Mr. Dao Van Ly takes the children in the neighborhood to school on a raft. Photo: DANG LINH
In the scorching midday sun of Hamlet 7 Xang, a small raft swayed gently across the narrow canal. Children, clutching their schoolbags and pushing their bicycles, waited their turn to cross. Seeing the raft tilting sharply in the wind, Mr. Dao Van Ly quickly stepped down, held the rope, and slowly pushed it to the other side. "It would be terrible if children fell into the canal on their way to school; their books would get wet and they'd have to miss school," Mr. Ly said. In this hamlet, people respect him because for all matters, big or small, from building roads and bridges to encouraging students to attend school and mediating conflicts, people always turn to him.
At the age of 18, Mr. Ly left his family to join the guerrilla forces in Dong Hoa commune. Three years later, he was transferred to the An Bien local militia and then joined the Provincial Party Committee's security team until liberation. After the country was unified, because his mother was seriously ill, he requested to return to his hometown to take care of her and has been involved in farming ever since. His family owned 12 acres of land, but he divided almost all of it among his three children, keeping only a few acres for rice cultivation and shrimp farming.
Many years ago, when the local authorities implemented a policy to switch from inefficient rice cultivation to a shrimp-rice farming model to adapt to the encroaching salinity, the entire village was divided into two camps. Some were willing to do it, while others opposed it, leading to lawsuits because they feared that introducing saltwater into the fields would render rice production impossible. Mr. Ly was one of the first to boldly try it. "At first, I failed; it wasn't a success immediately. The soil still had pesticide residue from the old fields, so the shrimp kept dying. It took almost three years to clean it up," Mr. Ly recalled.
Seeing Mr. Ly's success, many households began to follow suit, and from then on, the lives of the villagers gradually improved thanks to brackish water shrimp farming. Mr. Tong Van Hoa - Deputy Secretary of the Party Branch, Deputy Head of Hamlet 7 Xang, commented: "Mr. Ly is a respected figure among the Khmer people, living harmoniously and responsibly, so the villagers trust him very much. Whenever there is a problem in the hamlet, people always seek out Mr. Ly. He speaks with reason and compassion, so the villagers trust him."
What worries Mr. Ly most right now is the unfinished bridge across the canal. Along the approximately 600-meter stretch of canal, nearly a hundred households live. Adults cross to work in the fields, and children go to school using makeshift rafts. There are nearly a dozen small rafts, homemade by the locals, and everyone is worried on windy or rainy days. Years ago, he mobilized the villagers to contribute labor and collect old planks to use for a wooden bridge, but the bridge has deteriorated over time. Mr. Ly said: “Building a new bridge would probably cost around 50 million dong. I plan to raise funds gradually. Once there's a bridge, the children will be safer going to school, and it will be easier for the villagers to transport rice and shrimp.”
Once, when he saw students skipping school to work as laborers, Mr. Ly went to their homes to encourage them. He spoke to the children with simple, honest words: "Study hard, children. The poorer you are, the more you must study, so that you will have an easier life than your parents." In the 1990s, when the local authorities were campaigning to build school foundations, Mr. Ly also rolled up his sleeves and contributed his labor without hesitation. He couldn't remember how many school foundations he had helped build, only that one year he worked for months at a time. "My wife and children always nagged me, saying I should be doing my own thing instead of worrying about other people's affairs. I just smiled and tried my best to take care of the household chores to make up for it. In life, you have to maintain your reputation with the community and uphold your morals and conscience," Mr. Ly confided.
At 73 years old, Mr. Ly still worries about the affairs of his village, still deeply concerned about building a small bridge for the people to cross, still afraid of students falling into the canal during the rainy season, still going from household to household to help build roads and bring electricity, living a life dedicated to the community.
Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/mot-doi-lo-viec-chung-a487514.html
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