An Australian farmer in the Mekong Delta
For many years, the residents in and around Long Xuyen in An Giang Province have considered Australian John Douglas Flanders a close friend.They don’t only love Doug for his friendliness, but also for all the beneficial things he has done for this community located in rural area in the Mekong Delta.
John Douglas Flanders was born in rural Australia. His parents had a large property where they raised sheep and cattle. Flanders’ childhood was spent on big farms in the quiet countryside. Perhaps this is why Flanders fell in love with farming and chose to study agriculture.
“At some time in my life, I realized that I really was a farmer,” Doug said. “That was why I decided to study to become an agricultural engineer so that I wouldn’t have to leave farming.”
Graduating from university in 1967, Doug worked in water management in Queensland for several years. In 1976, as a new member of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), he was sent to Pakistan to work as an irrigation engineer. His job was to provide specialized assistance for a botanical research institute in a northwestern border province.
Later, he left Pakistan and went to other impoverished neighboring countries such as India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and later, Vietnam.
Talking about his first job in Vietnam, Flanders said: “I had lots of good experiences when I was working in northern Vietnam. I found some effective ways to improve and repair war-damaged irrigation systems.” When the project ended, he went back to Australia.
One auspicious day he went to a Vietnamese pagoda in Australia and met and fell in love with a Vietnamese woman. They got married in 1998. She has certainly had a profound effect on Flanders’ life.
He said: “I have learnt a lot about Vietnamese culture since I married my Vietnamese wife. I think I am integrating more and more into Vietnamese culture. I am quite familiar with Vietnamese customs.”
In fact, Doug is becoming Vietnamese. He can sing Vietnamese songs. He loves Vietnamese simple dishes such as bánh xèo (rice crepe), cá lóc nýớng trui (smoked fish), canh chua (sweet and sour soup) and lẩu mắm (a pot of soup of salted fish cooked with vegetables). He enjoys the delicious taste of cõm mẻ (fermented cooked rice) - normally seen as a tough sell to foreigners - when he eats lẩu trâu cõm mẻ (a pot of soup with buffalo meat prepared with fermented cooked rice).
The more he knew about Vietnamese culture, the more he loved the country, so he decided to do some-thing useful again here.
In 2000, he came back to Vietnam as team leader of AusAID’s North Vam Nao Flood Control Project in Long Xuyen. His job was to regulate the flood currents and improve crops and living conditions for the local people. Like before, after his workshops, he often wandered across the fields. He watched the workers do their jobs and met the people in the project area. Sometimes he spoke Vietnamese to them. He couldn’t speak Vietnamese very well, but it was enough for him to understand their needs; and the local farmers also knew what he was doing for them.
Flanders said: “I admire Vietnamese farmers. They have much less favorable farming conditions than Australian farmers; but they can produce good rice because they are diligent and hard-working.”
“However, they are confronted with lots of risks. They often lose the crop because of insects that they can’t kill. They need support from the government and non-government organizations,” he added.
After the North Vam Nao Flood Control Project was completed, he felt that he couldn’t leave the villages in the quaint, rural area.
He decided to stay by working as a consulting specialist for Denmark’s National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program.
The Australian man continued to be connected to poor villages and live with poor rural people. He shares their hardships with them by trying to improve their living conditions. He will finish his work in 2009.
He is 65 years old now - the age at which he can retire. He said he would continue to live in Long Xuyen even when he is retired because he loves this quiet town. In his free time, he will visit families that he has befriended.
Doug said, “Long Xuyen is small, but it is clean and beautiful. Here, I have friends who are good and friendly farmers, xe om drivers, street peddlers, students, and colleagues. They have brought peace to my soul. Vietnam is my second home.”
Doug loves the place he is living in very much. His love for the place is reciprocated by the gentleness and friendliness of the Vietnamese people. Some people love him so much, so that they nicknamed him ông ngoại (grandpa). They consider him their revered close relative.