VietNamNet Bridge – In the late afternoon, kids play on or around tombs. Nearby, some men sit on tombs to take fresh air, to drink and to play cards while several women wash their hair or bathe their children. That’s the life in a hamlet called “xom go ma” (tomb hamlet) in District 8, HCM City.

Local residents said that their current hamlet was previously a secluded cemetery. In the last several decades, poor immigrants have settled themselves in this cemetery. They are building workers, lottery ticket sellers, rubbish collectors, etc. They reclaimed the unoccupied land area between tombs and built tents there. The ‘tomb hamlet’ has been formed since then. This special hamlet is located at the end of a bind alley along the polluted Rach Lao canal in Ward 15, District 8, HCM City.

People who come to the hamlet for the first time would get the shivers because of the cold, miasmatic atmosphere, but local residents feel nothing. It seems to have no gap between the living and the dead.

With more children being born in this small hamlet, the space is getting narrow. Without a real playground, kids play around or on tombs. Their parents take advantage of stone steles to air their clothes. Bicycles, motorbikes and furniture are placed between tombs.

In an area of around 300 square meters, tottering tents are set up among tombs so visitors cannot realize which are tombs and which are tents.

The “richest” family in this hamlet is Mrs. Thach Thi Hong’s, 52, whose husband is a senior building worker, with stable income. Her children have had their own families. Hong’s family currently doesn’t have to earn their daily bread like many other families in the tomb hamlet.

According to Hong, her family moved from the southern province of An Giang to Saigon 30 years ago. “At that time, I bought this plot of land at a dirty price. We were very scared to build a house in a cemetery but we were very poor. We have been familiar with tombs. The cemetery has become a playground for kids. We sometimes organize parties out there,” she said and pointed to the space with a dozen of tombs.

Most of people in the tomb hamlet moved from the southwestern region and they have to hire land in the cemetery or live illegally here. They cannot dig wells and they don’t have tap water so they have to buy clean water at high prices.

The poorest family in the hamlet is Mrs. Kieu’s. Kieu’s tent is built near two tombs. The walls are made by bamboo screens and the roof is made by rusty iron sheets that her husband took from construction sites where he worked. The floor is covered by broken bricks and soil. The most expensive thing in this house is a very old television set.

Kieu, a worker, said she got married at the age of 18. Three generations of her family have lived in this cemetery. Kieu’s parents live next to her house. When Kieu was married, her parents narrowed their house to give some land to Kieu’s family.

At the age of 24, Kieu has three children; the youngest is only six months old. She is staying at home to take care of the child while her husband doesn’t have a stable job. This family is always in shortage of food. Kieu’s neighbors sometimes contribute money to buy milk for Kieu’s baby.

“We are in the dead end to live with the dead. We adults have been familiarized with this life. It’s the children I feel sorry for. They even don’t have clean water to use,” Kieu said.

There are over 30 families in the hamlet, with over a dozen of kids at the school age. But most of them have to quit school to sell lottery tickets or collect rubbish to assist their parents. Most of them suffer from asthma, heart and lung diseases but their parents cannot afford the treatment.

Vinh, 7, Kieu’s eldest son, has to collect rubbish while the second son, 5, helps his grandfather to classify used plastic bags.

“When Vinh was six, I planned to send him to school, but only books were costing VND600,000 ($35), not including school fees and others. I want my children to know how to write and read but we don’t have enough to eat…” Kieu explained.

Similarly, Mr. Dung has three children, the eldest is 11 and the youngest is 6 years old, but all of them are illiterate. Dung is a hired worker with an unstable job, while his wife sells lottery tickets. They only earn enough for food, so they cannot afford their children to go to school.

Ngoc Han, Dung’s eldest daughter, said: “Once I saw others going to school. I asked my mother to send me to school but she scolded me to not love parents. Since then I have given up my desire to go to school”.

Poverty, illiteracy and poverty again, that vicious circle is clinging to over 100 people in this tomb village.

The life in the tomb village:

VNE