ROWING TO FEED THE WHOLE FAMILY
The first woman who made a strong impression on me was Mrs. Bay Be, whose real name is Trinh Thi Be. Although she is only 63 years old, her figure and face are aged beyond her years, with crooked teeth. Her husband passed away 12 years ago. Bay Be considers it normal to have to support the family alone. In her youth, she followed her husband to the river market to sell wholesale, but now she has been doing it all by herself for decades.
Bay Be's house is in a dead-end alley near the market, the entrance is just wide enough for a motorbike. She built the house in 2020, after receiving compensation for the demolition of the stilt houses around the floating market. As soon as she finished building the house, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and she and her children were lucky to have a place to avoid the pandemic. When the pandemic passed, they went down to the boat and saw that the cooking utensils had been soaked in water and exposed to the sun and rain for a whole year, and were damaged. Bay Be worked hard to borrow money from people to buy new utensils to cook the first noodle stall after the pandemic. Her dream is to raise her 7th grade grandson to go to university or learn a trade so he can earn a living, and not have to work hard on the boat late at night like her.
The boatman rowed the boat to go shopping.
Bay Be recalls her difficult childhood: "Bay's hometown is Phong Dien, the family has 10 siblings, Bay is the seventh. Bay's husband's family also has 10 children, the older ones did not study and went to work as a porter at the floating market, so he died early from exhaustion. When she was young, Bay was afraid that having too many children would cause her to go hungry, so she did not dare to have children. She had two sons, one of whom she sent to her grandmother, the other to be raised on a boat so that she could make a living."
Mrs. Bay Be's boat sells all kinds of dishes: vermicelli with crab soup, rice noodles, congee, grilled pork vermicelli. Bay Be is charming and likes to chat with customers, so she is admired by many people. They call her "the female general of the floating market" not because she is old but still "races boats" with tourist boats to sell goods, but because they respect the single woman who has been supporting the whole family since her husband got a terminal illness until now, taking care of her grandchildren's education.
But as a woman, how can you avoid moments of weakness? Mrs. Bay Be told about the difficult days she had gone through: "The year he died was very difficult, my child. There were times when I bought food to cook but didn't have money to put gas in the boat to sell. When I joined a savings association to buy a house, I was robbed again and again. There was a time when I was just a little short of buying a house, but it was robbed again. From then on, Bay gave up completely. Luckily, she received compensation for the demolition of the stilt house. Bay bought a piece of land in the slum to build a house for her and her children to live in, so that she could do business in peace and send her grandchildren to school."
Mrs. Bay Be sells noodles at the floating market
The youngest child works in the market to make a living.
One afternoon in late May, the sky turned stormy, Cai Rang floating market gradually lost its customers, Mrs. "Ut xuong" (real name Ngo Thi Nhat, 73 years old) quickly rowed a small boat to Mr. and Mrs. Tu Luc's pumpkin boat, which specialized in wholesale. The small boat swayed and rocked violently as it approached the side of the boat. Mr. Nguyen Van Mai (36 years old), Mr. and Mrs. Tu Luc's son-in-law, reached out to hold the anchor rope, tied the boat to the pumpkin boat and helped Ut xuong up. While helping Ut, Mr. Mai called his mother: "Ut xuong, get the goods, Mom!". From inside the boat, Mrs. Tu Luc smiled brightly like a flower, welcomed Ut xuong into the pumpkin compartment, and asked: "Oh my god, why are you late to the market today, Ut xuong? There's a big storm, be careful, Ut...".
At this floating market, many people are familiar with the figure of Mrs. Ut, who often stops by 1-2 times a week on a small boat, so they call her "Ut saigon". Every time she gets goods, Ut will go on many boats. Such as pumpkins, cassava, sweet potatoes... Ut only buys items that are less likely to spoil so that she doesn't have to sell them quickly because she is old and can't "race" with her friends at Giai Xuan market, Phong Dien district, Can Tho . "Every day at 2am, Ut wakes up to cook cassava and then at 5am brings it to the market to sell more. Buying wholesale to sell fresh goods is not profitable. In the afternoon, she peels 15kg of cassava at home, not a small amount. Peeling until her fingernails are black", Mrs. Tu Luc laments her old friend.
Ut Thuyen and Tu Bi
Mrs. Ut has been buying wholesale and then selling retail since her son was 10 years old, now he is over 50. Ut said toothlessly: "Ut has 8 children, one works at a bakery, the other is a construction worker, just enough to feed himself. Her husband is sick and bedridden. Sales are slow at this time, so we buy a lot of different items. Tu Bi (Mrs. Tu Luc sells pumpkins, so the floating market people call her Tu Bi, which is closely related to the product they sell - PV) gives Ut priority in choosing to buy, only taking 20-30 kilos at a time, because normally other people don't let her choose. Ut is most afraid of the ones that are split by the "moon" and are a bit white, squashy, and not supple, which is a loss of capital."
Even though Ut is old, he still has a steady hand in rowing the small boat swaying in the afternoon rain of the floating market. In fact, Ut has been attached to this market on the river since he was very young. "Ut goes to the market every 3-4 days, but lately it's been slow so he only comes once a week. Each time he buys goods, he spends about 2 million VND, selling them little by little, losing all his capital. Going to the market is actually good, but there was a time when Ut was sick and missed the market even more...", Mrs. Ut shared.
A heavy rain came, Tu Bi did not let Mrs. Ut go home immediately but led her business partner into the boat's cabin, telling her to lie down in the hammock and rest until the rain stopped. Ut lay down on the hammock for a few minutes and fell asleep soundly. Mrs. Ut's sudden sleep on her long-time business partner's boat seemed to ease the hardship of the woman who had spent her whole life making a living at Cai Rang floating market. (to be continued)
Friendship of floating market goods
Mrs. Tu Bi's real name is Dang Kim Xuan (58 years old) and her husband is Mr. Tran Van Luc (60 years old). Mrs. Tu's family has been in the market for 29 years. Now, the couple and their son-in-law have two boats that specialize in wholesale pumpkins for floating market traders. Mrs. Tu Bi has a bright smile and is easy to approach. Her family is long-time trading partners of Ut Xuong. "We have been trading partners for decades, everyone here is the same. Even though there is competition in wholesale, we still help each other in whatever way we can," Tu Bi confided.
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