Entry one
The people I met at each village gleamed with happiness and compassion. They would offers us their food and water as we shared their floors. To a stranger to their true situation, like me, their cheerfulness almost completely masked the truth behind the scenes. Looking deeper at the situation, I was unable to drink their water as it contained bacteria I could not digest, and then their food was often the vegetables I passed by on the road which are difficult to cook; also containing bacteria I could not digest.

The clothes they wore were their best because for many it was their only set of clothing. Looking closely, zippers were converted to buttons and pockets were just slits to scratch your legs with. Yet the village was determined to display with visage of happiness and sense that they were completely living sufficiently. What resonated with me most during my interactions with these people was this very ability to be able to see the bright side of their situation. However this did not change the fact of the matter which was they were a suffering people with little or nothing. Where a cut or “common” illness could cease them from existing in this world.

Entry two
Before my trip with Viet toc, I found it rare to find people who would give there life for others. Although I met so many special people. I wanted to share my experience with on couple in particular. They were newlyweds who didn’t go on their honeymoon because they felt it more important to return to the village to teach. They had both completed college, no simple feat for them.

During the day they would work the field and tend the coffee fields to make a living for the family. While not tending the fields they would both continue to tutor all of the children they could at their home. During my time there they had over 15 children whom they were tutoring. They had the means to do any job they wanted, even move to the city where they could have a much better chance of living a higher standard of life. But they both choose to return to the village they grew up in, to relive the conditions, in order to give the children of their village a better chance of achieving what they did.

Some would say that it was their calling to be teachers, but the connotation of living the life of a poor teacher here in the US meets its extreme in this case. There is no pay for them to teach these children, they only do it out of the kindness of their heart. They were not formally trained to be teachers nor did they have all the necessary knowledge to help the children, but they persevered for the sake of the children. They would find the textbooks they needed to teach and learn from for the children often spending countless hours to understand the material needed to teach the children. To many this couple was the reason why they were able to pass primary education.

This couple truly gave up everything for the sake of their people, for the chance to be able to provide another a chance to live a better life.

By Patrick Lê