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After more than one month of preparation, we came back to Sai Gon from Hue, and followed the H&T brothers to visit the on-going construction and the people living by the stream. There were four of us – my husband and me, brother Nghiem, the project director, and brother Tam, the architect of the project, both were in H&T team. From Sai Gon, we headed towards Dong Nai. When our car turned to an earth road, we had to get off and moved to smaller vehicles, the motorbikes, in order to navigate to the construction site. Our motorbikes ran in the forest path, almost invisible in thick dust. The earth road itself was badly damaged by rain and floods, bearing many crossing lines, which made the drive very difficult and dangerous. By both sides along the path were gardens of hot pepper, cashew, and drying yards of farm products.
Our motorbikes came by the stream side, where many people were working. They were local people hired to build the bridge, and H&T volunteers. These volunteers lived about 4 hours riding motorbike away from Tho Loc village, but they took the trouble to come here in turn every day to help EOCRO with this project. There was one thing that made us silently smile: we had intended that this year, we would do some projects for the poor, Southern people, but when we came here, to our surprise, every body spoke Central ascent, from the volunteers to the villagers. It turned out that this is a voluntary new settlement after 1975, started when Central people from the provinces of Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, Hue, Quang Tri and Quang Binh came here with their whole families to make a living. Poor Central people had to leave their home villages for Southern areas, but still could not escape poverty. They have been living here for 35 years, but many of their houses could not have cement coat for their walls. Many men said that it took them as many as ten years working to save enough so as to make a trip to their home village. Some other said they could hardly make a living, and therefore they did not want to visit their father’s land. It is so hard to live in the mountain far from the city.
We listened with keen attention when villagers told how they could cross the stream in flood season. Uncle Vo Dinh Tieu lived in the southern bank of the stream, and his large garden has become shelter for many people trapped in the flood. He had extra provisions for villagers to stay over when necessary. In big tree trunks, he tied strong ropes, the other end of which would be thrown to the other bank, so that villagers would grasp and he would help tow them to this bank if they could not wade across the stream in rising water.
The families of uncle Dao Duy Thuan and uncle Nguyen Thieu were in the northern bank; their gardens were surrounded with groves of bamboos. These bamboos were the very means to help villagers cross the stream. They did this by bending the bamboo tree down, then villagers would cling to the tree top, and then bend to the other bank, close enough for them to jump down, and then the bamboo tree will bounce back. Only strong, young men could do this. And yet, things have been happening like that for over 30 years now! so many people have lost their lives, so many assets has been wiped away by the fierce flood water, and so many screams asking for a bridge have been left unheard of, perhaps because this area was too remote from downtown to be noticed, as some guessed. When we came, the bridge builders told that the villagers were so happy that they cried at the sight of real construction of the bridge. Villagers living by the banks donated land, volunteered to chop trees down and remove the tree trunks, to pave the way for the bridge, which was designed to be 11 meters long, 3 meters wide, 4 meters high from the stream bed, and 33 square meters of areas.
We came here to share our compassions with like-minded people and the poor ones. A ripe jackfruit was brought up, and glasses of cool lemon juice were served here amid forests and mountains, making our compassion even deeper. We thanked and praised the sacrifice and enthusiasm of the H&T brothers. As a beautiful memory and a sign of gratitude of local people in Gia Lao, the brothers named the bridge “ Hieu va Thuong” (Understand and Love).
Uncle Tran Van Them, of whom dharma name was Nguyen Dinh, is 71 years old now. He is a member of the Buddhist big brothers’ committee of Dong Nai province, and he is the very link between local people and the H&T volunteers. He said after the inauguration of the bridge, he himself would encourage and ask villagers to organize a Buddhist Requiem Mass to pray for those who have lost their lives to the outrageous waters over 30 years now, and also to celebrate the bridge, which now will be an economic artery for the local people.
Early Spring 2011
Ton Nu Dieu Lien
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