DIFFICULTIES ABOUT THE PASS

The vice principal and male teachers of Ba Trang Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities firmly refused to let us ride motorbikes to Deo Ai because it was raining heavily and the mountain road was very dangerous. After some hesitation, the teachers of the school asked someone to take us around to Pho Hoa Ward (Duc Pho Town, Quang Ngai) to take a boat across Liet Son Lake to Deo Ai.

After about 30 minutes of crossing the lake, we went ashore and entered Deo Ai hamlet. After wading through 3 large streams, the beautiful stilt house hamlet appeared before our eyes. There, there was a school with the sound of children reading lessons like young birds in the early morning in the middle of the old forest.

The school has 2 corrugated iron-roofed rooms. We entered a classroom with 9 students. Seeing the strangers, carrying cameras, camcorders, and bags, the students turned their heads to look back, their eyes clear and a little shy. Teacher Pham Thi Thom (46 years old) said this was the first time a journalist had visited a classroom. Observing the room, there was only a blackboard, white chalk, and the teacher's desk, nothing else.

"3 IN 1" CLASS

We had just chatted with Ms. Thom when the rain poured down. The tin roof of the classroom hummed continuously, deafeningly. The rain followed the wind and hit the windows, wetting the floor and desks. Sitting across from each other, we spoke loudly but could not hear each other clearly. "This is the season, when it rains we cannot teach, so we just write on the board. After writing on the board, we go to each student's place to explain the lesson to them," Ms. Thom said.

The class is a combination of grades 1 and 2, but it is actually "3 in 1". Because the children here do not attend kindergarten and are not familiar with letters, during the 4 years of teaching here, Ms. Thom had to teach kindergarten as well.

That afternoon, Ms. Thom patiently held each student’s hand to practice writing. The room was dark, the teacher’s shadow walked back and forth, sometimes whispering to each student, sometimes standing on the podium reading over the roar of the rain to explain the strokes of the letters.

TO SOUND THE PHONE, YOU HAVE TO CLIMB THE ROCK

The classroom has no electricity. To have electric light, Ms. Thom installed solar power nearly 2 years ago, but today, the neighbors had something to do, so she lent them some to use. "The solar lights here, if you're lucky, can last for 2 hours. It rained all day, but having enough light to eat a meal in the morning is enough to make me happy," Ms. Thom said.

Here, to answer the phone, you have to climb a high rock. Her legs are weak, so it takes an hour to climb to the rock. Ms. Thom said that whenever she has something to do, she climbs up to that rock to make a phone call. The whole Ai Pass is like that, seeing the rock as a god, they carefully keep it in place, not daring to move it to another place, or the phone signal will be lost.

That afternoon, the rain in the forest kept pouring down, and Ms. Thom tried to hold the children's hands and teach them the letters. At the end of the day, she took the two students across a large stream. The water flowing from the mountains and forests mixed with the torrential rainwater pouring out of the village. When returning across the stream, Ms. Thom suddenly looked over the other side of the slope to see if the two students were out of sight.

MR . HOA'S MOST PRECIOUS THING IS THAT STUDENTS COME TO CLASS EVERY DAY

After decades of teaching, Ms. Thom has worked in almost every remote and difficult location, the most difficult of which is Deo Ai school.

The teacher’s room only had a makeshift empty kitchen covered by some trees that were placed over to cover the roof with corrugated iron. At noon, I saw her cooking rice, the fire suddenly flared up and then went out due to the visiting winds. In the shabby room, I saw a pot of salty braised flying fish, a pot of wild vegetable soup, and a pot of white rice. I tried to find the bed but couldn’t find it. When asked, Ms. Thom pointed to a broken folding chair.

Pointing to the fishing net in the room, Ms. Thom boasted that every time there was no food, she would take the net to the stream to catch fish, catch snails and go to the forest to pick vegetables to have a decent meal. At night, missing her children and grandchildren, Ms. Thom could only open her phone to look at photos. There were nights when she couldn't sleep, waking up to the sound of the deep forest, she missed home even more.

Not letting down their teachers, students in Deo Ai still try their best to study despite the difficulties, none of them have ever dropped out of school. Little Pham Thi Hoa Hue (grade 2) listened to her teacher's advice, so at night she wanted to memorize lessons, read, and asked her parents to use flashlights, make fires, and even light batteries for her. "I will try my best to study so that next year I can go to grade 3, go to a boarding school, and later go to university like Pham Van Venh," little Hue said innocently.

Mr. Pham Van Hue, Head of Deo Ai Hamlet, explained: Pham Van Venh graduated from the University of Physical Education and Sports in Da Nang and was the first person in Deo Ai to reduce poverty.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Hai, Principal of Ba Trang Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, said that Ms. Thom loves children very much. Therefore, students at remote locations that she has taught can always keep up with their peers at other schools when they reach grade 3.

That evening, the jungle rain returned. We left Deo Ai, carrying teacher Thom’s dream: There are no gifts or flowers for November 20th here. That gift is the hope that all the children will come to class every day. That is the most precious flower for the life of a teacher stationed in this village.