“I’ve been sell­ing veg­eta­bles here since I was about 18 years old. Now I am 70. Just a few of my hairs are turn­ing grey. They are not total­ly grey though. I also have my hair dyed black” Vọng says laugh­ing. “I am so old, not young any­more. I am sad about being old” she jokes.

“This is my main job. In the after­noon, I am free. It is fun to work here. Chat­ting is fun but fight­ing is more fun. Haha! Just kid­ding! We nev­er fight, just come here to sell stuff, have fun, laugh and then go home.” 

“My hus­band used to work, but now he is old, he just stays at home. Men at his age have no job to do, what should they do? He is the same age as me. I work like this, 70 but con­stant­ly work­ing. He stays at home. If I go home now, he may have fall­en asleep already. He has a bet­ter life than me! I wor­ry about these things those things, but he is relaxed now.” 

“In the after­noon, I do the house chores, cook and clean. Clean the dish­es that he and his son used. It is rare that he cleans the dish­es. I wash them all. But I don’t scold him, because he is my hus­band. He just watch­es TV and cooks food.” 

“Nowa­days, I see that if the wife cooks, the hus­band will help. In the past, it nev­er hap­pened. Now young gen­er­a­tions are bet­ter, the hus­band and wife do every­thing together.” 

Vọng, 70  years old
Hoi An, Vietnam