Everyday life in Thanh Tien

As my time in Vietnam quickly approaches it's end, I've started to look at and appreciate the little things. The parts of my day that are unremarkable to me now as they have become part of my everyday life. Those things that are paradoxically the most unique and special moments for their simplicity. It is rare to get a real, "authentic" look into another culture -- I hesitate to even use the word "authentic" because I usually steer clear of any restaurant or tour that claim to provide an "authentic experience". All that aside, I believe that my daily visits to Thanh Tien have become routine for the locals and as such I've been invited and have gotten to see a different Vietnam, one that is at times foreign even to Vietnamese people living in the city!

Here are a few everyday sights in Thanh Tien village. It's funny for me to think now with a little perspective that these things no longer make me pause.

These little shrines are everywhere, as a way to remember one's ancestors

Paper flower making has become part of my daily routine

Though I've become accustomed to seeing copious amount of meat,
I still cringe whenever I see the live ducks, chickens, and even dogs
at local markets.

Now here's a sight you can never tire of! The kids were shy with me at
first but have since realized that I am a complete pushover and always
ask me to carry them around!

Mr. Dan's pillow factory, always busy, always full to the brim with pillows!

When in doubt, try to communicate with music! This is my friend Yen's
little brother. At first he was too shy to eat in the same room as me, but
he has since warmed but considerably and had me doing advanced
calculus with him over the weekend.... yikes!

This one is for you mom: a part of getting your haircut here is getting
your ears cleaned! Long tweezers and cotton ball things that make you
shiver. Quite the experience!

Rice, rice, and more rice! And apparently insecticide that you can
handle with your bare hands and toss out on your crops to keep them healthy?

Mr. Loan's got style.

Day of the Dead celebrations: Catholic or Buddhist, no matter, you still
celebrate with some praying, lots of food, and copious amounts of beer.
The men and women sit at different tables and you eat and drink until you
fall asleep -- all before 1pm!

Before arriving here I truly thought that the the conical traditional
Vietnamese hats weren't worn anymore by everyday people. Wrong! Here's
a normal day, at a regular local market. When I wear one of these, everyone
speaks Vietnamese to me!

This tree was planted next to the shrine dedicated to the harvest gods for
luck. It's over 150 years old!

The making of the Tết flowers

Ok, so let's start with showing you all my goal:

It's call hoa cây, which translates quite aptly to flower tree. Each branch is made up of ten flowers just so:

 

Seem a little daunting? Well, I now certainly think so! However, I have to admit that when I first decided upon this challenge, I didn't think it was going to be quite as challenging as it's turning out to be. The only experience I had of paper flower making at the time was of the final step which is to tie up the ready made flowers to the small bamboo branch using ribbon. That in and of itself is no easy feat, but I definitely under-estimated the effort necessary to reach said final step.

The craft of making these worship flowers in Thanh Tien village is over 400 years old. The techniques and tools have been passed down over the generations and is in danger of dying off, which is where Rose Vietnam and my volunteer work comes into play. I will write soon about the project as a whole, today I want to focus on the techniques of making these particular flowers. Here are the tools: (much to my surprise and delight, Mr. Loan said he was in the process of making my very own tool kit to bring home, so I can show you all how to make these flowers back in Canada!)

The first steps (that I have not yet learned) are to dye the paper and cut up bamboo into the right size pieces and dye these as well. Mr. Loan promised he would show me these steps before I left. I think he's just waiting to see me become comfortable with the hammer before he hands me the machete, or whatever it is one uses to slice up bamboo!

The next step is cutting. I never thought of using a hammer and a weirdly, but perfectly, shaped nail (I call it a nail for lack of better word, please let me know if this told has a name!) to cut paper, but that is how it is done. The execution itself looks quite simple, not so. Just today, I was getting comfortable with this step, thinking I had mastered it, think again! My most recent cutting were rejected as không đẹp, meaning not beautiful as they weren't perfect circles. Hum. The weird nail thing has to go down perfectly straight for this not to happen. Better luck tomorrow!

After the cutting comes the wrinkling or folding. For far I've learned to do this in two ways. Either with a bamboo stick and foamy thingny or with a rope and differently shaped bamboo stick. I think I've mastered the foamy technique to Mr. Loan's wife's satisfaction (I call her the "quality control") but my technique with the rope is most definitely not yet up to snuff!

 

Next is gluing, using the same starch as when making Bánh Lọc! Yum! Very sticky though... I learned quickly to keep it to only one finger at a time otherwise you end up with quite the mess. Most of the gluing is quite straightforward, but not so for the rose (Minh and Hao can attest to that).

Ah finished! Well except for making the stems, gluing on the "pollen" on the end of stems, assembling, oh and learning (and mastering!) the cutting, wrinkling, and gluing parts of each individual flower... Now the question is, what is such a flower branch worth? Any guesses? Well, in the markets in preparation for the New Year these go for about 2000 vnd a branch, less than 50 cents. Flabbergasting. 40 branches takes an expert 12 hours to make, which is less than two dollars for an hour's work. Really makes you think. Meanwhile, I've completed four branches in a week, with a bunch of spare flowers lying around. I need at least 150 branches to make a tree, and I've got 2 months to finish. A fine challenge!