Lives huddled together in the cold night in Vinh city
(Baonghean.vn) - Late at night, the cold gets more and more intense, the streets become less and less deserted and fall asleep. Here and there on the roadside, under the bridge or on the eaves of high-rise buildings in Vinh city, there are still people quietly working to earn a living and looking for shelter in the cold night.
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| The cold air continuously flows in, at night the pace of life in Vinh seems to slow down, no one wants to leave the house unless it is necessary. Those who come home late rush to return to their warm home, to stay in a windproof room with a warm blanket. It is not yet 10pm but the streets are deserted, only the cleaners are still busy with their work. Photo: Duc Anh |
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| On Hong Bang Street, Ms. Nguyen Thi T. is still busy collecting every piece of scattered trash and patiently pushing the garbage cart through the collection points of each residential area. In the night fog and the shade of the trees along the road, Ms. T. looks like a shadow. She shared: “My work starts from 5 p.m. every day until 2 a.m. the next morning. Other seasons are still bearable, but the hardest is winter, because the working time is when the temperature is at its lowest during the day. Every day, I hope to finish work early so I can go home and bury myself in my blanket, hug my child and go to sleep…”. Photo: Duc Anh |
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| After working for a while, Ms. T. had to rest to regain her strength, sitting huddled, rubbing her cold hands... Photo: Duc Anh |
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| Dinh Cong Trang Street, a young girl is “struggling” with a pile of dishes lying around. The girl said that her family lives in a mountainous district and she came to Vinh to find work to help her parents raise her. The job of serving at a night restaurant starts from dusk until the end of the customers, sometimes until 1 am, including preparing, serving and washing dishes. Photo: Duc Anh |
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| On cold nights, washing dishes is a very hard job, it feels like when touching water, the cold seeps into the bones, the hands are as hard as stone. There are days when I have to sit washing dishes for hours, my body is shaking but I have to try to finish the job. Photo: Duc Anh |
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| On the sidewalk of Le Loi street, taxi drivers are still hoping for a few more customers... Photo: Duc Anh |
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| At the garbage collection point on Quang Trung Street, a middle-aged woman bends down to search for cardboard and plastic bottles and puts them in a sack. She looks patient and quiet in the middle of a winter night, despite the cold that surrounds her. Photo: Duc Anh |
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Also on Quang Trung Street, a woman is sitting selling children’s toys. The street is deserted but she still sits there with the hope that someone will stop by to sell a few more things. But the street is getting more and more deserted, she still sits motionless… Photo: Duc Anh |
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At the foot of the high-rise buildings on Le Loi Street, in front of the porch hung an old tarpaulin, from inside came the hoarse coughs of an old man. Seeing someone coming to visit, the old man coughed and cried: "I'm almost 80 years old, I used to have a happy family but fate has pushed me into a situation of no home, no relatives, for decades I have had to cling to the sidewalk to live, collecting scrap metal during the day, coming here to stay at night. The last few nights have been so cold, my pneumonia has relapsed, I've been coughing constantly and I can't sleep..." Photo: Duc Anh |
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| At Cua Tien Bridge, on Pham Hong Thai Street, an old woman also in her 80s is sitting by the roadside asking for compassion from passersby. During the day, the old woman goes everywhere collecting scrap metal, and at night she sits here waiting for sympathy. Late at night, she lies down under the bridge to rest... Photo: Duc Anh |
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| To dispel the cold, people who make a living at night and homeless people often look for firewood and collect scraps to make a fire to warm themselves, hoping to dispel the winter cold. Photo: Duc Anh |
| Fates on a cold night in Vinh city. Clip: Cong Kien - Duc Anh |
