Back in my school days, I know I did walk to school a half-hour each way, through knee-deep snow, and it sure felt like it was uphill both ways.
I really don’t want any kids today to have to make that kind of a trudge, but it’s worth it to get a good education.
In Vietnam, kids can’t really expect to get a day off school for snow.
And for kids in the village of Huoi Ha, with a population of about 500, getting to school is the priority. They don’t want snow days, or whatever the equivalent might be.
Getting an education is seen as the key to escaping poverty, and it seems there are no lengths to which the adults and the kids in Huoi Ha won’t go to get to class.
For these kids, the trip to school is five hours.
That’s through forest and jungle, along muddy roads, and yes, up and down hills. And one of the great obstacles is a 65-foot wide river.
Typically, they can cross using a bamboo bridge. However, when rains came and washed that bridge away, they had to find another way across.
Basically, there are two options.
There’s a bamboo raft, tugged across the river using a rope, which doesn’t appear to be very sturdy, and must be a challenge to stay dry, even for an adult. However, the bonus is that more than one kid can cross at a time.
For the other option, kids carry plastic bags with them.
And they line up along the river to sit inside their plastic bag and be hauled across the river by a guy in a bathing suit who knows the river well.
Obviously this is not a journey for the faint of heart.
If that guy’s hand slips, the kid will be carried off by the current and end up who knows where, but at least the kids are dry when they reach the other side. On shore, the parents can only look on and hope for the best.
And that’s it. Those are their only options to get to school during the rainy season.
The rickety raft, or the plastic bag. But, one way or another, these kids are getting to school.
And remember, that plastic bag trip happens one at a time, for about 50 kids headed to class.
So it’s no wonder that the whole trip can take five hours.
The journey these kids take highlights the need for a permanent bridge in the area.
Even after making it across the river, the kids still have another 15 km hike to get to the school. That’s all time that could be spent studying if they had roads and bridges to get them to class.
h/t VOV
