Before leaving, to check the situation, I called the Department of Education and Training of Van Ban District. Mr. Nguyen Manh Thang, the head of the department, hesitated because of the difficult road and suggested I change the location to something more convenient, but seeing our determination, he agreed. Before leaving, I prepared thoroughly, bringing boots, a raincoat, a warm jacket, gloves, and a scarf, because I heard that it was already winter there, with rain, fog, and freezing temperatures.
From the center of Khanh Yen town, the "iron horse" (motorcycle) headed west. After cruising smoothly on National Highway 279, we turned right onto a bumpy road. Straining to keep the vehicle from veering off the uneven gravel road, Mr. Hoang Quang Huy, Vice Principal of Nam Chay Ethnic Boarding Primary School and our traveling companion, reminded me: "Journalist, hold on tight, the road is very bad from here on." I also tensed up to avoid falling out of the vehicle.
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| Teacher Nguyen Van Dien is dedicated to the noble cause of "nurturing future generations." |
After navigating the bumpy gravel road, we reached a dirt road. The previous day's rain had left the ground still wet; some sections were muddy and soggy, while others were smooth, slippery clay. Having traveled to various locations, I was experienced on these types of roads. However, the bad road, with its constant curves, made the motorbike unstable, occasionally lurching forward and revving its engine. In some sections, the mud was waist-deep; every time we accelerated, the rear wheel spun wildly, forcing us both to push and push. There were stretches where a sheer cliff stood on one side and a deep ravine on the other. Whenever I fell silent, Teacher Huy would recount his experiences of "climbing mountains" to teach, helping to dispel my fear.
Mr. Huy is from Yen Bai, right in the center of the district, so he had never experienced the difficult roads and harsh life in the high mountains like this. But it was fate; after graduating from Ha Tay Teacher Training College 8 years ago, Mr. Huy came to Lao Cai to start his career. Eight years of teaching means eight years of dedication to Nam Chay. In the early days of arriving in this new land, Mr. Huy, like other teachers at that time, faced many difficulties. Mr. Huy jokingly said, "If you call the roads now as difficult as going to heaven, then the roads back then were five or seven times harder." Over the years, the roads have been improved, widened, and the steep slopes and sharp turns have been eased. Before, the roads were narrow, steep, overgrown with grass, and surrounded by deep ravines and extremely desolate mountains. I remember the day I received my assignment to Nam Chay Primary School; there were eight of us, including five female teachers. Many girls were surprised by the difficulty of the roads and cried while pushing their carts. Getting knocked down is common here, especially on rainy days. So, as is often the case, everyone prepares two sets of clothes to change into if needed.
After a two-hour struggle covering over 20 kilometers, we finally arrived at the main location of Nậm Chày Ethnic Boarding Primary School. This is also the center of Nậm Chày commune.
Nurturing aspirations in the high mountains.
The Nam Chay area is almost completely isolated from other regions by towering mountains, with limited land and extremely difficult access to the villages. Some villages lack electricity and telephone signals, and are mostly covered in forest. The 31 classrooms of Nam Chay Ethnic Boarding Primary School are scattered across 8 villages, so nearly 50 teachers have been diligently working year after year on these challenging roads. During my two-day stay in Nam Chay, visiting the remote branch schools and talking with the teachers who have been dedicated to this difficult land for over a decade, I gained a deeper understanding of their hardships and admired their willpower and love for their profession.
Teacher Phung Thi Ngoc (born in 1986, from Van Yen district, Yen Bai province) has been teaching for eight years, and for all eight years she has been stationed at the Lan Bo branch school. Living and working here, she finally understood why so many people feared this area. Recalling her early days, the roads were so difficult that she "didn't want to come down," so sometimes it would be months before she could go down to the district center and visit her family in Yen Bai. She relied on teachers who lived in the town to buy her personal supplies and food every week. That was when the weather was dry; when it rained, they might only have a fresh meal every few weeks, otherwise they would only have dried fish and roasted peanuts for a long time.
Being young and far from home, and living in a remote, impoverished mountainous area, Ms. Ngoc couldn't help but miss her family and loved ones. "A day here feels like a whole month; I just wish I could have a long break to go home. Sometimes I wonder if I can make it through, but the longer I stay, the more I understand the hardships and struggles of these children, and the more I want to dedicate myself to teaching them, finding joy in it and helping them overcome all difficulties," Ms. Ngoc shared.
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| Teacher Phung Thi Ngoc lovingly teaches her students. |
It was indeed October, and before the conversation was finished, a thick fog had already enveloped the yard. Ms. Ngoc excused herself to go cook dinner. The fire in the stove blazed brightly. Since it was the weekend, the meal consisted only of a plate of boiled vegetables, some roasted peanuts, and a small fish stewed in tomato sauce. Despite these hardships, Ms. Ngoc and the other teachers considered themselves lucky. They only taught at one school location and didn't have to travel much, while teachers of specialized subjects like Physical Education, Music, English, and Art had to "rush" between different schools every week, which was truly exhausting.
Teacher Nguyen Van Dien, who teaches Physical Education at the school, shared: “My ‘headquarters’ is at the main school. To do my job, I travel to a different village every day. A nearby village is about 25-30 minutes away, while a distant one can take up to an hour by motorbike. That’s on a sunny day; on rainy days, I have no choice but to walk. Sometimes I don’t get back to the main location until late at night.” After nearly a decade of teaching, Mr. Dien sometimes feels discouraged, but the resilience of a man who refuses to surrender to circumstances has kept him going and motivated him to persevere. “That being said, if everyone chooses the easy job, who will take on the hard work? I always think that way to motivate myself to try even harder,” Mr. Dien said.
These stories are just a few of the many that the teachers here have experienced during their years of living in remote, mountainous areas, "Nurturing aspirations in the high mountains." The winters are bitterly cold, the summers are dry and scorching, but nothing diminishes their love for their profession and their affection for children, because they know that what they do today will help children and people have a better life.
Source: http://laocai.edu.vn/hoc-tap-lam-theo-tam-guong-dao-duc-ho-chi-minh/uom-khat-vong-tren-nui-cao-348955
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