July Emotions

July. Rain. The city of Da Lat where I live and work is submerged in a continuous drizzle. Many streets are flooded, many slopes are eroded; houses are washed away, people are killed, some officials are suspended from work and prosecuted.

Agricultural products in flooded areas are almost completely lost. Probably due to climate change, after 12 noon, the sky darkens. The rain pours down, the water pours down and the rain lasts for a long time. The rain makes the streets more crowded as more cars go out, slowing down traffic, although everyone on the road is in a hurry in the gloomy atmosphere. And, the rain evokes many feelings for people far from home like me. The nostalgia for home in the days of July sows in my soul a mixture of joy and sadness.

In my hometown, in July, the rain made the dirt roads in the village muddy, the water stagnated into white puddles on the road. On moonless nights, when walking on the village road, I always muttered the proverb that our ancestors had learned from life experience: "Avoid white when it rains, avoid black when it's sunny." Because when it rains, white places are puddles, going into them will wet your clothes; when it's sunny, black places are mud, going into them will get you stuck in the mud. Before, my parents were farmers, on sunny days they waited for the rain to make the land and sky fresh, the trees green, and the crops bountiful. But too much rain brought up many worries in their hearts because they were worried about floods and crop failures, worried about heavy rains that would cause the harvested rice to not dry and germinate, worried about the poor thatched roof leaking at night and wetting the whole house, with no place to sleep... I have been away from my hometown for more than 30 years, but when the rainy season of July comes, my soul always yearns for the hard days in my beloved poor hometown, with countless memories. There were nights in July when it didn’t rain but the electricity was out; in the evening the whole family spread out mats in the yard and gathered together to enjoy the cool breeze. Children listened to their grandmother tell fairy tales such as “The kind and gentle girl”, “Thach Sanh – Ly Thong”, “Son Tinh – Thuy Tinh”, “Banh Chung – Banh Giay…”; young people sang love songs to each other or talked about the work of the day and planned what they would do tomorrow… Until now, those moments always appear in me, sometimes I remember them completely; sometimes I forget the beginning and the end. But those distant moments were the happiest time of my childhood. When I grew up, I couldn’t find them again, even once when I lived in the middle of a dreamy city. The years of poverty and deprivation eventually passed, the family reunion life with both father and mother; brothers and sisters gradually separated over the years; the poor thatched roofs eventually changed to spacious houses, fully equipped but without laughter.

Along with the natural law, I have also grown up over time and July is attached to me as a destiny. After graduating from university, I found a job in the field of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs; so July is the month of gratitude, the month of gratitude, the month of remembrance and nostalgia filled with sacred emotions. This is the time when the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army organize many practical and meaningful activities for war invalids, families of martyrs, and people with meritorious services to the revolution. Throughout the history of the country, the tradition of "Repaying gratitude", "When drinking water, remember its source" has been built and preserved by generations of Vietnamese people to show gratitude for the loss of those who sacrificed for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland. During the resistance wars to protect the Fatherland, millions of Vietnamese children enthusiastically took up arms to fight on all battlefields; Many people heroically sacrificed their lives, or left behind a part of their bodies, becoming war invalids, sick soldiers, victims of Agent Orange, which many generations of descendants later suffered. The movement to confer and posthumously confer the noble title of “Heroic Vietnamese Mother” and the title of “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” received the top attention of our State. The youth volunteers and frontline workers who participated in wars to protect the Fatherland; those with meritorious services, and relatives of those with meritorious services to the revolution received the State’s attention and monthly allowances; enjoyed health insurance and funeral expenses upon their death… are policies that have followed me throughout nearly 30 years of work.

This year, July has come with unusual drops of rain in the Central Highlands, floods, landslides... making my soul sad; more rest, more worry about the future ahead about the destruction of nature by humans. Climate change is inevitable. Crop pests and diseases, so the fruit trees are not lush, is a great concern of farmers. Reading the article "Dragon fruit continues the refrain... losing value?" in Binh Thuan newspaper by author Kieu Hang, there is a paragraph: "In the past few days, it is not difficult to see in dragon fruit growing areas, images of farmers harvesting fruit and piling it up right at the base of the pillars, or transporting it to dump on the roadside. According to research, this is the amount of dragon fruit in the main season, when harvested, it was infected with brown spots, so traders did not buy it because it did not meet export standards, it was only sold for 2,000 - 3,000 VND/kg...". I felt so sad and sorry for the farmers of Binh Thuan in particular and the farmers of the whole country in general. The quality of agricultural products is not good partly due to climate change "unfavorable rain, unfavorable wind", many insects have appeared to destroy crops, and the fruits are not flourishing despite the farmers' best efforts in taking care of them.

July is coming, when the children's childhood has temporarily left school, my hope is that the students will have fun field trips and extracurricular activities with their families. Farmers will overcome countless difficulties in production and labor to rise up in life. Especially on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day (July 27, 1947 - July 27, 2023), fresh flowers and incense sticks of love are offered at memorials and martyrs' cemeteries across the country to pay tribute to the beloved Vietnamese children who "forgot themselves for the country" for national independence and unification as today.

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