Fragile lives in a place where people still worship ghosts to cure diseases

(Baonghean.vn) - We arrived at Tung Hoc village, Huu Khuong commune - one of the most remote and difficult villages of Tuong Duong district on a hot day. From the upstream wharf at Ban Ve hydroelectric lake, it took 1.5 hours by boat and then another 30 minutes by car to reach this poor village.

Huu Khuong commune is a particularly difficult commune in Tuong Duong district because of the remote roads. The road to Tung Hoc village is even more difficult. Although we don’t have to go by boat like in other villages, the road is rough and rocky. Sitting behind the motorbike of a young commune official who is familiar with the mountain and forest roads, we still couldn’t help but sweat because of the steep slopes. Many times I had to jump off the motorbike because even though I was in first gear, it still couldn’t get over the slope.

Tung Hoc village is home to 84 households with 378 people of the Khmu ethnic group. 100% of the households here are poor and near-poor. Looking at the makeshift, dilapidated stilt houses located halfway up the mountain, we could not help but feel moved. On the way into the village, we came across a group of people gathered around a shaman performing a worship ceremony.

Around the shaman, a young Khmu mother was holding her child whose face was red from the heat. We found out that the child had been sick for almost a week and the family had to ask the shaman to perform a ritual to ward off bad luck. We were really worried about the child. The shaman's prayers were not enough to exorcise the "ghost" and cure the child?!

Whenever children in Tung Hoc get sick, their families ask a shaman to come and perform a ritual.

The village chief, Mr. Luong Van Nghe, led us to the family of Cut Van Xuyen, who had a disabled and mentally ill child. Mr. Xuyen was away, but his wife, Ms. Moong Thi Xan, was at home. Seeing the guests come in, the woman quickly threw away the cigarette she was holding in her mouth and poured us some water.

The floor was paved with rickety bamboo panels woven together, making it difficult for anyone to step on it. It was the hot season, and the rice plants had just been sown in the fields, so the family had nothing to do. Occasionally, everyone went into the forest to pick some bamboo shoots for their daily meals.

Speaking Kinh, Ms. Xan confided that she and Mr. Cut Van Xuyen (born in 1982) came together and had 3 children. The eldest daughter Cut Thi Duong is currently studying in grade 9 in Huu Khuong, the second child Cut Van Lieu (born in 2004) has been disabled and mentally ill since childhood, and the youngest child Cut Van Phuong is currently in kindergarten. Right from birth, Cut Van Lieu was a normal child, but after a bout of illness, his body was hot, and his family did not know how to treat him, so his whole body had convulsions and he has been disabled until now. The young mother seemed to have come to understand through her hardships how hard it was to take care of her children and truly regretted letting her children fall into that situation.

Cut Van Lieu was covered in mud but still raised his hand to signal to the camera lens.

Indeed, looking at Lieu, who is over 12 years old this year, she is no different from a 3-year-old child. Every day, everyone has to take turns looking after her. And everyone needs help with eating. Each month, the family receives a subsidy of 670,000 VND, which is not enough to cover the expenses for 7 mouths. Seeing us raise the camera, Lieu stretched out, raised 2 fingers, and mumbled to signal that she was ready to take a photo. Lieu's whole body smelled because she had not bathed for a long time. Mr. Luong Van Nghe said: "Children here are like that, their parents go to the fields all day, taking care of food is good enough, where do they have time to think about bathing their children?"

Lieu's father, Cut Van Xuyen, seeing that his family's situation was too difficult, applied to go to Quy Hop to mine ore. His monthly salary from mining ore was more than 3 million VND, and after deducting all expenses, he sent the rest back to his family to take care of the family. However, difficulties continued to pile up, and the family was often hungry.

We went to the house next door to meet Pit Thi Tien. The three of them were living in a makeshift hut made of bamboo and leaves, which looked like a Khmu rice warehouse. The house pillars were as small as an adult’s calf, and the thatched roof had become dilapidated and empty over time.

The three of us didn’t even have a bed to rest on. We asked, how would we sleep on rainy and cold days? Since we couldn’t speak Kinh, we had to ask the village chief to translate for us to understand. On those days, the three of us still tried to hug each other and lie down in the house, which was extremely difficult. The most valuable possessions were a few old blankets piled up in the corner.

The shack where Pit Thi Tien and her three children live.

Through the words of village chief Luong Van Nghe, we could understand the pain of Ms. Tien's family: She and Mr. Moong Van Hoa were both born in 1976, married and had two children. The first daughter, Moong Thi Tuyen (2001), was grown up but due to family circumstances, she could not go to school. The second son, Moong Van Cang (2004), was also sick and had deformed limbs, lying in one place all day.

When Cang was born, her husband, Hoa, for some unknown reason, got involved in drugs, abandoned his family, wife and children and crossed the border to Laos to find happiness with white death. While working for hire in Laos, Moong Van Hoa was arrested for drugs. It has been 8 years now, and the whole family has no news of Hoa. Everyone told each other that he must have died in Laos.

Moong Van Cang in his mother's arms.

Now, Ms. Tien's whole family depends on Cang's monthly allowance to survive. Without anyone to work, the fields are sometimes profitable and the family cannot raise any animals, so there are months when the whole family has to eat porridge and vegetables. Ms. Tien said that she also wants to go to the fields to take care of the rice plants, raise chickens and pigs, but she is afraid that something will happen to her children at home. She said that for more than 10 years, she has never found a happy laugh, this pain is always in her heart.

Leaving Tung Hoc village with its dilapidated houses and mud-covered children, we could not help but feel sad. Somewhere the sound of worshipping the dead still echoed. When will people like Ms. Xan and Ms. Tien be relieved of their hardships?

In this area, they need help both materially and in terms of life knowledge.

Dao Tho