Being at Bick‘s homestay, welcomed by the very kind family, eating together and spending the day, feels very special. Waking up, opening windows from the bed and seeing the misty mountains and a duck walking around the house just makes my heart feel warm.

Today I teached some kids english and art. And I learned a little bit of vietnamese. We painted what is around the house, a duck, a chicken, a fish. We learned colours and then ran around pointing at things screaming YELLOW, GREEN, PINK, … depending what colour that thing would be. The animals here are so cute. So many baby chicken and one baby kitten. The way of living is simple, rustic, but everything is clean. And the kids are very kind and polite.

In the afternoon, Bick took me to the river and waterfall. I didn‘t realise they were just a 5min walk away. And I thought it couldn‘t get better. Drinking that amazing self-picked-self-dried-self-made white tea during the day and looking at the trees and mountains already made my heart feel warm.

Later in the evening Bick asked me, if I want to come get a fish. And here I thought we would be getting a fish from the market. No no. We went by motorbike to one of the neighbors in the village. We waited at a house with group of people packing tea leaves. Then Bick tells me to get on the motorbike from this guy and I quickly understand why. The road stopped being a road, it was more like a small bumpy path with stones going steep uphill and downhill leading up to a house with multiple fish ponds. The guy catches a gigantic fish, weighs it and puts it in a big bag. I can‘t even blink and I find myself holding that bag, with a moving fish, sitting on the back of a motorbike, wearing my long blue skirt, flower shirt and fluffy white jacket.

We ate that fish for dinner and it was so delicious. I love the family’s lunch and dinners. We all sit in the living room on a big matt around different bowls with food. There is one massive bowl of rice and everyone has a tiny bowl in front of them and some chop sticks. And we wait for everyone to sit before we start to eat. It‘s very wholesome.

In the living room I noticed many big 50kg red bags. I asked about them, and it‘s rice! And Bick told me, they need 4 rice bags per week to feed the family, and chicken, and ducks, and pigs. And it‘s rice that isn‘t peeled. Now they have a machine that peels the rice. But Bick remembers, when she was 10 years old, so around 15 years ago, they had to peel them manually. Not one by one. She explained a method to me, but someone still had to sit the whole day to do it.