Life in Alley of Saigon - 0034sk

Life in Alley of Saigon - 0034sk

Medium : Pencil B2

Size        : 25.5cm x 32cm

Another sketch from my collection of "Life of Saigon" is "Life in Alley of Saigon". This is a sketch based on an original photo that I have taken when visiting one of the concrete villages in District 8. Many of "Melayu Champa" in Ho Chi Minh City are living in this area. Some of the "Melayu Champa" here can speak Malays especially those who we called Ustaz (religious teacher) who had studied in Malaysia. Some of their activities are clothes trading, selling food and some are just like the Ustaz (Muslim religious teacher) who teaching my daughter "mengaji" (Quran reading).

When I first visited this area that they called the village. I wonder how these people living in this small alley, as I used to live in a village with a big compound and some coffee tree orchard at the back of my late grandmother house where now my parents living in. I always thought our life that time was hard, but I found these local Vietnamese living in this small alley actually have a harder living than mine. 

After that visit, I pray, that God will always give ease to their lives. Amen.

The following is retrieval from my manuscript entitled " The Sketch Life of Saigon"

There are many alleys in Saigon yet each one of the alleys will bring you to a different end. This alley will bring you to the true life of the community in Saigon. The alley keeps its true color of life. They share the sweet, the bitter, the rain, and shine in this alley.

 

The alley may look the same as the alley that I saw in Kuala Lumpur, but this alley is certainly distinctive and brings a different meaning to the locals in Saigon. They live and grew in this alley and they may die in this alley too.

 

The alley is always the path to the individual house or apartment between the concrete. The alley within the concrete in Ho Chi Minh also identified as village. Village in Ho Chi Minh is always contrasting my imagination of village. I always had the expectation of village should have big compound, wooden house, chicken and pets and greens all around, but in Ho Chi Minh City the village is alleys connecting the concrete wall.

 

Walking along the alley, conical leaf hat is a common view. Man, women are all wearing generic conical leaf hat that cover them from the heat of the sun and drops of the rain. Generally, women wearing traditional Vietnamese hat with mask on, and it is a normal view in the alley. They are traders in the alley. They bring commodities and supply to the needs of the residents along each alley. They never grumble for their hard life they had, but they never giving up too. They never give up rising as the word giving up is never exist in their dictionary of life. Their spirit to live and to win is the champion of themselves.

 

 

 

The Alley,

 

You witness every rise and fall

Every step to the fossil of memories

Every dream that every man hopes

Every will that wings can fly high

 

The Alley,

 

You nurture every will that are falling

Every young to grow

Every old to mature

Every weak to be strong