Amid the noisy streets of Hanoi there is a special drinks stall. The vendor is a person with a disability, and the customers are also deaf and non-speaking people. They communicate only through gestures and actions. For 20 years the drinks stall has been a familiar meeting place for people with disabilities in Hanoi to meet friends and share their joys and sorrows.
More than 20 years making a living selling drinks
Following a friend’s directions, we went looking for that special drinks stall. The stall is on the pavement of Hang Thung Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi – a familiar address for many local residents. To be honest, when I arrived at the stall I did not know how to talk to the owner, because she only “talks” in sign language. Ms Minh, a neighbour of the drinks vendor, said: “She cannot speak, but she can write, though not much…”. I had to talk to the drinks vendor through pen and paper.
Reading the words written on paper, I learned that the stall owner is Nguyen Thi Hong Quynh, born in 1961, living on Hang Thung Street. For more than 20 years, Ms Quynh has made her living selling drinks at the head of the alley by her house. At the age of six, she contracted meningitis; although her family treated her, the after-effects left her deaf and non-speaking. When she was young, Ms Quynh worked at a garment workshop for people with disabilities. The pay was not much, but it was enough for her needs, and at the same time she took a sign language class for deaf and non-speaking people. During that time, Ms Quynh also joined the Hanoi Association of Deaf and Mute People to have the chance to learn how to communicate with people in the same situation.
While we were talking through pen and paper, Nguyen Thi Hong Ha – Ms Quynh’s daughter – came home from work. Talking with me, Ha said her mother had made her living selling drinks for a long time. Her family’s drinks stall is special compared with others, in that both the owner and the customers use sign language. Her mother is a very resilient person; although she is deaf and non-speaking, she still uses her own labour to earn money honestly. Most of the customers at this drinks stall are members of the Hanoi Association of Deaf and Mute People.
According to Hong Ha, after her mother had worked at the garment workshop for people with disabilities for a while, she met her father, Nguyen Tien Loc, who was also deaf and non-speaking. Two unfortunate lives met and a special affection developed. At first, both families objected, fearing that two people with disabilities would not know how to build a life together. However, with a fierce love, Ms Hong Quynh came to Hang Thung Street as a daughter-in-law more than 27 years ago. Every day, her husband went to work at a wood workshop near home while his wife sold drinks at the head of the alley. After a while, however, Ms Quynh’s husband quit his job and switched to repairing motorbikes. Now Mr Loc stays at home helping his wife sell drinks. And the drinks stall has become a familiar address for many people with disabilities, including deaf and non-speaking people from Gia Lam and Long Bien who come over. If they have business in the “city centre”, they still drop by Ms Quynh’s familiar stall to meet its special owner.
Ms Quynh’s “wordless” drinks stall is also a gathering place for many members of the Hanoi Association of Deaf and Mute People to meet. Hong Ha said that in the association there are many people with different jobs, but they share a sympathy as they all know how to rise up in life. This very drinks stall has supported her whole family for more than 20 years; Ha has now graduated from Hanoi Open University. Her younger sister, Nguyen Quynh Hoa, is studying at Hanoi Tourism College.
Ms Quynh and Vu Thanh Hai talk through pen and paper.
Many foreigners like the “wordless” drinks stall
Ms Quynh’s “wordless” drinks stall is a special address for the residents of Hang Thung Street and for many people with disabilities. Many customers are members of the Hanoi Association of Deaf and Mute People who come here to exchange views and share their thoughts. Some come here to meet people in the same situation and “pass on” to each other new gestures they have learned. According to Le Van Hung, quite a few foreigners walking past this drinks stall are very surprised to see a stall where the vendor and customers only talk to each other through gestures and facial expressions. They find it strange and take out their cameras to take photos. They are delighted to come across a special drinks stall in the capital, and many have sat down for a drink at this “wordless” drinks stall.
Keeping in touch by video call
While we were sitting and talking at the stall, a customer walked up. From his gestures, I could see that he also had a disability. He seemed to be a regular, as when he came in Ms Quynh smiled and gestured to ask the young man what he wanted to drink. I wrote on paper that I wanted to talk to the young man, and he held up his phone with the words: “I can talk via messaging software, sister”.
The young man is Vu Thanh Hai, who lives on Nguyen Van Cu Street, Gia Lam, Hanoi, and now works as a sign language camera operator for a television station. Hai said that because he is also a member of the Hanoi Association of People with Disabilities, he knows Ms Quynh. From time to time, Hai still comes to Ms Quynh’s stall for a drink and to meet people in the same situation. During the conversation, Ms Quynh and Hai talked to each other through gestures and writing on paper.
Le Van Hung – a neighbour of Ms Quynh – said: “For 20 years now, people here have been familiar with Ms Quynh’s drinks stall. Many passers-by are also very surprised by a drinks stall where both the vendor and the customers use their hands and gestures to communicate. They call this stall the ‘wordless’ drinks stall because everyone talks to each other through feeling and empathy. People here also support the drinks stall by coming regularly for a drink so that Ms Quynh does good business”.
As I understand it, the stall is busiest in the morning and in the early evening. Some deaf and non-speaking people who come for a drink here also act as “servers” when the stall is busy. Many customers from Hang Thung Street have also learned some gestures for deaf and non-speaking people to talk to Ms Quynh. Today, with modern information technology, Ms Quynh can talk to her children and friends through video call software on her phone. According to Ms Quynh’s daughter, with some new phones such as smartphones and iPhones, which integrate advanced technologies, Ms Quynh and her friends can talk through images via Skype. This is also a small joy for deaf and non-speaking people like Ms Quynh.
As if she could hear what her daughter was saying, Ms Quynh proudly showed me a photo of a friend on her phone’s video. She wrote on paper that, in her free moments when there are no customers, she often talks to friends this way. Sometimes when she wants to remind her children of something, she also talks through video calls. Many first-time customers are very surprised to see both the vendor and the drinkers using gestures to talk. Later they get used to it and come here regularly to befriend people like her. Ms Quynh proudly told me that each day the drinks stall brings her about 300,000 VND, just enough for her family’s daily expenses. Hong Ha has now started working, and can help her parents to some extent.
Hong Ha added that from about the age of seven, she began to feel the disadvantage of her family, with both her father and mother having disabilities. But she and her sister had to try really hard to please their parents. As a child, when helping her parents sell drinks here, Hong Ha was teased by friends on the same street, which made her very sad and made her think she had to try twice as hard as her peers. Now Hong Ha has graduated from university, has a stable job, and will get married at the end of this year – the maturity her parents have always hoped for. For an ordinary family, raising two children to adulthood and through school is already very hard, let alone for Ms Quynh and her husband. But they have strived to show many people that people with disabilities can also make a living and live honestly like other people. And they deserve to be respected.
Lac Thanh – http://www.nguoiduatin.vn