Breakfast with poet Tran Dang Khoa

On July 10, 2016, Professor Nguyen Lan Dung organized a delegation of blogtiengviet from the North to visit Thanh Hoa and give charity gifts to the disabled armless female student Le Thi Tham in Dong Thinh commune (Dong Son, Thanh Hoa).

At that time, Tham was known nationwide because she fainted during the exam due to exhaustion. This girl had a particularly difficult situation, was disabled but had a rare passion for learning. Knowing her difficult situation, Hong Duc University specially accepted Tham to study at the Faculty of English Pedagogy at the university level so that she could continue to write her dream.

At that time, Professor Nguyen Lan Dung took over the child's sponsorship, mobilized many philanthropists and agencies to enthusiastically support and create all conditions for her to go to school smoothly. To date, Tham has been specially considered to become a teacher in Dong Thinh commune, Dong Son district, her hometown from the 2023 school year.

That trip was very meaningful, but what I will always remember is the story of poet Tran Dang Khoa, who was also a member of the group. That day, we went to the Hanoi Opera House to wait for the bus to pick up the group to Thanh Hoa. I met Tran Dang Khoa and invited him to a pho restaurant for breakfast while waiting for the group to pick him up. However, Khoa took out a boiled potato, a cucumber, a guava from his cloth bag and gave me a boiled potato, a cucumber, a guava… Khoa’s share was the same as mine, then he explained: My wife prepared everything, all homegrown, no need to worry about being contaminated with toxic chemicals…!

I was surprised, Tran Dang Khoa was working at Voice of Vietnam at that time, his position was equivalent to that of a department head... Yet his lifestyle was still simple, approachable and rustic.

We happily had breakfast like that, sitting at the coffee shop at the beginning of the street, the owner offered us drinks for free because they recognized the poet Tran Dang Khoa.

That trip was meaningful as Professor Nguyen Lan Dung had planned when everything was prepared for Tham to go to school smoothly. After that trip, I did not have the opportunity to meet Tran Dang Khoa and perhaps he did not remember the breakfast he invited me to, because Khoa was busy with work. But I was forever impressed with Khoa, it is true that Khoa's personality is still simple, sociable, and honest like the land, the people of Hai Duong.