Hope to have a public house

After graduating, I was assigned to work at Nghia Yen Secondary School (Nghia Dan District, Nghe An). Holding the decision in my hand along with the excitement of youth, many plans were outlined in my mind.

On the first day of the decision presentation, the principal confided: "Nghia Yen School has 2 branches, branch II is 15km from branch I, the roads are difficult to travel, the students are Tho ethnic group, the school does not have public housing for teachers."

I was absent-minded: Should I go back to my hometown to live with my parents because if I stayed, the school wouldn't have a dormitory? But I decided to stay to make my dream come true...

The housing worries were resolved, I was introduced by the Union President to live with a retired teacher who used to teach at the school, about 1 km away from the school. The new life of the young teacher was like a closed circle: go to work in the morning, come home at noon to eat and rest, prepare lessons in the afternoon, and sleep at night. Day after day, month after month, life just passed like that. Many times I suddenly thought, will my youth always be like this? I also have to get married and have children. But in this remote place, who will I marry? Who will I marry now?

I decided to stay in the central area (now Thai Hoa Town). Although it was more fun and more meaningful out there, all my expenses were limited to 935,000 VND (at that time, I was still under contract).

This difficulty was solved, another difficulty followed. The place where I live is 15 km from the school, on the days when I teach at branch II, I have to travel nearly 30 km. On sunny days it is bearable, but on rainy days when Khe To bridge is flooded, I have to travel another 25 km on the trail to get to school. Then on the days of professional activities, class visits, Youth Union and Young Pioneer activities, I have to stay until the afternoon to return. My lunch in those days was a pack of instant noodles, a sandwich, sometimes a ball of sticky rice. And my resting place was the chairs and tables in the school office. In such a situation, I sometimes feel sad: where can I find the passion for the profession? But I still have hope that one day my school will have a public house for teachers.

One year, two years, then three years passed, that hope gradually faded away... I, as well as many teachers in remote areas, earnestly hoped for more attention from the Party Committee, the government, and the Department of Education to invest in building dormitories for teachers. Only then would Nghia Yen's educational career flourish.

Nguyen Thu Ha