Son was sent to Aweil Base in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State in November of 2019, which is around 700km from the capital city of Juba. At that time, the dry season in South Sudan had just begun, and the outside temperature was normally 50-60 degrees Celsius.
A month after he arrived in Aweil, the first COVID-19 infection case in the world was detected. It was not easy to find vegetables in the local markets, and he thought that self-growing vegetables was the only solution for him to have vegetables.
The Vietnamese officer used seeds that he had brought from Vietnam. He created a small garden with surrounding fences and collected fertile soil by wheelbarrow from a site 300 meters from the place where he lives for vegetable planting. He used parts of a fire fighting vehicle to cover his garden to ease the heat so that his vegetables could grow.
Son planted numerous species of vegetables, such as spicy cabbage, cowpea, jute, okra, water spinach, green luffa, tomato, etc. He also grew several types of flowers around his living place.
The efforts of the Vietnamese peacekeeper brought him joy and happiness, not only because he could give vegetables to colleagues and locals in Aweil, but he was also able to share the experience of vegetable planting with them, contributing to promoting the good images of Vietnamese soldiers in South Sudan.
Translated by Trung Thanh
