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Though she was born in Dak Lak, her parents are from Thai Binh, so she identifies as a Thai Binh person. When I told her my father was from Nam Dinh, one province over, she blurted, "So we're from the same hometown!" My accent and hers are nearly the same. Being in the Central, I'm picking up on some of its harsh accent, however, so maybe I can pretend to be a Central Vietnamese in two or three years.

She's married to a Rade who does nothing but drink and, occasionally, beat her. He's half Korean, she told me. This puzzles me since Korean soldiers didn't arrive in Vietnam until nearly two decades after he was born. Her father in law was here when the French were here, she further explained, but this still didn't shed much light. The man went back to Korea, in any case, and left his wife heartbroken. She died a few years later.

Here, the woman is selling skewered sausages and meatballs, which are rarely seen in Vietnam, though very popular in Cambodia. Across the dirt lane was a small protestant church.



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