vietnam trip 2007 - part 3 - social poverty.

one afternoon, we went to a religious site. i really didn't know until i got there. my viet is pretty good, but when the tour guide goes into highschool level viet, i get lost. i'm not sure if i was the only one. after all, i didn't get an itinerary in paper form. basically, i was just following the guide around. anyway.

the religious site. the cathedral was one of two in vietnam. the other was in saigon. it was terribly mashed up during the war. there was this grand structure of this fantastic site. it was a tree. i forgot the name, but it was so strange. along with the middle part of the cathedral/tower, it was not destroyed. it has godly-like branches and stemmed out to mushroom like umbrellas. there was a service going on.

there was this bin of water that had the words "nuoc duc me." hey, to me it was funny. literately, that meant "virgin mary's water." it was in a solar power heater thing. ya.

this site was probably the poorest we saw the folk. not only poor but some had such physical disabilities. such as in pain staking, burns, inactive muscles, blindness.. this was where the people on my bus gave them money. it's not that i don't think it's a good cause, but i believe it's not anybody's responsiblity but the government's to take care of these people. i'm sad and slightly upset at this.

this stands next to the encounter of children working in the sand dunes at mui ne. immediately when we get off the bus, children come up and tell us if we want take a slide down the sand, we'd ask for them and donate for their plastic mat. before we got off the bus, the guide warned us about these children. they were young and giving them 5,000 dongs would suffice. that's 30 cents. another thing, don't give just for giving. there was this sweet girl, very smart alec. she tailed me and the aussie guy for a while. these children were from ages 6 to 14. basically, this is what they do on their time off, away from school, if they go to school.

i talked to a boy and that girl about themselves. they told me that 1 out of 10 children have the luck to go to school. i wasn't sure if they were exaggerating, but seeing that these children were out there, i doubted that less. we were near the best resorts in vietnam, and i can see that work in the resorts was totally the thing for everyone. everyone who lived here was part of that industry. these children will grow up to do the same.

the girl said that we can donate for services at any price. i was very relunctant. i don't think it's right, for some reason. anyway, she finally convinced the aussie guy to give it a try. which he did. apparently, a fellow child got angry that she got the money. and at 32,000 dong from the suggested 5,000 dong, that girl was extremely ecstatic. 32,000 dong is 2 bucks.