Children drifting with letters

Brothers drop out of school

The afternoon rain came with thunder and lightning. The big boats of Mr. Tran Van To's family were blown by the wind and crashed into each other, shaking violently. He and his wife rushed out to anchor the boats close together. Mr. To's two children, only 7-8 years old, also climbed onto the roof of the boat, spread a tarpaulin, and tied ropes to protect them from the rain. The children, who were only in primary school, were not afraid of the storm, but were very scared when they heard the two words "going to school".

Mr. To's two sons, Bao Nhi (7 years old) and his older brother Bao Long (8 years old), have never been to school. In his family, only his wife, Nguyen Thi Lien (32 years old), is literate and is also the one who calculates the sales price. They also have a 12-year-old daughter, but she only finished 3rd grade and then dropped out. Because the family lives far from school, she goes to school sometimes on and sometimes off, and cannot keep up with her friends.

Although Bao Long is older than his younger brother, he has been slow to develop since childhood. At home, everyone calls Long Xe and Nhi Bet. When the two children are not bathing, playing, climbing from boat to boat or diving into the river to bathe, they hug their phones and watch TikTok. Previously, Bet was allowed to study in his hometown An Giang by his father, but because To went to the floating market to do business, Bet had to be brought along and he dropped out of school before he could even read and write. To and Lien's family have 3 boats. Two belong to him and his wife, and one belongs to his wife's parents. They have been doing business together at this floating market for more than 10 years now.

Xe and Bet practice writing on the boat

Mr. To showed me his family's personal papers including birth certificates and temporary residence cards. Most of them had their corners chewed by rats. That was also one of the reasons why he couldn't get his children to go to school. Mr. To scratched his head in embarrassment: "I went to the ward office several times but they said I had to go back to my hometown to re-issue birth certificates for the children, but I work all day and can't leave the market, and I'm illiterate so I'm afraid of going to the ward to get the paperwork done...".

Mr. To's family are original merchants. They followed the floating markets throughout the delta from Chau Doc (An Giang) to Cai Be ( Tien Giang ) and then to Cai Rang (Can Tho). Ms. Lien said: "A few years ago, I was fed up with the river scene, so I took my children to Saigon to trade in Hoc Mon. But the rent on the shore was high, and selling fruit on the street was robbed by passersby several times. I was so scared that the whole family took them back to the floating market."

To's brother, Tran Van Thai, also sells sweet potatoes on boats. Thai's family has three children, one of whom has dropped out of school, and the other two have to go ashore to live with their grandmother to go to school. "The vicious cycle has continued since our grandparents' time. Parents are illiterate, so now it's so difficult to send their children to school...", Thai lamented.

Children drifting in the floating market, drifting with letters

When the rain stopped, Bet and Xe jumped into the river to bathe, swimming as quickly as baby otters. They were both delighted when I gave them books and notebooks to write their first letters, but they absolutely did not want to go to school, because "they are afraid of being away from their mother, and they are not used to being on land," as Bet said. Mr. To shared: "The children on the river are afraid of strangers, so they say that, but after a few days on land, they are eager. I am also trying to finish this batch of goods to go back to my hometown to redo the children's papers to see if they can enter the new school year or not."

Her eyes

During the days I followed the merchant boats to the floating market, I met a grandmother and grandchild selling goods on the river. They were aunt Nguyen Thi Thuy (59 years old) and her grandson Do Hoang Trung (12 years old). In the midday sun, aunt Thuy's rowboat slowly drifted around the tourist boats on the river. They took advantage of the time when the fruit boats of the tourist boats had finished selling to dock and invite customers. One day, aunt Thuy sold fruit, another day she sold dumplings, sticky rice...

Trung was called by his grandmother Lun. "When he was born, he was so small that's why he was called that," said Aunt Thuy. Trung also had a twin sister who also dropped out of school to follow her grandmother to the floating market. Aunt Thuy recounted the difficult life of the three grandmothers and grandchildren: "His parents abandoned him when he was born. His mother now has a new family in Binh Phuoc. She also works as a worker, so it's very difficult. The two of them live with me. Back then, raising the children and doing business, I had to borrow money day by day. I couldn't bear the loss of capital. Now I still owe more than thirty million. I tried very hard but had to let the children temporarily stop studying because I couldn't afford it."

At 4am, Trung and his grandmother boarded the small boat to prepare their wares for sale. The 12-year-old boy was his grandmother’s eyes because Aunt Thuy was nearsighted to 7 degrees, and every time she got off the raft in the early morning, she couldn’t see the road. Trung had to watch and watch to make sure the bow of the boat didn’t hit the raft’s pole or warn his grandmother of any obstacles around. The old wooden raft swayed as the grandmother and grandchild groped their way down the boat under the pale yellow streetlights. I suddenly felt a stinging in my nose when I saw the little boy giving up his sister a good night’s sleep to go sell with his grandmother early in the morning.

Aunt Thuy and her granddaughter sell goods at Cai Rang floating market.

"My only dream is that my grandmother sells all the dumplings, so I don't have to eat anything except rice, because they often go unsold. Then my grandmother can contribute money to others, the monthly rent for the raft is almost 600,000 VND. When my grandmother is better off, she will let us go back to school," Trung innocently sat calculating the difficulties that only he can share with his grandmother. Aunt Thuy stood rowing the boat, wiping away her tears as she listened to Trung talk.

Although illiterate, Aunt Thuy treasures her two grandchildren's papers like treasures. The old notebooks with round, clear handwriting of Trung and his younger sister Bao Tran are the pride of this hardworking grandmother. She confided: "I just wish that now the two of them can go back to school. Even though my eyesight is weak, I can still find a way to sell them so that the little boy can go to school. He is smart and loves to study. I'm just worried that I won't be able to pay for his school fees. Well, I'm happy with how much he learns."

Next to his grandmother, Trung's eyes lit up when I gave him a set of third grade books to review with his younger sister. He fondled the new notebooks and asked: "Can I write right away now?" (to be continued)

Will there be "floating classrooms"?

Thanh Nien reporter had an interview with Ms. Bui Thi Bich Phuong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Le Binh Ward, Cai Rang District (Can Tho City). Ms. Phuong said: "The ward has grasped the situation and will gradually resolve the problem for the children. In the immediate future, for the two twins, the ward will help them with the admission procedures at Le Binh Primary School. But they are not local, so it is difficult to reduce tuition fees. As for the children in the floating market, I will re-survey the number of children who have not been to school. If possible, open a charity class right at Cai Rang floating market for those who cannot afford to go to school. The difficulty of the locality is that the children have to follow their parents to do business, so if they are accepted to study, the family must commit to letting their children study until the end, not dropping out."

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/mai-nay-cho-noi-co-chim-nhung-dua-tre-lenh-denh-con-chu-185230621123341241.htm