.......A time to reap & a time to sow. Not sure quite which my current chapter would fit under, but it makes for an eloquent introduction, so what the hey! Hey? In the event that you are unaware, let me fill you in on what's up with Aodan. Plus, now comes with imbedded photos, there - internet, huh! Where'd we go before it?? Ask me eye! - opposite. Lest you forgot what it looks like. Not at all scary, right? Or blurry.
When I left London in February one of my objectives was to secure some voluntary work experience for myself whilst away. Now, there's heaps of 'agencies' that can line up such opportunities for you & you pay them hundreds if not thousands for the privilege. I think it's pretty corrupt, the whole nature of volunteering should be that the giving of your time is payment enough, ne? Avoiding this line, I instead ploughed my contacts & yielded much help from several friends (thank you each for your assistance) to find something for me appropriate to do somewhere in South East Asia. As is so often the case though it's the human touch that makes all the difference. As a tourist one day about a month ago, I wandered into a visitor centre that I had heard good things about.
This centre aims to explain to tourists such as myself what their organisation (COPE Laos) does for people who have been affected (i.e. limbs blown off by bombs left over from the American bombing of Laos in the 60's & 70's in the 'Secret War') by unexploded ordnance (UXO to us tecchies in the field). They offer services to those poor citizens who cannot afford hospital health care, whereby they pay travel expenses & lodgings for them to come to one of 5 centres around Laos to have their homemade limbs (often made from tree or even scrap metal from bombs!) replaced by modern prosthetics that are clearly a much more appropriate way forward. That's it in a miniature nutshell - phew!
I could probably write a short book on what I've learnt since that first day in the centre, but now's not the time for my tears, as some of you probably need to go for a toilet-break already. Suffice to say, I was moved by the exhibition & in having a break outside afterwards had a serious talk with myself about whether I should ask see if they needed my help with their aims, it being a relatively new visitor centre & not completely finished. The conversation with Jo, centre manager, clearly went to this conclusion & the very next day I came on a kind of trial (more for me than them!) to help hang some pictures in a temporary exhibition, clearly a field you will all know I have much experience in! Perhaps not actually.
I agreed to a 2/3 week posting (oh, it's in Vientiane, capital of Lao PDR btw) but I felt it would be better for me to do it after I had seen a bit more of the country (see, not so selfless!), so accordingly I took off for the hills after a far too languid relaxing week in Vientiane. First stop: Vang Vieng, which I talked about in a previous post. After there & a fairly gruelling 8 hour bus journey, it was Phonsovan, which has a wild-west, wide open streets, frontier-town kinda feel, bang in the middle of the country.
I can fairly safely say that the ONLY reason to go here is to see one of the main attractions of Laos, the nearby Plain of Jars, which is exactly what it says on the tin/jar. Ahmm, similar to Stonehenge in that nobody quite knows exactly what their origins or purpose are, but suffice to say there are thousands of them scattered across the landscape. The landscape itself is pretty barren, not so much a reflection of the soil or weather patterns, instead more evidence of the destruction wrought by American bombers in the Secret War, where they blasted the whole area, it being a strategically important location with Vietnamese troops using caves to store munitions & what have you. Again, a long story. But, if like me you were an ignoramus when it comes to Laos & especially the Secret War, I would urge you to google it or more & fill yourself in. You might find that you look at America more stringently, the America of today & it's vainglorious incarnations of the past.
On that topic, I am feeling very proud to be Irish at the moment! Yes, can't say you hear me say that aloud too often, but, those of you following the news this week should be aware that there has been a 10 day conference in Dublin convening some 180 nations that have decided that they will agree a treaty that will ban cluster bombs. If those last 3 words mean nothing to you, then sit up! We all know and hopefully agree that war is bad, evil & all the rest. Nonetheless, time has shown that there is no likelihood of that sinking sentiment being enough to stop war occuring.
Within modern warfare, however, there is a disgusting little weapon (cluster bomb) that is quite monumental in causing damage to anything it comes in contact with, up to anything within about 18km sq from where it is dropped. This giant bomb opens up mid air & out of it comes about 800 small orange-sized balls, nicknamed 'bombies' by Lao people.
They whirr around mid-air & when they gather enough momentum or when they hit a surface, explode, each one dispelling a few hundred ball bearings in all directions at a huge m/p/h. Bad, right? Bad enough, but as I've learnt in my stint with COPE, this is not something that is all tidied-up when the war ends. Opposite is an artistic interpretation of those bombies hitting land, this was taken on Monday, when the Queen of Malaysia came to visit the centre, it's not nearly always so busy. I could tell you a story about those young boys in crutches behind the installation (who've lost legs & are getting used to their prosthesis) & how they were being instructed on how to courtesy to the Queen before her arrival, but that might make me look a little callous, so I'll stop, oh, have I said too much?....Many of these 'bombies' don't detonate & remain dormant, hidden and untouched. Laos is still infested with them, 40 years after they were first bombed. Clearly humans come into contact with them at some point. These old weapons are still killing children & disabling adults today & will into the future. The same type of bomb is being used in Afghanistan now & in Iraq in recent times, amongst other warzones. It predominantly affects only innocent civilians; it's just so wrong. I best stop this little tirade before you mark me down as a hippie zealot. Suffice to say, that a ban on these is a huge step forward. That USA, China, Russia & Israel did not attend the conference or submit to the treaty says a lot about their governments & their future intentions. I hope, like some commentators suggest, that this treaty will nonetheless intimidate them to stop using the weapons for fear of international outcry. Time will tell.
So, where was I??? Oh yes, leaving Phonsovan after 3 days to go to my most remote location thus far methinks. Sam Neua, in North Eastern Laos, close enough to Hanoi in Vietnam, where I had been a month earlier. My experiences in Sam Neua were quite brilliant, and therefore deserve their own separate post, coming to a screen near you soon, well next month. That should cover it! Meanwhile, to whet you up, here's a photo I took from the toilet in the bus station of the Sam Neua vista beneath - stunner, eh?Jumping ahead in a bid to save your eyes, I returned to Vientiane (3rd time on this trip - what funk!) primarily to begin my 3/4 week stint volunteering, 9-5, M-F with COPE Laos (I'll plug the website now: www.copelaos.org & bedivil you later for more elaborate plugs!). I caught up with a few friends that I had made here previously & began to make new ones. Working in the Centre means there's a steady trickle of 'falang' (foreigners) coming in, the vast majority are utterly interesting & indeed interested in the COPE project. So, meeting some cool peeps that way is a bonus of the role. As for what I'm actually doing, little bits of everything. A lot of photo & poster design & printing, some proofing, spotting information gaps in the exhibits & the like.
I had been staying in the 'Ministry of Information & Culture Guesthouse' for a few nights, which while a bit bare & austere, did boast huge rooms & en suites with charming, eager staff. They also did the best damn laundry I've had all trip! However, the nature of my longer-term posting here meant I felt deserved of somewhere with a bit more luxury. Namely, fridge & TV topped the requirements.
So, I've upgraded to a sweet little guesthouse a bit out of town for $10 a night, but still along the mighty Mekong river, opposite, that has been my home for the last few days. I will be happy to end my Vientiane days there, he thought sadly. My companions there are the tiny frogs living outside my door & their (hopefully) food source: the mosquitoes, who have really gone for me ankles in a big way on this leg of the journey - maybe I'm not keeping up the requisite amounts of Beer Lao in my system to deter them...Allinall, life is quite sweet my friends. A funny little break from the travel/tourism regime & a welcome one at that. To feel contented with your work & location is a wonderful feeling. Thoughts of course have turned to perhaps looking at staying here longer. Come on, you knew that would happen, right? However, eagle-eyed amongst you will be checking your computer calendars to see that I am indeed about due back in Blighty any day now, specifically June 5th. At this time, it's appropriate to tell you that I have indeed rescheduled myself to a later return in mid-july. Great news for me but it does also means that I have concreted that these are also the latter days of my trip. Not a nice thought. Buuuuuuuuuut all good things, as they say.... It is important for me to return when there's some semblance of summer going on in Europe, acclimatisation & all that, so them's the breaks.
On that note, I sign off for now, eager to please you again soon - - for feic sake! Mailme ur craic.
@X
PS: you've got to do yourself a justice & checkout this awesome little gem: http://www.send-a-whale.com. A mate of mine in Sydney made it for Greenpeace & it will warm the cockles of your heart.
