Every day, Mr. Le runs for more than 10km to earn 150,000 VND in wages. Over the past 21 years, despite hard work and low income, Mr. Le still tries to hold on because “if you don’t run, you will be hungry”.

“The more you run, the more money you make”, so many workers ran hard, tens of kilometers every day.

Running dozens of kilometers every day!

At 5 am, the alarm bell rang loudly, Mr. Vo Van Le and his wife (64 years old, from An Giang, living in Binh Tan district) began a day of hard work with the profession of running glue (rope braiding).

Madame Ma meticulously tied 30 small plastic ropes onto a rake.

From small strings, tangled like silk, Mr. Le and his wife untangled and ran, braiding them into long, big bundles, according to the pattern. It sounds easy, but this job is not simple and has to go through many stages of “sweating, boiling tears”.

“This batch of ropes worked so hard, it kept breaking and then twisting together. I stood to remove each stalk very time-consuming, anyone with a hot temper would not be able to remove it. After removing it, tie 30 ropes to the rake”, Ms. Quynh said. Thi Ma (58 years old, wife of Mr. Le) told about the first stage.

Encountered with coils that easily broke or twisted together, Mrs. Ma took a long time to untie them.

After a while of struggling to untangle each wire as if she was combing her tangled hair, Mrs. Ma seemed to have finished her work temporarily. Next was Mr. Le’s turn to roll up his sleeves… run to pull the rope. 

“Running and pulling the rope is the most extreme stage, going back and forth in the sun, sweat all over the body, so often headaches, dizziness. The sun is extreme, the rain can’t run, no money”, Mr. Le confided.

Despite his age, Mr. Le ran quickly pulling the rope.

While pulling the rake, Mr. Le quickly walked out and ran in and out for a total of more than 400m to connect the ropes to the racks placed in the yard. One day, this 58-year-old man ran more than 10km.

After running, Mr. Le started the electric machine to braid the plastic ropes that were pulled together and produced strong and durable glue lines (rope). Finally, Mrs. Ma completed the final stage, tying the braided ropes into bundles before handing them over to the owner.

On average, Mr. Le runs more than 10km a day.

Once running a rope, a skilled worker like Mr. Le and his wife takes about 15 minutes to produce 3-4 kg of finished wire. One day, Mr. Le, Mrs. Ma and the youngest son can make about 100kg of rope and get paid nearly 150,000 VND/person.

“The work is quite hard, but working hard is also familiar, only having to endure the rain and sunshine but the income is far behind the workers working in the company. But compared to working in the countryside, this is already okay, my husband and I have to accept it. accept,” sighed the 58-year-old man.

Mr. Le runs an electric machine to braid the ropes that have just been pulled together.

Every 3-4 days, traders will come to Mr. Le’s house to collect products. The bundles of ropes made by Mr. Le’s family and surrounding households will be distributed to provinces and cities, used as fishing nets and other materials for agriculture.

The bundles of finished wire are neatly lined up waiting for the owner to pick them up.

 Just “running” and worried about being… chased

Mr. Le said he has been attached to rope braiding since the age of 10 when he was still in his hometown of Cho Moi, An Giang. He learned the trade from his uncles and aunts in the family, but he did it manually, making ropes by hand, so the output was low, not enough to support his family.

In the past, all stages were done entirely by hand, without the support of machines.

21 years ago, when he saw that the rope market in the countryside was getting smaller and smaller, he and his wife wrapped up in Ho Chi Minh City to set up a business. After doing it for a while, he and his wife were “fired”, regaining ground. So far, he has been “fired” 3 times and maybe about to be “fired” again.

“In the city, there are goods to work all year round, but it is difficult to find land with enough area to “run” and the rent must be cheap. We haven’t been here long before the landowners have taken back the land to build warehouses and motels. , rental car park, bringing higher profits for them”, Mr. Le explained.

?The zipper must be very straightforward to get beautiful pieces of wire. 

Currently, the land he and his wife are renting and running glue on Interzone 4-5 road (Binh Tan district) has a rental price of 2 million VND/month. In the past, there were 11 households in the country with Mr. Le who also “run” like him, but because the rent is too “expensive”, most of the houses moved away, only 4 households remained.

“4 months on vacation, my family has spent all of their savings and is still short of 4 months of electricity bills. Recently, seeing “storks” of land come to this place to look at the land all the time, they will probably sell it. sad, I don’t know which day to go…”, Mr. Le sighed.

Mr. Le said that having to run regularly made his health seriously deteriorate. 

At the age of 60, running from 5 am to 5 pm caused Mr. Le and his wife to have pain every night and have difficulty sleeping. Before the epidemic, Mr. Le planned to return to his hometown in 2023 to enjoy his old age and take care of his children’s grandchildren. However, the Covid-19 epidemic changed his mind.

“Probably have to run for another 5, 7 years, now I have no money to return. Just keep running, this place will get the ground, then rent another place. If we keep trying, God won’t let people down.” Mr. Le shared.

4 months after the raging Covid-19 epidemic, the two grandparents changed their plans to return to their hometown because they had run out of savings and had to continue to “run” for more time.

“The job of running a rope is only enough to eat, but it is quite hard, and my husband and I also plan to return to our hometown in 2 years to take care of our grandchildren and enjoy old age,” Mr. Le’s wife confided. 

However, 4 months of the Covid-19 epidemic raging caused the two grandparents to change their plans because their savings were exhausted, and had to continue to “run” for more time. Follow Dan Tri