May 17, 2024
Today we started our morning at 8:00. We had a sweet morning kicking it off at the flower market. This was a wholesale market with flowers motorbiked in from the central highlands. To avoid traffic, they drive the flowers over 5 hours in the early morning. The flowers must be there early so that people can shop to decorate homes, parties, weddings, restaurants, and memorials. Most of the girls agreed that they would be out every morning getting fresh flowers especially at the price of only 40k-120k dong or only $1.57-$4.71!
However, we did get to see a lot of city life. Including families outside, children dancing at the school, and some men playing checkers with bottle caps. Being in Vietnam has really illustrated some important lessons in life for all of us. Make the best out of what you have in life. Appreciate what you have instead of always wishing for more.
We went back to the hotel for some free time before our meeting. This time featured some much needed relaxation… including some power naps.
The US Grains Council and the US Meat Export Federation were generous enough to meet us at our hotel. We all shuffled into a conference room to listen to Mr. Wurth from the grain’s council and Mr. Tu from the meats.
They did great, illustrating how many little parts that play into the world market. There is demand building, trade policy, tariffs, domestic policy, agrarian reform, and many different commodities that are at play. The main thing we all took from this talk was how important it is to look into all the little things. For example, Mr. Wurth showed us how the Panama Canal is currently closed. Now shipping boats must take the long way around adding a couple of extra days. Even though that doesn’t seem like a big deal, it can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to these products. Even though we think we are so far away from the world market in tiny South Dakota, 1 in 3 farm acres are planted for export in the USA. With Vietnam being our #3 corn export receiver, we are a lot more connected than we ever thought.
Another thing they shared with us was how they are trying to help Vietnam and Southeast Asia improve their farming. It is a constant balance of imports and exports. We give Vietnam the corn, they can farm their own pigs.
After the presentation, we went to eat lunch. Tony led us down a dark alley, but we were pleasantly surprised when he brought us to “A Taste of Saigon”.
After lunch, we went to Tan Dinh Church or the pink church. It is the second largest church in Ho Chi Minh. It was built in Vietnam when it was occupied by the French.
The last event of the night was a dinner cruise on the Saigon River.
We watched the bright lights of the city over the Saigon River and enjoyed one of our last nights together. The time has flown. It feels like we just got here, but at the same time we have got to experience so much and grow together.
A big part of our group rushed to the dance floor on the first floor. Through loads of sweat, laughter, and off pitch singing, we danced the night away. A large crowd gathered with cameras pointed at the dysfunctional group of American girls having the time of their life singing Super Bass by Nikki Minaj.
Sad to think we have only one day left, but what a great day.
See you tomorrow!
- Elle Ploeger and Mallory Drake
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