Alone in a foreign land, heart towards the village
These days, boarding houses around Dai An Industrial Park (Tu Minh ward, Hai Phong city) are starting to become bustling in a very different rhythm: the sound of pulling suitcases, the sound of packing things, the sound of phones calling home. In the cramped boarding rooms, luggage is gradually arranged neatly for the bus trip to the village.
Ms. Quang Thi Phuong (born in 1985, Thai ethnicity, from Muong Bu commune, Son La province) - a worker at Lien Dai Equipment Company - quietly folded up the prepared clothes. For many years, she has been working in the lowlands as a worker, only returning to her hometown once or twice a year.
She lives alone in a rented room, her husband and children are all in the countryside. Her worker life away from home is packed in a familiar rhythm: going to work in the morning, returning to the rented room in the evening, eating and drinking casually, then watching the phone, listening to music, singing karaoke to relieve boredom.
Being alone is used to it, but every time Tet approaches, I feel very empty. Missing home, missing children, missing the family meal on the day of Ong Cong and Ong Tao" - Ms. Phuong said.
Income is not high, Tet bonuses are also small, while living expenses in the lowlands are expensive, making it almost impossible for her to save much. "Working all year but when returning home for Tet, not having much money in hand is also sad. But being home is already happy" - Ms. Phuong shared.
This year, the company gave her a Tet gift bag. She placed it neatly in the corner of the room, next to a bag of clothes ready for the bus trip to Son La. She plans to take her son down to the lowlands to work together after Tet. "I don't have work in the countryside, I'll stay here forever, let's take my son down to be closer to my mother, to avoid being apart," she said, her eyes both hopeful and worried.
Homecoming brings tears and hope
In a boarding house not far away, Hoang Thi Bich Chuan (20 years old, Tay ethnicity, from Yen Bai) - a worker at Sumiden Vietnam Automobile Electric Wire and Cable Co., Ltd. - is packing her belongings. Chuan followed her parents to Dai An Industrial Park to work as a worker. The family rented two rooms, her parents lived in one room, and Chuan lived in a separate room.
But Chuan's Tet trip home this year was a trip full of tears. When asked why he packed his things early, he choked up: "My father just passed away a week ago". His father was seriously ill, Chuan and his mother took him to Hai Duong General Hospital but he did not survive. An ambulance took Chuan's father straight home. Chuan is packing his father's belongings to send back to Yen Bai.
My family was originally difficult, in debt, so the whole family had to go down to the lowlands to work as workers to earn a living. The rented room life is cramped, spending is frugal, all living expenses must be calculated. "About the countryside, everything is available, down here everything must be bought. Going home from work, looking at room rent, food money, electricity and water bills, it's very stressful" - Chuan said softly.
Not far away, in another boarding house, Mr. Lo Van Xuong (born in 1993) is boiling a pot of bamboo shoots waiting for his wife to come home from work. His wife is Ms. Ca Thi Nga (born in 1996), both husband and wife are Thai people, from Son La, working as workers at Dai An Industrial Park.
14 years of marriage, living on fields but not enough to eat, they decided to go down to the plains to work as workers. The young children were sent back to their hometown for grandparents to look after. Living far from their children, far from the village, simple worker meals, but the couple always saved and saved every penny to have money to go home for Tet. "My wife came back first, I parked my motorbike later so I could have a car to go out for Tet for a few days" - Mr. Xuong smiled gently.
The days near Tet in the rented rooms around Dai An Industrial Park are days of preparing, cleaning up and counting down time to return to the countryside. From small rented rooms, luggage is packed, Tet gifts are carefully tied, and there are more phone calls to the village.
Each trip home carries a separate story: the joy of reunion, the sadness of loss, and quiet hopes for the new year. For highland workers, Tet is not just a holiday, but a return to family, to villages, to familiar things that cannot be replaced.
