After the war, the new Vietnamese communist government had to rebuild the country and reorganize everything. From an outside view, the changes were all a façade. The government pretended to be okay and pretended to be doing well on its own. Realistically today, the people still experience the devastation left by the war.
My dad once said, “Vietnam was rising before the Vietnam war. It could have been successful as South Korea is today if it wasn’t for that war.”
When visiting Vietnam, it is easy to see how industrious the people are. They make the best out of very little. Fix and reuse is their motto.
The souvenirs are very fun because they are all made of simple materials, but they depend on the artist’s creativity to create something amazing. My family visited a zoo one rainy day. We all bought cheap plastic ponchos. The zoo resembled more like an abandoned palace or a cemetery. Dark concrete structures rose from the ground in the damp forest. The tall trees sagged and dripped from the rain. The broken rock path led the way around the compound. There were hardly any animals out, except for a hippo that stunk bad. I thought it might have been dead.
Down the path a little farther, there was a old woman selling snacks. We bought some and munched during our break. An old man was with the woman. He was selling something too: silhouetted portraits. All the kids got one. The old man did not have a projector of light to cast a shadow to trace our silhouettes. Rather, he told us to look sideways and held up a black piece of paper and began to cut. It was amazing. I watched him punch out the exact silhouette of my cousin. He did not trace anything beforehand and never once did he hesitate. As he cut, he smoothly rotated the paper until he finished.
I was excited when he did mine. I stood very still. When he finished, he glued the portrait onto a piece of cardboard decorated with red and white paper. He handed it to me and I examined it very carefully. It had the long cheeks and stubby chin I recognized. A photograph couldn’t have captured me better.
That silhouette will always remind how amazing people can be.
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