The village of Dan Lai is quiet on the last day of the year.

(Baonghean.vn) -In the final days of the year, Khe Bu village (Chau Khe - Con Cuong district), inhabited by the Dan Lai community, remains quite quiet. The lives of many still depend on gathering natural resources and aid from the government and the community. There are also heartwarming stories of young Party members overcoming hardship and escaping poverty.

Although Tet (Lunar New Year) is approaching, Khe Bu village remains quiet. Photo: Huu Vi

The road to Khe Bu village is still rough and rocky. In the final days of the year, the village is unusually quiet. A group of men and women are loading acacia logs onto a truck. The villagers are taking advantage of this last timber haul of the year to buy supplies for Tet (Lunar New Year).

“How far has Tet (Lunar New Year) gotten, madam?” I asked a woman who had just stopped peeling acacia bark. “Tet is still thirty kilometers away from our Khe Bu village,” the elderly woman said, gesturing towards the distant horizon. Khe Bu village is 30 kilometers from the district market. The days of self-sufficiency are over; now all the supplies, food, incense, and other necessities for Tet must be brought to the district market. Only after selling acacia bark do the whole family have money to prepare for Tet.

Khe Bu village is located at the confluence of three large streams, where the Nam Choang (Khe Choang) stream meets the Nam Pu stream. It has 172 households, mostly Dan Lai people, with only a few Thai households. Khe Bu is home to the largest Dan Lai minority community in Nghe An province, and is unique to Nghe An. They settled here after the government implemented its resettlement policy in the early 1960s.

With Tet (Lunar New Year) approaching, the old man, around sixty years old, still makes time to plow the fields so he can plant the spring crop in January. Apparently, the border guards played a significant role in teaching the Dan Lai people how to cultivate wet rice. It's a long story, but the important thing is that a new farming habit has finally been formed. It seems easy, but it took decades.

Village head La Van Nam has a small house next to a newly opened concrete road. The border patrol road passing through Khe Bu village has become the most convenient location among most of the villages in the inland areas of Chau Khe commune. Mr. Nam seemed oblivious to the stranger's visit, his eyes still fixed on the newspaper in his hand. Putting down the newspaper and shaking hands with the visitor, he said: "Information is scarce here, so whenever I have free time, I read the newspaper. I read all the newspapers that are distributed. As a Party member and a village official, I need information to share with the people so they will listen and follow."

He seemed quite accustomed to the press, with several delegations visiting the village almost every month. After a few minutes of introductions and a cup of tea, he immediately asked, "Do you want me to show you around some households in the village? Or just ask for information about the village?" I was intrigued by the decisive demeanor of the Dan Lai village head. Later, when the conversation became more intimate, I learned that Mr. Nam had over 20 years of continuous service as a village official. Since 1996, he has been the Youth Union Secretary, then the Deputy Village Head, the Party Branch Secretary, and finally the Village Head. Currently, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the Chau Khe Commune Party Committee.

The house of Ms. Le Thi Hue, the first family I visited, was located on a hilltop at the edge of the village. Ms. Hue and her son lived alone. Her son had just turned 18, but both were frequently ill and their health prevented them from doing strenuous work. Their main source of livelihood depended on the forest and aid from the government and charitable donors. The 44-year-old woman's mother was from Son Tay (Hanoi), a rather unique background for this remote community.

Ms. Le Thi Hue has a father from the Dan Lai ethnic group and a mother originally from Son Tay (Hanoi) - a rather special case for this ethnic minority community.

“My parents were both soldiers in Son Tay. They met, fell in love, and their unit arranged their wedding. After my father was discharged, he brought his family back to Khe Bu village. I was born in Son Tay. I still have aunts and uncles there, but I haven’t had the chance to visit them in a long time,” Huệ recounted softly.

Sitting by the fire on the last day of the year, Huệ spoke clearly about her past. Her dark eyes gazed distantly at the forest before her. Perhaps these last days of the year brought her back to her childhood in the "distant land of Đoài." For her, it was a world now a thousand miles away.

Leading me across the hills to a few more houses, the village headman, Nam, confided: "There are still quite a few families in the village whose circumstances are similar to Ms. Hue's. The main reasons are still the lack of arable land and unstable employment. Although we have received attention from various levels of government and the border guards stationed in the area, changing the lives of the Dan Lai community remains a difficult challenge."

Village head of Khe Bu La Van Nam.

“But not everyone is stagnant,” the village headman said as he led me on a tour and stopped beside the house of La Van Hai. The 31-year-old was recently elected deputy village head. At the end of 2016, he personally wrote a letter requesting to be removed from the poverty list. Having only lived independently for less than half a year, he still faces many difficulties, but he decided to “set an example,” not for “prestige,” but to inspire the spirit of overcoming hardship in young people.

Three years ago, Hai took the oath before the hammer and sickle flag on his induction day to officially join the Party and vowed to uphold that honorable oath. "What I said I would do, I will do," said the young Party member, one of the first in the village to finish high school.

It was late afternoon, and I said goodbye to village chief Nam and young Party member La Van Hai as we trudged back up the mountain pass. On the road leading into the village, groups of students were happily riding their bicycles home after school. Just a few years ago, bicycles were a luxury dream for the children here.

Huu Vi