I love Việt Nam, my beautiful country. I haven’t written any article about it yet. It’s not because I don’t want to talk about it. It’s just I don’t know where to start or how to talk about my country. There are a lot of things both positive and negative. I always have mixed feelings when thinking about my country: happiness and sadness at the same time.
Until recently, I read a post from my dear friend
about “True stories about ethnic young people in Viet Nam”, I know what I want to write about my country. I will take you to amazing places to meet beautiful souls and at the same time to see their lives.
The destination today is a school name Hồ Bốn in the Mù Cang Chải area, part of the Yên Bái district, a northeastern region of Vietnam. For Vietnamese people, when talking about this place, we will immediately think of a remote mountainous area with many difficulties. For me, it is all about the charm and warm-welcome of people here, despite their hardships in life.
Ho Bon School
Following the footsteps of the volunteer group from Ha Noi, my heart filled with excitement as I hadn’t been to Mù Cang Chải before. My initial purpose when I signed up for this volunteer activity was to see the magnificent beauty of this place.
Our task for this visit was helping the school to prepare for the end of year celebration and cook a yummy meal for all the students there before they went on to their summer break at home.
We traveled by bus and the trip was supposed to take 8 hours from Hà Nội to Mù Cang Chải. However, it had been raining all the day before so the bus couldn’t drive fast on the muddy gravel road. Luckily, at that time of the year, Mù Cang Chải was entering the rainy season and there were layers of green young rice overlapping each other like stairs reaching to the blue sky on the rice paddies along the road. So it made our trip quite enjoyable despite some incidents on the way.
We departed at around 8 am and arrived at around 8 pm. In front of the school gate, all the students and the teachers were standing to welcome us. I was surprised and touched. I couldn’t believe they were all waiting for us - literally all the school were there. As soon as the bus door opened, the children rushed over with their arms crossed and bowed to us – this is a customary Vietnamese greeting, showing respect when we first meet.
I was surrounded by 6 or 7 children. They hold my hands and asked, “why did you arrive so late? Are you tired of travelling long distances?". Oh, there was an emotional moment in my heart. I’ve never experienced such a warm welcome like this. Later, my group leader told me “that is how the people of the highlands are, they are inherently emotional and very sincere.”
After that, we went to the kitchen and enjoyed a delicious dinner which was prepared by them with all their love. We didn’t expect to arrive this late so quickly after dinner, everyone started working immediately to organize the end-of-year celebration for the next day.
The end-of-year school celebration
The second day of the journey was also the main day of the group's activities here, in the morning the volunteers were divided into two groups: one group contributed to the entertainment and supported the school in organizing the closing ceremony, the other group was responsible for preparing meals for all students as well as for the group.
Prepare lunch
I was in the second group. This was my first time participating in cooking with other volunteers for such a large number of people. We made a silly mistake with the braised and caramelized pork and eggs. I thought it was a disaster.
However, when seeing the children holding a bowl of rice and enjoying their lunch, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, their meal was not delicious, but it contained all the love that we had for them.
In the afternoon, I met the group of children that were with me last night. They wanted to take our group to a beautiful waterfall near the school. Among them, there was a boy named Hậu. He speaks fluently both Vietnamese and their local language. So he acted as our tour guide and told us about all the things he was doing in the area. I had great fun walking with them even though I was a bit tired of walking up the hills.
After dinner, the whole volunteer group was at the schoolyard to enjoy a campfire with the school and locals. Around the fire, everyone felt connected, dancing hand in hand with the music.
Later that evening, I had a chance to talk with one of the students about her life, where she lives what she does at home, and more. Later on, she asked me “Can you visit us before October”. I asked why and she said, “This will be my last month at this school as I turn 15 and I will have to get married after that”. My heart stopped for a moment and I felt a heavy pressure like someone was squeezing it. I said, “Getting married? At 15? Why?”. And the girl said every girl here who turns 15 will stop school and get married. I heard similar stories from other people but when I was in that conversation with the girl, it broke my heart.
I could feel her sadness and I asked if she could talk with her parents to let her continue school. She looked away and couldn’t answer my question. I didn’t ask more as I also felt stuck and didn’t know what to do. Our conversation stopped there but her story still haunts me. I can see a young girl living a hard life. She was unable and almost impossible to find a better life.
Later on, I have more time to think about this situation. I believe that education is the best way to help the highland girls who are in the same situation as this girl. So every year since then I have donated to charity organisations that support and provide food for children in the highlands and build a better school for them. I felt so sorry I couldn't help the girl at that time but thanks to that conversation, I started to think hard and question the world around me. I do believe that if the girl is now a mother, she will see the importance of education and try her best to help her children.
Last day - Farawel to the place
Thank you for visiting Hồ Bốn school with me today. This place means so much to me and I am so glad to share it with you.
P/S: I didn’t have a smartphone or a camera back then so all the photos in this post were taken by Thanh Tran – a group leader of the volunteer organisation. He agreed for me to use them for this post. Thank you so much, anh Thanh. I will donate part of the rewards from this post to a charity name “Nuôi Em” – an organisation that provides lunch for children in the highlands and build schools for them.