Bình, 24 — Hoi An Flood

Bình pos­es with his broom out­side of his home dur­ing the flood in Hoi An, Vietnam.

“While I was swim­ming around in the flood, I saw him (Alden) tak­ing pic­tures so I posed for a pho­to. I was using that broom to push the trash stuck on the walls away.”

“I decid­ed to stop in my dear Hoi An. I love peo­ple here because they are lov­ing, car­ing, and will­ing to sup­port each oth­er, which is very touching.”

The flood in Hoi An is actu­al­ly an over­flow of the Thu Bon Riv­er. There­fore, the riv­er cur­rent is still mov­ing through the streets and it car­ries trash along with it.

Bình came to live and work in Hoi An to start a new life. “Since I was 18, I’ve lived inde­pen­dent­ly with­out rely­ing on my fam­i­ly. I’ve trav­eled alone around Viet­nam to start my own career. I am from Ninh Binh. Last year, I decid­ed to stop in my dear Hoi An. I love peo­ple here because they are lov­ing, car­ing, and will­ing to sup­port each oth­er, which is very touching.”

Bình rent­ed a house to open a cof­fee shop in a small alley in Hoi An. How­ev­er, the cof­fee shop has been closed due to Covid-19 and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters (floods). “Dur­ing this flood, I just stay in my cof­feeshop because I don’t know where to go. I don’t know many locals, so I just stay here to look after my prop­er­ty”. Despite the dif­fi­cul­ties, Binh stays pos­i­tive. “I am Viet­namese. Being neg­a­tive and sad does­n’t make the dis­as­ters go away. There­fore, we should accept it with a smile and soon every­thing will be back to normal.”

When trav­el does return to nor­mal, you can come to Hoi An and vis­it Bìn­h’s cof­fee shop at 11/3 Nguyen Thai Hoc (down the alley next to the blue building).

Bình, 24 years old
Hoi An Vietnam