The Shop Teacher

It makes little sense for our team to make some inexpensive water treatment units and put them out in the countryside.  The need is too great.  There are 154 health clinics and over 1,300  pre-schools in Thua Thien Hue Province.  We few North Americans couldn’t make a dent in the problem.

But – show the Vietnamese how to do make the units, and a lot of good things happen.  Besides the obvious benefits of being able to make more units faster, there is the benefit of providing a new small business opportunity for some of the local folks.

In the small, dimly lit metal shop adjacent to his home, Mr. Phuong has worked with MEDRIX from the beginning to design and build the metal parts of the unit.  This is the core of the system – the ultraviolet light housing that inactivates the microbes in the water that cause illness.  Today, Mr. Phuong passed on his knowledge to others.

(Be sure to click on a photo to see a larger version)

Though the students had instruction manuals in Vietnamese provided by MEDRIX,  the new folks took copious notes as Mr. Phuong squatted over his work and cheerfully explained what he was doing.   His students were motivated, and they brought a strong set of skills to the class – they only needed to know how to make the ultraviolet unit.  In his cluttered workshop with a dirt floor, Mr. Phuong proved to be an exemplary teacher  as he showed the students the concepts and answered questions.

Small businesses like this are numerous in Vietnam.  Because they are almost always a part of the home, they a bit different than an American small business.  In Vietnam, most people do not divide their lives into a “business life” and a “home life” - a person has one life.  Phuong and his wife Hang work together – she the sharp negotiator and bookkeeper, and he, the skilled craftsman.  She knows the trade well enough to provide assistance when needed and they work well together as a team.  On occasion, the children wander in to see what is going on.  They are not shooed away – they are allowed to join in.  I wonder if the youngest will follow in his father’s footsteps and become a metal smith.

Mr. Phuong’s tools are not modern, but he uses them with great skill.  Simple tin snips are used to cut an end piece of stainless steel.  I have no idea how old his tools are, but I know he learned his craft in technical school in the 1980s.  He probably began acquiring tools then, but at that time, Vietnam was in dire economic straits and probably no new tools were available.  He used a simple die he designed and built himself to make the end cap of the UV housing. 

A press sat on the floor in a corner.  It had a pipe fitted to the handle to give extra leverage and was used to bend the metal at just the correct angles needed for another part of the housing.  In all this work, the only light came from a low wattage table lamp that either he or his wife put in place to light the work area.  Finally, all the pieces were ready to be fitted together and welded into place.  His electric welding machine looked like an antique, but the work professional.

That ended the first day of training for the new folks – next would be assembling the entire water treatment unit.