another week, another sharing

trying to be consistent with my writing

Cơm Nhà, Vietnam, 2023

The countryside makes me feel very calm. Being out here in the village makes me feel calm. Well, except for the many bugs and geckos that are creeping around us (and my bed). At least I learn how to co-exist and share space with them. (Haha… They really do freak me out.) The roosters not only crow in the morning, but actually during the whole day. Elise (the one who’s running the residency programme) told us how it’s their way of communicating with each other.

Rooster 1: “Heeey. Everyone. You there?”
Rooster 2: “Yooooo, here!”
Rooster 1: “Whatuuuuup?”
Rooster 2: “I’m hungry!”
and so on…

Imagining this kind of conversation going all around us is kinda nice actually.
There is sense of community, sense of caring for each other. We all live here very openly and close. The house we reside in has no actual closed windows. Our neighbours usually have their windows open or they’re spending most of their days outside anyway. In everyday life, I meet mostly mostly elders, when walking around. Kids are at school, their parents probably at work, the moms for sure. When meeting someone randomly outside, if not an elder, they’re usually men.

Houses are built differently, living spaces are used differently. Through this open and close living, we hear easily when someone is walking by, talking closeby, sneezing or screaming (the neighbour kid gets scolded a lot, ay). We also have this lovely Bà next door, a very elegant (and former painter), who listens to nostalgic classic music in the evening now and then. The music goes out her window and mixes with the sound of the chirping of the crickets. Sometimes there are toads who are making themselves noticable and sometimes I even hear the geckos shit from the ceiling. (Their poo landing on the ground make a sharp, short noise.) Just few days ago I had a huge cockroach in the corner of the room, that was really not fun. But we managed somehow. Marion actually took the lead on this rescue emergency case, the other artist in residence at live.make.share.

When I was walking to the market in the morning, Vietnam, 2023

I have been thinking about that sense of community and the act of caring for each other for a while now. Even long before I came to Vietnam. I do strongly feel that there is another way of looking after each other here in Vietnam – I’m talking about the public one, I can’t say about how it’s usually practiced in more private settings.