Meet in the same hometown

(Baonghean) - It is still the road under the shade of the solemn cajuput trees that guides me home. The ponds of Chua village and Sen village are starting to glow with the color of lotus. Along the road, the gentle singing voice: "Uncle Ho's childhood has traveled the length of the ferry boat/ Uncle Ho's childhood has lived the width of the folk song..." (Listening to the ferry boat singing at night, remembering Uncle Ho - An Thuyen).

So, the simple people of Uncle Ho's hometown welcomed guests right from the beginning of the village with such a simple melody...

Veterans visit Uncle Ho's hometown. Photo: Nguyen Sach

How many times have I come here, standing under the shade of this bamboo, admiring the straight, flexible lines, both the softness and the arching of the tops; and the dense, solid interweaving into a durable mass, clinging tightly to the land and bloodline of the village. And so it becomes a rampart, a bank. How many times have I stood by the banks of this pond, this well. The pond is like a clear, silent, deep mirror that frames so many memories and feelings. So that every May, the lotus color awakens, the scent seems to permeate the scent of the fields and rice. The scent leads to the beautiful banks, all neatly lined with golden silk.

The well, the village well, awakens the sky, draining the summer to be clear and cool, draining the winter to give off steam to warm people. Many times, footsteps falter on small roads, sometimes winding, sometimes straight, winding but not winding and complicated. It seems that people's hearts are always open to the fresh air of many houses and alleys. The gateway is like a village eye, half-closed in the summer afternoon, with the warm breath of spring carried along by the festival season of the first month of the year...

A corner of Hoang Tru village, Uncle Ho's maternal hometown. Photo: Dao Tuan

Yet I am still amazed by the sacred peace. I am still amazed by the many stories I have heard and the many people I have met in this place.

As a resident of Chua village, after many years of raising fish in his pond, he decided to give up fish to grow lotus. He said that a few years ago, when he heard about the lotus growing project, everyone in Uncle Ho's hometown supported it. Although raising fish brings in higher income than growing lotus, he grows it to beautify the landscape of Uncle Ho's hometown, to help people everywhere understand why this land is called Kim Lien. It is like doing something for his hometown.

She was a fruit seller right next to the small road. She waved me over to buy the guavas she had just picked from her garden, and then insisted on not taking the money because she knew I was looking for a family of folk singers. She left her load of goods and led me to the house of Mr. Tu and Mr. Ut. Then, right on Mr. Ut's bed, she sang along with the trembling voices of the elders, who were approaching their 90s, saying: "The most joyful thing is the Kim Lien scene/ The scene has scenery, the fairies have people"...

Tourists from all over the world visit Uncle Ho's hometown. Photo: Nguyen Sach

As a narrator who has been telling stories about Uncle Ho for 25 years, still wearing a simple ao dai, drops of sweat on her emotional face. Female narrator Bui Bich Dam said that every day she sheds tears, not only when telling the story she tells but also when meeting the emotions of visitors who come to Uncle Ho's hometown. She remembers most a visitor from Hai Duong, who brought an old, worn backpack to visit with a cadre of the Quang Tri Provincial Military Command on the morning of May 2005. That visitor arrived early, and lingered on. When asked about the story, he said: "I came to visit Uncle Ho's hometown on behalf of my son. During the war, while marching to the South, my son had visited Uncle Ho's hometown.

When he went to the battlefield, he wrote a letter home to tell his parents about that honor, and also expressed his wish that when peace was restored, he would return from the South to visit Uncle Ho's hometown again. But then he sacrificed himself. Today, I came to bring his remains back, and at the same time fulfill my son's wish". Ms. Dam also had the chance to meet the woman who made a solo journey on foot from Ben Nha Rong to visit Uncle Ho's hometown? Witnessed severely wounded soldiers who rolled their wheelchairs by themselves, wounded soldiers, and disabled people who no longer had eyes, but still wanted to personally offer fresh flowers in Uncle Ho's house, and to come to the hemp hammock that supported Uncle Ho during his childhood.

It is the guests who come here every day that let her know more about Uncle Ho. Know more about his respect and admiration. Know more about his greatness. Know and love more the sacred work that she is responsible for.

Tourists listen to explanations about Uncle Ho's relics. Photo: Nguyen Sach

We met 4 veterans, 4 wounded soldiers: Bui Huu Huynh, Dao Manh Hung, Pham Duy Ton, Nguyen Duy Khoat who are currently living in Ho Chi Minh City and Vung Tau. They are all from the North, from Hai Phong, from Nam Dinh. All 4 are former comrades, from the same unit, soldiers of the Dong Thap 1 Regiment. Although they are nearly 70 years old, this is the first time all 4 of Uncle Ho's soldiers have been able to visit Uncle Ho's hometown, fulfilling a dream of many years. They rented a car together, sat next to each other like when they were in the same trench to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Uncle Ho's hometown.

They touched the fence, touched the bamboo blind, they seemed to want to absorb all the scenery of his homeland in themselves to return, to continue living with happiness and serenity. They shared that: In their youth, following his words, they volunteered to go to battle and defeat the enemy, then following his words, stayed to build the homeland of the South, accepting the South as their homeland. It was the moments when they turned to him that helped them overcome the most difficult periods during the war and in their later lives...

Tourists visit Uncle Ho's maternal home. Photo: Dao Tuan

I, like many others, came to that countryside not only to visit the place where our Uncle Ho was born and raised, but also to find in my heart a harmony with my roots. More than any other land, this place connects people, making them feel that within themselves and everyone else there is an invisible, soft but strong bond that connects them together, and they are ready to integrate, to love and to move forward.

Thuy Vinh