The children of the village
(Baonghean.vn) -Not only Mr. Dềnh Bá Thò or Mr. Vừ Giống Giìa (Head of the Vừ clan), but also the people of all 25 H'Mông, Thái, and Khơ mú villages consider Lieutenant Colonel Võ Thanh Tùng and the soldiers of Construction Team 1 – Kỳ Sơn as their own children...
A strange land becomes a home...
"...In the early days of setting foot in Huoi Tu, Muong Long, all we saw were mountains piled upon mountains, clouds and fog blanketing the forests, the people starving year-round, poverty and backward customs clinging to them... At times, even the soldiers of Construction Team 1 felt disheartened and worried." Lieutenant Colonel Vo Thanh Tung - Team Leader of Construction Team 1, Ky Son District Military Command, recalled thoughtfully.
In the early days of the "four together" policy with the local people (eating together, living together, working together, and speaking the local language together), perhaps the "speaking together" was the most difficult. The soldiers didn't understand what the people said, and when the soldiers spoke, the people could only laugh "xi pâu" (meaning they didn't understand). So, we had to throw ourselves into learning their language. We studied day and night. When going to the fields with the villagers, everyone carried a small notebook, sometimes just a piece of paper filled with phonetic transcriptions of their dialect.
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Lieutenant Va Nhia Co and Lieutenant Vu Ba Va – soldiers born and raised in this land – became very effective "teachers" and "interpreters." The team members constantly reminded each other to unite, strive, and adhere to the motto "listen to the people, explain things to them, and set an example for them to follow." As a result, in a short time, the people were very pleased and satisfied. The soldiers truly became a solid support for the Party committee, the government, and the local people.
Mr. Ly Cha Chu, Secretary of the Party Committee of Huoi Tu commune, said: “In 2004-2005, before Construction Team 1 came here, our commune's Party Committee was considered weak. Thanks to the soldiers, in 2006 the commune's Party Committee rose from weak to fairly good, and in 2007, our Huoi Tu commune Party Committee was recognized as a strong and exemplary Party Committee.” In addition, the team did a good job of disseminating information and mobilizing the people to prevent unauthorized migration; currently, only 4 households/12 people remain (compared to 19 households/102 people who migrated freely in 2007).
The task of encouraging children to attend school was fraught with difficulties. Every morning, the soldiers and teachers would go to each house to wake the children up, coax them, and then lead them to school hand in hand. The team also used their meager salaries to buy 500 notebooks and 120 pens to donate to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The soldiers also organized games and sang songs to instill enthusiasm and enjoyment in the children. The number of students gradually increased. In the 2007-2008 school year, they successfully encouraged 43 primary school students and 25 secondary school students to return to school.
Without a national power grid, the soldiers used their salaries to build a small hydroelectric plant (2.5KW) so they could watch the Euro football matches on the soldiers' TV, which the villagers loved. Regardless of sunny or rainy days, the team members divided themselves into groups and went to remote villages to guide and supplement the villagers' knowledge on raising beef cattle, black chickens, growing taro, elephant grass for cattle, and snow tea; how to live scientifically and hygienically; how to prevent diseases in humans and livestock; organizing medical examinations and treatment for the villagers; encouraging young people to quit drugs; repairing the teachers' dormitory; and patrolling and protecting the villages with the 8th Youth Volunteer Brigade...
Mr. Ly Dua Cho, formerly from a poor household, has been helped by his siblings to rise to wealth, earning nearly 40 million VND annually from tea cultivation and raising beef cattle and black chickens. He has become a model of successful household economic development for others to emulate.
In the first six months of 2008, the officers of Construction Team 1 also advised Party committees at all levels to recruit 14 new Party members (all of whom were H'Mông ethnic people, including 2 female Party members). The team sponsored 3 families of martyrs. With only 50,000 VND per family per month, the officers' regular visits, care, and assistance to these families of policy beneficiaries have helped alleviate the difficulties faced by their relatives.
Soldier's headquarters
I read some poems written on the cupboard door:
The mist drifted in through the door.
Patches of clouds overhead
The house pulls the sky down low...
There, the team had to be self-sufficient in all aspects of life, from food and drink to water for drinking and bathing. During the dry season, the team members had to carry water in cans all the way from Huồi Thăng (7 km away). Sometimes, while on their way to the base, they would encounter heavy rain and floods, making it impossible to return, so they had to find cassava roots and corn to eat in people's houses while waiting for the floodwaters to recede.
During the rainy days in the jungle, missing home, they felt like they had done something wrong.
Lieutenant Nguyen Huu Hien's father (from Mo Duc-Con Cuong) has been receiving treatment for stomach cancer at K Hospital in Hanoi for over two months, and his wife is pregnant...
As for Lieutenant Nguyen Van Ngoc (from Hung Tien, Nam Dan), his father lost one eye in an accident, his mother is old and frail, and his children are still young, so everything depends on the hardworking hands of his young wife.
The team leader, Lieutenant Colonel Vo Thanh Tung, has elderly parents over 80 years old who are frequently ill... And then there are the other officers, Binh, Quang, Va, Co, and Bien... each with their own difficult circumstances. But they always remain united, overcome difficulties, and dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to their work.
Children of the village...
Mr. Vu Giong Gia (84 years old) still remembers the day he and his relatives from the Vu clan in Huoi Mu village, Huoi Tu commune, had to travel hundreds of kilometers from Ky Son to Nam Hung commune (Nam Dan district) to meet the parents of Lieutenant Colonel Vo Thanh Tung, the elders of the Vo clan, and Tung's wife and children to ask for Tung's admission into the Vu clan. “The soldiers of Team 1 are very good. Soldier Tung is very good. His mouth always speaks kind words, his hands always do good work for the villagers. We are very pleased, we consider him as one of our own, please allow him to join our Vu clan,” Mr. Vu Giong Gia said emotionally. Touched by the sincere feelings of the head of the Vu clan, Tung's family accepted. And on November 28, 2007, the Vu clan and the entire Huoi Mu village organized a grand and special ceremony: the ceremony of Tung's admission into the Vu clan. After bowing before the ancestral altar of the Vu family and performing the ritual of tying threads around their wrists, and sharing a bowl of strong wine, soldier Tung officially joined the Vu family – Vu Thanh Tung. The Vu family and the villagers celebrated this event with festivities, singing and dancing for a whole day and night.
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Now, it's not just Mr. Dềnh Bá Thò in Huồi Khả village, or the head of the Vừ clan – Mr. Vừ Giống Giìa – in Huồi Mú village (Huồi Tụ commune – Kỳ Sơn district) who consider Lieutenant Colonel Võ Thanh Tùng and the eight members of Base Construction Team 1 – Kỳ Sơn as sons of the H'Mông clans, but almost all the H'Mông, Thái, Khơ Mú... ethnic people in the 25 villages here truly consider the soldiers of Base Construction Team 1 – Kỳ Sơn District Military Command as sons of their villages.
Bidding farewell to the soldiers of Construction Team 1, their hands clasped tightly, Tùng and Bình hastily wrapped themselves in faded green raincoats, saying quickly: "Please understand, we have an appointment tonight at the 8th Youth Volunteer Brigade to discuss planting snow tea trees for the villagers – snow tea is a specialty of Kỳ Sơn."
Before he could finish his sentence, their figures gradually disappeared into the pitch-black rain, leaving only the flickering beams of flashlights visible along the slopes of Huồi Đun mountain...
Text and photos: Trong LocNghe An Provincial Military Command