LIFE BEFORE WAR

A FARMING PEOPLE

• Before war Hmong lived like each other.
• With small houses of wood or bamboo with roofs of palm leaves.
• They often had dirt floors, and no runing water or electricity.
• Families lived with or near each other all helping with the farms.

CLEARING LAND

• The Hmong have used the same farming methods for centuries.
• In January men/boys clear fields by cuting down trees and burning them.
• Sadly this has destroyed many forests.

PLANTING RICE

• May is when the women/children weed the fields
• When the seeds are growing the fields are weeded 2 more times
• In the fall women cut the stalks and beat the rice off them
• Next the rice is thrown to help clean them
• Lastly they pound the rice to remove husks

FARMING ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE

• Some Hmong had to move there farms to mountains
• They had to built walls to keep the soil from slipping down mountain
• Sometimes it took hours to get to there farms

EVERYONE MUST WORK

• Even before war life was hard
• Everyone had to work dawn-dusk
• Every thing done by hand

LITTLE TIME FOR SCHOOL

• Few Hmong attended school
• School was hours away, so they would live there
• Only comeing home on weekends to work on farms

THE FRUITS OF WAR

• War forced Hmong to choice sides
• Some tried to stay out of war
• Many Hmong fled to the jungle

QUESTIONS

• What do Hmong children do in free time
• Play football (soccer)
• Weave/ use looms

QUESTIONS

• How many forests are left in Vietnam
• Vietnam is still lossing forests so fast that they could be forest less in 15 years
• Between 1943-1982 17.3 million acres of forests vanishe