The sowers of letters in Pu Lon

One autumn day, we followed the teachers of Tay Son school to Dong village (including Dong Tren and Dong Duoi) of Tay Son commune (Ky Son). To be honest, although I have been through many roads in the Western region of Nghe An, this 15 km long road is probably the most terrifying road for me. The small dirt road is steep and slippery. The bike always plows in first gear but still moves slowly. There were some sections where I was so discouraged that I wanted to turn back, but seeing the teachers diligently leading and pushing the bike, I made up my mind to reach the high Hmong village located on the Pu Lon range.

Arriving at the place, just dropping off the bike, quickly washing her hands and feet, teacher Xong Y Ia (born in 1995) immediately ran to the gate to welcome each student into the classroom. Her preschool class in Dong Duoi village has only 1 class with 18 students. Seeing the teacher, the little students immediately ran to hold her hands like relatives they hadn't seen for a long time. Teacher Y Ia said that the students here are also very pitiful, many of them are young but have to live with their grandparents, while their parents work for a living. "Life is hard so the children also have to suffer. Sometimes when I look at the students, I think of my children at home, whose parents go to work and have to leave them with their grandparents for a whole week" - teacher Xong Y Ia sighed.

When we asked, Xong Y Ia confided: She has 2 children, one is 7 years old, one is 3 years old, but because her husband also works far away, she has to rely on her grandparents in Son Ha village (Ta Ca commune). Although this place is only 15 km from home, the steep mountain road is difficult to travel to and from, so she can only go home to visit her children on weekends. When it is sunny, it only takes a little over 1 hour to go up or down, but when it rains, it takes at least 3 hours. There is no electricity grid here, the phone signal is sometimes available, sometimes not, so she misses her children very much but has to endure not being able to call them.

Every Friday evening after the students have gone home, Ms. Xong Y Ia runs back to her children. On Sunday afternoons, she goes to the market to buy rice, fish sauce, salt, and a few other foods enough for a week, then "rides" her old motorbike to the village. "Being alone here sometimes makes me scared, but I'm used to it. In the past years, I lived in Lu Thanh and Vang Lu villages, the roads were difficult, but having someone to live with me made it easier. Now, there is only one class of students, so I'm alone like this. About 2 km from the Dong Duoi village school is Dong Tren village, where my husband's younger sister has just graduated and is teaching. The two sisters live close to each other, so when it gets dark, I sometimes have to invite her down to eat and sleep with me to lessen my fear. Fortunately, the villagers here care about the teachers, so when they see that they are short of food, they bring vegetables, tubers, and fruits to share," Ms. Y Ia said happily.

Opposite the kindergarten is the Tay Son Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities. The entire school has 20 first and second graders with 3 teachers. The person with the longest "seniority" here is teacher Ha Ba Tenh (born in 1982) with 18 years in the village. Teacher Tenh said that in the past, going to Dong village to teach after graduating from school was really a big challenge. There was no road, only a small path in the forest to travel. His house was also in Son Ha village (Ta Ca commune), but to get to Dong village back then, he had to walk for a whole day. Now, although there is a road, it is not much better; in the rain, walking and pushing a cart takes almost the same amount of time. “The three male teachers, plus the kindergarten teacher at Xong Y Ia, always had to make appointments to go together. If something happened, we would help each other push the cart uphill. The hardest part was when the school had a meeting or an event. When they called us, we were at a place with no signal and couldn’t be reached. By the time they called, it was almost time for the meeting so they couldn’t get back in time,” said teacher Ha Ba Tenh sadly.

In a small room of about 15 square meters is the resting and working place of 3 teachers. The small kitchen is made of simple planks containing pots and pans, where the teachers cook. Teacher Mua Ba Vu said that every week when they go home, they take turns carrying boxes of instant noodles and eggs to use for the whole week. "The biggest shortage here is still electricity and internet. Now teaching according to the new general education program, but the teachers all have to teach "freely" like this, it is very difficult" - Teacher Mua Ba Vu confided.

However, according to the teachers who have been living in the village for a long time, the time they have been living in the village is nothing compared to the couple of Mr. Nguyen Ho Quang and Ms. Vo Thi Minh Binh. Last year, Mr. Quang and his wife were transferred to the main base to teach, but the story about him is still remembered by the villagers.

Mr. Nguyen Ho Quang is from Yen Khe commune (Con Cuong), and Ms. Vo Thi Minh Binh is from Cat Van (Thanh Chuong). Having graduated from Pedagogy, Mr. Quang and Ms. Binh both applied to work here. After years of hard work in the village, Mr. Quang and his wife can speak Mong like a real Mong person. He is also a bridge for people from the lowlands to work or trade with the Mong people. All kinds of birds in the sky, animals in the deep forest, trees, flowers... are all spoken by him in Mong to the local people.

Talking about this, Mr. Ha Ba Long in Dong Tren village also recounted that: The villagers saw that Mr. Quang and his wife had been living in the village for a long time, and they asked to move their household registration here to live with the villagers, so they really liked him. He was fluent in the language, writing, and customs of the Mong people, so everyone asked the village elder's opinion to organize a naming ceremony for him. This was an unprecedented event in Dong village. Of course, the village elder also agreed because he loved the teacher for his long-time dedication to the village. So, each villager contributed a little money to buy a pig to slaughter to hold a ceremony to ask for Mr. Quang to be given a family name and change his name to a Mong name. After the ceremony, everyone called him Ha Chong Cua.

We said goodbye to the teachers stationed on the top of Pu Lon. The clouds began to roll in, making the cold seep into our skin. But looking at the wildflowers that the students brought to give to their teachers on the occasion of November 20th, we felt so warm inside. Although their material life was still lacking and difficult, a great happiness still shone in each person’s eyes. That was the hope and desire to bring letters to the remote villages of the teachers stationed in the great mountains of Nghe An.