

Many children in Sapa drop out of school at a very young age to either work in farms or sell handicrafts to support the family. Volunteers from around the world come to work with organisations such as Sapa O’Chau who fully fund a school, teaching english to ethnic minority children who have dropped out of school. The primary goal is to teach them to a level of proficiency where the organisation can assist them with work placement mainly in tourism as a guide or hospitality sector.

I was fortunate to spend three weeks in Sapa, Vietnam. Of the 52 ethnic groups that live in Vietnam, eight of them are located in Sapa and the surrounding area. On my second day there, I was invited to a traditional wedding reception for one of the young women that works as a tour guide - she was only 16 years old.

It is customary for the father of the bride to thanks the guests for attending and drink a round of home made rice wine at each table. As the father had passed away, it was now the responsibility of the mother to greet the guests. There must have been at twenty table that she had to thank.

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Sua is 17 years old, has been married for a year and like most villages in Sapa, have not ventured beyond Lao Cai, about an hours drive from Sapa. She lives with her in-laws, a cat and a pregnant dog in a moderately sized wooden home. It’s common for the local people to enter arranged marriages at a very young age. When I asked her if she cried at her wedding like I previously witnessed and she responded with a yes, but they weren’t from tears of joy.

With so many locals now being exposed to western culture and values, it’s not uncommon for them to divorce their husbands not long after marriage. It is unfortunate though that once divorced, the women are considered as outcasts amongst the village.

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Sapa. A place trapped in time.

Sapa - A place trapped in time.

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