In November 2011, while I was visiting the famous Cao Đài Temple in Tay Ninh, Vietnam, a very young girl approached me in the streets asking me to buy some lottery tickets from her. She talked in a sweet nagging heart-broken tone - the kind of tone that makes you feel sorry for her. She said that she was hungry and has not sold any tickets this morning yet. I told her I am not at all interested and I don’t know anything about Vietnamese lottery. I told her I don’t live here in this country and I won’t be able to check anything because I am leaving in a few days. My answer invited her to continue with the conversation with me. She said it is very easy to check the winning numbers and you do this and you do that. I was adamant and said No, keeping an eye on her since I was already warned about the pickpocketing “professionals” in Vietnam.
She continued to follow me and kept asking me to buy just a few tickets for just 50 cents each. I was done with taking pictures of the inside of Chùa Cao Đài, and waiting for my husband to finish his tour of the place. So, I decided to sit against the street fence and talked to her. Something nostalgic about her.
Her name was An and she was 11 years-old living in an approximately 10 x 12 rental shack nearby with Mom, Dad and 3 younger brothers. She said she had not sold any tickets this morning yet but other days she sold a few dozen a day. Mom also sells lottery tickets but has to take care of the three boys at the same time and that’s not an easy job. Dad works for various local stores to make money but he drinks a lot and often asked Mom for money. After Dad’s boozing binge, they always got into a big yelling and shouting match with each other, then more babies came.
The rent is due at the end of each day and if they don’t pay, the shack owner will throw them out on the street. They got thrown out before and they got rained on and the young brothers got really sick. Shack owners rent out many of these “shacks” to many families in similar situations. Shack owners cannot afford to listen to sob stories or soap opera dramas. You rent. You pay. An stopped going school after the fourth grade to stay home and help Mom. Mom said girls don’t need to go to school.
She asked me if I could just buy an entire lottery series with all the sequential numbers, because she said if you missed one number from one ticket, you got covered by the entire series. I decided to buy the entire series of 10 tickets from her. Shoot, it was only $5 and I can really help this girl, ha!
An said her girlfriend Diep age 12 is already pregnant and going to have a baby any day now and no one knew who the father was. Diep’s stomach is so big she could not ride a bike or walk on the street to sell lottery ticket anymore and her mother did not like that and kept yelling at her. They have to keep working. They need money to pay for rent and food. An does not want to get pregnant and not work. She has to help Mom and brothers because they need her. She wanted to know what life in America is like. She said America must be a nice place to live in because everyone is rich and happy and so pretty. I told her everyone in America works hard to pay for rent and food too.
An had drawn me into her story and I had forgotten the 95 degree heat in Tay Ninh even in the shade. Then a woman on a bike pulled in front of An and spoke in a friendly and casual voice “Hey, selling anything today? I did not sell much this morning.” An said “Oh yeah, some.” Then turned to me and asked if I could buy some tickets from her friend to help her out because her “friend” has kids to feed. The woman must be in her late 40’s or early 40’s. I could not tell because she had her face and arms covered to protect her from dust and scorching sun.
In the end, I bought the rest of the tickets from An thinking that would get her off the street for a few hours. She was so happy and said “Cám ơn Cô nhiều” (thank you very much) a few times. Then she said she had to go to get more tickets to sell to help Mom pay today’s rent. She got on her old bike, looked back at me, her eyes said goodbye as she rode away. An has a big heart. She wants to help everyone, family and friends. She was a great sales girl. She reminds of someone I knew - me. Focus. Persistence. And NEVER QUIT.