American veterans celebrate Tet in Nghe An

(Baonghean) - On the morning of the first day of Tet, the people of Tay Ho village, Nam Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) were surprised to see a tall "Western man" leading a buffalo to the field with friendly eyes and a smile always on his lips. His name is Paul Gheorghe Harding, an American veteran, returning to Vietnam after nearly 40 years, he volunteered to open a free English class (in Trung Hoa ward, Cau Giay district - Hanoi). This Tet, he returned to the hometown of a student to feel the warm Tet of Nghe An.

Mr. Paul shared: “For me, Vietnam is like a second homeland. Vietnamese people are affectionate, tolerant and generous. I really want to do something good for your country, so I came here to learn. Knowing that the demand for English among Vietnamese people is currently very high, while the cost of learning English is still quite expensive, so I decided to open a free English class for people living here.”

Mr. Paul's free English class is open to everyone regardless of age or educational level. Students who come to this class are not only instructed in speaking and pronunciation skills, but are also provided with cultural and social knowledge of Vietnam and the world. On his desk there is always the book "Dang Thuy Tram's Diary", this diary is the motivation that urged him to return to Vietnam and is the inspiration for him to give lectures depicting the patriotism of the Vietnamese people. He said: After reading Dang Thuy Tram's diary, I feel like I have to do something to correct the mistakes of the past, I want to put that example into my lectures so that the young generation of Vietnam remembers the achievements and feels the patriotism of this woman.

Mr. Paul takes care of buffaloes.

To understand more about Vietnamese village culture, Mr. Paul asked a student to go back to his hometown in Tay Ho village, Nam Thanh (Yen Thanh) to celebrate the traditional New Year. He stroked the buffalo and smiled: I have been here since the 28th of the lunar calendar, this is the first time I have celebrated Tet in a Vietnamese village, the village is very beautiful, people always live close to nature. I like the close and cozy reunion during Tet of Vietnamese people. During these days, people visit graves, make offerings to their ancestors and spend a lot of time visiting relatives, neighbors, meeting friends, and burning incense at their family temples. Meanwhile, Americans take advantage of their time to rest and relax. That is a big difference. I really like to eat traditional Vietnamese dishes, including banh chung, which has a very special flavor. Having met the gentle, hard-working farmers, I always have special feelings for them. Mr. Paul also did not forget to praise the buffaloes: I could not believe that the big buffaloes could be so lovely, they are attached to and help Vietnamese farmers so much.

Although he only stayed in Yen Thanh for 3 days, Mr. Paul was very much loved by the villagers because of his friendliness and rusticity. Every family invited him to celebrate New Year's Eve and to "break ground" on the first day of the year. Mr. Nguyen Tho Ha confided: During the Tet holidays, Mr. Paul visited most of the families in Tay Ho village, led buffaloes to the fields, and sometimes students, including elementary school children, came to ask for more English, which he enthusiastically explained. In particular, he also met with former anti-American soldiers to talk and confide. Mr. Nguyen Tho Bac, a veteran of the anti-American resistance war in 1972, said: "I told Mr. Paul that we were enemies before, but now we are friends, the Vietnamese are always tolerant and generous...".

In the warm spring sunshine, the old veteran was still enthusiastically teaching English to the children, then holding hands and visiting the former Vietnamese veterans on both sides of the battle line. From the bottom of his heart, he said: “We lost our youth in Vietnam, now returning to Vietnam we have found our lost youth and we have learned a lot from you”…

Van Truong