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Tuesday, January 30, 2001

A week of study in the US equals a year in Europe and Japan, they joke

"My aunt, in Hanoi for the first time, was afraid of having her picture taken. She said: 'No, no!' and turned her face away if someone tried to take a picture of her. I had arranged to telephone a cousin who lives in the country. But when she went to the telephone in her commune, she was afraid to pick it up when it rang. I could not talk to her. I realize that the unfamiliar has become familiar to me."

Christian Science Monitor. Duyen Van Do, returning to Vietnam after a year and half in the US, marvels at the way he, his country and his perception have been altered. "While visiting a small farm in Illinois last year, I was so surprised at the way pigs were fed. Isn't it hard for the pigs to eat uncooked corn and soybeans, I wondered. In Vietnam, farmers cook the food before giving it to their pigs. This has been the tradition for centuries. Can we change our ways?"'

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