Mai's Travel Journal: Chapter 23 - HCM-E1-HN

Ho Chi Minh City, 16-17 November 2004

I headed for Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on the evening of the 16th of November 2004, but I was only thinking of the cold of the north of the country and going home. Going home was so very close. I could almost see it.

I stayed for two days in the city with some UNVs who were working there: Truong, who works with the 15 May school, and Joeri - from EFD (Education for Development).

I walked around the city streets, watching the activity and speed of everyone around me, of the city.

I rode on a city bus, to see how business permeates everything here. On the bus, people sell everything from cheap clothes to pens and pencils of every color. They have to get on and off the buses quickly – time is money, you know. What’s more, don’t expect to get dropped off where you want to on HCMC buses like you can on Hanoi buses. This is the biggest and dynamic city in the country, you know.

I was able to easily find Internet cafes, with up to a hundred computers, and all kinds of specialized services. Special prices for young people, students, and different kinds of workers… it makes your head spin. People are using Internet chat, studying, finding information, everything. Everyone has a corral, and no one bothers anyone else. Each corral is small, cramped and dark, but never mind; it’s the technology that’s important.

I was startled by a cry, and turned to see a young person snatch something from another person on a motorbike, then run away. I was a little more careful after that, even though I’d had who knows how many warnings before. It’s true that you learn better if you see something with your own eyes. Life in a big city is really never easy.

I headed towards the 15 May School, where luckily they still recognized me. “The return of the mummy”, is what some of the kids said [remembering the costume I’d worn for the fancy-dress party].

I knew that the environment in which education takes place in the city centre wasn’t always so appealing. The Cay Bang [Tropical Almond Tree] School, the only primary school in precinct 10, district 4, is an example. The school has four premises scattered about the precinct, the main one being at the end of an alley, down a back street in a crowded, cramped area. There’s no way I would remember the street if I were to come back a second time. For sure I would need a guide to find the school, just like I did this first time.

On the outside, the Cay Bang School looked like a normal house, just like all the houses around it. Luckily there was a sign to distinguish it. Who knows when the students would have the chance to write stories about the road to their school?

The gate of the school opened out on to a cramped road, a place where an electric light was needed to help out the sun. A space in front was for parking cars, and some space was for a teacher’s room that doubled as the principal’s office. The crowded conditions lasted from the first floor to the third floor, there it was better as some light and air could get in. That’s the advantage of being up high.

The children amused themselves, playing in the cramped conditions, satisfied with things there. Maybe life in the city has allowed them to understand that land is more precious than gold, and that as such, they have to live, study and go about being crowded. It just has to be accepted, it’s how the city is.

In the rainy season, the teachers and pupils here have another responsibility, that is to fight off the rain which comes through the cracks, through the shutters, down the meter-wide corridors. However, precinct 8, district 4, doesn’t even have one primary school. The children in precinct 8 study only thanks to their neighboring precinct, so who’s better off?

The Cay Bang School has 19 classes, of which five night classes are general primary-level education. Being crowded and cramped is not as important as being able to study. The night classes are close to the main day classes. They’re an opportunity for the primary students to get back into the day class system like their friends. General education isn’t just to get them to read, and to write as well. It’s a step towards having a way to work, and to think. That’s what I learned after an afternoon at the Cay Bang School.

These days, the Cay Bang School is carrying out an EFD project aimed at supporting a general primary-level education program, as well as improving the material conditions of the school.

E1 Train

I was to take a journey along Vietnam by train. I would go by train number E1, departing Saigon station at 11:00pm, November 18th 2004. This was the most modern and fastest train in Vietnam. It needed 30 hours to cover a stretch of 1726 kilometres with nine connection points.

I was at the station three hours ahead of time and waited like anyone looking forward to being back home. Other people waiting around lent me some newspapers. All of us knew that we would spend a long time in the train. I always enjoyed hearing the People’s artist Ms. Thanh Hoa sing the song “Tau anh qua nui” – My train running over mountains – by composer Phan Lac Hoa.

I remembered that on the train from Hanoi to Hue there were many people counting the hours as the train passed one station after another. I was among the luckiest of the trans-Vietnam travellers then, as the journey was not too long or tiresome for me.

I tried to watch everything I could through the glass window, especially when the train passed through the Hai Van mountain pass. However, I missed two connection points, Muong Man station and Vinh station, because I fell asleep.

I arrived at Hanoi station in the early morning and felt the coldness making its way through all the streets of the city. I recalled my trip to the national defence class, in late winter in 2000, which also started in the early morning. Two different times and situations, but I was more mature after both.

Hanoi, 20 November 2004

I completed the Journey, of nearly 80 days, around the country. I had experienced worry, fear and timidity, but now I was more confident.

I had to change my glasses because my prescription had changed. I had become more short-sighted. It was the result of looking at things that were too near. Yet, I thought it was one way to look anew at all of the things around me that seemed to be too familiar. Was it good?

I got many good wishes for completing the Journey safely and in good health. Yet, I had “another long Journey to complete, the Journey of my Diary”, said Mr. Vern.

I wrote the very last words with mixed feeling of happiness and fondness. I had tried to learn from the people I met and places I went to. I was twice or three times more mature than I had been before the Journey. I was more confident and optimistic about situations that faced me.

And the last thing I want to say is that the Journey for a Better Life will never end. Even when all of the Millennium Development Goals have been achieved in all corners of the world, by the 2015 target, you and me, each of us still has a long journey to take, for our future, for our country’s future, for the future of all of the peoples of the world.

Try a little more, share a little more, and smile more often. From those simple things will come Journeys of Peace and Goodness.

Chapter 23 - HCM-E1-HN - Photo Gallery

Photos: The children at May 15 School
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1-3. Children at May 15 school

4-6. Children at May 15 school

Photos: Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai
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7. Hai Van pass from E1 train.