Bến Tre is in the Mekong River Delta, so there is water everywhere. It also means that it has a rainy season and a dry season. This is the rainy season. Every single day, it rains at least once. Usually it comes in the form of a freak downpour for about 20 minutes, and then it clears up.
On our first day here, we experienced the rainstorms, and also the traffic accidents. I came within inches of two motorbike accidents in the first two days. Nobody died, and I'm 86% sure they weren't my fault. We also experienced the rumored hospitality immediately. We were forced to eat 4 meals on the first day because everybody wanted to feed us, and we weren't allowed to say 'no' without offending people. We ate breakfast at 9, lunch at 12, first dinner at 3, and second dinner at 8. We went to the market as a group that night, and some guy started taking tons of pictures of and with us. He apparently works for the government in some capacity, but he just looked like a shop owner. Supposedly these pictures will one day end up on the town's website, MoCay.org, but considering how quickly things work around here, they will probably take months to be approved.
On our first Sunday, we visited the work site. The family's house is far from being bike-accessible. They live in between a number of streams, and their current house is very small and quite unstable. It has just one room, a low roof, and is made entirely out of woven palm leaves. Both of the parents have mental handicaps, but in this country, mental illnesses are usually seen as a personal problem, perhaps a spiritual one, and therefore there are no attempts to diagnose or treat them. Mr. Minh is the father. He never speaks to us or makes eye contact, but he works very hard with us. He is quite strong. His wife acts similarly, though in the past few days we've caught her smiling a couple times. Their son is 15 years old, but physically he looks about 8. He spent a few years in 3rd grade, and finally stopped going because he could not progress past that level. His name is Kha, and he is really cute. He is surprisingly strong and helps us carry heavy loads of materials. We heard he was a really good fisher, which is true, but the fish that he catches are these little tiny mudskippers, only a couple inches long. Unfortunately, this talent can't help earn money for the family, because anyone can catch these fish, and they provide hardly any meat. Only families with no money eat these minuscule fish. Before we left, Kha climbed a huge coconut tree, dropped down some coconuts, and fed them to us. Delicious.
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