Hot weather makes it difficult for workers to make a living - Photo: TRAN TUYEN
The profession of "burning skin" in the sun
It was only 9am, the sun was already blazing hot, but Mr. Tran Van Dan (40 years old) and his group of workers were still working hard. They were constructing a steel frame for a house. The sweltering heat from the black iron bars blew into their faces and bodies like the heat from a coal furnace.
“With the sun like this, holding pliers and hammers can burn your hands. Especially when welding, the electric fire is blinding, the heat rises, and the sun shines down from above, it really makes me want to faint,” Dan said, wiping the sweat running down his forehead.
The work of mechanics like Mr. Dan requires endurance and high concentration. They not only have to face high temperatures but also potential risks: electric burns, iron burns, accidents caused by falling heavy objects, or the risk of heatstroke and exhaustion. Mr. Dan said that there were days when he was roofing a construction site, the temperature on the roof could reach 60 - 70 degrees Celsius.
Just touching the sun-baked corrugated iron sheet quickly caused a burning sensation. “Just standing on the corrugated iron roof for about half an hour made me sweat profusely, no matter how much water I drank, it didn’t feel like it was soaked. My whole body was burning like I had a fever,” said Mr. Dan, his voice still tinged with fatigue as he recalled.
Quite far away, at a construction site in Dong Ha City, Mr. Bui Van Tam (37 years old), a skilled painter, was carefully painting each brush stroke on an outdoor wall. Although he had chosen a corner of the wall with a shadow cast by the scaffolding, the midday sun still beat down like a furnace, turning the cement wall into a giant furnace. The strong smell of oil paint mixed with the heat made the air even more difficult to breathe.
“Painting seems like an easy job, but working outside in the sun like this is really hard. The sun dries the paint quickly, but it also makes me tired quickly. There are days when I’m working and my head is spinning and my limbs are weak. If I’m not careful, I can fall down because of dizziness,” said Mr. Tam.
Painting houses outdoors also poses many other potential dangers, such as inhaling toxic chemicals from the paint, or accidents when working at height with unstable scaffolding. “Usually, we have to work early from 5-6am, when the sun is not too hot. Then we take an early lunch break, and wait until 3-4pm when the sun has cooled down before continuing. If we work at noon, we cannot stand it,” Mr. Tam shared his experience.
To cope with the harsh sunlight and ensure safety, workers like Mr. Dan and Mr. Tam must wear long-sleeved clothes, wide-brimmed hats, and bring wet towels to wipe their bodies and cool down. Most importantly, they drink plenty of water, green tea, and electrolyte drinks to compensate for the sweat they lose. They take advantage of resting in the shade when the sun is at its peak, take a long lunch break, and then continue working in the late afternoon. Despite having self-protection measures, sunburns on the skin, calloused hands, and tired eyes are still the clearest evidence of the hardships that workers have to go through every day.
While workers face the heat from materials and solar radiation, female street vendors are constantly exposed to the blazing sun, where there is no shade. Ms. Tran Thi Binh (55 years old) has been selling groceries on a motorbike for many years. Her old motorbike is loaded with meat, fish, vegetables, tubers, fruits... heavy. Every day, she wakes up early to go to the market to buy food and then sell it to customers who are families living along National Highway 9, Ho Chi Minh Road, through the districts of Gio Linh, Cam Lo, Dakrong, Huong Hoa... Every day, she and her old motorbike travel hundreds of kilometers to make a living.
“With the weather being so sunny, everyone is reluctant to go out, but this business sells better in sunny weather than in rainy weather. Therefore, I have to try to wake up early to sell out my goods quickly. No matter how sunny it is, I have to try, because if there are still leftovers, I will lose a lot of money,” said Ms. Binh.
The life of street vendors like Ms. Binh is not only physically hard but also mentally burdensome. Income is unstable, goods are unsold and dangers on the road are always lurking. They have to move constantly under the scorching sun, breathe in dust and smoke and face the risk of unexpected traffic accidents. Many times she almost fainted from heatstroke in the middle of the road, but thinking of her grandchildren at home, she tried to persevere. When asked about how to avoid the sun, Ms. Binh shared: “I wear a thick coat and a mask. I always have a large bottle of water on the car, so when I am thirsty, I drink it immediately.”
Light up your dreams
Whether they are mechanics with sweat soaked in steel, painters with dark spots on their skin, or street vendors with their anxious calls in the middle of summer, they are all vivid pieces in the picture of labor in Quang Tri province. They have one thing in common: love for their family. It is this love that motivates them to overcome all difficulties, despite the scorching sun, the hardships and dangers of the job, to bring home a source of income to support their loved ones, and to provide for their children's education and growth.
Despite the hardship, the people I met did not complain or give up. Instead, they chose to face the challenges posed by the weather and life. Each drop of sweat that fell not only soaked into the sand, mixed with the smell of cement, road dust, or soaked into each trip, but also proved their strong will, the breath of life, of love.
They are honest workers, silently contributing to the movement and development of society. In the scorching sun of Quang Tri, the image of hard-working people still working hard to earn a living not only evokes sharing and sympathy but also conveys a message about the will to live and the beauty of labor.
Maintaining faith and hope for a brighter tomorrow for themselves and their loved ones is a common point among the workers I met. Because after each hard day of working under the scorching sun, what they look forward to is not only the money they earn but also the smiles of their children and a family meal.
Tran Tuyen
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/vuot-nang-muu-sinh-194311.htm
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