Eleven Orphan Daughters

The bus battled the winding road and the traffic as he laughed and joked with the youngsters. They tried their English on him and in turn tried to teach him some Vietnamese.

Leaving the bus, they walked through the market down a secondary road to a modest single story Vietnamese house. Inside the room was crowded with people. "Do you have visitors?" he asked. "No," she laughed. "This is mum's family."

He asked, "What do I call your mum?" I can't keep calling her mum." Mai thought for a while. "Her name will be hard for you to pronounce. She has always wanted a name like a flower. We call her Rose privately. It's not her name but she loves it. Try calling her that and we will see how she reacts."

John sat with Rose drinking green tea as she introduced her family. Mai interpreted for her, expanding the explanations of each family member's history. They were all girls. John could not believe how beautiful they were.

Mai was the youngest. She would finish school this year. She explained that the family was told not to work today. "Mum wanted us all to meet you so they would stop worrying about you two meeting every day."

John was having fun. The house was poor but spotless. The food had little meat but the salads were marvelous. He was waited on hand and foot. Everyone wanted to sit with him. He could tell by the way they cuddled up to him that they liked having a man around the house. He decided that he had never met a more happy family.

When he asked to see the district, the girls walked him for miles. They took him down to the market and introduced him to their friends as a farmer from Australia. From then on a stream of young kids drifted up shyly to meet the man from Uc.

Before they left the markets, John bought chickens pork and a large bag of sweets and cakes. He gave Mai 500 Thousand Dong and told her to buy whatever they needed to make the evening meal a party.

She carefully went through the market buying vegetables and fruit. "We will buy bottled water and beer for you," she laughed as he remembered how she had boiled water so he could quench his thirst.

Mai smiled when he bought a large bunch of flowers. "For mum?" she asked. "Yes," he smiled, "Roses for Rose." On the way back home, she gave him 350 thousand-dong. "You gave too much," she laughed when he protested.

When night started to fall, John sought out Mai and suggested he should leave. "Oh, no! Mother wants you to stay; you said you did not have to return until Monday."

"There's no room," he groaned. "I don't want to put any one out of their bed." Mai and her sisters gathered around. "We want you to stay," they pleaded. "We have never seen mum so happy and proud."

They gave him no chance to disagree. "You take him to lock up the chickens," Mai called to her sisters. "We will prepare John's food for dinner."

John studied the farm while the girls rounded up the chickens. As far as he could see, they had a few stands of bananas, a few sticks of sugar cane, one or two fruit trees, a vegetable patch plus some land that had grown rice.

"Do you have a buffalo or a cow?" he asked. They laughed, "No we can't afford one. Mum makes us do all the digging. Sometimes a neighbor will use his buffalo to plough the rice paddy."

"Well I don't know how your mother has raised all you kids. I cannot see how she could make enough out of the farm." The girls stopped chasing the chooks. "Yes it would have been very hard," they admitted, "but mum always coped. It's better now that some of us girls can work and earn some money."

Back in the house, the food covered the main table. "Thank you John," Mai whispered. "This is a feast. It's much more than we normally have in the evening."

When they finished eating, they led him outside to sit in the cool evening air. Rose sent her family out one at a time to talk to him. Kim was the first to join him. She was the eldest.
She apologized for bringing him outside. "Mother keeps inviting homeless youngsters to stay with us. We are short of room but she always says don't worry."

Kim leant against a spindly tree in front of the house. She was short and petite. Like all the others, her hair was very long. She wore it coiled up on her head in a style John had never seen before.

"Mother is very happy that you agreed to stay. She is very proud of our family and our farm," John was surprised at her fluent English." Your English is very good, how many of the family speak English?"

"We all do," she replied, pride showing in her voice. "We all learnt at middle school. Mum demanded that we talk English to each other as much as possible so we would not forget what we had learnt. We have all adopted English names as part of our studies. "

"Oh so that's why I was told to call her Rose," he said with a smile. "Yes mum is called Rose when we speak English. Between you and me, she can speak a little English. We have been teaching her." She laughed when he looked up in surprise. "She cannot understand you because she says you speak to fast and too loud."

Two of Kim's sisters had joined them. They sat leaning against his legs. "Well I have a job for you," John said as he winked at Kim. "You must make sure I speak slowly. If I start to talk fast its up to you three to give me a signal to slow down."

One after another, the family joined them until everyone sat in a circle in front of him. John placed a chair beside him for Rose and looked around at her family.

"Thank you for a wonderful day. Today has made me realize how much I miss my wife. I loved her very much. We had been married for twenty years that's a long time. We never had children so I have never been part of a large family like yours."

He turned to look at Rose." I have no ties left in Australia. I am a farmer and I am bored now that I have sold my farms. I am going back to Australia next week but I have been thinking that I would like to come back here to your farm again."

Rose spoke quickly in Vietnamese. "Mum says you are welcome to visit any time," Kim interpreted as they all smiled. He spent the next hour answering questions about Australia. Finally, the room became quiet as he exhausted their questions about Kangaroos and Koalas and all things Australian.

Breaking the silence he decided to change the subject." This is a lovely spot. What a great view," John said as he waved his hand towards a large area of water. He noticed the pride in Kim's voice as she responded. "That's our village reservoir it supplies our water. Our village is never short of water it comes from an underground spring."

"I can't get over your House blocks they are very narrow, at home they are much larger," he observed still trying to get the conversation going. "Is it possible to build one of those Vietnamese three story houses on this block? The views over the water and the farms would be great. I have seen tall thin houses along the road. Could you do that here?"

Kim was enthusiastic "Oh, yes, if you have the money. Mother talks of buying land next door. That family wants to leave. Rice farming is not very profitable. The family wants to shift into the city so their father can get a construction job."

"They will surrender the farm. Mum has told the peoples committee that she wants to buy it." "I don't think mum has the money. If all of us were working, the committee might agree to the bank giving us a loan."

"How much would it cost?" he asked as they all started to talk excitedly. "If you build a home of one floor on the ground it's far cheaper than second and third floors." Kim replied.

"In your money it would be over $100 per square meter on the ground and more than $180 for higher floors. It is not very expensive out here in the country when compared with Hanoi City."

John looked at Rose and spoke slow. "You could build one of those long skinny Vietnamese three story houses on your land for under US $35,000." Kim could not wait for Rose to answer. "Yes that's right. If you had to buy the land it would probably cost around $20,000 extra."

Rose shook her head. "We could never do that. Even if the land was cheaper, we could not afford it. The house is out of the question. We need more land to farm. We do not need a bigger house."

"I agree you need a bigger farm. John said speaking slowly. You also need a bigger house." He looked at Rose. "We have only just met. But I feel like I have known you forever. I cannot believe what you have done for these girls. I would like to help. Will you let me buy you some land and build a house?"

One of her daughters who had kept quiet during the discussion broke in, "I don't think you can buy farm land. I think it's against the law for a foreigner." Her body language and tone told John that she was antagonistic.

"Look I don't want to cause trouble." John said as they all fell silent. "I don't want to buy land for myself. I was thinking of how I could help Rose." Mai took the opportunity to bring John a beer. "I bought this at the market. I know Australians like beer. I'm sorry it's not cold."

Gradually everyone drifted off to bed. John was amazed at the beds that appeared. They all changed in the one bedroom then came into the main room to their beds. It was all done discreetly with a quiet respect for each other's privacy. He watched them as they helped each other and made up his mind to persevere with the idea of building Rose a house.

He rolled out of bed early next morning. Most of the girls were still asleep when he changed and slipped outside. He was surprised to find he was not alone.

The daughter who had raised the inability of foreigners to buy land was sitting out front. She stood up when he approached. He studied her closely. He guessed that she would be in her thirties.

She had a slim but well-rounded body. Her breasts seemed much larger than those he had seen on the average Vietnamese woman. Like Mai, she had long jet-black hair that hung down to her waist.

"I am sorry," he said. "I don't think we had time to meet properly yesterday. If my memory is correct you are called Hang, I have to apologize but I seem to have forgotten your English name."

She poured him a cup of tea. "I use Ruby as my English name." "Thanks, please call me John. Can we talk about the matter we were discussing last night? You seemed to be against what I was suggesting. Have I done anything to offend you?"

She sat down. "I work for the Ministry of labor invalids and social affairs. We see many foreign do gooders in Vietnam. They come over here rush around and make promises then disappear back home and we never see them again. They only cause unrest and disappointment."

"Well I'm not a do gooder. I am just a retired farmer there is no way your mum can make this farm pay. The soil is buggered. It needs a lot of work. Your fruit trees are full of fruit fly. There are better types of sugar cane and bananas. Your chooks are old they need replacing. You really need a new farm."

"I like your mother. She is a bloody hard worker. What she has done and is doing for you girls is wonderful. Now that I have met her and your sisters, I would like to do something to help. I can give her money but what she needs is more practical long term help."

He waited for her to respond. When she didn't he decided to spell out the idea that had been growing in his mind since yesterday. "I have money. What I need is help deciding what to do. If we work together we can set your mum up so she can continue to help orphans and the homeless without killing herself with hard work."

"I have to return home with our delegation next week. I will be back. When I come back, you will know I am not a do gooder who has made promises and disappeared. When I return will you help me."

Ruby watched John carefully as he sipped his tea. "I don't know," she said. "I don't know whether to trust you. You must want something. No one spends his own money helping people he does not know."

"If I come back will you work with me and not against me?" he asked as they heard others approaching. She nodded her head, "yes I will help you, if you come back."

The girls completed their chores by mid morning. John had spent the morning doing minor repairs on their pushbikes. As they finished their work, they sat around talking while they watched him work. "I need to go to the market," he told them as he washed up. I need a couple of tires some replacement mud guards carry baskets and battery operated lights."

They walked to the markets together. He quickly found the items he wanted and then followed Rose. She seemed to know everyone. She introduced him to them all, explaining that he had been a farmer. Because of his size and the fact that this tiny village saw very few foreigners, he became the center of attraction.

He bought food from the roving vendors for each member of the family, finally settling on a noodle dish for himself. The family and their friends laughed when he was unable to sit on the tiny plastic chairs provided by the food stall. "Chair to small," he laughed. "No you too big," Kim replied.

When they returned to their farm, Mai took his hand. "You are very nice," she whispered, "our friends like you." He finished repairing the bikes. With new tires mudguards and chain guards, the bikes looked like new again.

As he completed each one, its owner would hop aboard and ride it around the yard. He marveled as he worked at the joy they derived from such simple things.

Early Sunday morning he once again joined Ruby outside. After they finished their tea. He smiled at her, "Let's look at the land your mother wants to buy," he said.

"I'll walk down with you, but I remind you that you cannot own land here," Ruby replied. Her body language telling him she was unhappy.

As they walked down the narrow path, he walked behind her. He could not help but stare at her perfect hips and tight bottom. Suddenly she turned around and caught him staring at her backside. He blushed, "I couldn't help it you're very beautiful." She did not respond.

He groaned, "Now I've done it, you'll hate me even more." She stared at him. "I don't hate you. You seem nice. But I don't want you to break mums heart. Please don't raise her expectations and let her down."

That exchange on the narrow path seemed to change her attitude slightly. She became more friendly less reserved. They started to laugh at each other's mistakes.

They walked over the farms that would become available if the party committee agreed. "I'm a party member," she volunteered when he started to ask about the local committee. "Our village is very small. The provincial committee headquarters is located in the next village because it's bigger."

She became animated when she talked about the party. "Our committee is looking for some new industry to create jobs. Rice farming is hard. It does not bring much money to our families or the district."

"There are empty farms. Farmers are leaving to go to construction jobs in the city. They can earn more money. There are many more opportunities for their kids in the city. We badly need a new imitative."

John leant back against a tree. "I'm over here with some cattle men. Your central government and the party have decided to build a dairy industry. They plan to build Vietnams herd to 200,000 in 10 years. They are already importing dairy cattle from my state."

"The Mekong delta and Ho Chi Minh City are not good locations for dairy cows. Up here in the hills is much more suitable." He turned to her. "I have noticed how passionate you are about your party and your country. You are not going to like what I say next."

"Your government's plans will face serious problems because of a lack of dairy experience. Dairy cattle do not thrive in the tropics. Especially in Asia when they are given to individual farmers."

"Your farmers don't look after their animals like we do back home. Cattle from Australia that are sold to Vietnam are poorly fed in comparison with what they have been used to back home."

"You lack feed and grazing land. Your farmers do not have the necessary knowledge about animal health to become aware that a cow is ailing until sometimes it is too late."

"I could go on and on, but I can see you are not impressed. So let me start again. The Dairy industry and dairy cattle can and will work in Vietnam."

"It just needs some one or some group to prove that there is a better way than leaving it to individual farmers. I think with the right planning and guidance a village like yours can make a go of it. If your party will agree to try a different approach it may be the opportunity your village has been waiting for."

Ruby's attitude had changed as he spoke. She was smiling as she jumped up and took his hand. "Let's go and see my local Chairman. I am sure he will be interested."

Meetings took up the rest of the morning. They met with local party members and officials. A phone call arranged a meeting with the Provincial Peoples committee Chairman. He in turn arranged a meeting with the Party Secretary. All agreed that John's idea was worth investigating.

The provincial Party Secretary and John quickly became friends. By the time their meeting was over John was so sure of his friendship that he asked him to approve Rose buying the farm next door.

The party secretary was surprised at John's request. He smiled "have you found a Vietnamese lady friend?" When John laughed and said "not yet," he told John that he would make sure land was available. "I can't promise a specific block but I will make sure there is land available," he said as they parted with a warm hug and a handshake.

John was impressed with Ruby. She was smart and tough. She was not afraid to stand up and have her say. During the meetings, she had made sure her views were known and understood. More importantly, she had helped John by asking him questions or reminding him of points that he had raised at one meeting and had forgotten to raise at the next.

They were smiling and laughing together when they reached home. "My you two have changed," Rose said as she joined them. "What have you been up to?" they both blushed as Ruby spoke quickly in Vietnamese explaining John's plan.

Rose looked at John. She spoke slowly in English. "Thank you," she said quietly. "We need new ideas if our families are to stay here and not move to the cities."

John returned to Hanoi full of ideas. His mates were overwhelmed. Stan who was active in conservative politics in Australia was the most outspoken. "You've been meeting with local communist party officials and you plan to do business with them. Shit man have you lost your head?"

Harry could not help laughing, "You have been gone for the weekend and when you return you want to use your own money to develop a dairy industry in a village over three hours from here. What have you been drinking? Better still what's her name?"

John smiled, "they were all beautiful. Stop being so negative. I have sat and listened to you as you complain and winge about the problems that you experience when selling cattle to your current buyer. You know he is ripping off local farmers. You know that he will destroy the good name of your cattle if you don't do something."

"You know the Mekong Delta and its climate is not suitable for dairy cattle. You complain but you do nothing. I have found a place where I am sure dairy cattle will thrive. It is much cooler than here. It is up in a hillside area, it has plenty of water and available land."

"The party people who run things there will support the introduction of dairy cattle. I think I have convinced them to build a feedlot and use that to train their farmers how to care for pregnant cows."

John was disappointed as he caught the lift to his room. No matter how hard he argued it was clear that his friends would not help him. He sat in his room alone. His mates made him sad and angry.