Coping with the past

UXO stands for "unexploded ordnance" - in other words, "unexploded bomb". Between 1964 and 1973, over 260 MILLION cluster bombs were dropped on Laos making it the most bombed country in the world. At the time, only two-thirds of the bombs exploded.

"US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the second world war." (from an article in The Guardian, 2008). To fight against communism and North Vietnam, the U.S. recruited the ethnic Hmong tribe here in Laos. They trained them, paid them, and provided military weapons to them. I found this picture on the web of some of the "boy soldiers" who were enlisted. (source: http://www.everestinfo.org/laos2/index.php?page=Boy_Soldiers)

About 350,000 people died in this "Secret War" that not many Americans knew about at the time or recognize now.

Today, the bombs are still haunting people.  Over 13,000 people have been killed or maimed by working in the fields or searching for scrap metal. Many of the victims are young boys who fall prey to the "bomblets"  - about the size of a tennis balls - also known as "bombies."

I have to say, it was a real education for me to go to the Visitor Center at COPE.(Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise), an organization that provides prosthetic arms and legs to Lao people in need. At the little museum at the visitor center, I was amazed at the number of cluster bombs that had been dropped on Laos.  The museum had pieces of the shell casings with the "U.S.A." label still intact. They also showed how nowadays, the poverty-stricken people of the villages collect whatever scrap metal they can to sell and/or make things out of. In their searches, they often discover bombs that inadvertantly explode if they are dropped or hit against something. One video showed an interview with a village couple who had lost their little boy who, along with his friends, had picked up some unexploded bombs and banged them together. It was a heart-wrenching story as they explained how he had not died right away. They couldn't get him oxygen or blood in time to save him.

Other children and adults have lost legs and/or arms. There was one man who lost both arms and an eye who now speaks to educate the youth about the dangers of discovering the bombs. The t-shirt he's wearing in this photo is quite ironic. The COPE organization accepts donations to provide new limbs and rehabilitation for these people. Fifty dollars can buy a new leg, so that's what my family will be getting for Valentine's Day: donations made in their names in increments of $50. Here's the organization's website: http://www.copelaos.org/. They make it really easy to donate via PayPal - and they have a great website.

The Visitor Center also showed actual samples of things the villagers still make out of the bomb casings they find: flower planters, kitchen utensils, roofs, sidings, tools, and even make-shift artificial legs. Talk about ironic . . .

So, our stay at the museum was enlightening and intense. I felt strong emotion and still do when I think about the whole situation.

P.S. Here's another good website to learn more about this topic: http://www.legaciesofwar.org/node/113

Nero, Caligula,...Rascal?

My friend Paul, a bright gent with impeccable taste, was admiring our blog recently. “I’d love to have a blog, but Jeez, it seems like so much work to keep it up!” he said (a rough paraphrase). I assured him that it was a breeze for me because Jen does most of the work. She and I more or less split the writing, and she is responsible for 95% of the photographs and the layout. No sweat!

You’re probably wondering where this is going. Well, as a matter of fact, I just don’t have time to write much this week, but it happens to be my turn to contribute an entry, so I’m hacking out a couple of paragraphs so the blog stays "fresh" (insert smiley face). After coming back from vacation, I started back to work at the Faculty of Education and have been swamped with (shudder) paperwork. Mid-term exams were put off until January this semester, so I have had to create, then administer, and then grade 64 examinations. I know what you're thinking...
“Call a waaaaambulance!”

I’m not complaining, I’m explaining (insert another smiley face). In addition, my exhaustive, multi-paged report to the "bigwigs" was due last week instead of the end of the month as I had somehow dreamed.

So that’s my story. As for lovely Jen, she went back to work today. She likes it.

Oh. There have been a series of uproarious canine orgies (the kind all but stamped out in America) on our block this week that rival anything seen in ancient Rome. The main culprit is a rakish mutt we call “Rascal” who sports a little doggie beard to go with his devil-may-care attitude, and his…

Jeez (slaps forehead)! I could have written the whole damn entry about this!

The things we do for fun . . .

Well the new year is upon us. Joe has already started teaching again, and I'll be back at work in little over a week. But "fun" is a big part of Lao culture, and although there aren't any of the conventional "fun places" for westerners to go to: fast food restaurants (no McDonald's, KFC, etc.), malls, movie theaters (OK, there is one and it shows only movies in Thai or dubbed into Thai or Lao), not even a supermarket. What is an expat to do? Well, I'll run through a couple of the things that I do for fun . . .

There are two great coffee shops with delicious French-style pastries (I never get tired of them!). They even have big green salads too - yes, no problem eating them. One of the cafes is Canadian-run and the other Swedish. The Greek Salad (baw sai pak bua - without onions) is my favorite. And of course, there is the Aussie-managed pub in town that hosts the quiz nights on which Joe led our team to victory two months in a row. The next one will be the 30th of this month.

I have also found a German and English woman who love to dabble in art . . . we met at a gallery to see a watercolor show once. After talking with the gallery manager - a very nice Lao gentleman who speaks great English - we agreed to hold painting sessions once a week. It's not a class, but we all just "do our own thing". I will post pictures of the wonderful traditional Lao building/gallery that we paint "under" - yes, it's cool and pretty much mosquito free. Local artists breeze in and out of the gallery during our sessions and usually stop to give us a tip, a thumbs up, or a smile. Art supplies are very limited here, so I was able to pick up some mediums while in Thailand. Sabine, the German artist, is in Australia now and just emailed us to ask if we needed more stuff. I, of course, thought of more ways she could weigh down her check in luggage!

And . . . as I will be going to Ukraine this spring (yay!), I have to practice my Russian skills. I'll be spending a month in a city where almost everyone speaks it. Through a lot of trial and error - I posted a sign, and bugged my international friends - I have found a great conversation partner from Uzbekistan. We do a 50/50 exchange in English for 30 minutes and Russian for 30 minutes. I think we may be on similar levels "linguistically", so it works out great. She has a 6-year-old daughter that is intrigued with our arrangement and chimes in with her bits of Russian and English to help us out :) My homework assignment is to watch "Madagascar" in Russian. I am looking forward to that! Really - I think cartoons are magic language learning tools . . . all over the world I have met so many kids who speak great English with hardly any accent. I ask: Did you learn English in school? and they answer: Oh no! I learned English from the Cartoon Network! So, I'm giving the old Language through Cartoons methodology a go.

Hmmm.... other fun - well we can get almost any movie or TV show on DVD here. So we have finished the lastest season of Dexter (yes, Season 4) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (yes, Season 6). Now we are making our way through the very first season of Columbo. Gosh - TV was so great in the 70's. Not only are the outfits amazing and colorful, but the actors are really interesting to watch. I'm totally serious. So we are kind of in a time warp these days.

Oh, yes, there is the exercise challenge. How can you work out when it is so hot and humid? Well, you can get up at the crack of dawn - about 6am these days - and walk for an hour. And you can do exercise DVDs - thank god for the DVD player! Mom sent me my resistance bands, I found weights in Chinatown here, and I brought my DVDs from home. There is a gym about a 10 minute bike ride from here, but with no AC (or not the kind of gym AC I like!). So, hey, our electric bill may be high, but we can turn up the AC to an obscene degree if we want to.

OK - can we call this the rambling blog entry? I could go on and tell you what fun "cleaning day" is - but I gotta go mop downstairs - this is what we get for opting out of the expat tradition of getting a maid.