It hurts

Amal Chatterjee
A memorable journey to Egypt
5 min readOct 24, 2024

Source : Google photo of Ly Thuong crying

Synopsis : This world is full of evil people who hurt others out of spite. They cannot accept that their victims run away from them to live somewhere alone and in peace so they follow their victims to burn down their house while they underestimate the resilience of such abused women.The blog here presents the sad story of Ly Thuong who rebuilds her home a vile person burned down.

She is a very young Vietnamese woman who went to the hills far away from the village she came from to build a beautiful home for herself , grow vegetables and raise animals that would bring her some income.

I avidly watched her as she arrived in the hills just with her tools and a back pack full of essentials to start a new life away from the cruel life she was subjected to. She was young and full of energy so she started gathering bamboo that grew abundantly in the hills but it was no easy task. She had to clear the vegetation where she wanted to build her home so she chopped the weeds and thick vegetation by using her machete and a hand hoe day after day until she was able to clear a large area.

Then she started to pile up a large stock of thick bamboo that she first cleaned , cut to size and cut holes into it so that it could fit together. To carry very long and heavy bamboo from the forest to the site was in itself a herculean task that she carried on day after day silently and alone. She rested only to swipe her sweat once in a while and got up again to continue gathering the bamboo.

She meticulously planted pegs where she dug holes to insert the tall bamboo poles cut to her exact measurement so you can see in the video below how she laid the foundation and started to build a 2 storey masterpiece. The speeded video should not fool you to believe that the house was coming up like a miracle. But it was no easy task because it was the result of very hard labor day after day she never complained of to anyone .She was utterly alone and depended only on herself.

I have watched her with admiration to see such determination in such a young woman while she worked tirelessly not knowing that she was watched on line in many parts of the world. I am sure that anyone who watched her on line did so with the same admiration I felt for her as her work made progress slowly but steadily. I am amazed at her brilliance in the design and the method of building her house all by herself although I am sure she had gained her knowledge from someone like her parents and grand parents. Such skills are definitely learned from others.

I have seen how the Amish people build enormous buildings in the United States where they work as a large group and have all the tools and materials like wood and nails but to see a young girls alone building a masterpiece with her simple tools is truly amazing.

Before she could even start to build her house, she had to make a temporary shelter for herself where she could be protected from the rain and constant bad weather. She built a small kitchen and a small bed. After that she started to clear the vegetation to lay out the plan for her house. I present three videos that show how the girl got started so watch her videos completely to understand what it took to build such a beautiful bamboo house.

Her name is Ly Thuong who ran away from her abusive partner to live alone and far away from him but her misfortune followed her to the hills where she felt safe but did not know what will happen to her. I will show you the 4th video to explain what happened.

Video 1 : Ly Thuong arrives at the hill side to start the construction

https://youtu.be/gGWFyZTMzYc?

Video 2 : Thuong decorates and gives finishing touch

https://youtu.be/MbSl5tnbKMU

Video 3 : She completes her house

https://youtube.com/playlist?

Video 4 : Thuong goes to the market to buy a basket and returns to the hills only to find her home gutted by fire.

https://youtu.be/Hl2PyfxfeOE?

Note : Just click on the links to watch her videos in the U Tube.

This is the saddest part of her story that will bring tears to your eyes. It was so sad that I watched it with grief in my heart. It really hurt me to see her suffer and cry until she could not take it anymore and collapsed on the ashes while desperately searching for her tools.

Why some one burned down her beautiful house she had built with her sweat and hard labor over a period of 45 days ? My guess is it was her former abusive partner who follwed her to find her house and burned it down out of sheer spite. It happens frequently that young women make a wrong choice of a partner who may have criminal records or is a drunkard and gambler who only exists to exploit the hard earned earnings of a girl like Thuong who had no choice but to run away from her nightmare.

It is also common that many young girls get pregnant by such men who abandon them so they have to raise their illegitimate offspring alone somewhere far away like Thuong.

Her resilience is admirable because I am sure she will recover from her tragedy and rebuild her dream house again. Such is the hard life of a woman who only wants to be self reliant and live in peace somewhere.

Note: My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

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Amal Chatterjee
Amal Chatterjee

Written by Amal Chatterjee

I am the village bard who loves to share his stories.

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