“Vietnam is truly a paradise”
The first time I set foot in Bentiu, the land appeared before my eyes like a gray painting of extreme harshness. The sun burned the skin. Refugee shelters were blurred by dust. The cawing of crows mixed with the buzzing of flies. The air was heavy with the smell from garbage dumps and black stagnant water. Nature may really know how to tease people because according to Vietnamese military doctors, when the rainy season comes, Bentiu is covered in mud everywhere, making travel extremely difficult.
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Vietnamese blue-berets guide students in weaving baskets from cattail leaves. |
In the scorching heat, thin, barefoot children rummaged through garbage dumps. Sometimes young men carrying guns rode motorbikes past on dusty dirt roads. That haunting scene is not occasional but has become daily life, a reminder of poverty and instability. “Only when coming here do you fully realize that life in Vietnam is truly a paradise. That is also the reason why the presence of U.N. peacekeeping forces is necessary,” said Major, Dr. Tran Duc Tai, Director of L2FH Rotation 7.
Gifts from Uncle Ho’s soldiers
Understanding those hardships, Vietnamese blue-berets always strive to bring brighter colors to this land. Following the staff of the hospital to Liberty Primary School in Bentiu during U.N. CIMIC (civil-military cooperation) activities, I clearly felt the heartfelt care of Uncle Ho’s soldiers for local people.
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Director of L2FH Rotation 7 Major Tran Duc Tai talks with Liberty Primary School students. |
Liberty Primary School has only a few classrooms, each made of faded corrugated metal sheets, with no desks, no lights, no fans. Students sit closely together on old wooden benches placed on bare ground, writing with notebooks resting on their laps. Although it is a primary school, some students are already 17 or 18 years old. When they saw the Vietnamese doctors arriving, the children became excited, stretching up, standing on tiptoe, waving continuously. When they heard they would receive gifts, the whole school became lively.
Seeing small hands carefully holding stacks of drawing paper, notebook covers, and boxes of colored pencils was deeply moving. Without witnessing it firsthand, it would be hard to believe that some children had previously drawn only with graphite pencils. They were shy and awkward when first using colored pencils. Even more remarkable, children born into hardships could still create vivid and beautiful drawings of animals, plants, houses, doctors, teachers, and the flags of South Sudan and Vietnam.
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Liberty Primary School students introduce drawings made with paper and colored pencils donated by the hospital staff. |
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Vietnamese peacekeeper guides students in using colored pencils to draw. |
Beyond supporting education, Vietnamese peacekeepers also brought footballs and brand-new kites. These seemingly ordinary gifts are considered luxuries in a country still struggling with poverty and conflict, where many families still struggle to secure daily meals. Watching the excited faces chasing a rolling ball across a dirt field, running after kites swaying in the wind, I suddenly realized that if peacekeeping is a grand mission, then peace can sometimes be as simple as a child’s smile when receiving a gift.
During the visit, apart from gifts, the hospital staff carefully guided teachers, students, and parents in weaving beautiful baskets from wild cattail leaves growing locally.
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Liberty Primary School students excitedly receive new kites. |
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Vietnamese blue-berets guide students on how to fly kites. |
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Vietnamese peacekeepers play football with teachers and students of Liberty Primary School. |
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L2FH Rotation 7 staff and Liberty Primary School teachers and students |
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Liberty Primary School students with the Vietnamese flag. |
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Children’s lives in Bentiu still face many difficulties. |
Spring has come to Bentiu, not from nature, but from hearts willing to share. New drawings will continue to be created on white paper. Footballs will keep rolling on dirt fields. Kites will continue to fly in the wind. Cattail-leaf baskets will keep being woven. “Vietnam, very good, very good!” The simple words from teachers and students at Liberty Primary School were enough to warm the hearts of Vietnamese blue-berets on their peacekeeping mission.
Translated by Mai Huong