	The Future is Yours!
	Tiếng Việt \| MDGs \| Thang's Journey \| Dung \| Mai\| A Better World

UN > Future> Mai > Journal > Chapter 12 - Gia Lai

Mai's Travel Journal: Chapter 12 - Gia Lai

Friday, 8 October 2004

My whole body aches, I’m so tired that I think I can’t move. Even so, when I pick up my backpack, I find it’s OK. I have the strength. I know that.

I arrived at Kon Tum at 8 am and had to wait at the bus station until after nine before the bus left. The seats, and then all the places to stand on the bus, were taken up one by one, as the number of people grew and grew but never lessened. I arrived at Peiku at 10.30 am – how much more comfortable it was once I’d gotten off the bus!

I went to the Provincial Youth Union office and had to wait until the afternoon for my contact. So, I decided to take my backpack to the Peiku city library to sit and write my journal. I suddenly remembered a friend that Ms Vi Thao from the ‘Youth’ newspaper had introduced me to. Her name was Phuong Duyen, from the Gia Lai newspaper, so I phoned her to make her acquaintance.

I would no longer get lost in Peiku because now I had my friend, Duyen, and many many other good friends as well. I could enjoy a coffee in Peiku while I had to wait. It was really delicious!

After waiting a while, the time came to go to be taken to IA MNong village, Chu Pah region, by Ms Nin at the Youth Union. She took me to an art and literature exchange session that night in Kep 2 village. The road to IA MNong takes you to the famous Ialy and the Se San hydro-electric scheme which are in the process of being built. Everyone says, this road is thanks to the hydro-electric scheme; life here has gotten a bit easier thanks to the scheme.

The weather has not been helping me one bit; half way up the road it poured down, taking all its anger out on the ground. I was as wet as a drowned rat, even though I’d worn a big, long raincoat that I’d bought in Hue. But in IA MNong it hadn’t rained, it waited till I got there before pouring down, soaking me through. It showed me what cold and wet really were – so now I really know the difference between wet and dry.

I was lucky to be introduced to Ms Huong, the kindergarten teacher in IA MNong. I was tired, hungry and cold, so I decided to leave it to tomorrow to see what I should do, where I should go - I just got into bed and slept soundly!

Saturday, 9 October, 2004

I will start with the question, “aren’t you afraid?” which Huong and almost everyone always asks me when they meet me for the first time. What am I afraid of? I couldn’t be afraid of Huong, who has shared everything with me, from a bread roll when I was so hungry I felt faint, to the best corner of my simple bed, both small and narrow, to her warm blanket in the cold, wet weather.

I’ve been lucky to meet people like her, and to have been the object of their affection. Who has ever been afraid of affection? And the first morning in I A MNong village, the gap between what was strange and what was familiar was no longer something that made me afraid.

I went with Mr. Quang and Mr. Thang, two officials from the village’s Youth Union to the villages situated along the path to the Yaly hydro-electric scheme. From Kep I and Kep II villages, to AL village, all the houses were set out according to a plan, all neatly regular and very pretty looking. There’s just one thing, it seems that the gardens here only plant the robusta type of coffee tree, which requires less care and produces a small harvest, at a much cheaper price, compared to the Arabica type of coffee tree.

I was suddenly sad when I saw the traditional houses of the Gia Rai ethnic minorities being ‘modernised’ with sheets of steel on the roof. To myself, I compared it with the traditional houses of the ethnic people of Dac Xao – Kon Tum village, I shared these thoughts with a few young people in the village, and everyone just smiled. I felt like there was a big gap between modern and traditional characteristics.

Sunday 10 October 2004

Thang and I went to the three poorest communes in the village, the Doch I, Doch II and Dip communes. These are also the three furthest communes, in particular Dip. These days, the road to the three communes is really good as all three communes are part of the route into the Se San hydro-electric scheme which is being constructed.

The road passes lots of bare hills and mountains, not a tree or blade of grass rises from the surface. Everyone tells me that: “that area was sprayed with dioxin in the war against America”. Even on the hill sides, the trees have died where they were standing. Life is precious and something of a luxury on this fertile piece of land.

Dip commune has withstood many more influences. The population of the commune have been notified that the water source that they use every day contains five percent dioxin. The commune is currently being moved to the other side, as the old village contains some lakes, which are part of the Se San 3 A hydro-electricity scheme. A while ago, people brought quite a lot of barrels of dioxin which are still left. A number of young children with complications because of the dioxin have been documented so as to get them medical treatment, but other people have never had the chance to be examined and to have their health assessed. Anyway, for the local minority people, if they could grow up here their capacity for survival must be very high, as a case of natural selection.
The old Dip commune is located on the bank of the Pa Co river, with about 160 families. The road in is really poor condition and hard to travel on. The residents of the commune are waiting for new houses and a new village to be finished so they can move out. Daily, the family members go out to the new village, helping the men who are laboring there at the same time as checking out their new houses. A number of families have moved there already, building temporary houses to keep an eye on things directly. Moving the location of this village marks a major turning point: the children will be able to study in better conditions; there will be roads for trading and to go to and from, and health checks will be more convenient.

All three of these communes are still without electricity. The power lines are being constructed quickly along with the Se San hydro-electric scheme. So, in not much longer, life here will not be as dark anymore.

I passed through Doc village and chanced upon the funeral procession for the mother of the village head. This was the third day of the funeral, and three cows and seven pigs had been slaughtered, and much rice alcohol had been drunk. People explained the funeral customs of the Gia Rai ethnic minority people to me: during these days, the young people will bring all different kinds of gongs, they’ll dance and sing around the coffin to drive out the sadness, loneliness and worries of the person who has passed away, who has to go all alone to the next world. The villagers also don’t forget to gather around to help the head of the family put the family’s loss out of their mind. When they return, everyone will bring back a present acknowledging the gratitude of the head of the family.

Monday, 11 October 2004

I’m really not someone who likes to rush things, yet the need to rush has been following me at every stage of this trip. This morning is an example: I raced to say good bye to Huong, raced down the road to say good bye to my friends and without time to say anything had to jump on the bus to go to Pleiku.

Today the bus is so full, and this is just the first time I’m going!

I have a habit of listening and trying to understand what people around me on the bus are chatting about. That’s really being curious, isn’t it? But I’ve been able to learn a lot of things from these stories, although I’m never able to tell what’s true and what’s not.

I’m not at all a fan of soccer, but still I found myself in Gia Lai at the time of the U23 cup, organized by “Youth” newspaper, thanks to the banners flapping in all of the streets. I know Gia Lai is home of the Gia Lai Orioles club, which owns both local and foreign players - a top quality club. But one thing I never dared to think was that I would watch a soccer game at the ground, and what’s more that I would sit in the seats set aside for journalists. That I did was thanks to going with Duyen, from the Gia Lai paper and Thinh, from the “Labor” newspaper.

I really don’t know how to describe the match. I’m afraid that, after my descriptions, you'd despair and give up, and that would be a disaster. Luckily for me, at the end of the match I could still work out which was the Danang side of the field and which was the East Asia Bank side. And the score, well of course one side lost, and it seemed to be the East Asia Bank team. Hopefully you aren’t saying, "How pathetic she is", are you?