Work make money from home

Mai Quoc Huy is neither an outstanding student nor a teacher’s favorite. However, the 16-year-old student used the skills he has learned through first-hand experience to earn first prize at the Ho Chi Minh City Informatics Competition for Youth 2018.

Huy might spend most of his free time helping his father sell second-hand speakers and repairing his neighbors’ electric devices, but every now and then he finds a reason to sneak off to local bookstores and read up physics, electricity, and programming.

Though he is just an ordinary student from a low-income family, his ability to remember even the smallest detail of electrical devices is a skill others can only dream of.

A ninth grader who can turn bikes from manual to electric

Thanks to his teacher’s proposition, Huy was chosen to represent Ban Co Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City at two municipal competitions: the Science Fair for Daily Inventions and Informatics Competition for Youth, both of which awarded him first prize for his submission: his grandfather’s old bicycle installed with a motor, throttle, and solar batteries to turn it into an electric bike

Having joined the competition for the first time, Huy was funded with VND1 million (around US$43) for the project.

To parents’ and neighbors’ surprise, Huy’s electric bicycle, able to reach speeds of 40kph, was awarded two first prizes and qualified for the national competition to be held in August.

Now, Huy is putting the final touches on his “invention” to prepare for the upcoming event.

The bicycle is not only special because it is powered by solar energy, it also has other features that most bicycles do not, mostly inspired by Huy’s own experience as a cyclist.

“One time I went to visit a friend in Cho Ray Hospital and my bicycle was moved to a new spot in the gigantic parking lot. When I got home, I decided that I would equip the bike with some of the convenient features that motorbikes have, such as radio waves (RF) that can help find the vehicle more easily,” Huy said.

Many people believe that bikes are not a valuable, but for Huy, it is his most important asset. Hence, the boy was determined to design a GPS system to prevent theft.

The young inventor proudly presented his most recent addition to the bike: a feature that allows any phone to send a text message and be informed of the bike’s location, no matter where it is.

“Each text message costs VND200 [less than one cent] but I am still finalizing a system to send the data through the Internet to save money,” the student revealed.

As impressive as the features may seem, there are still many more the 16-year-old hopes to add in the future, such as automatic headlights, break lights, and automatic indicators which sensor tilting movement.

All these functions would make riding a bicycle not only significantly more convenient, but also much safer.

Phan Nguyen Truc Phuong, Huy’s engineering instructor at the Science Development Center for Youth under the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, is a full supporter of Huy’s ideas.

“Even though Huy’s idea is not new, it is very practical since it results from daily lives,” she said.

Huy’s self-studying journey

Having grown up in a working-class neighborhood on Vuon Chuoi Street in District 3, Huy is more than used to the sounds of loud motors, local working, and construction.

However, it was only recently that he began to involve himself in his father’s blue-collar profession.

“Being a motor repairman is a tiresome and unstable job. It only provides for my family’s most basic needs so I do not want my son to follow in my footsteps,” said Huy’s father, Mai Hoang Ha.

“But I still show him a few simple things to be able to make a day-to-day living, repair his own vehicle, and help others in the neighborhood. He first became interested in repairing electric devices around the house in grade eight so I decided to show him a few small things. Since then, I’ve let him experiment on his own and only watched him for safety. I don’t know much about automating so I haven’t been able to help him much with that.”

Fully aware of the family’s financial situation, Huy tries to avoid asking his parents for extra money. Instead, he saves up his allowance to buy what he needs for his projects.

With just VND20,000 ($0.9) a day, every few days Huy saves enough money to visit Nhat Tao Market, Ho Chi Minh City’s most well-known electrical component market.

The books provided at his school do not supply the young inventor with the knowledge he needs so he goes to bookstores to look for higher level books on physics.

“I want to have a better understanding of electricity but the technology and physics classes at school only provide brief and basic knowledge. In order to gain a thorough understanding I need to try and understand those subjects myself. I usually use my days off to go to the bookstore and read,” Huy said.

“Books about programming and electronic circuits are all very thick. I am able to understand small parts of them, but I haven’t been able to apply much of the knowledge. Each book costs over VND100,000 so I only “borrow” them to read in the bookstore. I can’t buy them because then I wouldn’t have enough money for component parts.”

Vocational training is good enough to make a proper living

Having received results of entrance exams for high school, Huy was happy to score 30 out of 50.

“Attending top schools will not allow time to play, especially to experiment with electric devices. I am going to choose a school suitable for my capability, near my home and provides vocational training,” Huy said.

“Everyone wants their children to attend college. But if he’s not capable of it, I am happy to let him study in a vocational school for electronics, or anything he enjoys as long as he will be capable of making a living. Being a motor repairer, I have seen many youngsters who finished 12th grade but are still only drivers or work as attendants at supermarkets. I let my son study whatever he likes. I do not want to decide his own life,” Huy’s father said.

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In the five years that he has lived and worked in Vietnam, Daniel Woollacott has developed a tradition of “escaping” Tet , when shops and services are normally shut down and major cities become deserted for a few days.

But this year, he has decided to stay behind in Hanoi, dropping plans to go to Phu Quoc Island in the south.

His decision is influenced by the latest Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam.

“No one can be in the mood for vacationing now, so I will try to enjoy my first Tet in Hanoi,” Woollacott said, adding that it would be exciting to see the capital become quiet on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

The 31-year-old Brit is among a host of expats getting to celebrate the traditional Vietnamese holiday differently this year. Many have canceled or postponed their travel plans, not wanting to risk contracting the novel coronavirus.

Foreigners celebrate Lunar New Year in HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/Tam Linh.

“I had planned to go to Hue, but seeing the surging number of Covid-19 cases, especially in airports, I decided to stay in Hanoi,” said Ashley Jones, English teacher at an international school in Hanoi’s Long Bien District.

“It is a pandemic, not a holiday,” she said, adding she does not want to be infected by the virus and stay in hospitals for weeks instead of going to school and seeing her students.

In a 140,000-member Facebook group of expats living in Hanoi, many netizens who have had an earlier than scheduled start to their Tet outbreak are calling on others to be responsible with their planned trips.

Several have chosen to stay behind, meet friends in town or just stay at home and minimize infection risks.

Expats in Hanoi and Saigon know that the two cities become “ghost towns” for the festival as stores and services are shut, so they have stocked up on food.

Just three days before Tet , Monday evening, HCMC recorded 25 new Covid-19 cases, prompting authorities to close bars, karaoke parlors, cinemas and discotheques. They have also banned religious events starting Tuesday.

This is the second time the city has stopped all non-essential services, the first being last March.

In its latest outbreak, Vietnam has confirmed 553 Covid-19 cases in 13 cities and provinces since January 28.

“It is a relief after the usual hustle and bustle of Saigon with its incessant honking; the only drawback is that no restaurants and stores open,” said Tim Edward, an HR consultant in HCMC.

The Canadian man spent the Lunar New Year’s Eve playing board games with housemates before taking a walk to “enjoy the silent city and beautiful festive decorations.”

Many expats in Saigon said they were initially disappointed that the city shut down all bars and discotheques , but agreed that it was a necessary step.

“I will stay at home and binge Netflix until the holiday is over. All the food I need is in my fridge,” Edward said.

Let’s get traditional

Without a vacation for the ” Tet escape,” many expats are now excited to be part of local Lunar New Year traditions with their Vietnamese friends.

In Hanoi, Simon Stewart of the U.K. has been invited to become the first person to visit his colleague’s house in the Lunar New Year, a tradition that is called ” xong dat ” in Vietnamese.

“I understand that ‘ xong dat ’ is a crucial event and feel honored to be chosen to visit my colleague’s house,” he said.

He has been asked to wear colorful clothes and bring some li xi (lucky money) for the colleague’s children.

“I was trying to find an ao dai but there was no suitable size, so I have opted for a brown suit,” he said, adding he has asked a friend to get him some new notes to give li xi to the children.

“And they’ve given me a banh chung that I’ll have for my breakfast,” he said, smiling.

Nguyen Hue flower street in District 1, one of the biggest annual draws in Vietnam’s southern metropolis to herald Tet. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

Some expats are immersing themselves in the Tet culture, becoming part of local families.

“Because Tet is all about families,” said Phillip Flanders, who will stay with his Vietnamese girlfriend’s family in Hanoi during the holiday.

For his first Tet in Hanoi after living in Vietnam for nearly three years, Flanders helped his girlfriend make boiled chicken and spring rolls.

“This is the first time I have seen the rituals of offering food and joss money to forefathers,” he said.

He also helped his girlfriend clean up the house, buy a kumquat tree, and lent a hand in making banh chung .

But the expats are also imposing limits on themselves, given the Covid-19 situation.

In Hanoi, those visiting their friends’ families or eating outside are wearing masks. Stewart has rejected all gatherings with his colleagues, while Flanders refused to go to pagodas with his girlfriend’s family over Covid-19 fears.

Hanoi residents have been asked to stay home and limit travel during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday as a Covid-19 precaution.

In Saigon, Edward will visit the city’s famous Nguyen Hue flower street in District 1 with a Vietnamese friend this weekend.

“I am worried about the spread of the virus, but I do not want to miss beautiful moments in Saigon, so I will wear a mask and maintain social distancing,” he said.

Thursday noon, a day before Tet , the Lunar New Year, when most migrants return home to celebrate the most auspicious and important event with loved ones, a group of more than ten engineers and workers were working like any normal day. They were working on a project to build an underpass at the junction of Nguyen Van Linh and Nguyen Huu Tho streets in District 7.

Most of the workers in the group are from the Mekong Delta provinces of Can Tho, Long An and Tien Giang. Though their hometowns are not very far from the city, they won’t return home for the Lunar New Year.

They have good reasons for not returning. For one, they can take advantage of the Tet break when not many people are on the streets to speed up work, as encouraged by the city administration and the project investor. Also, they want to earn more money to make up for a year when their income was slashed heavily by the pandemic.

“It is heartbreaking that I am not home now to with my family, but I’ve pushed myself to try and work harder. I can visit home after Tet ,” said Nguyen Truong Nghia, 28, a native of Can Tho City.

Nguyen Truong Nghia works at an underpass in HCMC’s District 7, February 11, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Gia Minh

Nguyen Nam Hai, in charge at the construction site, said that during the seven-day Tet break that started Wednesday, workers will work in two shifts as usual – one in the morning and another in the afternoon.

“Apart from Tet , which allows people to stay at home longer, the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak has prevented them going out, which creates good conditions to speed up the project,” he said.

Since January 28, when community transmissions returned to Vietnam after 55 clean days, the cluster in HCMC is yet to be contained.

Work began on the underpass last April to ease the burden for traffic flow in the southern part of the city. The entire project will see two underpasses running under the junction. It is expected that both will be completed within next year.

Seven kilometers (4.35 miles) away from the underpass, around 30 engineers and workers are also working hard on upgrading the Nguyen Huu Canh Street, which runs through Binh Thanh District to link downtown District 1 with District 2.

As this route is the artery for the eastern gateway of the city and usually attracts a large number of vehicles, the Tet break grants more time for this crucial project to be finished on time.

Pham Thanh Tuan, 32, said his wife and he have decided to stay back to save the cost of traveling home in the northern province of Thai Binh, and earn some extra income to take care of their six-year-old son.

Pham Thanh Tuan at the construction site to upgrade Nguyen Huu Canh Street in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District, February 11, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Gia Minh

The project to upgrade the 3.2 km-long street by elevating subsided sections notorious for causing frequent flooding was launched in October last year at a cost of VND470 billion ($20.39 million).

Scheduled for completion in April, around 65 percent of the project has been completed – that of elevating the surface of the street at severely subsided sections while keeping other parts at the same height to ensure the water drainage system works well.

Tuan and other workers are working on a 500-meter-long section of the street from an underpass in front of The Manor building to the Nguyen Huu Canh Overpass that typically suffers the heaviest subsidence. The section has been lifted by 50 cm to 1.2 m.

This is the first time that Tuan and his wife are spending Tet in HCMC.

He said: “The salary during Tet days is three times higher than normal days and therefore, I have decided to stay and work. Throughout last year, because of the pandemic, my wife and I have suffered financially, so we’re trying to make up for that.”

By Thu Huong, Thai Phuong – Translated by Gia Bao

‘Ma Cuc’, or Mother Cuc

On a pre-Tet day, Cuc sat at her home and opened a book where she wrote down the names of poor people who needed help. After writing cards to invite poor people to come to get Tet gifts, she checked her bag once again to see if any money was left and put the money into the ‘piggy banks’ on the table.

‘Ma Cuc’, or Mother Cuc, is the name people in Ward 8, District 3, in HCM City give to Nguyen Thi Bach Cuc who has been collecting scraps and raising money for piggy banks for 40 years to help the needy.

Cuc said she is kindhearted and does a lot of charity work. When she began working for the ward’s women association, she decided to create ‘piggy banks’ to save money for the poor by collecting scraps.

“When I began collecting scraps, there were a lot of whispers and comments. People said I pretended to be poor but my children are successful. But I did not feel sad. I believed they would understand me,” she recalled.

She said when her “back was still straight” she went to every small alley to collect scraps. Later, when her back became bent with age, she went to every house to ask for scraps.

For many years, a 77-year-old woman has been going to every small alley and street corner in her neighborhood to collect scraps and sell banh my to get money for her ‘piggy banks’, which are kept to help the poor.

Finally, locals realized the humanitarian significance of her work. They voluntarily bring scraps to her house and she classifies the scraps and sells them for money.

Cuc said she “fed the first pig” for one year. When she opened the piggy bank, she found VND50 million. The amount of money was sent to many agencies and organizations to distribute to the poor.

The woman, seeing people happy with her support, said she feels 10 years younger. And she vows to continue to raise money for the piggy banks. Because of health conditions, she can no longer go alone collecting scraps. So, decided to sell banh my.

She has a piggy bank on her vending cupboard with the words ‘nuoi heo dat vi cong dong’ (raising piggy bank for the community), so that people can put money into it.

“There are many kind people. They put money into the piggy bank. And students also donate money,” she said.

Cuc cannot remember how many piggy banks she has raised so far and how many she has given to the poor. She is just sure that the needy can receive money.

Cuc has also been making every effort to convert certain troubled people in the locality.

There was a man near her house, a drug addict and a jailbird. The man told Cuc that he wanted to become a good man, but he could not because of alienation from society.

Cuc, hearing his story, decided that it would be better not to corner him.

“At the trial, I asked for permission to meet him and give him some gifts. I told him to start his life again after leaving prison. When he was released, he came to meet me and promised to keep away from drugs. And now he has a job and lives well,” she said.

N was another case. The man, paralyzed in one foot after being beaten, did not have a job and received no care. Cuc gave him money for medical treatment and daily meals. Feeling moved by Cuc’s kindness, N now is interested in and devoted to his work, and has volunteered to speak about the harmful effects of drugs.

Nguyen Son

Growing vegetables, raising fish and living in peace

Nguyen Hoang Nam in Ba Dinh district in Hanoi had never thought of leaving the capital city, where he had been living for 50 years, until he took a trekking tour on a motorbike to the highlands.

During the trip, Nam discovered the quietness in the mountains and forests, and the wonderful environment with pristine nature and fresh air.

After that, he began thinking about abandoning everything and living in the forests. He hinted at his intention during family dinners, but his plan was not supported by other family members.

In 2017, Nam decided to buy a 5 hectare land plot in Hoa Binh to settle down there. He began building a house, improved the soil, and grew vegetables on the land.

After two years of development with the total cost of VND1.5 billion, he is going to reap fruit from organic gardening. His garden area increased by two hectares after he bought land plots nearby.

He is proud of what he has: a house in the middle of green plants.

“I am used to life here. Our family members like to live here more than in the city. I only return to Hanoi when I have to attend meetings,” he said.

More and more big businesspeople and high income earners like Nam are willing to spend big money to be able to have peaceful lives in places that are not flashy and bustling and where they can enjoy organic food. They are seeking sustainable values for health, both physical and mental, and the experiences of connecting with nature.

Do Manh Thang in Hoang Mai district in Hanoi spent billions of dong to develop a farm in Hoa Binh, but it was not enough for him. Five years ago, after a trip to Thailand, Thang came up with an idea of building a house in the forest.

He began looking for a land plot which could satisfy his requirements to become a place for weekend stays and a business facility. He targeted areas with wild nature near Hanoi where he could reach by highway. He also wanted a conveniently situated land plot near streams, ponds or lakes.

The first phase of the farm project has been completed with a house, an orchard and vegetable garden. Thang plans to build one more house, a swimming pond and an outdoor meditation space.

“At my age, it would be healthier to live in the middle of nature, grow plants and hoe the land,” he said.

“During the pandemic, you can see how important a natural living environment is. We have been living here all this time and work online. Our children and grandchildren can play in nature. The life here is just like in a fairy land that many city dwellers cannot have,” he said.

More and more big businesspeople and high income earners are willing to spend big money to be able to have peaceful lives in places that are not flashy and bustling and where they can enjoy organic food. They are seeking sustainable values for health, both physical and mental, and the experiences of connecting with nature.

He said he lives in the second home 60 percent of his time, while the other 40 percent of time is spent in Hanoi. However, he and his wife plan to live most of their time in the second home next year.

Assets for next generations

Many people want to get back to nature, leading peaceful lives in villas on hills with open views and pristine nature and fresh air, in well designed and strictly protected areas.

Asked about the benefits, Thang said the biggest benefit is the spiritual value.

“I want to leave my children and grandchildren a place where they can stay and enjoy when they feel tired,” he said.

Thang believes that as urbanization speeds up and the environment becomes more polluted, the movement of getting back to nature will be stronger.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Duy Ha said he bought a land plot in Ba Vi as an investment deal. He said Ba Vi has emerged as a tourism site as it is near Hanoi and has many beautiful landscapes to visit.

He said he bought the land to store his assets and doesn’t expect to earn big money from leasing at this moment.

“The land prices in Ba Vi have increased to a new level. There won’t be such good land plots in the future to buy,” he said.

Nguyen Thanh Trung, director of Ngoai O Resort Development JSC, noted that the trend of relocating to suburbs areas started many years ago. Investors mostly seek land in Soc Son, Luong Son – Hoa Binh, Hoa Lac and Ba Vi.

Duy Anh