The arduous task of carrying rice sacks for hire.

Each sack of rice weighs several tens of kilograms, bringing in several hundred thousand dong per day. The job of carrying rice for hire provides a livelihood for many people, but it also drains their strength with each harvest season.

As evening falls and the sunlight fades across the houses along the dike, the hired laborers carrying rice are busy working for their landowners. In the fields of Can Dang commune, the ripe rice stalks bend their heads, painting the sky golden. Combine harvesters are busily harvesting the rice. On the 4 Tong canal, barges move slowly, cutting through the water, carrying rice. On the dike, sacks of rice are unloaded onto boats. When the holds are full, the boats gradually fill up, and the boatmen start their engines, transporting the rice down the canal to the main river for weighing at the mills.

Hired rice porters in Can Dang commune carry rice for farmers during harvest season. Photo: THANH CHINH

As soon as one barge departed, another docked. The hired porters quickly lifted the wooden planks from the canal down to the barges for easier transport. Looking at the vast rice fields, we were overwhelmed by the golden hues and filled with pride at the fertile land of our homeland. From the opposite bank of the canal, we encountered a small boat loaded with rice, moving from a small canal to the main Canal 4. In the fading afternoon sun, the hired porters disembarked from the boat and carried sacks of rice onto the large barge.

During the rice harvest season, those who work as hired rice porters toil in the fields for many hours each day. Most of them have difficult family lives, but they are all dedicated to their work to support their families. Struggling to carry sacks of rice up the dike, Mr. Doan Van Hoang, residing in Vinh Hoa 2 hamlet, Can Dang commune, trudges along with heavy steps. At 60 years old, he should be resting and enjoying time with his children and grandchildren, but he still enthusiastically works as a hired porter, earning extra income when harvest season arrives.

Seeing Mr. Hoang panting, I asked, "Are you tired, sir?" After struggling to unload the sacks of rice onto the boat, he sighed in relief and confided, "Carrying rice for hire is very tiring! Each sack weighs 50kg, and on average, I carry over 10 tons of rice per day. I get paid 50,000 dong per ton, earning about 400,000 dong a day after deducting expenses." Mr. Hoang explained that carrying rice for hire requires strength, mainly done by the young men in the village. But because of his family's difficult circumstances, Mr. Hoang has to shoulder this arduous job.

Sitting down on a sack of rice to rest, Mr. Hoang recalled his earlier years as a passionate rice farmer. Seeing other farmers having successful harvests and good prices, he boldly invested in renting 20 acres of land to grow rice, hoping to change his life. However, after several harvest seasons, he saw no profit. Many years of hard work in the fields tending to the rice plants proved ineffective, resulting in losses of over 50 million dong. From then on, Mr. Hoang abandoned farming and switched to carrying rice sacks for hire in the village.

In Can Dang commune, during the harvest season, many men work as hired laborers carrying rice sacks, providing seasonal employment in the area. Mr. Hoang said that there are many groups and teams of hired rice carriers in the hamlet, and his team alone has 9 men who both transport and carry rice. Each year, the hired rice carrier team serves throughout all three rice harvest seasons. During peak harvest days, each person carries over 400 sacks of rice, equivalent to 20 tons. Mr. Nguyen Tuan Em, a resident of Can Dang commune, explained that carrying rice sacks is twice as hard as carrying rice from the fields to the barges. “The rice fields are located deep in the fields, with no roads to transport the rice out, so the only way is to carry it by raft along the irrigation ditches. Carrying rice sacks is twice as hard as carrying rice from the fields to the barges. It's twice as hard, but we still charge a reasonable price because the current rice price is low, and farmers aren't making a profit. We've worked together for so long that we're familiar with each other, and we don't want to charge too much,” Mr. Tuan Em shared.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang, the team leader of the rice-carrying team residing in Can Dang commune, said that this job is very hard. During the dry season, they have to work from dawn until 10 a.m., carrying rice, before finding shade under a tree to eat, drink, and rest. Around 3 p.m., when the sun is less intense, they continue their work. Most members of the team are diligent. The oldest is 60 years old, and the youngest is 41; all of them work hard to provide for their families.

As dusk fell, along Canal 4, people were still diligently carrying sacks of rice for hire, finishing their last remaining loads. Having finished their work, despite their exhaustion, everyone quickly boarded their vehicles to return home after a long, hard day in the fields.

THANH CHINH

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/nhoc-nhan-vac-lua-muon-a482744.html