VietNamNet Bridge - Carrying the younger grandchild on her
back, holding the hand of the older grandchild, the woman and her grandchildren
crossed the 2 km slope down to the highway, and then walked for another 4 km to
school. Over the past three years, Mrs. Mu in Thanh Hoa province has taken her
grandchildren to school that way.
At 5 am, when the mountain was
still engulfed in fog, Mrs. Pham Thi Mu, a Muong ethnic woman, 60 years old, in
Nan hamlet, Thiet Ong commune, Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province, gets up
to prepare rice then wakes her grandchildren – Truong Cong Hieu, 9 and Truong
Cong Huy, 6, up to dress and go to school.
Every morning, Mrs. Mu and her
grandsons climb uphill and walk to the Thiet Ong 1 Primary School. Walking for
a stretch of road, she stops to rest and then continues the trip, being afraid
that her grandchildren will go to school late.
After leading Hieu to his class,
she takes Huy to his classroom. The boy walks into class but still looks back
at his grandmother. Seeing her standing in the hall, near the classroom, Huy is
assured to sit down. Just not seeing his grandmother, he will cry and refuse to
learn.
7 years ago, the boys’ father
died in a traffic accident. Their mother went away and has never returned. At
that time Huy was only 7 months old while Hieu was just two.
Mrs. Mu had to carry her grandson
around the village to ask for milk from other mothers. When the milk was not
enough, she had to mix rice water with sugar to feed the baby. The children
grew up together and they have to go to school together.
From early morning, Mr. Truong
Cong Day, the grandfather of Huy and Hieu, gets up to take his buffalo up to
the mountain and catches frogs at night to support the family. Mrs. Mu is
responsible to take the kids to school.
The journey to find the letters
of these children is not simply because to go to school, the old woman and her
grandchildren have to pass jagged slopes. Nan village is located halfway up to
the mountain. To go down to the highway, they have to pass a long, jagged slope
of 2 km.
Standing at the top of the slope,
one can see the entire winding Ma River. So adults are afraid of the Nan slope,
let alone the kids who have never once stepped out of their village. But the
60-year-old woman everyday carries her grandchild on her back to school.
She says that if they have a
bicycle, children in her village never dare to ride to school because of the
fear of the height of the slope.
On rainy days, Mrs. Mu has to
feel her muddy, slippery road by barefoot. The little grandchild on her back
firmly clutches his grandmother, does not dare to breathe. On these days, the
grandmother and her grandchildren are often muddy, almost wet when they arrive
at the school.
When she is sick, she brings her
two grandkids to the foot of the slope, asks someone to take them to the
school, then returns home to cook for the children.
In the winter, with thick fog,
some days she has to burn a torch and they leaves home from 4am. When they
arrive at the school, it is not open yet. The old woman holds the kids in her
arms, let’s them sleep a little more before class.
Ms. Mu says: "We have gone
to school together for 3 years. Every morning I get up early to take the
children to school, then wait for them to finish to take them home. If they study
the whole day, we shall carry rice and sesame to eat."
Hieu and Huy are both good kids.
They can help their grandmother cook. They do homework or play together when
they have free time.
Despite difficulties, Mrs. Mu has
never intended to keep the kids home. She says if the Nan slope was longer and
more slopping, she would have still taken her grandchildren to school.
"Only with education, they can step out of Nan village," says Ms. Mu.
Mr. Cao Trung Thuc, a village
official, says that Mrs. Mu’s family is a poor family. Every month, the two
kids receive social welfare for orphans, totaling VND360,000 ($13) but the
amount is not enough to cover the family’s expenses. The family’s main source
of income comes from farming and Mr. Day’s sales of frogs. They have to take
care of an 80-year-old, paralyzed woman.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Trang, vice
principal of the Thiet Ong 1 Primary School, says that Hieu and Huy are
examples of overcoming difficulties in study. They do not have to pay any kind
of school fees. At the beginning of the new school year, the school also gave
them books and new clothes. The school also allows Mrs. Mum to enter the school
to wait for her grandchildren.
Na Son
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