Burrowing for Hope

The tunnel was dark, filthy and terribly small. It smelt of moist earth and musk. My knees were beginning to get uncomfortable with all the crawling and my shoulders kept brushing against the walls of the narrow passage.

I was sweating like a pig.

“How much further?” I heard a voice echoed behind me. We were shrouded in darkness and it was nearly impossible even to see my hands on the ground much less identify the person who spoke.

I was frightened and felt truly claustrophobic.

“Just a little bit more…ah yes,” the tour guide muttered and finally wiggled himself out of an opening.

Stumbling closely behind, the sudden rush of cool air and late afternoon sunlight greeted me like never before. It was as if I was experiencing being born for the very first time. Red faced, soaked with perspiration and disoriented by the sudden change of surroundings.

I heard a Japanese tourist sighed in relief upon emerging from underneath the ground.

“And there you have! The world’s one and only Cu Chi Tunnel! Mind you, this tunnel was widened for tourist. The Vietnamese were a lot smaller in size back then,” he chuckled merrily as his hands gestured to form the shape of a tiny person.

Not just smaller, I thought to myself, try a whole lot braver. Size is irrelevant. To think that these tunnels were once homes for thousands of people. I shudder to imagine how they could survive. Not just for a minute, but for days and months. Without sunlight, barely being able to stand upright and of course, above all, having to fight for their country.

Abruptly, I felt foolish. My terrors caused by physical discomfort while being inside the tunnel, struck me as utterly absurd. It definitely paled in comparison to the threat of death faced by their citizens during the war.

How could people live like this? Human beings are born, to stand proudly on the very surface of the Earth. Not sink below it and crawl on our knees and yet that was what they did.

The Vietnamese did the unthinkable.

What they did was far more than to constructed the complex architecture of Cu Chi Tunnel itself. They have created a possibility out of sheer desperation and led seemingly impossible lifestyles.

They have demonstrated what it means to be alive.

As I continued my journey in Vietnam, I came to fully relish every step I took, for it is a gift; a mark of triumph in the strength of the human spirit.