-^-for posterity-^-

the smithonian came to little ‘ol long xuyen today. they had been working with an giang university for the past couple of years on collecting data about six different ethnic groups in the mekong delta. they opened their traveling museum this morning and i was pleased to have been invited.

there were speeches by everyone who was important and who had something to say and then we were all free to mill though the exhibits. there were exhibits dealing with a number of different aspects of mekong life. there were exhibits that talked about chinese, cambodian, cham and vietnmese people. there was a girl there weaving on an ancient, hand loom. there were men there working on wood cuttings hammering away at chisels as wood splinters flew into the air. there were old ladies there making old, ceramic stoves for cooking rice. instead of spinning them on a wheel, they would beat the clay using flat sticks. they walked around their brown creations constantly slap, slap, slapping. there was a small machine that was used to make thread. it used a bicycle tire.

inside the museum, there were a number of giant, color photos depicting mekong delta life. it felt like i was in an america museum walking around and looking at exhibits from a far away land, imagining what life there would be like when, in reality, everything was gathered from my current home. for some reason that made everything strange.