Kai Saar

The Life Of A Vietnamese Child, in my own point of view.

Dear ------------,

My name is Kai Saar and I am from Vietnam. I am 16 years old and only just learnt to read and write a few weeks ago. I have never gone to school before, but it was the most amazing experience I have ever had! The teachers were so nice, and they gave me food. I guess its a lot different to you. From now on, I have to leave school in a few days, just so I can go out and help find food. It’s not that bad, but I guess it’s not going to go to waste.

In my family my Father is being taught to grow food and my Mother is being taught to teach other people. I also have 2 little brothers, 1 little sister and 1 older brother. My older brother is doing what my Mother is being taught and my little sister is learning about medicine. I have been finding food for my other siblings and water, but it is so far away, that we only get to eat once a day, which is at the end of the day when my parents are home. Finding water is so long. It takes me two hours to walk to the water and I can only take two buckets so I can’t get much water. Then it takes another two hours to walk back.

I have to take care when I walk though, because anything could happen. Animals, people and even traps for other peoples food could catch me and kill me in seconds! I think I’m pretty smart though, maybe because I’ve done it for so long now. I can’t really ignore it for a day. We have to have someone bring in the food now. So we can eat, it’s usually a fresh fish or chicken, some goats cheese, some berries and three loaves of bread. We also get a little bit of money, so we can get some needles and thread at the market to stitch up our clothing, as I only have one pair of pants, one shirt and a going out dress that I only wear for really special occasions like ceremonies.

Lately, we have been getting animals instead of food. We have 4 chickens, 3 goats, 5 sheep and even a cow for my little sister to milk. That means we can get even more food and sell it for even more money! We can get milk, cheese, chicken, eggs, meat and even wool for clothing. My Father wasn’t really happy about all these animals, but I guess we have the land we need to keep them, but the animals have a better house than us! We have a 2 bedroom cottage, that the people made for us when they thought our family was getting big and now there are 7 of us. My parents get one room and all of us have to share the other. But I don’t mind because it means extra warmth.

We have been getting news lately that there is a 90% literacy rate in Vietnam, I hope so, because then my Father will get more food, and that would mean we would be able to live a normal life.

When my Mother is home from being taught, we are opening up a little school for all the kids in our little community and we might even get to go too! We would get more money for food and water. I think that there might be some people coming out to build a water well as well, so we can get water and they are bringing out doctors and teachers and even more animals! 

In about a months time, there is a group called “Caritas” that is coming out as well. They have donated more than $200,000 dollars so far to help us build up our communities. They are so wonderful, they even gave me $20 to use for school supplies. Caritas also gave us $550 to put towards rebuilding the house, food, water, clothing and even a new bed!

I hope one day our country will be as wealthy as yours and I hope one day we can meet each other.

Yours sincerely,

Kai Saar