Vietnam: A Tractor in Every Village
Diocesan Press Service. August 20, 1968 [68-5]
Aase Dybing
(Both the writer, Aase Dybing, and the subject of this article, Lee Brumback, are Lutherans serving Vietnam Christian Service. The article was written for Kerygma Features, a service of the Division of Overseas Ministries of the National Council of Churches).
DI LINH, Vietnam -- Fresh air, green fields and mountains, no barbed wire, no green uniforms or visible artillery: it is as if the Montagnard inhabitants of Di Linh have stopped the war for a moment.
Di Linh is one of eight places outside Saigon where Vietnam Christian Service is working. Before the Tet offensive there were four VNCS workers here. After the offensive the administration suggested that the Americans leave Di Linh, but Lee Brumback, a Lutheran from Virginia, who had worked here a year, who speaks the language and likes the area and its people, insisted on staying. Fred Gregory, a Quaker from Oregon, moved from a unit in Quang Ngai to join him.
Brumback, an agriculturist, takes care of rice-growing projects, vegetable gardens and rabbits. Gregory, who speaks Vietnamese, works with handicraft projects and a loan program. With two Montagnard assistants, they make an efficient team which operates in about fifteen Montagnard villages near Di Linh.
They make arrangements for bringing more tractors for the rice fields, transporting Montagnard handicrafts to Saigon for sale, finding Montagnard teachers for children and adults.
A successful project is a small loan program which extends loans over two years at two per cent interest. "The Montagnards," Gregory explains, "use the money to rent land, buy animals and farm equipment. So far every single borrower has paid back. Let me add that only very few of these people can sign their names." Another success is the sale of handicrafts. Montagnard blankets, crossbows, skirt material, musical instruments, bracelets, knives and baskets are sold at a shop in the USO in Saigon. Gregory adds that the Montagnards are making a good profit from the sale, but "of course we realize that this is a temporary business which will stop when the Americans leave. When the war is over most of these people will go back to their farming, which the war now prevents. "
One tractor is now at work in the rice fields of Di Linh. It is owned by VNCS which rents it, along with a driver. Brumback would like to have a tractor in each village. The farmers are eager for it too, since water buffaloes are increasingly rare.
A remarkable strain of rice from the Philippines was used in the recent planting. Brumback will watch for its outcome in the November harvest. He has been promoting vegetable gardening, but Montagnards were not interested at first. He hopes for results, however, since the local school teacher has begun to stress the importance of vitamins to her students. So far, a fish pond has drawn more attention than the demonstration garden.
Brumback also brought rabbits to the Montagnard villages, starting the project by teaching school boys to build cages and giving them rabbits. Soon each village had ten rabbits; and gradually the Montagnards learned to like rabbit stew.
Much of their work was disrupted by the Tet offensive, but Brumback and Gregory look to the future. They would like to increase their staff, improve the dispensary which is run by their two Montagnard assistants, and concentrate on schools. "The Montagnards have got to get a better education," Lee Brumback urged, adding a plea for "more tractors, a hardware store, an irrigation pump, more pigs, to mention a few things . . . but first and last, schools."
Brumback, a young agriculturist from Winchester, Va., who served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, arrived in South Vietnam in mid-October of 1966 as an employee of Lutheran World Relief, one of the three overseas aid agencies which support the joint program of Vietnam Christian Service. He is serving a two-year term as an agricultural specialist.
Miss Dybing, a Norwegian journalist who is a member of the Church of Norway, left for South Vietnam last April to become information officer and photographer in Vietnam Christian Service. She has been on the editorial staff of Aftenposten, Oslo's largest daily newspaper, for the past decade and was granted a leave of absence to accept her present assignment.
Episcopalians support such work through contributions to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. They can be sent to The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, 815 Second Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.