Fishing in VIETNAM country side. 

COULD VIETNAM AND WALES POSSIBLY HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON?

I woke up this morning and read in the newspaper that there was a military coup in Myanmar.  A coup is the strange word grown up people use when one group of people illegally and using guns takes over a country and put those who were elected by the people to take care of that country in jail.  I always feel sad when I hear about a coup, even if it happens in a country I have never been to before.  It is just not right to take something away from the people using guns is what I think.  What do you think?

Anyways, when I read about the coup in Myanmar, in addition to making me feel sad, it also made me think about a painting that my friend Beena had sent to me a few weeks ago but that I had forgotten about.  It is a painting of a river with some traditional Vietnamese fishing boats made from bamboo.  

Now, I do not think that this type of fishing boat is used in Myanmar, but reading about Myanmar in the newspaper made me think of this picture because both Myanmar and Vietnam are in a part of the world called Southeast Asia, so they are sort of neighbors I would say.

Looking at the painting I became curious about those interesting round fishing boats so I went to the internet to learn more about them.  The first thing that I learned was that they are also called “coracles”.  Now, remember that grown up people like to make up new and complicated words for things, so it should not surprise you in the least that they came up with the word “coracle” to call the traditional Vietnamese fishing boats made of bamboo!!!

In addition to learning that these boats are called coracles, the more incredible thing that I found out is that another place where they use coracles is in the country of Wales, which is nowhere near Vietnam!!!  Wales is in a part of the world called Europe, which as I said is nowhere near Vietnam.  In fact, it is so far away from Vietnam and the two countries look so different from each other that I never in a million years would have guessed that people in Vietnam and Wales both use coracles as boats.  I don’t know about you, but that is mind boggling to me!  Of course, the coracles in Wales are not made from bamboo plants, since they do not have a lot of bamboo in Wales – they are made from the weeping willow tree, which is one of my favorite kinds of trees.   I have to say that thinking about weeping willow trees brings me back full circle to the beginning of this story, because weeping willow trees have droopy branches and so they look like they are weeping (a fancy adult word for crying!).  And as I told you at the beginning of this story, I was sad this morning when I read about the military coup in Myanmar, so I guess I felt like a willow tree today.  Go figure!

Now it is your turn to imagine or remember stories based on this painting called “Could Vietnam and Wales Possibly Have Anything in Common?”.  Think of it and then write it down.  Oh, and don’t forget to pass it on to a friend so that we can come up with 1,000 stories for this painting, together.