Untold stories in Ai Khe

After escaping the isolation caused by the flood, the people of Muong Ai commune were able to ride motorbikes to the center of Muong Xen town in Ky Son district. Although the road was still full of large rocks and muddy in many places, they had to get off and push their motorbikes, "that was already a blessing," said Mr. Lo Pho Mang in Xop Phong village; then he added, "Without a road, we would run out of food, and even with money we wouldn't be able to buy anything, so we would just starve!"...

Get used to hardship

We followed the road that Mr. Lo Pho Mang described, through Ta Ca commune, Muong Tip to reach Muong Ai. Indeed, the distance of more than 30 km normally takes less than 1 hour, but it took us nearly 3 hours to get there. In our imagination, when we met the people of Muong Ai, they would tell us many stories about floods, hardships, and deprivation; how students struggled to learn... But we were wrong.

At 6:30 a.m., when the sky was still quite gloomy and the cold of the mountainous border region still lingered, the chirping and bustling voices of students calling each other to class could be heard on the street. The main road passing through the commune center was still covered with mud on both sides, higher than a person's head. After the flood, the local government and border guards here had only just had time to scrape the mud to the sides of the road to allow people to walk.

And every morning, students from the surrounding villages still walk precariously on the muddy mountain, holding umbrellas and wearing boots, happily going to class. Their tiny, nimble steps on the still-wet mud make the road to class seem longer because they slip and fall, because they have to choose a drier place.

Muong Ai Primary School is located right on the main road, not far from the Commune People's Committee and Muong Ai Border Guard Station. With 20 classrooms, 287 students, divided into 6 school locations, teachers and students of Muong Ai Primary School are still working hard day and night with their studies, their footsteps still go to 6 school locations every day with 1 main location in the center of Muong Ai commune and 5 separate locations in Nha Nang, Huoi Khe, Pung, Huoi Phong and Ai Khe villages.

In previous years, the main school included 4th and 5th graders from Huoi Khe, Xop Xang and Huoi Phong villages. “However, at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, students from Xop Xang and Xop Lau villages were also brought to the main school due to floods and landslides, which prevented them from going to the separate schools as before,” said Principal Le Quynh Luu.

"We get used to hardships. For a long time, students have been patient and worked hard to go to school, even though most of the students here have difficult and arduous circumstances," said Ms. Cut Thi Hien.

Looking pensively at the other side of the road, where there was only empty land and rocks left, teacher Luu shared that until the end of September 2018, students here could only go home on Saturdays and Sundays, but before that, all of them had to stay at school because the roads were buried and impassable. There were days when food and provisions were running low, and parents and border guards had to contribute rice. While worrying about food and clothing for the students, the school teachers had to clean up mud, fallen trees, and teach.

These efforts are demonstrated every day when children whose homes are 2 km away from the school, such as those in Xop Xang village, still leave home early in the morning, one hand holding a school bag, the other hand carrying a small bundle of firewood, nimbly walking through streams and over steep slopes in search of knowledge. In the late afternoon, they return home in droves, chirping like flocks of baby birds. And on cold winter days, those flocks of baby birds still toil to school, their tattered, worn-out clothes not warm enough but not enough to stop them from going to class.

“Last school year, the school had 5 students nominated for the Golden Apricot Blossom Scholarship,” said Mr. Le Quynh Luu excitedly. They were students with especially difficult circumstances but had outstanding academic achievements compared to their peers. They were Lau Ba Denh, Hoa Thanh Dat, Luong Hong Mai, Hoa Y Tuyet, and Hoa Nhat Hoang.

There are students studying in a remote village 12 km away from the commune center by mountain and forest road like Lau Ba Denh. This year, he is in first grade, but since he was little, he had to leave his father and mother to live with his grandparents. His father died, his mother got married. Denh has an older brother but the two brothers cannot live together. Denh's brother went with his mother, while Denh stayed with his grandparents. Denh's house is empty, with nothing but a few worn-out clothes, a few bunches of corn, and bunches of rice that his grandparents saved from the harvest to eat sparingly. Every day, Denh's grandparents go into the forest to pick bamboo shoots, catch fish, and go to the fields to find food, while Denh goes to class alone.

Volunteer to go to remote villages

From the center of Muong Ai commune, to reach Ai Khe village cluster, one must cross more than 12 km of mountainous road, along the border patrol route. If taking the shortcut that only cuts across a few mountain ranges, even a healthy person will have to spend more than 2 hours walking.

Early in the morning, teacher Hoa Ba Then turned on music from an old radio and gathered the students, together with teacher Nguyen Van Toan (Team Leader) to teach the students to dance rumba. Hearing the loud music, the students rushed out to the yard and lined up neatly. And already familiar with the energetic dance, when the music started, their small, pretty hands and dark feet started to dance and smiled excitedly. The music and the enthusiastic dance steps of teachers and students of Ai Khe stirred up a corner of the small border village. Right next to the fence, the children of Ai Khe kindergarten also came out, their eyes wide open, watching their seniors dance.

Teacher Hoa Ba Then, who lives in Xop Lau village in the center of Muong Ai, volunteered to go to the farthest village, Ai Khe, to teach. The flood in September caused the kitchen of Mr. Then and his wife to be washed away. Teacher Then's wife, Ms. Luong Thi Thu, teaches at the main school, teaching and taking care of the children so that her husband can rest assured in the far away village.

“The school has 37 teachers, of which 23 come from other localities to teach in Ky Son, such as Anh Son, Hung Nguyen, Do Luong, Quynh Luu, Tan Ky, and even from Ha Tinh province. Being far from home makes us more attached and loving,” said teacher Le Quynh Luu.

Not as lucky as Mr. Then and his wife, Ms. Cut Thi Hien's house was threatened by landslides that could collapse at any time, so Ms. Hien and her three children are currently living at Mr. Cut Pho Lam's house in Xop Lau village. Ms. Cut Thi Hien's husband works far away, so she alone takes care of the children, one is in first grade, the second is still in her arms. Despite all the difficulties, the classes are still held regularly, the teachers are united and support each other to stay with the class and the students, so there are almost no students who drop out of school.

Next to the primary school in Ai Khe is the kindergarten. The small classroom is decorated quite eye-catchingly, although the materials are water cans, plastic bottles, and colored paper. We were quite impressed with teacher Ngoc who volunteered to teach here. Ms. Ngoc is from the rice district of Yen Thanh, her husband and small child are still in her hometown, she has been coming to Ky Son to follow the career of educating people for more than 4 years. She only comes back a few times a year, hurriedly and hurriedly. After a moment of contemplation and homesickness, Ms. Ngoc happily returns to the classroom. "I'm used to it, journalist. At first, I cried all the time because I missed home. Now this small classroom is my second home, and the students are my children. I feel so sorry for them, because they are still poor and lacking in every way," Ms. Ngoc confided.

Saying goodbye to Muong Ai, saying goodbye to Ai Khe, I returned to the lowlands, but the image of teachers and students here smiling and dancing the modern rumba dance still remains in my memory and love. The simple joys sparkling in the eyes of the children in the remote villages evoke the warmth of the teacher-student relationship, of the effort to overcome difficulties to conquer knowledge and master life.