Song on the mountain top

The road to Ca Lung Kindergarten was being paved. The rocks were bumpy. Dust was flying everywhere. The road surface was rough and bumpy like waves. For those who were not used to it, riding a motorbike would be more tiring than walking. During the 4km journey from the commune center to the school, officer Lu drove silently, but I knew his arms were tired. Several times, I wanted him to stop for a moment to rest, but he insisted: We have to go early, the teachers and children are waiting there!

Anyone who goes to the Dong Van stone plateau, Ha Giang province, across Tham Ma slope will see a three-way intersection with one way going up to Pho Cao, the other way going down to Van Chai, the remaining small turnoff to Lung Thau. The day I returned to Lung Thau, the Vice Chairman of Ly Mi Lu commune confided that Lung Thau is completely hidden behind the towering mountains, the traffic route here is also a dead end, so it has been a long time since a visitor from the lowlands came to visit. During his business trip, he invited me to visit Ca Lung Kindergarten, part of Lung Thau Kindergarten. November 20th is coming soon, so the teachers and students there are practicing dancing and singing, it must be very fun!

My school is small... Located in the middle of the woods

Ca Lung School is nestled on a slope, surrounded by vast clouds and sky, everywhere you look you see the deep green of forest trees and mountain rocks. In the 2024-2025 school year, the School has two classes, with a total of 52 students aged 3-5. In charge of the two classes are Ms. Hoang Thi Linh (born in 1994) and Ms. Sung Thi Cho (born in 1996).

Teachers at Ca Lung Kindergarten welcome students to class every morning.

The prefabricated classroom of the teacher and students was handed over and put into use in 2019. The land area of ​​the school is narrow, so it has to be divided into two classes by temporary partitions. Therefore, the kitchen for the small children has not been arranged for construction. Every morning, the students' meals will be cooked at the main school and brought here by tricycle. When the children have finished eating, the school's kitchen assistant pulls the cart to bring the bowls and chopsticks out.

In their second year working with the students at Ca Lung, the two young teachers confided that every day they saw the students having to climb the mountain to get to class. They were both waiting and feeling anxious, as if their hearts were on fire, and only breathed a sigh of relief when the class had enough students.

When the dry season comes, the water source gradually dries up, so all the activities of the teachers and students depend on the old rainwater tank behind the house. Several times a day, the two teachers step on the stone used as a footrest, try to lift the heavy concrete lid, and carry a few buckets of water for the children to wash their faces and clean their small feet that are covered with mud on the way to class. The water in the tank can only be used to wash the children's hands and feet. As for drinking water, there is a separate water filter, but it must be used sparingly.

Class hours of teachers and students at Ca Lung Kindergarten

Despite the difficulties, the two teachers still regularly went to class every day. The highland children, with cheeks as red as ripe apples, diligently went to school. The sound of spelling sometimes echoed in the quiet school yard, sometimes echoed in the vast mountains and forests. Then, in the afternoon, after class ended, the teachers went to the gate to watch the tiny figures, holding hands and disappearing at the foot of the hill, then hurried over several mountain slopes, down a few slopes to return home when it was pitch black.

My young teacher... taught me to sing very well

Recess of teachers and students at the school

Ca Lung Kindergarten shares a playground with two primary school classes. Most of the kindergarten students have older siblings studying there. When school is out, the older siblings carry lunch boxes in one hand and lead the younger siblings home along the old path with the other.

In the class there was Lu Thi Chai. This year Chai was 5 years old, already in kindergarten, but only as small as the children in kindergarten! Chai's house was behind the mountain, standing from the school yard you could see the tiny path leading to Chai's house. The mountain was big but Chai's feet were small, in the morning when the night dew was still wet on the leaves, Chai had already walked along that winding path to school, somehow she would reach class when... the sun was already on the mountain top! Her parents couldn't take her anywhere because they had to go to work to support Chai and her 5 siblings to go to school. Chai never skipped class because going to school meant getting a good meal, if she stayed at home she would only eat men men and cabbage soup all day.

Every recess, Chai hobbled out to the small yard, watching his friends play and wondering why his hands and feet were not like the others. Since birth, he had been disabled in all four limbs, so every time Chai had a question, teacher Cho and teacher Linh could only hug Chai, stroke his sunburned blond hair and say: I love Chai so much, I love Chai so much!

Ms. Linh said: Today, primary school is off. If we let the children go home by themselves, we can't bear it. The road is so far... I'm worried. So in lessons like this, we usually wait for each child's parent to come and pick them up!

Most of the students at Ca Lung School are children of families in difficult circumstances.

To keep the students from crying from homesickness, and to ease the teacher’s anxiety as it was getting dark, the whole class went out to the yard to play a children’s game. The teacher’s voice was warm and clear, and the children’s babbling echoed throughout the deep valleys: Our game today is called sowing seeds. Let’s read after her, sowing seeds, seeds sprouting, one leaf, two leaves, one bud, two buds, one flower, two flowers…

Watching the teacher and students dance and sing, I suddenly thought that these days, all over the high mountain peaks of Ha Giang, buckwheat flowers are blooming pink, but that is certainly not the most beautiful flower. The most beautiful flower of the rocky plateau is still being nurtured by people like teacher Linh and teacher Cho!

Vu Mung (Ethnic and Development Newspaper)

Source: https://baophutho.vn/loi-ca-tren-dinh-non-ngan-222761.htm