“Meet­ing each oth­er might be our fate and des­tiny. We met on Facebook…showed him as a friend suggestion.”

Linh, 18, is from the Xa Phang eth­nic group liv­ing in a small tra­di­tion­al vil­lage in North­ern Viet­nam. She and her hus­band were the first peo­ple we met in their vil­lage and they wel­comed us into their home, tak­ing the time to explain their sto­ry and cul­ture to Trinh and I. The first thing she tells us is about how they met.

“Meet­ing each oth­er might be our fate and des­tiny. We met on Face­book. We lived 70 km far away from each oth­er. We’ve been mar­ried for 8 months. Face­book showed him as a friend sug­ges­tion. His rel­a­tives live near my house. There are not many of us, so we almost knew each oth­er already.” (Their eth­nic group is quite small).

“He ‘attacked’ me. Peo­ple tell me that he is a good man so I just ‘attacked’ him too. We both “attacked” each oth­er” ( they tell us scratch­ing their heads shy­ly and giggling).

“My only wish now is that my child will have good health when she is born. This is our first child.”

Linh, 18 years old
Xa Phang Eth­nic Group
Dien Bien Province, Vietnam