The journey to class during the 'falling off the bike' season of a teacher in the highlands

The road to the highland villages during the rainy season is like a fragile thread across the mountainside, where rocks and soil are always ready to collapse at any moment. Yet, thousands of teachers in the highland, especially kindergarten teachers, still have to overcome it. Every early morning, worn-out motorbikes still regularly cut through the mud and climb the slopes, taking kindergarten teachers to class.

Teacher Lo Thi Thao - Hoa Ban Kindergarten, Tia Dinh commune, is on her way to Hang Lia A village where she teaches.

There were steep slopes, the wheels slipping on the red mud; there were sharp turns only as wide as a footpath, with a cliff on one side and a deep abyss on the other. Falling off the bike was a common occurrence, but the girls still got up and continued their journey.

One of the many landslides and flooding points that teachers and people had to cross to reach the villages.

Passing through streams with water up to their knees during flood season, the bike was heavy with personal belongings being carried to school to “return leave”, along with books, school supplies and even small gifts for the students. Sometimes, the rain hit their faces, their clothes were soaked, but on the saddle, the teachers’ eyes were still directed towards the small school in the middle of the forest.

Each photo is a different moment: sometimes a skid on a muddy slope, sometimes a dirty hand guiding the bike over the rocks, sometimes a relieved smile when arriving safely. And at the end of the journey, the children's clear laughter dispelled all the hardships, so that tomorrow the teachers could continue the "bike-falling season" without any prior notice.

Some pictures were recorded by teachers on their "leave" trip to school: