Tien and the rest of her family live in a twp-room house that has a brick floor, coconut leaves for walling, and a tin roof. During the rainy season, the roof leaks. There are some chairs and a table, two beds and an old motorcycle. They use a dug pit type of toilet and garbage is normally burned. They have electricity.
Drinking water is taken from a neighbor while water for household use is taken from the well nearby.
Wood is used as fuel for cooking. The family normally takes two full meals of rice and vegetables a day, with meat, fish and fruits sometimes once a week. Tien's parents will be most eager to share their family's life through letters that will be personally written by them in Vietnamese. Vu is six years old and weighs 15kg and stands at 1.05m high. Generally he is a healthy child, though when there is a change of weather, he catches colds, cough, and fever and has to be treated by a doctor in the village.