Vietnam - New Year wishes of the poor

For many people, the New Year means a burden of worry or something else, not a time for celebration.

With the traditional lunar New Year festival approaching, poor people have felt pressure to save at least enough for a good meal to offer on the altar in the home for their late relatives, and for offering small gifts to children.

At 8 pm, in a thatch house in An Lac Tay Commune of Ke Sach District in Soc Trang Province, Doan Thi Dep hangs up the mosquito net for her three and seven-year-old children to go to bed, and then rushes to a drain near her house to collect snails.

The 40-year-old woman swam into the water in cold weather. Though the job is hard, Dep always thinks of her children, who would otherwise be hungry during Tet when she is unemployed. Now, she does not even have rice in her house to feed the children. Thinking of her children motivates her to work harder.

Dep, whose husband left her and the children when they were quite young, has no farmland. She has to do odd jobs in order to survive and feed her family.

Every hour, Dep collects 3 kilograms of snails, which can be sold for VND20,000 (US$1). The money is barely enough for her to buy rice, not to mention to buy new clothes for the children to celebrate Tet.

“By working hard this season, I hope to save enough money to pay my debt and later, for sure, I will have to borrow money again to celebrate Tet,” she said.

Dep is not alone.

In the darkness of mid-night in the Mekong Delta’s Chau Thanh District, Tien Giang Province, amid the shoulders of youngsters, Le Van Lien, who is now 59 years old, carefully and quickly carried heavy packages of fruit to the trucks waiting at Vinh Kim fruit market.

Wiping away sweat falling from his forehead, Lien stopped and quickly ate a small piece of sticky rice he had brought along. “There are several jobs around the end of the year, and I work harder to support my two children, who study in the city.”

His usual working shift begins at twilight and ends at dawn the next morning. In the days approaching Tet, he begins working at 11 am, and goes until the next morning. Every day, he works for more than 20 hours for a wage of VND200,000 (US$10).

“My wife asked me to work less, fearing that I will get sick after working so hard. She hopes that I earn just enough money for her to make a few dishes to worship her father during Tet,” Lien recalled his wife’s words and then resumed working.

At 1:00 am, under the dim glow of the neon lights at a small workshop that processes coconut shells in Ben Tre Province’s Khanh Thanh Tan Commune, couple Ngo Van Ve and Nguyen Thi Vien were quickly husking coconuts.

Pausing for a while, Vien said: “In my health condition, I have to work and then immediately rest. I will get sick if I work with all of my effort.

Vien says this, but she does differently. She is eager and agrees right away when somebody calls her for another job, day and night.

Vo Van Hai and his wife, of the same commune, share the thoughts of Ve and Vien. On recent nights, Hai has to peel eight to ten pallets of coconuts. Each pallat contains 200 pieces of fruit. He earns VND150,000 to 200,000 (US$8-10) for each working night.

“I am still young and I am healthy enough to work at night. However, I will not be able to do this job when I get older, because it is pretty hard,” Hai said.

In a corner of Vinh Kim fruit market, Hoang Van Hai and his wife, who are now 60 years old, were watching their baskets of sapodilla plum and waiting for people to come and buy them.

“We have to carry the fruit to this area and give them directly to dealers, so that we can sell them at a better price,” Hai said.

Every night at mid night, the aging couple pulls and pushes their self-modified vehicle, loaded with fruit, to the market to find customers. Their family has seven people, so the couple has to work harder for a better price.

Dinh Thi Em, of An Thanh Village, An Lac Tay Commune, whose husband and son have to work as bricklayers, picks fruit to earn money.

When night falls, she makes fake eyelashes, along with her daughter. For each pair of eyelashes, she earns VND1,200. Each night, she and her daughter earn VND12.000 (US$0.5) from the job.

Em’s husband suffered a serious accident when he was picking coconuts for money. Though he knows he is in bad heatlh, he tries his best to work as a brick layer in order to have money which can be used when he is unemployed.

Each working day, Em earns VND80,000 (US$3.8), and an additional VND40,000 (US$1.9) for working at night. He is trying his best to pay off his debt of VND10 million (US$476), which he borrowed to build his house.

Tuan, another person who also lives under the poverty line, does not ask for much for this Tet. “A kilogram of meat is enough for me to celebrate Tet.”

TUOI TRE

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