Tan Phong was truly a Hell on Earth. It had nothing but stretches of dusty red fields. Of all the places that I have lived in my life, Tan Phong was undoubtedly the worst. There was only one school in the village, which had four classrooms, two of which had been destroyed by artillery strikes during the communist invasion. The burned rubble served as a playground for the schoolchildren. Most of the adults were illiterate.
The village only had one source of water, which was a 50-foot-deep well in the middle of town. The only way to get water from the well was by dropping a bucket down on a rope. Drawing water was very dangerous, since the well had no wall above ground. I heard many stories about kids falling into that well and getting seriously hurt or even killed, although I never saw that happen while I was there. I stayed as far away from that well as I could, and even today, when I remember it, I get nightmares.