A week to be thankful. Christmas specials and a little break.
Over December I’ve been on long service leave with my family in Vietnam. We’ve just been to Can Tho on the Mekong River to visit the famous floating wholesale produce market. That’s it in the pic above, if you are a vegetable logistics enthusiast it’s a must see. Later that day at our hotel while I was watching our kids swim in the pool I got talking to a young waiter called Khanh. Khanh was the first son of a rice farmer and had come to Can Tho to study and find work. The next night we all went out for dinner and learnt a little aboutKhanh’s life. Fresh out of university with a degree in tourism Khanh hoped one day to be a tour guide but for the moment was working two hospitality jobs (he also had a job at a local Burger King). He told me his wages were about $150 month, $50 of that going to pay for his room in a boarding house. Later when we went for ice cream I worked out the price of our 5 cones were equivalent to Khanh’s wages for that day. Now Khanh isn’t badly off by Vietnam standards; he’s educated, well fed and clothed, has a steady income and good prospects. There are many people in his community living far more precarious existences but It just made me think […]
