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No.
01 Oct. 2003
Dear friends,
This is our first Solar
Serve newsletter. Welcome to our solar family. First of
all we would like to tell you in brief what is happening
in our solar cooker project, but we also want you to
give an understanding of the region we are working in.
Our
solar work
 After three years our contract
with the Danang University ended, but we were very happy
when dr.Hung our supervisor of the University wanted to
extend it for more than five years. The last three years
we provided 500 families with solar cookers. Almost 79%
of the cookers are still used. Most of our work has been
done in four districts in Quang Nam province and will be
extended to other regions in 2004. This autumn (winter)
we are planning to build 400 new solar cookers, 15 (new)
parabolic solar cookers and several solar still models
for water distillation. A new challenge and a different
approach will be the start of a new solar cooking
program with one of the minority groups. We also need
more Vietnamese staff.
Dr.
Hung
Here a
picture of our present Solar Serve team during an outing
at the end of this Summer:
From
left to right
Giap is
a sports student, but works for SLS most of the
year.
Bich is
the project manager and is responsible for the
project.
Lien is
responsible for the parabolic solar cookers
Mai is
our mobile maintenance man and works together with
Hoang
Hans is
the project adviser and works together with Bich
Hoang
is handicapped and responsible for building the solar
cookers.
History
of the region
Throughout this summer visiting groups
and friends have been telling us that Danang is like a
‘gateway’ to Vietnam. We know that each city is
important, and we would like to give you some reasons
why the city of Danang is ‘also’ unique. So, we made a
little study and used some material from the Duy Tan
University in Danang and others.
Major
ports
First of all you must understand that
Danang has always been linked with the ancient town Hoi
An. In the centuries of 16th and 17th when Hoi An was a
great trade port. Danang played the role of a major
port. There were two ways for ships to go to Hoi An: Cua
Dai (Hoi An) and Cua Han (Danang). More than 100-ton
ships found it hard to enter Cua Dai therefore they came
through Cua Han. Freight was transported to Hoi An on Co
Co river (which is filled now). In late 18th century Hoi
An declined, Danang took its place and became a central
port for this area with crowded population. Hoi An was
considered a trade fair from 16th century to 18th
century, at early 19th century Danang became a real
maritime port where western ships were engaged in
commerce with Vietnamese merchants.
Danang harbor
in 18th century
Wars
In the wars between
Dai Viet and Champa kingdom (14th - 15th centuries), the
war between the two feudalist group Dang Trong (Nguyen
Lord) and Dang Ngoai (Trinh Lord) (16th - 18th
centuries), Danang with the role of a major port and an
important military base was considered a bridge head and
a spring board for all attacks. In the scheme to invade
South East Asia’ western countries as Portugal, Spain,
Great Britain, France paid much attention to Danang
because of its strategic position in military. Danang
was also considered a place to defense Hue citadel. The
French colonist began their war in Vietnam by attacking
to Danang on September 1, 1858. The French failed in
their plan of "quick attack quick win" when attacking
Danang. The Americans first landed on Vietnam through
Danang beach on February 9, 1965.
Business
and
tourism
During the American
War, Danang had one of the busiest airports in the
world. Danang was often referred as the ‘Saigon of the
North’. It had an booming economy, fine restaurants,
busy traffic and glittering shops. Business declined
sharply when the war ended and it became a pretty
laid-back city. During the last years it regain some of
its former glory and still distinguishes itself by
having one of Vietnam’s three international airports.
Also Danang’s infrastructure changed fast, which made it
a major gateway for traveling to many tourist spots in
the region (Hue, Hai Van Pass, Long Co Beach, Bach Ma
National Park, Hoi An, Cham Island, Ba Na Hill Station,
Marble Mountains, Cham Museum and My
Son).
Religions
Several religions were established through
the gateway of Danang. It was the center of the
Indian-influenced state called Champa in the second
century. The combined philosophies and religious
ideologies of Buddhisme and Hinduisme, as well as Islam,
influenced the Cham culture. The kings of Champa adopted
Indian-type names and were worshiped as god-kings. The
kingdom of Champa flourished till the 15th century. By
the end of the 14th or early 15th century, Champa has
been absorbed by the Vietnamese. For three centuries the
Pho Da pagoda has been teaching Mahayana Buddhism to
monks of the province. This pagoda was the central
Vietnam Institute of Buddhist studies. At present, this
is a place for the basic school of Buddhist studies of
Quang Nam province. Catholic activities were not
recorded but there are some written records that in the
16th century missionaries from Portugal, Spain and
French came to Vietnam. Their impact was neither deep
nor widespread. The turning point was marked by the
arrival in 1624 of French missionary, Alexandre de
Rhodes in Hoi An. Protestantism was introduced in the
20th century, when in 1911 the first missionaries came
to Danang. After that it spread north to Hai Phong and
Hanoi and then by 1918 to Saigon and to other cities in
the South.
Danang has always been very strategic
and a unique ‘gateway’ to Vietnam.
Well, this was our
first Solar Serve newsletter. We hope you liked it.
Please stay in contact with us.
Greetings,
Solar
Serve Team
Called
To Serve
See
also: No.1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|
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