When people ask me to use one word to describe what it’s been like living in the Mekong Delta, the answer is easy: slow. Everything moves just a bit slower in Southern Vietnam, from the motorbike traffic to people’s schedules throughout the day. People work very hard here, but I haven’t noticed many people working with much of a sense of urgency. Everyone seems to interact with a universal understanding that things will get done, and everything will be okay.
Adjusting to this sort of environment has been interesting for me because I’ve lived my whole life before now in big cities in California where everyone moves quickly from one meeting to the next. But I’ve come to embrace the slow life in so many ways, waking up early for a leisurely breakfast and coffee, working until the early afternoon, taking a nap through the hottest part of the day, then doing a bit more work until it’s time to eat dinner with friends! It’s a relaxing routine that allows me to take the time to appreciate where I am, what I’m doing and the people I’m with.
This kind of tranquil lifestyle is so entrenched in the community here that people don’t know any other way of life. One day, my friend Khoa asked me to grab lunch with him after we had coffee in the morning.
