(Their mom then reminds them that they also cook rice for the family. When they hear this, Trân and Trúc nod in agreement.)
Our mom does many things. She is a tailor, a hairdresser and a housewife. (Trân and Trúc's mom is Khmer. She grew up in Vinh Chau. The family lives in a Khmer village there.) Our dad is a bộ đội (a soldier). (Vinh Chau borders the sea, so there are soldiers here to manage what comes into and goes out of Vietnam on ships. Trân and Trúc's dad is Vietnamese. When he wanted to marry their mom, he had to ask Trân and Trúc's grandmom many times. The Vietnamese government has killed a lot of Khmer people and taken their lands. So, many Khmer people here do not trust Vietnamese people, especially Vietnamese people who work for the government.)
We have to be in our first class by 6:45am. Our first class begins at 7 o'clock. Around 11:15am, we come home for the midday break and to have lunch. (In Vietnam, from around 10:30am to 1:30pm every day, people come home from school and work to rest and eat lunch. In the afternoon, people go back to school and their workplaces. However, Trân and Trúc only have to go to school in the afternoon if the school organizes activities for them at the time.)
We walk to school. It's not far from our house. (Their mom then tells me that the school is about 100 meters from the house.) Yes, we are allowed to go to school by ourselves. (At this point, Trân and Trúc's older sister notes that when the twins were very young, their dad drove them to school.
