Rainy Day in Hanoi

We haven’t really had a good rain since I got here almost 3 weeks ago. Yesterday I worked in the morning and had some housekeeping and things to do. By the way, the combined washer/dryer machine kind of works. The clothes come out warm and dryer but still needed some time on the drying rack to really be done enough to put away.

Spent the afternoon at the Ethnography Museum which is quite excellent and I would highly recommend. Over the last decade the Vietnamese Government and the American Museum of Natural History have collaborated to identify, collect and record and then present important information and materials from the many different groups that live in Vietnam. Although 85% of individuals here are Viet there are 50 or so different minority groups with remarkably different cultures, religions and distinct way of life. In addition, with rapid industrialization and urbanization there were many ancient traditions and skills that are present in the Viet community that could be lost in the rush to the city.

The Museum did a lot of work going to different groups and settings and filming, recording, collecting and allowing the ethnic groups to tell their own stories and make many of their own special handicrafts for the exhibits. Also they brought groups of people with special skills to build houses and other parts of the exhibit. One of the things that becomes clear from the exhibit is that while I had thought of Vietnam as part of the China, Korea and Japan group of nations, they actually are culturally and linguistically linked in heritage and trade to Indonesia, the Philippines and then on to Polynesia itself. Some of the houses and artifacts remind me of things that I have seen on TV and in books about Hawaii, more than China.

Although most of the labeling is in Vietnamese there is some in English and French. I saw a few visitors from overseas but mostly I saw children and young people sometimes with older relatives visiting the museum and clearly discussing their own memories. For many, in just a generation, the experience of living a more traditional life is becoming a memory. It is incredible that they have done such a good job with documentation and preservation before the opportunity is lost. Clearly in the newspaper and from other sources that I have been reading there are many traditional skills that now only a few older individual have and that some young people are learning from these living cultural treasures. This makes you want to get out of the city and see more of the countryside.

The children are like any children, running and playing and running up to say hello and then screaming in laughter and running away. The brave ones stay to ask your name or where you are from. Already at 7-8 they are learning English better than most visitors will learn this language.

While there it started to mist and then later to rain more consistently. It continues hazy though and I am beginning to wonder if this is just fog or perhaps air pollution and smog.