ESL Blogs

Ham Nhon is one of commune of Ham Thuan Bac District in Binh Thuan province located in the east of Southern Vietnam, far away from Ho Chi Minh City about 200kms from the East North.

I was born, left there when I was 3 and came back every summer holidays and the Tet holidays when I was a child

By the vision of a child, that is the place where the fields were lengthened infinitely. It was blue and transparent. The ground was covered by green. The green was mixed from rice-fields, sugar-cane fields, manioc-fields, corn-fields, rows of coconut trees. The fields of rice were waving in the wind like waves in the ocean.

At that place, a new day was began by the Cock-crow "Ò Ó Oooooooooooooo". The Cocks were responsible for waking up the Sun, Farmers, all living beings while the Hens cackled "Cục tác cục cục cục tác" to announce their mistress to pick their eggs. Then "Cạp cạp cạp cạp cạp" from herd of ducks rowdily. The next is a voice of a man resound "Tèo lé ởi Tèo lé! Dắt tâu đi ăn" to call his herdsman to feed his buffaloes. Ending of a hardy day was a concert when it was late in the evening. That is a harmony of sounds in countryside from sound of insect and amphibian.

At that place, there were hardy women, hardy grandmothers, hardy mothers hardy sisters including my mother and sisters. They toil and moil day by day without entertainment except the Tet holidays. They were meek and honest. I remember my mother told me that when I was a newborn, my mother did not have enough milk for me (at those days the mothers breast-fed their babies), I suckled another baby's mother. When I was a infant, my mother worked far away from my house, I suckled more 4 neighboring baby's mothers.

At that place, in my memory, there are few men, young men. Nobody was drunk. There was no bar, no pub, no cafeteria. The life was pleasant, undisturbed and happy. We live in a kind neighborhood.

However, at that place, the people had low academic standard. They were only able to read and write. We had a school with 1 class-room and 1 teacher for all pupils of all levels (from 1 to 3). The pupils had to go to other school far away from it few kms if they want to continue higher level. Although far away from modern city, its inhabitant kept personal hygiene, and public hygiene.

20 years later,

when I came back I found everybody was healthy and special thing is my neighborhoods looked not come to older, they were still as young as when the last time I came back. The oldest here still alive. More than 20 years, she still looked healthy, still worked.

And there are some changes:

The first thing was the green of rice-fields, sugar-cane fields, manioc-fields, corn-fields, rows of coconut trees was replaced by Dragon-fruit fields. There was no longer the fields of rice waving in the wind. It made the standard of living is leveled up. The second thing was the education was focused. It made academic standard was leveled up.

They are the things make me happy when I think about my native land. Somewhere in the corner of my soul still resounds crow in the morning, cackle of hens, the sound "cạp cạp" of ducks, the voice of farmer called shepherds and country music every dusk including the green of fields, flavor of rice, flavor of mud, flavor of soil and flavor of straw from my remote native land.