Vietnam as Nammers Know It

My name is Phạm Hợp Phố, great grandson of Mr. Hướng. If you don’t know who he is, listen up. He was a mandarin court senator “Quan Nghị Tam Phủ”. That’s right, mofo, all three regions. He also had 4 wives. He headed the Phạm clan in An Lao village, whose every front yard has a lychee orchard, and a big fish pond, all of which in turn are intricately connected to the river. For all of these facts and more, I am very proud!

Cơm quê: canh rau đay với riêu cáy, gà chọi (nem, và luộc), và khoai tây với lòng gà xào….món nào cũng ngon!

Thằng này chắc phải gọi mình bằng cụ! Vì ông của nó gọi mình bằng anh. Nói chung nhìn mặt nó sáng láng thông minh. Xứng đáng là thành viên của Phạm Clan. Chà, mới biết mình dòng dõi con quan mà chảnh level lên rồi.

Nhà ai cũng có cái ao thế này. Kỳ sau ra sẽ thử món cá trắm đen.

Yesterday, as we met for the first time over a delicious lunch of the famous Hai Duong fighting chicken and “canh cáy rau đay”, a portrait of great grandpa looks down at us. In 1938 someone took that picture to France, where it stayed, out of all the turmoil of wars and political reforms. 70 years later, it came home, hand-carried by a French speaking relative of mine. A grand pose of him wearing silk court uniform, and a King’s order across his chest, reminds me of the grander years of our clan, and the renewed sense of duty for the latter generations to bring back some of that glory.

An Lao is a tiny village of a couple of hundred people, Northwest of Hai Duong, some 80KMs from Ha Noi. This is where my father’s ancestors hailed from. In 1953, they were systematically proscescuted due to the Land Reforms Law – a move VN copied from the Chinese Communists in the 40’s, to take land and power from the “elites” to distribute to the working class. Worse, several of our family members were violently “đấu tố” because they were long-time land owners, some were French-educated, and some were court officials. So when the chance came to leave in 1954 as part of the Geneva Accord, my grandfather took off…though our family were not Cahtholics like most of the people who went South that year. For those of you who needed a refresher course: the South’s president at the time, Ngo Dinh Diem, was a devoted Catholic – he also has a brother named Ngo Dinh Thuc, the archbishop of Hue, so part of the campaign strategy was to move as many Catholics south as possible.

My father was less than one year old then. My grand father, an educator, medicine man and a tailor, carried him in a woven basket and the sewing machine in another. They took the land route to Hai Phong port, awaiting for tickets to head south.

(to be continued)

Lá Diêu Bông

Váy Đình Bảng buông chùng cửa võng
Chị thẩn thơ đi tìm
Đồng chiều,
Cuống rạ.
Chị bảo: Đứa nào tìm được Lá Diêu Bông
Từ nay ta gọi là chồng.
Hai ngày em đi tìm thấy lá
Chị chau mày:
Đâu phải Lá Diêu Bông.
Mùa Đông sau em tìm thấy lá
Chị lắc đầu,
Trông nắng vãn bên sông.
Ngày cưới chị
Em tìm thấy lá
Chị cười xe chỉ ấm trôn kim.
Chị ba con
Em tìm thấy lá
Xòe tay phủ mặt chị không nhìn.
Từ thuở ấy
Em cầm chiếc lá
Đi đầu non cuối bể.
Gió quê vi vút gọi.
Diêu Bông hời…
ới Diêu Bông!

Cậu học trò ôm trọn trong trái tim hình ảnh người con gái quê có vẻ đẹp mê hồn, bảy mươi năm sau thi sĩ Hoàng Cầm tâm sự: “Trước mắt tôi, chị hiện ra rực rỡ như một thiên thần. Ngay lập tức, hồn tôi như bị chiếm đoạt đến đau điếng. Kể từ giây phút định mệnh ấy, tôi mê man chị chẳng còn biết trời đất, ất giáp, quên cả đến học hành, sách vở, suốt ngày chỉ ngong ngóng sang bên kia đường số 1, xe xế nhà tôi khoảng hai mươi mét, nơi thiên thần cuả tôi ngồi bán quán nghèo, phố nhỏ đìu hiu, tỉnh nhỏ… Tôi phải lòng chị, cứ thế giăng mắc tơ tình quanh chị suốt bốn năm trời, đến năm tôi mười hai tuổi thì chị đi lấy chồng.”

(In Memoriam of Hoàng Cầm, 1922-06/05/2010)

In one of the stranger episodes of my recent travel to the mountain, I am now tasked with locating a long-lost twin of a Bana tribesman (or woman?).

According to chú Nhoeng, this person was taken away from the village in 1972 by the Americans, to be relocated in the USA and adopted by a family there. Now his twin sibling (left behind here in Tonte village, Gia Bá, Gia Grai) seems to be finally getting close to locating him, but information is sketchy at best.

Apparently this long lost twin of 38 years does not speak one slick of Bana language, or Vietnamese. Just English. And according to the one message that I have to work with below, this person’s health is failing:

FWDed by Chú Nhoeng via SMS today: “hey sis, sorry I am getting ready for kidney dialisys. Maybe next chat during treatment”.

Not sure whom this person was chatting with (or via translator?), but the informal tone suggests they have chatted on a regular basis? Were they understanding each other? If so, what has taken this person so long to find out whom/where his twin sibling is/living?

That’s all I have to work with so far. I will have to obtain some more information tomorrow. Will update you how this story goes.