Coffee and conversation with Tue

When my friend Jenny was in HCMC we met Tue one of my teaching assistants for a meal of pho, the renown Vietnamese soup. In her time in Vietnam Jenny had successfully battered for a Vietnamese coffee filter so she could have café sua nom, hot coffee with milk. You place a dollop of condensed milk in the bottom of the cup, and pour hot water over the coffee granules. The coffee drips through the filter into the cup. However the filter wasn’t actually working properly. Over our pho lunch Jenny mentioned this to Tue, who comes from the coffee growing area in Vietnam. Tue was able to tell Jenny that she was using filter coffee. He then took us to a particular coffee outlet shop for the real deal.

Periodically I meet with Tue for coffee and we discuss all sorts of issues and subjects. Today was one of those days. Our discussions go beneath the surface  and I discover about life and times for the Vietnamese in Vietnam. The period from the end of the war to 1986 was brutal for the people with rationing, searches, queues for transport and food stuffs. In 1986 the beginning of the doi moy period, when the government opened its borders and doors to " free marketing".  Even today restrictions still apply, which includes overseas travel,  motorbike ownership and purchasing, identity cards. While I'd like to embellish on these topics, one is mindful and even wimpish. This is not my country......... and these people are my friends.

Would Tue swap his life for mine? No, he misses not talking Vietnamese and mixing with Vietnamese people. No, family is a strong bond. However occasionally he'd like to peep into my world, and take stock of our clean green and environmentally beautiful image, enjoying the countryside, the forests and the quietness, and may be just maybe on a day like today some cold!

 I admire Tue for his openness answering my questions.  I begin to realise how fortunate I am to live in a democratic country, something so often I take  for granted. How fortunate I am to have rights and choices and to be able to action these.