The foraging life of the 'mismatched chopsticks' in the Nam Giai forest

(Baonghean.vn) - In the morning, the 24-year-old husband took his wife, who is 12 years older than him, into the forest to pick bamboo shoots. They had one thing in common: they were illiterate.

Couple Ha Van Tai and Vi Thi Loan. Photo: Huu Vi

On the main road through Cha Lau village, Nam Giai commune, Que Phong district (Nghe An), there is a makeshift hut nestled like a watchtower. The hut is deserted, damp and dark, with two beds inside. The stove is cold with firewood. On the kitchen loft, there are a few baskets, tools used to transport wild bamboo shoots. The large, convex-screen TV is an asset.most valuable in this humble tent.

The villagers said that this is the home of the couple Ha Van Tai and Vi Thi Loan. They have lived in the tent since early 2016 when they started living on their own. Loan is gathering with a group of women and children in the village in a nearby stilt house. It is a rainy day, so the women and girls are off work picking bamboo shoots - the "job" that can help them earn money. The new school year has not yet started, so the children can only sit at home. The men are gathering somewhere in the village drinking.

The "home" of Vi Thi Loan and her husband, one generation younger than her. Photo: Ho Phuong

When asked about her year of birth, the woman with a haggard face shook her head and said, “I don’t know.” When asked about her age, Loan said, “36 or 37. My husband is 21. My mother doesn’t remember my year of birth,” Loan said.

Ms. Loan from Na Puc village and Mr. Tai from Chao village, both in Nam Giai commune, Que Phong district, got married after half a year when their parents let them live separately. Their families were so poor that separating the households and letting their children live independently was the best way they could think of to reduce the family's economic pressure. Before that, due to bank debt, the husband's parents had to sell their stilt house and forest land and had not yet paid off their debts. They also had to live in tents - according to Ms. Loan.

Means of living of Mr. Tai and Mrs. Loan

This unmarried couple went to Cha Lau village to borrow a piece of land from an acquaintance to build a hut. From there they began their life of foraging. In the morning, both husband and wife woke upcarrying a basket into the forest. Husband first, wife second, the two of them went to pick bamboo shoots, mushrooms, wild vegetables... Picking everything that could be sold to get money to buy rice. The couplealso pay attention to avoidng “their” forest - that is, the protective forest to avoid being fined. Building houses on borrowed land and not having any land to plant forests or rice. Picking and gathering is the only way for Mr. Tai and Ms. Loan to make a living.

The couple had one thing they thought was “similar”: they had never been to school, so neither of them knew how to read or write. They had a household registration book and two identity cards. But no one knew what was written on these documents. Tai had a phone. He asked someone else to save his contacts. When he needed to call someone, he called the literate boys and girls in the village to help.

The identity cards of the "mismatched couple". Photo: Huu Vi

According to cHung Minh Nhan Dan, Mr. Tai was born in 1993, Ms. Loan was born in 1981. "Parents are poor, they don't let them go to school" - Ms. Loanspeak.

Mr. Tai said he had been sick since he was a child but did not know what the disease was. The Thai people call it “luong” (jaundice). The body is weak, the skin is yellow, the abdomen is bloated. He cannot do heavy work like a healthy person. He and his wife also had a child but he died more than a month after giving birth. Village residents said that Mr. Tai and Ms. Loan’s family is the poorest in Cha Lau village./.

Ho Phuong - Huu Vi