Up Huoi Poc

(Baonghean) - When talking about Huoi Poc - a village in the border commune of Nam Can - Ky Son district - one thinks of its remoteness, isolation, and hardship. And anyone who has ever been to Huoi Poc will surely feel a sense of longing...

POVERTY AND MIGRATION

One day after a prolonged period of rain, I decided to trek through the forest to Huồi Pốc to learn about the lives of the Hmong people in this remote border area. When the soldiers at the Nậm Cắn International Border Gate Border Guard Post learned of my intention, they expressed concern. The border patrol road had been damaged by landslides and was slippery after the rain, making travel extremely difficult…

After navigating through piles of rubble and slippery stretches of road—many sections requiring four-wheel drive, as the Hmong call it (using both feet to support the ground)—for about 5 kilometers, Huoi Poc appeared on the other side of the mountain peak. Small, low houses with corrugated iron roofs peeked through the mist and clouds. Feeling exhilarated, I thought, "Huoi Poc isn't that far, why do people keep discouraging and warning me?" I continued to push myself along the slippery sections, walking on and on... My legs and arms ached, and at times I felt tired and discouraged. It turned out that although Huoi Poc was nearby, the road wound along the mountainside, almost a complete loop, making it dozens of times longer.

The road to Huoi Poc.

After nearly three hours of struggling on the arduous and dangerous road, I finally arrived in Huồi Pốc. It was harvest season for rice, corn, and taro, so most families were closed, and the villagers were mostly in the fields. The elderly in Huồi Pốc mostly didn't speak Vietnamese, and when asked anything, they would just say "Xi pâu! Xi pâu!" (I don't know!). After searching for a while, I couldn't find anyone to ask about village affairs. Fortunately, I met a man in his 40s who was returning from harvesting taro and spoke Vietnamese. His house was on a mountaintop, requiring a steep climb. He was open and enthusiastic in conversation. Through the conversation with the homeowner, I learned that Huồi Pốc has 174 households (nearly 1,000 inhabitants), all of whom are Hmong ethnic people. The difficult and remote location has kept the people here in poverty and backwardness. Their lives are basically self-sufficient, relying on farming. Even if a family has surplus rice, corn, or other agricultural products, they can't take them to the market to sell, and it's rare for anyone to come all the way to the village to buy them. The roads are long and arduous; transporting goods to the district market costs more in fuel than the goods themselves, not to mention the hard work involved in the journey. There's no electricity grid here, so the villagers are using small, weak, and unsafe generators.

Poverty, lack of arable land, difficult transportation, and long-standing customs are the reasons leading to migration to Laos. In Huoi Poc, from 2012 to the present, 12 households have migrated to Laos, some of them crossing the border illegally. Before migrating, people usually sell all their belongings, houses, livestock, and poultry. When the commune authorities and district working groups heard that a few households in the village intended to migrate, they tried to persuade them to come. But a few days after the working groups left, they secretly sold all their assets and left…

First-grade students at Huồi Pốc school.

THE DIFFICULTY OF WRITING

After lunch, I made my way to Nam Can 2 Primary School. The school is located on a mountaintop, and the road leading to it is narrow, steep, and bumpy. The classrooms and staff quarters are roofed with faded gray-black corrugated iron, the wooden walls are rotten, and the wooden pillars are infested with termites… Most of the classrooms have earthen floors. Mr. Nguyen Sy Dong, the principal of Nam Can 2 Primary School, said: “Located far from the center, inaccessible by car, and only accessible by motorbike during the dry season, the facilities are still rudimentary, and the level of education in the area is limited, so teaching and learning here faces many difficulties. Although the school's teaching staff are mostly young and passionate about their profession, and always strive to improve their teaching, the school's quality consistently ranks among the lowest in the entire district.”

According to the work schedule, the school organized a labor session that afternoon. The main tasks were repairing the fence and cleaning the school grounds. The teachers went into the forest to cut bamboo; students in grades 4 and 5 followed the teachers to the forest to transport materials back to the school. Meanwhile, students in grades 1, 2, and 3 swept the schoolyard and cleared weeds in the backyard… Teacher Nguyen Sy Dong said that the infrastructure, especially the classrooms and teachers' quarters, had seriously deteriorated. The education sector and district leaders are aware of the situation and sympathize, but they cannot yet fix it. This is because the road to the village is too difficult, making the transportation of building materials almost impossible. For now, teachers and students must continue to use the dilapidated classrooms and repair them themselves to bring literacy to the children.

I asked permission to return to Muong Xen, but the teachers insisted I stay, because it was already late and I couldn't get back to Muong Xen before dark. They said that tomorrow morning, someone would guide me along a shortcut, saving me more than half the journey, so I could get to Tay Son in time for work. Furthermore, it had been quite a while, perhaps since the start of the new school year, since the school had received a visitor from afar, and they hoped I would stay to better understand the lives and thoughts of those who "plant knowledge" in this remote border region. So, I spent the night in Huoi Poc.

The dinner was warm and cozy, featuring dishes typical of the mountainous region. The teachers took turns sharing memories of their teaching journeys in the border highlands. Everyone recounted happy memories; no one spoke of the difficulties or hardships. Perhaps, for them, those things had become quite normal. Only once did the principal mention that each teacher here had a spare notebook and a box of ballpoint pens, so that if any student needed them, they could be provided in time. Parents who remembered paid, and those who didn't, the teachers considered it a form of assistance. Or sometimes, the teachers would receive a few gourds or pumpkins brought by parents or students.

Huoi Poc was quite cold at night; it seemed that winter arrived earlier in this border region. The next morning, Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong was assigned to take me to National Highway 7A via a shortcut. The shortcut from Huoi Poc to Noong De village was nearly 10 km long but much more difficult, with steep mountain passes, a bumpy and slippery dirt road, and deep streams. Without driving experience, it was very easy to break down. Finally, I reached Noong De, and from there, a further 10 km downhill stretch would lead to Muong Xen… Huoi Poc was now behind me, with all its difficulties and obstacles, leaving me with a lingering sense of unease and concern…

Cong Kien