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BIG Mother People in Hue or even in Vietnam, perhaps everyone knows the name of a pagoda "Duc Son", knows the name of a woman "Minh Tu". However, that doesn't mean there are lots of TV shows or newspaper articles talking noisily about those famous names as most of people think. The concept of "famousness" here is just staying in people's hearts.
The very first time I heard about Duc Son, about Minh Tu is when my granddad was still alive and still working last many years. At that time, going home, he often talked about the kids at Duc Son, and little by little, I heard more and more about the name Minh Tu, from my grandma, from my aunties, and from my mom, from people around me...
Until my cousin BIN passed away, I went to Duc Son for some family matters. That is the first time I met the Buddhist nun Minh Tu in person. She and everyone at Duc Son welcomed me warmly and proved to be very hospitable; I really had a liking as well as respected for her at my first meeting. She still looked optimistic and jolly even though what around her were a low location orphanage always flooded when it just rains hard, contriving daily rice and food for more than 100 kids and what she had had on her was a faded brown dress which was mended many times. She took me around the orphanage to visit the kids. Kids there, anyone is materially deprived and they are much more emotionally deprived. Any time they see a guest comes to visit, they would stream to the visitor, scramble for being carried or being hugged. Some pulled my arms, some grabbed my feet and I was a bit embarrassed.
My granddad passed away, I went back Duc Son with family. When my granddad was still alive, he loved the kids so much. Now, he already passed away, I brought the kids there his present. Time after that, I had come to the orphanage sometimes, also visited Minh Tu, also brought things and also came to play with the kids...
After more than 3 years, I had a chance to go back Duc Son only in these days. In recent days, I have been helping my friend to get formula and food and take all of those to the orphanage for the kids there. Passing the Lim bridge up on the hill, we arrived at Duc Son. Nowaday Duc Son looks really different, the pagoda is higher, cleaner and much nicer. The orphanage looks much better than it was last few years. It was enlarged, upgraded and built much higher to avoid the floods. I met Minh Tu again, she remembered me vaguely; she asked "You are Duc, aren't you?", "No, I am Tuan.", "I'm not sure if you still remember but I am the grandson of... my granddad. My grandma is...", "Ah ah, I remember. Formerly, your grandfather loved the kids here so much. If he didn't struggle for their interests then, it would have been very hard to have this nowaday orphanage for them to live...", "Your grandmother has a big heart too...", "Why I don't see your aunts and your mother come here to visit in recent times?"... Talking and listening to her for more than an hour and a half, I had not heard she complained about any difficulty to her or spun a long yarn about her services. She is always optimistic, has a gentle and righteous smile; she always thinks of the kids first in any situation...
She took us to visit the kids again. The number has gone up to 204 kids until now, at every age-group, including some babies who just were born not longer than 15 days and were thrown away. Seeing guests came to visit, as before, the kids came to say hello, some hugged our feet, some holded our hands, some hugged our hips; they didn't want to release us. Many but they are very orderly and polite. I just think human who were just born are the same, same like a blank paper; the paper will become nice or bad, that depends on people who write on them. If those kids were unlucky and could not meet Minh Tu, they would have been hardly alive or they would have become uneducated people with lots of social problems.
In the true sense of the word, she is a GREAT MOTHER. But, I have to speak in a low voice or she will "kill" me. She doesn't want to be praised even though that is absolutely meritorious.
We still have some blanket and stuffs left. Perhaps we will come again to see you and the kids for that probably this weekend...
Kids Statistics at the Orphanage:
Disabilities: 10 Newborns: 10 Preschool: 13
1st grade: 8 2nd grade: 11 3rd grade: 11
4th garde: 12 5th grade: 13 6th grade: 13
7th grade: 27 8th grade: 18 9th grade: 10
10th grade: 12 11th grade: 9 12th grade: 10
College/University: 17
Total: 204 (95 males & 109 females) Turkey day(This is a late post on Thanksgiving)
Well, my very first real Thanksgiving and it was a great experience. We ate a lot of food and had a fun game making a turkey from sundries. Let remember what we had that night... Turkey and stuffing, Mashed potatoes with gravy, Sweet Potato casserole, Green Bean casserole, Glazed Carrots, Cranberry sauce, Home-made rolls (bread) and Salad. And for desserts, we had Pumpkin Pie, Spice Cake, Sugar cream pie, Apple Pie, Pumpkin roll (with cream cheese), Ice cream and Whipped Cream. (Thanks Marc for helping me all of these names). I didn't bring the camera with me that night so following are pictures from Marc's camera. I don't have pictures of all kinds of food we ate but that is really an awesome meal. Also a great time meeting some new friends. Yup, had fun !!!
Thanks Ken&Heather for inviting me to come. And thanks everyone for showing me about American culture and holiday. I love you all.
Happy happy birthdayHappy birthday - by New kids on the Block
Happy Birthday to you
This is your day On this day for you We're gonna love you in every way This is your day, your day Happy birthday to you, to you Happy birthday to you You're still young Age is just a number Don't you stop having fun This is your day, your day Happy birthday to you , to you This day only comes once every year Because you're so wonderful With each and every thing you do Hey Happy birthday to you This is your day On this day for you We're gonna love you in every way This is your day, your day Happy birthday to you, to you This day is only for you 'Cause you're so special in every way Happy birthday to you Vietnam Teacher's dayHAPPY TEACHER'S DAY TO ALL WHO ARE TEACHING !!!
I had a ceremony at school this morning and a short meeting at my office with students and former students. This is my first year that I received flowers and nice wishes from my students. It's really an honour to me. I also had a hard party with my colleagues and some students; it was fun; drunk pretty much beer and my face then was a happy pink face. I was singing...
Thanks Tam for sending me the picture. Every week flood Oh my...
You know, right after the badminton competition was over, Hue was flooded. That began in the evening that Doug and mom Cindy came down Hue from Hanoi on a night flight. I met them in the next morning and that was so great. Doug went outside with Mr. Cu, the owner of famous Mandarin cafe in Hue to take photo on that bad flood; he also posted about it on his blog. That is the 4th flood within one month. I also added some pictures from my camera at the bottom too. Check it out!
So finally, I got the second prize in the badminton competition. I tried it hard but could not win the final match but I am glad that people know how I can play through this competition.
Back school after the competition and flooding time, I found classes are so crazy. Essays, seminars, specially writing the outline and getting ready for the graduation thesis next year, and prepare for the English club, activities of the Youth Union (I said I can't do and don't want to do but people still push me into this duty); all of work make me feel busy even just thinking of them. But being busy, even so busy is a good thing to me at the moment for some personal reason...
... I am happy I could speak out, I am glad someone is listening to me and I feel warm to know that I have been shared what happens in my life...
Wish you back home safe!
My mind is busy at the moment, VERY BUSY!
Stuck !!! Thanks all friends for reading and leaving messages on my blog in recent days. I'm currently really busy with day and night classes and getting ready for the badminton competition this weekend. I will play men's singles and men's doubles. So, I will not have time for blog as well as reading and leaving comments on yours until next week. Sorry for that and I will be back soon with stories.
Just a quick post before leaving for class. Hope you all are enjoying life. Peace! An old story on a dolphin in a fishing village I was rummaging in my heap of pictures in this computer and I found these old ones. They made me think of a story that happened last 4 years and I decided to tell you what the story is. Here you are, the pictures I've just mentioned:
I got to know this story from a field trip to a mangrove forest in Hue for a research essay when I was an undergraduate student. It was a nice and sunny day and we were a bit tired driving to Ru Cha, the mangrove forest I mentioned above (sorry, this link is in Vietnamese, but you could see some pictures). When we were taking a short rest at a corner of the forest, we found out an old man was trying to move a big fish onto his bamboo boat. He brought the fish to a spacious place on the land and at that time people in that village came to see. The fish is called "ca' o^ng", a slang word that local people used to call that kind of fish and it means a whale; but in fact, I think he is much more alike a dolphin. When that old man (he is the man wearing black shirt in my pictures) saw the dolphin, he was still alive. By tradition of fishing villages here, it is spiritual if someone meets a "ca' o^ng". Anyone should treats him well if don't want to have a bad upheaval in their fishing life. A fishing man's life always closely attaches to water, sea and ocean and risk could be anywhere. So that made fishing people believe on "ca' o^ng" much more.
Back to the story, then, that old man and other villagers started to do the ritual work with the dolphin (now he already died because it was too dry up there). What they did are similar with a ceremony when a man dies. They put paper money around him, burned incense, worshipped and prayed and especially, they built a coffin for him (see the pictures and don't forget to click on them to see the larger versions).
We left Ru Cha when the fish's ceremony had not finished yet. But we could guess people would bring him to a nice place in the forest and bury. And whenever people there are going to head for the open sea and catch fish for their daily life, they could come there to pray for a lucky sea journey. |
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