Postcard hustlers: 10 for the price of 1

Here are the little faces of pretty big personalities. They earn a living not by getting education in the schools but by selling postcards on the streets -- actually, in the mountains. They follow tourists everywhere, trying to sell packs of 10 postcards (daily life shots, sceneries, landscapes, etc. of VN) for outrageous amounts of money. And the tourists usually pay them because when you convert Vietnamese Dong into USD, it doesn't amount to much. These particular little people live, and work, around the touristy areas of Mui Ne (near Phan Thiet, VN) and its sand dunes -- especially the Red and White Sand Dunes. When the jeep dropped me off and I started my hike, these kids were right on my heels, chattering away in English (pretty decent English, too) and in Vietnamese, trying to sell postcards and they will not be stopped, dissuaded, ignored, or advised. They will keep on until you succumb into buying something (at which point they will all gather around you like bees) or until you hop back onto the jeep or bus that brought you around. I was here for only a short while and by the end of the day, I felt as if I owed these children something more than just a pack of postcards.

They were cheerful, helpful, and annoyingly persistent. One child asked me to buy something and in the effort to brush him off (I was exceedingly rude and irritated by this point, and shamefully, I could not contain my inhumane disregard for their livelihood, which was based upon their ability to behave as needy and desperate as they could), I said off-handedly, I'll think about it when I come back down. Little did I know this meant I had committed myself b/c that was, in his estimation, essentially a solid promise on my part.

Silly of me to be thinking about this, but it was not so easy for me at that time to behave like the tourist -- I resisted the urge to be the Viet Kieu from America who comes waving money in their faces, buying little knick knacks as souvenirs, and regaling them with stories about the American dream, life in the U.S. I also did not want to be the brusque, arrogant, self-centered Viet Kieu who behaved as if she were disgusted to touch their hands and buy their foods and hear their stories. At that point, I was just very tired and desperate to be left alone to simmer in the heat of Mui Ne.

On the way down from the hike, I was shamed and guilted into recognizing the error of my ways -- or at least, recognized the needless worrying. I wasn't going to see them again, and if my buying into their game of feed the starving children from Vietnam, I wasn't the firs and certainly wouldn't be the last. We had a great conversation on the way down, and they were very friendly and helpful. They showed me where to stop and rest and where to stop to get fresh water, and even showed me some great local sights.

I went home with 40 postcards purchased from three different kids. Instead of sending them home to friends and family, I've kept them all.