Meet Inn: Sapa, Vietnam

Inn (pronounced like "ing" but without the -g) is a rambunctious girl who I met while touring around her village.  She is part of a minority tribe called Black Hmong and lives near Sapa, a town in the northern mountains of Vietnam.  Inn has 1 sister, 2 brothers, a dog, a cat, 5 pigs, 20 chickens and a buffalo (because everyone has to have at least 1 buffalo).

In Inn's village, everyone gets married when they're around 18 years old.  She doesn't want to get married until she's 25.  Instead, Inn wants to be a policewoman and work in Hanoi or Ha Long Bay.

Back in the day, marriages were arranged.  If you didn't want to marry, your only other alternative is to voluntarily commit suicide by eating poisonous leaves.  If you eat 3-4 leaves, you'll die within 30 minutes.  The upside to arranged marriages is that you can marry 1-2 other people of your choice.  These days, as encouraged by the government to prevent suicide by leaves, marriages are no longer arranged.  You can chose who you want to marry, but you can only marry once.  Big decision eh?

Inn is 12, but she says she doesn't have a birthday.  Nobody in her village has birthdays.  They all turn another year older at new years.  So if you were born in December, come February (lunar new year) you turn 1 year old.  

The women in the village speaks amazing English (men are too shy to try, so they stay on the farm, away from tourists).  They are taught English, Vietnamese and their local dialect at an early age.  I bet this is to help them sell their goods.  The minute I got off of the van in Sapa, I was greeted by about 10 girls, all with the same speal:

Girls:  "Hi! Where. are. you fro?"

Me:  "America"

Girls: (confused) "oh.... but. you. look. like. me..."

Girls:  (enough small talk) "Are. you. marry?"

Me:  "No, not yet"

Girls:  "How. ode. are. you?"

Me:  "32"

Girls: "oh... well may.be. one day. you. marry.  You're. so. young!"

Me: "really?? I'm 10 years older than your mother.  To you, I'm not young"

Girls: "Want. to. buy. from. meeeee?"

 Inn's walk home everyday.

 

Inn and her friends playing.

 

Random buffalo

Beautiful necklaces they all wear, passed down from their grandparents (though everything is for sale!)

Weaving the thread that's used to make fabric for clothing like the outfit she's wearing.  Later, the fabric is dyed blue with leaves.