I've been reading these stories as I've been posting them....and since Time expects me to be "totally biased"....I should add that this is my favorite story so far. I just contacted Duyen by email (located at the end of story) to find out more about this project so I could tell you how to donate directly.
Don't forget the top 5 story entrants receive $1000 (vote at www.backpacknation.org). If you're interested in micro-lending, entrepreneurial passion and seeing the world from another's eyes...read this beautifully told story.
A Life Enlarged by Duyen Van Do
Chapter One: - 1999
I was born in a village in Thai Binh province, in northeastern Vietnam near the Pacific Ocean. My family lived on the rice and vegetables we grew. At the age of 6, I moved inland with my family, to the mountainous and remote Lai Chau province. My coastal motherland was so crowded there were no vacant places left to cultivate. Like many other families, we went to Lai Chau to plow new land, leaving behind the famines of my birthplace.
Day after day, I grew up and went to school in the new village. I remember many hours of bringing wood down from the mountains. We needed fuel to cook not only a daily meal for us, but also one for our pigs. Like many boys in the small town, I knew how to cook at the age of 7. For some time, my job was cooking and bringing rice to the fields for my mother’s lunch.
I spent much of my childhood playing and fishing with my friends in the stream. We had many different games, which cost nothing. We had fun with rocks, sticks, and bullet shells.
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