Homestay

Our Story

Hi everyone! Welcome to my family!

My name is Pe Thao, and I am Black Hmong, an ethnic minority living in Vietnam. I come from Y Linh Ho village, also known as the “River Fish Village,” located in the Sapa district of Lao Cai Province.

First of all, thank you so much for visiting my page. My family and I warmly welcome you, and I would love to share a bit about our life and experiences.

In our village, only the Hmong people live here. Sadly, boys and girls are often not encouraged or respected when it comes to education. Most children, once they grow up a little, are not sent to school but are expected to work instead. The boys follow their fathers deep into the forest to learn hunting and how to catch birds, while the girls follow their mothers to the cornfields to harvest hemp, learn to weave clothes, and gather indigo for dyeing fabric. By late afternoon, around 4 or 5 p.m., girls also have to carry firewood home to cook meals.

Many boys and girls here are forced to marry very young, sometimes as early as 14 to 18 years old. There’s no time for learning, playing, or discovering love. Within a year or two of marriage, they become young parents, often without jobs or any clear idea of ​​how to support their families.

My brother and I were a bit lucky. We have an amazing mother who thinks differently. She worked very hard to make sure we could go to school. Although we couldn’t afford to attend university, we both finished high school, which made us—and our mother—very proud.

Our family is poor and couldn’t afford to support further studies. So my brother and I wanted to find jobs to help our family. But we couldn’t speak English, and without English, there were no job opportunities. We decided to stay near the road where tour guides often bring tourists, and that’s where we started learning English—day by day—by talking with visitors.

Back then, we didn’t have electricity, so we had to eat before sunset. We also had no running water. Every day, my brother and I had to walk 10 minutes down the valley to collect water, then carry it 20 minutes back uphill to our house. It was exhausting, but we were determined to change our situation.

Now, we can speak a little English thanks to our efforts, and we still keep learning. We hope that one day we’ll be able to find good jobs, earn more money, support our family, and maybe even buy more clothes and basic things we’ve never had before.