Saturday May 14

We had to wake up extra early this morning for a bus ride to the Mekong Delta.  On the way there I could see nearly endless rice paddies and other agricultural production factors.  I specifically recall how proud a lone bovine looked as it stood on a hill, head raised to the morning sun.  There were people working in the fields cluttered with the white stone alters of their ancestors' graves.  It is very beautiful country.
We arrived at a cocoa and coconut farm and toured the operation.  The villager had the equipment to ferment and dry the beans, basically just some wooden boxes and plastic tarps.  We took pictures.  It was raining.  We sat down to interview the villager and he offered us tea in small glasses stained with use.  His wife spectated the exchange.  It seem probable that she had dressed up for the arrival of the Americans because she was wearing blue eye makeup and a pearl necklace.  I love these people because they welcomed us a warmly as anyone can a stranger.
We went to another, much wealthier, villager's farm and took a more thourgh tour of the plants growing on the farm by walking though some of his fields.  There were all kinds of fruits growing: papaya, pineapple, banannas, and cocoa, to name a few.  He too was producing primarily chocolate products.  Unlike the first villager's operation, this operation involved the use of mechanical devices.  He offered us some of his chocolate products and we enjoyed to fruits of his labor.
We took a boat ride in the Mekong Delta.  I am pretty sure the Delta is bigger than I can see across. We visited a couple of islands and browsed the wares of the local merchants of the islands and took pictures of the parks that were built there.
May 14 is my birthday so I was taken out for a birthday feast at a place called Kiche Kiche.  It is a build your own hot pot place where you get ingredients off a conveyer belt and put them in your pot of boiling broth.  I thought that I might get sick because I did not know what I was doing with the raw ingredients.  I had an amazing cake with fruit baked into it and one of the UEF students gave me a groovy gift that I will be able to enjoy for years to come.  It is a model of a bicycle powered taxi that I see driving around sometimes.