Nghe An

I was so excited about the trip to Nghe An and to be honest, I considered it a pleasant journey, in which deadlines and assignments are completely left at home. Indeed, Nghe An trip was quite relaxing. Other than moments of happiness among UCHANU folks, there were “awkward” times I shared with people there. Times I could hardly explained.

First impression, Vinh is a fine city. Looking at its road, buildings and space and hearing from the Vice President of People’s Committee, I felt that Vinh was on the way of “developping” and there’s little to worry about it. (Anyway, you can not believe a person like him when he deliver a speech of achievements, somehow those must have been exagerated). The only problem I might think about that time was that the rich would get richer and the poor would be poorer. Then I was so eager to see all the children we were going to, as thinking they were gradually left out of the “developping” society there in Vinh.

I was so surprised when we came to the schools. Teachers were wearing uniforms (seriously, that was never seen before in any big or small city I’ve been to). I wanted to ask them but I was afraid my cluminess would offend them. Maybe they were not as poor, or maybe those were Teacher’s day gifts. From whatver did they come, I felt a glimpse of joy to make my discovery. Those teachers actually deny discrepancies. They must have been different; they must have come from different contexts; some maybe richer, but they refused to show that. Uniforms mean that everyone’s equal, no one’s more imposing, no one’s inferior. That I have not been able to do in my life; I always wanted to be notice.

It was so so so happy giving jackets to children. Although the thought of not really giving right jackets to right children bothered me, I realized that everything would go around and no matter what, we‘ve contributed to wealth being; jackets would later be transfered to whoever need them. It was also joyful to put each and every single jacket on the kids, something filled up my stomach, still now it’s so hard to explain. The teacher kept making children to say how grateful they were and that these gifts we gave were godsend. I couldn’t stop her but in my mind, this was not a mercy action of mine to the kids, it was actually what calmed and pacified my heart. It was them that gave me happiness.

People there were so poor, I heard that everytime a group of UCHANUers came back from local houses. I went to one family that had only the son and his mother. The mother’s a cultivator for hire, and she had been away for 2 or 3 weeks, leaving his son on her own. He’s 10 years old. At ten, I was peacefully spending everyday in love of my parents. I avoided looking at him with hesitance and compassion, he needed stimulation and strength. When walking around with Lan, we noticed that houses there were all built out of wood; but most of people there managed to have a motorbike. Therefore, I assumed that landfield in Con Cuong was not suitable for building brick houses. A local citizen affirmed that they could not afford to build brick houses; woods were from the forest; they just had to pay a little in construction. Motorbikes were crucial now, they must borrow to buy one in stead of upgrading their accommodation. All must have been for the long term sake of lives there.