Isn't it romantic?
Marguerite Duras, the French writer of The Lover lived in Sa Dec. It's a quiet town in Viet Nam's Mekong Delta. The river winds its way past fading colonial buildings and a lively market. In Duras' semi-autobiographical book, a poor 15 year-old French girl falls in love with a 27-year old wealthy Chinese man, who spots her on a ferry crossing the Mekong.
It was never clear if The Lover was fully based on Duras' life. But Marguerite Duras was indeed very poor. Her French mother, widowed when Duras was four years old, was almost destitute. She eventually saved enough to build a house and farm rice, but constantly battled flooding in the rainy season. As a girl, Duras lived with the local people and spoke Vietnamese. In an interview, she remembers a "night in the forest when we'd walk barefoot, barefoot while everywhere it was teeming with snakes!" There don't seem to be many forests left in Sa Dec. But there is still poverty, strangely combined with a continued air of romance because the town is known for producing quality roses.
A rose nursery near Sa Dec. These were just past their prime which happens in time for Vietnamese New Year.
This is Hang, and she's 42. She spends her days tending roses and other flowers at this nursery about 3 kilometres outside Sa Dec. "I used to plant rice," she says, "but my brother was working here on the flowers and he told me I'd make a lot more money. So I switched." She says the work is not bad for the pay, and is much less physically taxing than planting and harvesting rice.
We talk about education for a while and she says her daughter, who is 15, is keen to finish high school. Wang doesn't want her to finish however - she'd rather her daughter quit, so she can help her with the flowers so the family can earn more money. This is not an uncommon expectation of girls, and one reason girls don't finish high school.
A bit further down the road, we meet Loan, also 42.
She's tending and selling ornamental grass. She says she works from about 630 am to 6 pm, sometimes longer in the high season. Loan says she really likes being outside for her work, and loves the rich soil, nourished by canals that spread water from the Mekong. "The soil has been good for the ten years I've been working here, and I think it will stay that way."
Loan has a 22 year-old daughter who finished high school, and now works in a beauty parlour in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). "I want my daughter to meet her soul mate, fall in love and get married," she says. Though she also says that when she does, her daughter will no longer be responsible for her mother, and will go to look after her husband's family.
Loan also talked about education. She finished primary school - fairly common for rural women her age. "I think school is really important," she says, "and I wish I could send my daughter to college. But I just don't have the money."
There are dozens of nurseries like this one outside of Sa Dec.
On a parallel road a few minutes away, we stop to talk with one more flower seller. She's Manh.
Manh has built a large plant business with the help of her family, including her daughter Kaw.
Kaw helps Manh display hibiscus saplings for sale on the road in front of her nursery.
She has six kids of her own - five sons and her daughter. They all finished primary school.
Manh grew up in wartime, and she didn't have the chance to go to school. She can't read or write, but she can certainly run a business. Each day she prepares about 100 plants and places them out on the road for sale. She sells every one of them. Each sapling is worth 5000 VND, or about $0.22 cents. "It doesn't make you rich, but it pays the bills," she says. Much of the money goes back into the business.
Manh has spent twenty years building her business. "I work from dawn until I get tired at the end of the day," she says.
Despite her poverty, Marguerite Duras was French after all. She was able to leave Sa Dec and Vietnam, attend the Sorbonne, and became a renowned writer, film-maker and intellect.
I ask Manh - now 63 years old - how long she'll run her plant business. "Until I get too tired," she says.
With thanks to my guide and interpreter. You know who you are!
