Mai

by Jaya Sahihi

Part of what makes this experience in Viet Nam so incredible, are the people with whom we suddenly find ourselves crossing paths. From our families, to the people on the street who recognize me on my commute every day and smile, they make the trip all the more fulfilling. There is one woman in particular who made a deep impression on me. She is one of the most hardworking, kind women I have ever met. Her smile is one I never want to forget. You might say I am jumping to conclusions, having known her for such a short amount of time. It is true, we barely knew each other. But I want to tell her story:

            Mai lives in a small village near Sapa. Surrounded by mountains that are carved into steps of rice, it is supported by the men bent over in those fields day after day and the crafts the women make. One thing that struck me about these women is that their hands have been dyed blues and oranges from making their fabrics for so many years. The bags and scarves they have created take months, but are then sold for around $5 depending on how good your bargaining skills are. It is a village filled with colours of the trash lining the streets, the light shining off the bottles, and the intricate embroidered clothing and wares worn and carried by all the women.

            One reason Mai stood out so much was the difference in the way she acted compared to the other women of the Village. The moment the bus pulled up, the women ran after us, each snatching someone to walk with. They were pretty nice but a fair amount of the charm was ruined by the way they made you promise over and over again to buy their products. And this mask could fall in a second if you refused. They would go from chatting on and on, to flinging insults in their language, which I am glad I couldn’t understand.

            By the end of the day I was broke,exhausted, and had a woman continuously glaring at me from the corner of her eye. So, when Mai, a woman who had been accompanying our group on the walk, came up next to Maddy and me on the way to the bus, we quickly told her we had no money left. She laughed and said she just wanted to talk.

            She is a round, smiling face with a beautiful skin colour, complimented by the red cloth she has tied around her head. While a lot of the woman plucked all their eyebrows and hair out, she doesn’t. She told us she doesn’t think it is beautiful, only painful. Her English, like that of the other women, was very good but we learned they had all picked it up from the tourists. Most had not gone to school. That led us into the conversation about how she grew up.

            When Mai was eight, her parents became very sick. Being the eldest in the family, she was suddenly in charge of the rice fields and her two younger siblings. The work was gruelling; every day she would bring in the load on her back. She said between the exhaustion and the loneliness, she would cry every day. Yet, she managed to earn enough money to send her siblings to school. She is still supporting them in school now, In addition to her children. She says she is happy now. She is married with a family. Although it may seem hard for some to imagine a woman so happy with a life like this, trust me, her smile was big and true.

            These women make me think that fate is such a funny thing. Mai is a sweet, hardworking, beautiful woman whose life a person could read so easily that they might be mistaken for a fortune teller. I know how her days will go on for a very long time, just like the day I met her. But she has taken what she was given and turned it into genuine happiness. A giant feat when you consider how unhappy so many of us are.  

As we left she gave both of us a handmade bracelet as a gift. I am still wearing it now and it reminds me to always be thankful.