Tet on the boats

(Baonghean.vn) - Lunar New Year is approaching, but the atmosphere in the boat village is still gloomy and desolate. The simple wish to welcome a warm and prosperous Tet after a year of drifting on the river is also "up and down" like their own lives...

The ups and downs of life

In the bitter cold of the last days of the year, we found our way back to the people of the sampan hamlet at the foot of Ro bridge (Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An). About 20 old and dilapidated boats lay huddled, silent in the thick fog. Waking up early in the morning, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tung hurriedly put on a warm, worn-out coat and stood on the bank, looking hesitantly towards the river wharf. He is a native of the sampan hamlet, for generations, generations of his family have taken boats as their homes and Lam river as their livelihood. He said that during the resistance war against the US, the sampan hamlet had more households when a few boats of transport workers came to live and contribute. After the war, they stayed, choosing this river wharf as the place to anchor their lives. And so, the old and the new became friends and lived crowdedly until now.

Desolate Cau Ro ferry village at the end of the year

Mr. Tung and his wife and their little grandchild just hope for a more fulfilling Tet.



Tet is approaching, but Nguyen Thi Tiet's family still has to struggle to make ends meet.

Like many people in the hamlet, Mr. Tung does not remember the exact date of his birth, but he said that, when he was near the end of his life, poverty and hunger still clung to him. When asked why he and the people here did not leave their boats and go ashore to find work to change their precarious fate, he smiled sadly and said: When he was young, he also went ashore to work as a boat builder, but in 1992, the cooperative dissolved and he became unemployed. With no qualifications and limited skills, since then, drifting on the river, living off the "generosity" of the Lam River has become a lifelong profession. Mr. Tung no longer remembers how many times he had to patch up his old, dilapidated boat to make a living, struggling to feed his family of five. Luckily, near the end of his turbulent life, he, his wife and their orphaned grandchild were able to live in a new boat that their children had saved up to buy for them.

“My life is hard, but the thing I love the most is my grandchild who is just over 3 years old. A few days after he was born, his mother left because his family was so poor. Then when he was 2 years old, his father went to the South to work, but since then there has been no news. I am also old, I am only worried that when I die, no one will love and take care of my grandchild?!”, Mr. Tung choked up as he recounted.

In this poor hamlet, difficult circumstances like Mr. Tung's family are not uncommon. The neighbor next to his boat is the family of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Viet. When we visited, his family was busy moving the gravel they had just dredged from the riverbed to the shore. Seeing the flashing camera light, Mr. Viet looked worried and explained: "My family does this job because it is a last resort. We don't make enough to eat all year, all month, but we have to take the risk for the sake of our children." In the conversation with us, Mr. Viet humorously said that after more than 20 years of living in this fishing hamlet, his family is considered "richer" than the surrounding families because... they have many children. He and his wife have 5 children, including the eldest daughter who just got married and moved out on her own, which is considered to be okay. His two sons dropped out of school and are now working as construction workers in Vinh. In the family of seven, only the fourth child is in high school - considered the most "educated" in the family - but he still has to go to school some days and work hard with his parents.

“This job can only be done for 6 months of the year, the remaining months when the flood water comes, we just sit around doing nothing. The family’s monthly income is about 1.5 million, all living expenses depend on that. Sand and gravel are increasingly scarce, living on the river is increasingly dangerous, while prices only increase, so life is extremely difficult!”, Mr. Viet shared.

The whole hamlet of Van was unusually quiet on the last day of the year. Above, on the right side of the Ro bridge, groups of passenger buses brought children from far away back to reunite with their families after a year of hard work. Not far away, the residents of Van hamlet sat with their knees drawn up in sadness, dreaming of the day they could go ashore, dreaming of a Tet holiday without drifting…

Tet is still far away...

When we asked about the preparations for Tet, Mr. Tung waved his hand: “What have we prepared? What is there to prepare? The poor boat people, Tet is even more worrying. In his whole life, he has never had a proper Tet!”. The 77-year-old man shared: “Our Tet is very simple! If we have money, we go ashore to buy a few kilos of meat and some candy to prepare for the feast. The children, those who have the means, give us a banh chung, some give us a package of candy to put on the altar to worship our ancestors. Wandering from boat to boat, the days of Tet are over in a flash.” While talking to us, looking at his little grandchild who is purple from the cold in his old, worn-out warm coat, Mr. Tung wished: “This Tet, if we have the government’s support money, we will save some money to buy a new shirt for him. All year long, he has to wear his siblings’ leftover clothes.”



Mr. Nguyen Dinh Viet struggles with sand and gravel in the bitter cold.

Not only Mr. Tung but also all the residents of the hamlet under the Ro bridge, every time Tet comes, can only try to prepare a simple Tet like that. We followed the bridge, made of old planks that floated on the water with each step, to get into the boat of Ms. Nguyen Thi Tiet's family. Tet was approaching, but her family had only just bought a row of flashing lights, which she said was "just for the atmosphere!". While we were sitting and talking, Mr. Nguyen Van Duong (her husband) had just returned from fishing, looking at the basket of fish with only a few, he shook his head in dismay: "It's been two months, every day is gone, I don't make enough to eat two meals a day, guys". Ms. Tiet's whole family are fishermen, all the family's expenses depend on the catch of the net, so since the Lam River is no longer as generous as before, the family's economy has also declined significantly. The children's education has also "broken down halfway". “My eldest child went to work after finishing 9th grade. Now he is a garment worker in Binh Duong, sending home more than 500,000 VND per month. When his business is successful, he will have to wait until he comes back to have some money for Tet.”

The ferry hamlet of Cau Ro has about 20 boats anchored close together, with an unstable fishing profession and a struggling economy. This means that this Tet, 20 households with nearly 100 people will continue to celebrate a Tet lacking in every way. The deep and immense Lam River now seems to no longer be tolerant enough to open their hearts to the people of the ferry hamlet. The new year opens, but will their hardships and difficulties ever come to an end...?/.

Pham Bang - Thanh Duy