The Problem
The warming sun rises just like every other day over the rugged countryside of what most call the country of Vietnam. The Montagnard village begins to slowly awaken, beginning with the chickens who sound the alarm of morning. A bony woman named Hblung wakes early. Her frame is small, though taller than the other women in her village. She's strong from bearing all four of her children and working on the farm in her rural homeland. She scurries around her home as soon as she can get her eyes open to put things in their place. Hblung checks on each of her still sleeping children and then heads out of her home, a small parcel of food in her hand.
Her journey is one that would be taxing to the body, even if it were taken during the cool of the evening. She climbs in the full view of the sun, sweat pouring down her entire frame. The scorching sun seeps into her body.
Many things are racing through her mind. She keeps her head down, determined, eyes on her calloused feet. Her body is trudging forward but her mind is already inundated with what awaits her. Hblung has taken this trip everyday for weeks. Rejection has met her each time.
"Just one foot in front of the other," she must break into her own thoughts to keep moving.
A roaring crowd builds ahead. Soon the noise snaps her out of her own reverie. Her feet freeze and her eyes rise. There stands that hellish building, if you can even call it that. Every wall of the building and the gate are collapsing in on itself. No human should really ever have to visit, nonetheless live there.
The images flashing through her head are not just the things she could imagine happening within the confines of this "re-education camp" but of her own memories. For a few moments she cannot force herself to move any farther. Her eyes just soak in the chaos all around her.
Men and women are arguing with the heavily armed officers near the gate. Everyone is here for the same reason- they have family members on the inside of the camp. Not every guest petrified with the sight of this place, but for Hblung, seeing the camp for the sake of her family, only reopens every single scar she holds from her time as a resident.
Hblung trudges on towards the guards. She presses forward within the swarming people. The horde grows as the minutes pass. She clenches the small parcel in her hand. That item must make it inside.
Finally she stands face-to-face with the guards, with their ammunition criss-crossing their chests and guns gripped tightly in their hands. The smell of death wafts from the camp. Hblung has made it so close. Will she actually be allowed to cross into the camp today?
On the other side of the gate, she glimpses the prisoners as they cross the yard between the buildings. A bony man, barely 20 years old stumbles but keeps his balance. He is knocked out of line by the hovering guard. The guard, tall, obviously well-fed, and very strong clubs the bony man to the ground. He overpowers the bony man without any effort. The bony man lays motionless.
Hblung cries out within her head. She knows that bony man. Everything within her wants to attempt to force through the line of guards and do something about what she is watching but before she can make a move, reality hits her. She turns and faces the guard again.
"I have been coming everyday…"
She argues with the guard, like she has tried doing for an endless amount of days. Today something within her has changed. She caught a glimpse of that bony man and knew she had to make it in today.
With much persuasion, Hblung was granted permission to enter the camp.
She submissively followed another guard through the gate, through a doorway and into a dank room. The air wreaked of bodily fluids and decaying souls. When her eyes adjust to the lack of light in the room, she sees that bony man, her very own brother.
His blood-stained face sags and his brown eyes rise to meet hers.
Immediate family members were granted permission to enter the "re-education" camps every few weeks to see their family members and to provide food to them. For Hblung this visit with her brother was just one stop among the handful of family members in that camp.
She stares into the broken spirit and pitiful eyes of her brother. She can hardly believe what she was sees. He was not himself but his brown eyes identify him. Hblung reaches out and gently holds her brother's bony hand. She rolls the parcel into his hand and then releases him. They remain there, speechless, for a few minutes.
A guard shouts in from the door. He does not even dare to enter that smelly place. It is time for her to leave. All those days of work to see her brother and hand him a ball of sticky rice.
She would be back the next day to try again. If she gave up, her brother would die from malnutrition, but he may die anyway from the beatings that ensued.
Her journey is one that would be taxing to the body, even if it were taken during the cool of the evening. She climbs in the full view of the sun, sweat pouring down her entire frame. The scorching sun seeps into her body.
Many things are racing through her mind. She keeps her head down, determined, eyes on her calloused feet. Her body is trudging forward but her mind is already inundated with what awaits her. Hblung has taken this trip everyday for weeks. Rejection has met her each time.
"Just one foot in front of the other," she must break into her own thoughts to keep moving.
A roaring crowd builds ahead. Soon the noise snaps her out of her own reverie. Her feet freeze and her eyes rise. There stands that hellish building, if you can even call it that. Every wall of the building and the gate are collapsing in on itself. No human should really ever have to visit, nonetheless live there.
The images flashing through her head are not just the things she could imagine happening within the confines of this "re-education camp" but of her own memories. For a few moments she cannot force herself to move any farther. Her eyes just soak in the chaos all around her.
Men and women are arguing with the heavily armed officers near the gate. Everyone is here for the same reason- they have family members on the inside of the camp. Not every guest petrified with the sight of this place, but for Hblung, seeing the camp for the sake of her family, only reopens every single scar she holds from her time as a resident.
This is… "a world where friends died suddenly. Violently. Where others slowly wasted away from malnutrition and disease. Where stealing a grain of rice led to lashes on the back, down bony legs. Where men and women silently endured, night after night, grasping at hope that someday they might see their children again." (Dartcenter)
Hblung trudges on towards the guards. She presses forward within the swarming people. The horde grows as the minutes pass. She clenches the small parcel in her hand. That item must make it inside.
Finally she stands face-to-face with the guards, with their ammunition criss-crossing their chests and guns gripped tightly in their hands. The smell of death wafts from the camp. Hblung has made it so close. Will she actually be allowed to cross into the camp today?
On the other side of the gate, she glimpses the prisoners as they cross the yard between the buildings. A bony man, barely 20 years old stumbles but keeps his balance. He is knocked out of line by the hovering guard. The guard, tall, obviously well-fed, and very strong clubs the bony man to the ground. He overpowers the bony man without any effort. The bony man lays motionless.
Hblung cries out within her head. She knows that bony man. Everything within her wants to attempt to force through the line of guards and do something about what she is watching but before she can make a move, reality hits her. She turns and faces the guard again.
"I have been coming everyday…"
She argues with the guard, like she has tried doing for an endless amount of days. Today something within her has changed. She caught a glimpse of that bony man and knew she had to make it in today.
With much persuasion, Hblung was granted permission to enter the camp.
She submissively followed another guard through the gate, through a doorway and into a dank room. The air wreaked of bodily fluids and decaying souls. When her eyes adjust to the lack of light in the room, she sees that bony man, her very own brother.
His blood-stained face sags and his brown eyes rise to meet hers.
"There are no official figures on how many prisoners were executed or how many died from poor treatment. There are no known government records of who was sent to the "re-education" camps, or for how long. There are no archives on the jails, or of what went on. Such are the ways of war, and the treatment of those on the losing side." (Dartcenter)
Immediate family members were granted permission to enter the "re-education" camps every few weeks to see their family members and to provide food to them. For Hblung this visit with her brother was just one stop among the handful of family members in that camp.
She stares into the broken spirit and pitiful eyes of her brother. She can hardly believe what she was sees. He was not himself but his brown eyes identify him. Hblung reaches out and gently holds her brother's bony hand. She rolls the parcel into his hand and then releases him. They remain there, speechless, for a few minutes.
A guard shouts in from the door. He does not even dare to enter that smelly place. It is time for her to leave. All those days of work to see her brother and hand him a ball of sticky rice.
She would be back the next day to try again. If she gave up, her brother would die from malnutrition, but he may die anyway from the beatings that ensued.
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