During our brief visit to the Mekong Delta, our class visited a woman who makes rice paper. I would say it’s more like a lifestyle than a career; she has been doing this work for seventy years, since she was a fourteen year old girl. She was just about the most friendly looking old lady I’ve ever seen. Now, more than half a century later, she is doing the same thing, but with the skill level that can only be described as “as easy as breathing”. What struck us all about Grandma Rice is that she held the sweetest smile on her face throughout the visit. My question is: why is Grandma Rice smiling?
Grandma Rice lives on a very small island in the Mekong Delta. These islands used to produce rice, but due to reoccurring issues of flooding and unsuccessful crops, the islanders have switched to growing fruit, which is far more profitable. Despite the bettering income and despite the fact that the Mekong Delta is the most rich in agriculture in the country, many if not most residents are still living in relative poverty. In Nielsen’s article “Vietnam’s Rice Policy: Recent Reforms and Future Opportunities” about Vietnam’s rice policies, his research shows that Vietnam is not reaching it’s full potential in terms of rice production and exportation, that Vietnam’s rice is of very poor quality, and that rice farmers and people like Grandma Rice are receiving less money than they actually should be earning.
From a Western perspective and as a student at Lewis and Clark College, I can find few concrete reasons as to why she smiles. My conception of what induces happiness does not generally include many things about her situation. (But then again, who am I to say what makes someone happy?) For example, it is unlikely that she continued her education after the age of fourteen, or perhaps never had one. She lives in a very humble home and has done the same work her whole life. Her bones probably ache after each day of work, but she continues to do it. And she looked happy. Is she happy because she has enough food for her family and that is good enough for her? Is she happy because she is getting paid extra by the tourist agency for letting them take us to her home? Or was she happy because she has been able to find contentment in her life, despite ever-present hardship?