Children in Providence Orphanage, Can Tho, Vietnam (1969)
The Mekong Delta is the most productive rice growing region in Vietnam. It is both rural and populated because of the many villages where farmers cultivating rice live. Massive rivers bring the water necessary for growing rice and act as transportation routes for getting the abundance of produce to market. An intricate network of canals further connects the villages in ways that roads do not. An excess of water fills in the low-lying areas which form the many swamps in the Delta. The city of Can Tho sits on the south banks of the Hau River, a major tributary of the Mekong.
Sampans along the waterfront of the Hua River, Can Tho, Vietnam (1969)
A commercial hub of the Delta, even during the war Can Tho thrived with activity. Sampans of many sizes docked along the waterfront where the open market offered a fascinating array of goods where rural and city converged to trade. Boatloads of pineapples bobbed in the water next to loads of coconuts, bananas and fruits and vegetables I couldn’t identify. Children swam in the river, their brown skin glistening in the sun when they surfaced, their faces breaking into smiles. An outdoor dentist pulled teeth and added the extractions to a tray. Hundreds of teeth verified his experience.
Sampan along the waterfront of the Hua River, Can Tho, Vietnam (1969)
Extracted teeth in a street dentist’s tray, Can Tho, Vietnam (1969)
I don’t know the history of Providence. Beyond the commercial hub of the city, a Catholic church housed the orphanage. When I visited, I saw about eighty children between the cribs in the nursery and the toddlers on the grounds. Boys and girls played in two shallow wading pools to cool off. A parachute acted as a canopy to shade a play area where small chairs and tables were arranged. All of the children were in clean clothes and looked healthy. Many smiled easily and wanted hugs and affection. Some of the children were sad. I could see it in their eyes and faces.
Children in Providence Orphanage, Can Tho, Vietnam (1969)
Like many of the Vietnamese I had contact with during my tour, I wondered what became of the children at Providence Orphanage. I still have their photographs fifty years later. They would be in their fifties now.
While perusing a veteran’s website double-checking facts about the war, making sure my memory was correct on detail, I came across a reference to a closed face book group, Adoptees from Providence Orphanage Can Tho. I tried contacting the site to enquire if any of the orphans would like copies of the photographs I have. It is a closed group so I could not view the contents of the site. I emailed a message about the pictures but have not heard back. The former residents of Providence Orphanage are probably in many countries of the world.
Nun holding a child, Providence Orphanage, Can Tho, Vietnam (1969)
I didn’t learn the story of even one child while visiting. A few of the babies were of mixed race. Orphans in a war zone would not be uncommon. Some of the children might have been abandoned. I found Vietnamese children warm and friendly, curious and full of smiles, unless we were scaring them with searches of their villages always looking for signs of the Viet Cong.
Complicated disruptions result in a society at war. The South Vietnamese Army had 900,000 men fighting alongside the 500,000 American troops in Viet Nam. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army lost over a million men during the war. Estimates of Vietnamese civilians killed range from one to two million, either total a grotesque tally. Orphans were a result. Even given this stark reality, my visits to Can Tho were bright spots on an otherwise bleak experience in the war zone.