The arduous life of a manual laborer.
(Baonghean.vn) -Most of the female porters I met were residents of Block 15, Cua Nam Ward (Vinh City). Their work is not fixed; they work whenever there's work to be done. While everyone else is fast asleep, these porters tirelessly push carts piled high with goods. For years, the Vinh market area, intersections, and warehouses overflowing with fertilizers have been their livelihoods.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Tai, residing in Block 15, Cua Nam Ward, shared her story: her group consists of six people; Block 15 has six groups, specializing in nighttime hauling, carrying bricks and soil up to the upper floors, and hauling fertilizer and potassium at the agricultural supplies company... Ms. Tai has been doing this job for over 30 years. Her husband also worked as a laborer and construction worker, accompanying her at the agricultural supplies company for eight years before he fell ill. Even after learning he had lung cancer, he still tried his best to carry bags of fertilizer, hoping to earn money for his wife and children to rebuild their house. Ms. Tai, who lost her husband at the age of 30, explained: "Because of our difficult circumstances, our children only finished high school; they didn't get into university and ended up working as laborers. Now my daughter is married, and she and her husband also work as laborers. My son works as a construction worker, earning a few hundred thousand dong a day, but the work is unstable. This job is very hard for women; we have no other choice but to follow it."
Ms. Nguyen Thi TaiI have been doing this job for over 30 years.
In Ms. Tai's group, there is Ms. Ngo Thi Than, who also faces difficult circumstances. Ms. Than is thin, suffers from kidney stones and low blood pressure. Despite this, every day she is at Vinh market at 5 a.m. to carry rice. Many days she is so tired she feels like she can't get up, but she has to go to work for fear of losing her job. Ms. Than confided: "If I had fields and gardens, I would stay home and farm and raise livestock instead of doing this job. It's both tiring and harmful..."
The job of a street cleaner involves inhaling a lot of dust and dirt for extended periods, so most of the women suffer from lung diseases. Ms. Than had quit the job and switched to selling sticky rice, but since the school banned selling goods in front of the school gate, she returned to the profession hoping to earn a little money to support her children who are of school age.
As they had silently divided the work, the group of women quietly worked day after day, some loading, some carrying, helping each other push goods onto the cart. Sweat soaked their shirts, mixing with the thick dust that covered their faces. Despite the hard work, their income was meager. On good days, they earned a hundred thousand dong, averaging 40 to 50 thousand dong, and some days they went home empty-handed.
The women returned home after a hard day's work.
I said goodbye to them as dusk fell. The city's streetlights cast a golden glow on their faces as they clattered along on their bicycles home, a simple bag of food dangling from the handlebars, along with shovels and baskets behind them. I knew they were secretly hoping for a more lucrative job tomorrow.
Thu Huong
