Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Still Sweating....

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here.

(Written by Galen Dickstein)
Like all our days in Vietnam, this one began with a breakfast of watermelon, maybe a cold coffee and generally bread with cheese is involved as well. We gathered together with bike keys in hand and headed off into the sea of bicycles and motorbikes, over the bridge which is now a familiar route of our morning travel. Following Nhi on her motorbike has become a game, trying to keep her in sight while trying not to get into any accidents in the meantime. We arrived at our worksite after a little bike crash and losing our guide once, hot and sweaty and ready to work.

Our work today was painting the fence at a Vocational Training Center that is sponsored by the Association for Support of Disabled and Orphaned Children. We learned from the group last year and from Nhi that the center is a place where this demographic of children can learn a trade they can use in life to support themselves. When we first arrived all I could hear was the tapping of what sounded like mallets on wood. Later we saw that the sound was the children at work doing wood carvings for furniture and other various amazing creations. We also learned that many of the residents at the center are from poor families in the rural areas and live at the center while apprenticing.
We were there to paint and so got to work with paintbrushes and smiles. Our task was to paint the railings on one side of the back courtyard of the new building. Since the group was here last year, the the center has been expanded on in a major way with the help from a donor in NYC. As we painted a few of the residents there joined us and we also had an audience from boys peeking out of the workshop. After getting the first coat of paint on, we said our farewells and "see you tomorrows" and mounted our bikes to head out back into the "sea."
After lunch and naptime the group again prepared to go to the Street Children's House where we have been teaching each day. Today the groups were focused on reviewing our previous lessons because of the weekend and also set out to make nametags and try our best with pronunciations, which is beginning to come to us naturally with the children. They say their name once, we repeat and so on until it sounds right to them. For me...this has gone on for almost ten minutes with some children. And wow do they giggle at my voice! What precious little beings these children are. What a privilege it has been to be in their presence each day. Today was no different... a joy!
After teaching we went out for "sweet soup" with our student interpreters. We have done that three times so far and each time it is an experience we do not forget. "Sweet Soup" usually consists of some sort of vegetable or meat concoction we would serve for dinner, put in a glass with sugar and ice. The interpreters taught us that you stir it up from the bottom until is is like a slushie and they spoon it into your mouth. When you finish they usually order another for you until you plead... no more! Hehe!

Johnson State Trip Slideshow

The Johnson State College pictures can be viewed as a slideshow here.

As new photos are sent in they will be added to the presentation.





January Cambodia and Vietnam Trip

I will be taking a small group to Vietnam and Cambodia in January of 2006. We will be visiting Clear Path project sites and doing some sight seeing as well.

The pricing is not yet worked out, but if you would like to be kept posted on the trip in the hopes of going, please email me at james@cpi.org.

A Free Day

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here.

Posted by Chris Anderson

Today was a freeday for all of us. It began in the morning with some of our English student friends. They took some of us to a pagoda near the outskirts of Hue. It was amazing. There was a ceremony going on for a student who just recently took his own life due to having an incurable illness. All of our prayers go out to him.

In the courtyard were orchards with trees growing fruits for the monks to eat. The establishment had been around since the 1600's, built by the Chinese. It was wonderful seeing monks doing the same things that they were doing 400 years ago. The architecture was amazing and you felt felt such a sense of peace walking within its walls.

Members of the group went seperate ways throughout the day, getting ready for the week to come.

Thanks for tuning in,

Chris

Monday, May 30, 2005

Another Fine Day

(Written by Celine Riendeau)
Today we started off the day three people short. Tess, Angie and Chris were sick with the �thing� (various types of aliments that we all seem to be coming down with). The rest of us ate a wholesome breakfast at the cafe to prepare for our day of work in the heat.



Then we saddled up our bikes and traveled through many busy
intersections, one of the intersections on which I am guilty of having had a collision with a fellow biker only yesterday. We traveled to the Vocational Training Center for the Disabled to spend the morning placing a second coat of paint over the fence that we painted the day before. This turned out to be a quick job and was finished in about an hour and a half.
We were then taken into a side room, furnished with many intricately done, beautiful chairs carved and created by the carpenter students whom the center trains. There we talked with the chairman of the center and many kind words were exchanged. He then presented us with gifts of thanks, including bouquets of flowers, fruit (bananas and oranges) and gift plates with various pictures of famous landmarks in Hue on them. We enjoyed the break and then took a tour of the center. We brought the left over fruit to all of the students, who were either learning the trade of carpentry or of sewing.
After our rounds were done, we gathered up our gifts and headed back out into the heat to go back to the hotel for lunch. Waiting there for us was a table spread out with Vietnamese dishes. We ate tofu and shrimp soup, morning glories, rice, and fried pork ribs. Afterwards, we had a little time to digest our food before we got ready to go to our afternoon job of tutoring the children at the Street Children House.
At three o�clock we were on our bikes again, headed in the direction of the school. Our task today was challenging, being that three of us were sick and Tess and Chris were in the same tutoring group. Jill was the third member of their tutoring group, and I joined her in case she needed an extra hand with the kids. But as I expected, Jill had it under control the whole time. After an hour and a half of teaching, we pedaled back to the hotel, had a group reflection, and followed by dinner and various wind-down activities before bed.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Weekly Update: Good and Bad News

This week's update from the Vietnam office:

"CPI receive the info of one new accident by CPFC Duc Pho District of Quang Ngai in this reporting period: One killed and one injured as below:Two men left their home and went to look for scrap metal in Hoai Nhon district, Binh Dinh province. They found a large projectile and were trying to defuse it when suddenly the round detonated. The one killed is Nguyen Thanh Tuoi, born in 1970 and the one injured is Vo Ngoc Anh, born in 1973.CPI is undentaking a remote assistance to respond to this accident"

"Ho Thi Ha completed one surgery and is now still in DNORC waiting for another surgery in June. She is doing much better as she can stand straighter than before."

"Le Van Phuc entered Hue General Hospital for re-exam"

Saturday, May 28, 2005

A Nice Change of Plans

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them



Posted by Tara Duffy

Today was the day that we were to continue in our ditch digging efforts with our second group of Vietnamese economic students. We were told that this had been changed because of the flexibility of our service projects. We were told that we would be clearing away weeds and repairing the backyard of our beloved school house we have been teaching the children English. This sounded not only as a great relief, but also as a service project that really had a true connection with the group. These children, ranging in various ages, have become our greatest find here in this busy city.

Tucked away behind a busy bicycle filled street, tennis courts and chain link fences is this tiny yellow school house, complete with small playground and play areas. My first day entering such a rabbits hole was nerve racking due to the inexperience I felt with children. All my fears have been cast aside now that I have met and spent many times laughing and both teaching and learning each day.
Working with the economic students here in this Secret Garden of a place was truly a delight. The children were all there, not really sure of what we were doing so early in the morning. The Hue students and JSC students stood in a circle exchanging names and undergoing a brief talk about what we were to be doing for the morning hours. Clear away weeds, pricker bushes, and anything in the way of a new socce...er, I mean new football field.
We took almost no time picking up the tools, Hue and JSC students alike, and getting too it. The next few hours were filled with chipping away at weeds, carrying baskets of brush to the back of the property, and clearing away broken glass that had hid in the soil. Dave, the big dog of our group, wasted no time in helping to re-erect a fallen chain-link fence. Even going back to re-wire parts that needed to be tied according to the little woman that runs the school. During all of this work the children filtered in and out helping out and picking up tools here and there to show us they can do it too. Everyone became friends that day.
After hard work and bidding farewell to our Economic friends, the JSC gang returned to the hotel for another delicious lunch and cooled off before our return to the school for English lessons. I must brag a little bit about our children's group. They have mastered the ABC's and 0-10 eager to learn more. All along they are teaching me different Vietnamese terms. I can now count from 1-10. The lessons went well and we will need to brainstorm to keep them learning for the next two weeks here in Hue.
Teaching can be pretty exhausting so we needed to refuel with
sugarcane juice with our new interpreter friends from the English department. Here we decided that we must all meet up on our free Sunday morning and they can show us the sights. Who better to get a tour from then students? Our experiences here in Vietnam are so much in such a short amount of time that it is hard to sum it all up for this blog, but I hope that I have given this day justice.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Vietnam Accident Report

While clearing out some old emails today I found this report from an accident involving ordnance that resulted in a fatality in 2003. Most impressive is the professionalism of the CPI Vietnam staff. Most tragic is that this is not uncommon.

When there is a fatality like this involving ordnance left over from war, Clear Path assists the family in augmenting lost income due to the death of a wage earner and pays burial expenses.

Warning, the link below, in addition to the filed report, contains a photo many may consider disturbing.

----------------------------------------
CLEAR PATH INTERNATIONAL
KHE MAY LAKE GUEST HOUSE- WARD 3- DONG HA- QUANG TRI
TEL: 053- 857718 -
FAX: 053- 857719


NEW ACCIDENT & FIELD TRIP REPORT
Reported by: Le Thi Yen Nhi
Date: April 29, 2003

� Person(s) Dispatched: Duc - Nhi
� Guest: None
� Trip Purpose: Respond to new accident
� Destination: Quang Tri General Hospital; Cam Lo District, Quang Tri Province.
� Vehicle: Van (Duc & Nhi)
� Time of Departure: 14:30
Time of Completion: 17:00
Notes:
� 14:30 Depart to Quang Tri General Hospital
� 15:30 Head to Cam Phu 2, Cam Thanh commune, Cam Lo district to verify the cause of accident
o Obtain relating Photos, family & accident information; fill intake forms; grant the Family Bereavement support to the family.
� 17:00 Back to the compound
Date of Accident:
The accident happened at 14:00 on April 29, 2003.
Victim�s Personal information:
1. Tran Van Luong (Male)
� Age: 23
� Single, living with own parents and 4 sisters
� Current Address: Cam Phu 2, Cam Thanh, Cam Lo, Quang Tri.
� Occupation: Rock quarry worker
� Injury: Fatality
EOS Incident Response Narrative (EOS IRN)
Luong worked for a small rock quarry enterprise in Quang Tri province. He had to stay at home one month because the stone quarry had not been allowed to exploit. So as to get money for his engagement ceremony that will be held within the next 2 days, he temporarily worked for other enterprise. His short-term job is to make temporary trail so that trucks can go up the hill to exploit eucalyptus trees. On April 29, 2003 when clearing the road, his hoe blade struck on an UXO and the explosion happened. Luong collapsed. A man resting nearby rushed to the site when hearing the explosion. Luong received severe injury in the entire body. His face was crushed by the blast. The rescuer took him to the Quang Tri General Hospital but Luong stopped breathing on the way to the hospital.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Mud Bath!

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them


(Written by Trista Reigert)
Today was an intense day...one of our most intense so far. It began as we sped on our bicycles in the early morning to the irrigation trench where we would be vigorously hulling sewage and vegetation out of its polluted murky waters. We were prepared for labor, anticipating sweat and grime, but few expected the infested waters with such visible wildlife as leeches, spiders, frogs, crabs, snails, snakes, etc. And we, being the diligent determined hardworking Americans that we are, went in and all out, knee deep in mud, waste deep in water, as if to prove a point to our horrified Vietnamese compadres who looked on while politely picking at the sludge, dressed in their dressy attire.



It was an interesting site for sure, as neighbors around the trench stopped and stared, smiling and laughing at our mud soaked clothing and the eccentric nature of our pursuit. We could only grin and bare.
As I take a break by the side of the road two older Vietnamese woman walk past me carrying fresh produce from the market. They smile and stop to talk to me speaking in Vietnamese. I understand nothing of what they are saying and turn to one of the economic students to ask for a translation. �She say you are very beautiful.� In my shock and surprise I laugh out load thinking how funny the comment is as I stand there dripping with sweat and plastered with manure-scented mud. To explain my feelings, I theatrically shake my head while using hand motions toward my now disgusting clothes. They laugh with me before continuing on.
During a short break from labor I hack a soccer ball with a cluster of young boys who have gathered to watch the spectacle. The game is fun and they mimic my laugh and shriek when I miss the ball.
Afterwards, showers are in order followed by an elaborate spread of squid, avocado shakes, shrimp soup, rice, and melon salad. We eat our fill, before taking a break for a couple hours to roam the streets or nap before making our way back to the school where we teach English to the children. I�ve made nametags which I hand out for my kids. Brilliant children! They have already learned the alphabet (as well as memorized the song), numbers 0-10 and as well as spelling their name, and today was only our fourth day teaching!
It begins to pour rain shortly after we arrive, so rather than do our usually class routine outside with chalk and flashcards, we seek refuge inside one of the small crowded classrooms. After we finish, we come back to the hotel for an hour group meeting to a reflection, discussing the current events and touch base with one another before dinner. Our time here has been amazing, more so than can be translated in words.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Brand New Song and Dance

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them

(Written by Caroline Cole)--

Today we had the pleasure of meeting with the economic students here at Hue University. Once again we were called upon to perform. It seems as if we are morphing into a song and dance troup of sorts. We did our now famous rendition of "This Land is Your Land", followed by a rousing "Lean on Me." Luckily, Vietnamese people are extremely polite and our efforts were well received. The economic students sang us various songs as well. At this point some of the Vietnamese tunes are becoming familiar. We also played games and chatted with the students. There was a question and answer period as well. We fielded questions ranging in subject from why-we were-here to which-country-we-would-live-in-if-we-were-getting-married-to-a-Vietnamese-person. This latter question was no doubt directed at Chris, the sex symbol of the group. At any rate, we will be working with these students in coming days digging an irrigation trench. I look forward to getting to know them better.

This afternoon we taught lesson number three to the street kids. I'm proud to announce that our group has successfully completed the ABCs. I am teaching the youngest group along with Laura. Actually we are sort of the American mascots while our "interpreters" do a lot of the heavy lifting. It is really awesome to see them interact with the kids though. So much more physical affection and closeness is shown than in America.The kids are ridiculously cute and incredibly smart. At that age kids are like little sponges. I really think they are going to download a lot more English than we had imagined in the coming weeks. It is also increasing my pressing need to learn more Vietnamese. I wish I could be in on their cute little banter.



Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Sometimes I Sweat in Vietnam

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them


(Written by Tess Gauthier)
This morning we met officials from the Friendship Union. For this we sat in a long rectangular room....black and white checkered floor, all chairs were lined in a long row, each chair seperated by a stand with 2 water glasses and bottled water, making the meeting feel very official. We answered a series of questions and got some background info. about the Friendship Union. Overall I think we made a good impression, even though we were drenched in sweat and probably smelled.




After this...back to the hotel quickly and off to a local high school. This is the same school Ho Chi Minh studied at, as well as many other famous Vietnamese leaders. It's 1 of 3 national schools and students must be selected to attend. Upon our arrival we were greeted very warmly. Shortly after, we assisted students in doing some yard work. This lasted about 15 minutes, probably because they noticed we were all drenched in sweat. The school was beautiful, hallways were wide open and a warm breeze blew in all directions. The window shutters were very ornate, and the school itself was painted a very cool redish color.

After yard work we exchanged songs and dances. The Vietnamese once again delivered a beautiful traditional dance and we performed our token song "This Land is Our Land". Also, I performed a duet with a Vietnamese boy to a Mariah Carey song ("Hero"). Needless to say, I was right on point. Just kidding, but he was. We all said our so longs and some exchanged addresses.
Off to teaching English........for this we are partnered with Vietnamese students learning English. I don't think we would be able to teach without them. They all have so much to offer, especially since english is so fresh on their minds. I really enjoy this partnership.......we get to experience Vietnam through the Vietnamese vs. being tourists.....very rich and insighful. The children at the school are a pleasure to teach and they absorb so much. We are moving right along with the alphabet.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Teaching the Alphabet

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them


(Written by Laura Meyerson)-- As usual, breakfast itself was an event with delicious pastries, fresh fruit,warm bread, and even eggs. Following breakfast, we headed to one of the rooms and discussed the importance of the reflection process during this trip. Our first topic was humility as central to any learning experience, especially one that requires a partnership created in equality. Next, we discussed the benefits of reflecting: awareness of feelings & discusion/consideration of our actions--the combination of which basically keeps us in the moment and so,engaged in the experience. We couldn't have broached this topic without including the active citizen continuum. The consensus was that reflection is how our experiences and feelings will translate into action, here and at home. Our reflections will last a minimum of 1/2 hr, and maximum of 1 hr, and are alternated daily with group building to maintain our cohesive team--and to have fun. We then discussed the day's activities: meeting w/officials of the FriendshipUnion, and teaching English to "street" children (those who cannot afford standard schools and are most often orphans).


Then, more eating! Our elaborate lunch spread: a suqid dish w/pineapples, carrots,and potatos; shrimp soup w/tofu, baby corn, tomtato, and chives, and ourFaVorite--morning glory greens sauteed in garlic. To top this meal off we we were each given mixed fruit shakes and shared a lot of laughter. I have never eaten so well.
After lunch we did some lesson planning for the afternoon and designatedstudent interpreters to each of our sub-groups and prepared our materials--flash cards, crayons, (and Caroline's hit) connect-the-dot ABC practice sheets. Then we raced off into senseless traffic on our bicycles and headed for the Friendship Union. At the Friendship Union we met with delegates of CPI (Duc &Toan) with whom we will work in an outpatient hospital and the home of a CPI beneficiary. Inside the building we sat in two rows of beautifully carved chairs facing one another. We were meeting with Binh Nguyen (the secretary general of the Friendship Union) and Le Van Anh (the president). We introduced ourselves and explained our interest and enthusiasm for working with the Friendship Union and CPI. We also expressed our excitement at being in Viet Nam and getting to know the Vietnamese people. Binh Nguyen and Le Van Anh explained the purpose of the Friendship Union: To build international relationships based in peace and undersatnding of one another's culture; and to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Viet Nam. Both officials spoke with us in English and shared jokes as well. It was and is an honor to work with the Friendship Union. There was even discussion of possibly building a sister-university relationship between JSC and Hue University. It was an honor to meet them and is an honor to work with the Friendship Union.
Following this meeting we rode our bikes to the school for "street"children. It is impossible to accurately describe the beauty of Hue (the intricate architecture, the exotic plants, and the candid people) but it was all there in the children's smiling faces. We all split into our respective groupsof JSC students and Hue University student interpreters and the children assembled and were split into groups according to age/grade level. We proceeded to hesitantly get to know one another playing various games, and then jumped into our first lesson--the alphabet. We were outside and gathered in circles around the school yard, some in front and some on the side. The children were curious and intelligent and we slowly built trust with one another, moving from slow enunciation with flash cards to clapping and singing a portion of the alphabet.
I was with the youngest group of children so we broke the song down slowly while I could hear the other groups trying their own angles on their ownage groups. When we realized that a few of the children were illiterate altogether we invited them to sit down and trace connect-the-dot letters, to then try writing and saying them. When we pulled out the papers and crayons all of the children headed toward them. The children enjoyed writing the letters and then showing us the finished product; we were also very enthused and challenged them to pronounce each one with us. They were so interested and attentive that they learned easily although they were very small. As we prepared to leave the children sang a farewell song thanking us for coming. The Vietnamese are always singing, warmly harmonized, and it was very moving.
We departed on bikes with our interpreters and headed for a park near the river. There we enjoyed freshly pressed sugarcane juice in the shade. We discussed the lessons--what worked well and what didn't. Then, we toasted in English (Cheers!) and Vietnamese (Zo!; pronounced 'yo'). When we returned to the hotel we did a reflection activity to process and discuss our busy day. And yet more eating! Supper at a nearby family restaurant was delicious: Country-style tofu, crispy noodles w/vegeatbles and tofu, spring rolls, and fried squid. Some of us headed for our rooms with full stomachs, finally fatigued by the day's excitement. Other's headed out w/Nhi into the bustling night-life to enjoy singing at a local coffee shop. There they enjoyed a band, various singers, strawberry tea, cold yogurt drinks, and iced fresh fruit juice. It was a very full, and very wonderful, day.

Story from the Field

Adopt-a-Minefield has posted a story written by Chi of our Vietnam staff to their website.

Read the story here.



Saturday, May 21, 2005

Cultural Exchange

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them

(Written by Angela Twerdok) So far, our overall welcome from the Vietnamese people has been extremely warm. We receive random hellos and smiles by all we meet or even cross in passing on the street by bike and foot. At a cultural exchange with at a local school yesterday afternoon, our welcome to this country became quite elaborate and was more than our group expected.

Our group had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange with students at the English Education Department, formerly a branch of local Hue University and currently an independent school. We were told prior to our getting here that we should prepare a program that would be representative of our �American� culture. For a while we were stumped�but thank goodness for the creative minds of this group that help make things come together. Group participants Caroline Cole, Tara Duffy, and Chris Andersen put together the program that consisted of a description of where we come from, a mock Birthday Party, and a music piece about the different kinds of music in America.
On Saturday morning two of our participants (Caroline and Tara) were shipped off with Nhi (our interpreter) to meet with the English Education Department Representative early morning Saturday. They were to go over the program for the cultural exchange. When Caroline and Tara returned they met with the group and debriefed us about the meeting. The overall gyst was there are potentially five hundred students that are invited to attend the exchange, they want us to dance, they also want us to sing, and they would like us to plan something that would be interactive with the students. In addition to these things the Vietnamese students will be sharing Hue specialties with us and performing traditional songs and dances.
Our group wanted to be as prepared as possible for all of this, so after throwing around a bunch of ideas about how we really could capture �American� culture through song and dance and still remain politically correct to our own likings, we had to come up with something good. Finally we decided that we would sing as a sample from our culture �This Land is My Land�, with some hand choreography. You would think that a group of college students and two staff members would be irritated about singing with hand gestures in front of strangers. Or maybe not even irritated, but they would feel very childish. You would think. The opposite actually happened and the group really loved the singing part of the program.
When we arrived at the school there were no more than fifty students there, much less then anticipated. Slowly the room began to fill and before we began there were at least one hundred and fifty students present. We began to mingle with the students and teachers and fit ourselves into seat scattered around the room amongst the local students.
Once they introduced themselves to us and shared some specialties with us (which consisted of strange puddings, gelatins, and soups with things we could not identify in the US) we were asked to begin our introductions for the group and where we come from. At first some members of our group (the Vermonters) describe our country, particularly our state, Vermont. And in order to truly convey Vermont you must talk about the weather! Prior to departure from the states this piece was put together so we were well prepared with everything a Vermonter might wear on a day that it was thirty below. For example, we brought to Vietnam long johns, snow pants, boots, scarf, mittens, ski mask, hat, and of course snow goggles. We thought it would be interactive enough to ask a Vietnamese student to come up and volunteer so we might dress them in our typical winter attire. This is practically a health hazard considering the current sweltering heat we would be dressing them in. Nevertheless, we did dress a very shy and unusually tall Vietnamese student crossing our fingers hoping that she wouldn�t have a heat stroke during the whole process. The students laughed and clapped the whole time we were dressing her. Tess, one of our participants, gave a brief description in the microphone about the piece of clothing that we were putting on her and then would explain why we would wear it in Vermont.
Next on the program was a skit of a typical Birthday Party. We intended the birthday party to display some kind of general American tradition. We prepared by getting a cake a local bakery, bringing candles, birthday hats, balloons, and last but not least pin the tail on the donkey! This piece also was prepared for before departure, so the only thing that we had to get while here in Vietnam was the cake. Turned out one of our interpreter friend�s, Nhi was present in the crowd and we knew it was actually her birthday that day. So, we asked her to be part of our Birthday skit. Only she had no idea that we would be displaying a party �American style� for her Birthday. We sent her out of the room with a participant as we hastily decorated the stage and passed out candy and noise makers to the students and explained to them when she comes back in the room that we would all scream Happy Birthday and then we would display to them what we do at a traditional birthday party in the US.
When Nhi returned to the room blindfolded, we all yelled Happy Birthday! Our group then began singing Happy Birthday and guided her in how to blow out the candles on the cake. Next we made a toast to the birthday girl, and then played pin the tail on the donkey. The students cheered and laughed at all of us.
The students then showed us what a traditional Vietnamese Wedding looks like, with its� extravagant costumes and ceremonial nature. It was extremely beautiful and from an audience perspective you could tell the students were shy and bashful to act out such an intimate ceremony. There was much blushing and giggling as they performed this piece. We encouraged them with clapping and big smiles.
Shortly after the wedding, a group of young student girls performed a traditional conical hat dance to traditional music. They were dressed in pure white traditional dresses while holding weaved conical hats and moving their hats in slow sweet motions to the music playing. We were amazed at the gracefulness and beauty of the young girls. And I think it is safe to say that most of us were beginning to feel nervous about our �This Land is my Land, this land is your land� piece.
Our last offering at the cultural exchange was our music piece. Caroline had made an American mix on CD�s prior to coming so it seemed practical that we should maybe explain the different music genres in America (especially the ones on the mix CD) and dance to them as most Americans would using the mix CD music. This was hilarious. We covered everything from Steppenwolf to Jackson Five. And our silly dancing received much laughter from the audience. A funny moment I particularly remember was a few times during the Dance sequences I would turn around and look out and see that in the middle of the floor 5-10 feet away from the other group members was Jill (who is 31) dancing crazy while the Vietnamese students just stared and laughed. It was priceless.
Right after that we moved into our song, �This Land is my Land�� Interestingly enough this was the piece that group knew the best and seemed to entertain the students the most. While was sang three verses of the song and did choreographed hand gestures to them, the students listened intently, which reinforced the emphasis on our silly hand motions and the volume of our voices.
One of our few male participants, Chris, then announced that he would be singing a traditional song not from our country, but from their country. The students shrieked in excitement (it is extremely polite and cute to the Vietnamese when you attempt to speak their language). Chris went to it�we were so proud of him. He sang a duet with Nhi in Vietnamese and the students had expressions of flattery all over their faces.
We ended the exchange with a Vietnamese folk dance. They demonstrated it for us and we then quickly after watching them do it a few minutes joined right in. By the end of the afternoon we were all dripping in sweat, American and Vietnamese! And we all had smiles from ear to ear. We were grateful to interact with the local students and share parts of our culture with one another. It is always beneficial for our group to be working with the very people we are trying to serve, regardless of the circumstances. This Break Away trip is about serving these people in whatever way we can, and this week it began with trying understand one another through culture so we might have a firm grasp on who the people are of which we desire to serve so much.

Meeting our Interpreters

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them

(written by Dave Whitaker)
Today was our first full day in Vietnam. We roused surprisingly early from our slumbers with but minimal trauma from the rigors of our journey. As the light of morning glinted off the polished stone tile of the Hung Vuong Inn, a gentle harbinger of the searing heat to ensue, we savored our first meal in over 36 hours outside of �coach class�.

A walking tour of town soon followed and we were oriented with the traffic�.patterns?�internet cafes and atms as the temperature incrementally rose. On the last stop of our stroll we straddled bicycles that will be our main mode of transportation during our stay and eased, uneasily into the rushing currents of Hue�s traffic. We pedaled through town deftly evading buses, motorbikes, and attrition�this is not the group member who has showered the least since our departure�. they too however, were avoided in a most tactful manner�and I thank them for it�ah�attrition due to heatstroke.
It served us well to learn early the lesson of adequate hydration. Meanwhile, recuperating back at the hotel we struggled with the pronunciations of the names the ten English language university students that we will be teamed with during our stay. We will be meeting on the roof at 2:00 pm. Nhi had gone over our lists with us, patiently creating the sounds we strove to replicate. It is, I suppose, good practice for us as teachers of sounds to first, be learners.
The energy and excitement of our first encounter was channeled into �ice-breaking� games. A sheet was held up between the two crouching groups with one person from each group directly in front of it. When the sheet was dropped the first of the two facing each other to say the others name claimed that person to their camp. During introductions when this game was explained it was evident that they had lists of our names as well and everyone frantically crammed to match the faces with the names on the pages. The volume of facial expressions and laughter that this game produced was priceless.
We talked for a while after the games and their enthusiasm was infectious. Their role in the work that we will do with the school children increases our effectiveness exponentially. In Vietnam it is common to refer to others in terms of family, as in �Uncle Ho� for Ho Chi Minh and these students easily deserving the mantle of older sisters and big brother of the children we will be working with. I am honored to be able to offer them assistance.

The Vietnam Adventure Begins

A group of students from Johnson State College (JSC) is spending the next few weeks with Clear Path International in Vietnam. This is possible due to a partnership between Clear Path, the Break Away Program and JSC. The students and staff will be posting tales and photos from their journey to this blog. You can read all of their posts by clicking here. Photos can be enlarged by clicking them


(Written by Jill Piacitelli)

Well, here is the story of our journey from the beginning. I promise to try and make it entertaining� as entertaining as 38 hours of travel can be. The bulk of the group left from a Johnson State College parking lot on Wednesday, May 18th, at 3 pm. This was the place to be: a swanky school van, beautiful early summer weather, and a send off like unto those days of glory when competing for the high school wrestling championship. Staff and administration from the College sent us off with waves, shouts, and signs like �You rock!� and �Thank you!� and �Try to come back!�



The trip to the airport was pleasantly uneventful, thanks to the capable driving hands of our Director, Ellen Hill. We made it on time and met up with the remaining members of the group, sans one. Check in and boarding was uneventful (this was due perhaps to impressing our fellow flyers-in-wait by peeling and eating whole cloves of garlic. This is an unwritten part of our group health regimen, to keep away mosquitoes, but like any good idea, has served us beyond the original intent).
The first leg, to Newark, was quick and pleasant. Small plane, 45 minutes. Upon arrival, we hastened to eat some fine fast food, American style, at the airport �for the last time�. This notion got stretched throughout the next 23 hours, as we were served eggs, chicken, fish, mashed potatoes, noodle soup, chocolate muffins, rolls, or fruit every couple of hours and couldn�t manage to say �no� on account of the �last meal� mentality. Needless to say, we didn�t dip into our independent treat bag. Oh wait, we did. We simply ate a lot on the way over.
I digress. In Newark we dined and then used various means to kill the 5 additional hours in the airport. We also met up with the final participant, Chris Anderson. After reassuring his mom, sister, and girlfriend that he was safe with us and indeed, would have air conditioning in Vietnam, we were able to pry him away for check in. The rest of the group followed, and soon enough (12:30 am), we found ourselves in for the first long stretch to Seattle.
In Seattle, the bleary-eyed travelers wandered off the plane in different states of discomfort. You see, the airlines had begun the trickery of trying to change your body�s time zones by light depravation and force feeding. So, in pitch dark for the first couple of hours, we were startled awake by being roused for �dinner� at 3 in the morning. As explained above, we ate. So eating, plus immobility, plus sleep depravation hurt us as people. We used our short (1 hour) layover in Seattle to recover by walking around, doing yoga, and playing reflex based card games. Then, on to Taipei!
The tricks continued. The shades were down the whole time, and we were lulled into various states of altered consciousness by watching movie after movie such as �In Good Company�, �Phantom of the Opera�, �Something About Winn Dixie�, and �Electra�. All movies that the entire group had managed to miss while in the theaters. The feeding continued, and so did our eating. Some sleep happened too. No talking. This was a 12 hour flight, and sometimes silence is the relief to pain.
The turnover in Taiwan was quick, and a bit of excitement, as it was the first time that we could look out the windows and see a world that looked fairly different from ours. We boarded for Hanoi, which was another 3 hours, and then landed after eating all garlic and anything else we feared was too organic for customs. This included Jolly Ranchers, Air Heads, Nerds, and granola bars. Thanks to all that, we again passed through customs easily and snagged our bags to meet Nhi, our Vietnamese friend, translator, and guide for the final flight into Hue.
Finally, though, a snag! Nhi was nowhere to be found! The cool headed leaders did not panic, they just walked around in a dazed state and acted like a plan was in motion. 45 minutes later, Nhi showed up, having been delayed by weather. The happy reunion (and introductions) turned into somber silence, as we realized our next flight was still about 5 or 6 hours away. We pushed the envelope (only to find out there was no laying down in this airport) and so the envelope pushed us. We marched on in silence: walking, smoking, sleeping, reading�no talking.
I, myself, lost a little bit of the edge here, and don�t remember how the time all passed. Rumor is, there are pictures of me sleeping with mouth wide open, like an old lady. On the plane to Hue, we had finally learned to reject the offered sandwiches, and most of us drifted in and out of sleep in the frigid, artificial air.
If this all sounds like misery, it wasn�t. The group pulled through amazingly well, with nary a complaint. When we arrived in Hue last night, at 7 pm Vietnam Time (VT), personalities had gone flat, but not turned ugly. It was a sweet sight to pull up and see the hotel staff, now friends from last year. The kids had grown, the hotel had been painted, but the sweet welcome was the same. We checked in quickly, and then somehow pulled off a quick meal and a quick trip to show people how to use the Internet, before they all started dropping off.
It is good to be back, despite what can seem like the modern day rigors of travel. We�ve assigned out blog entries for all of the group, so every day will be covered and hopefully, in not such prolific mundane quality.

Mae La Refugee Camp:Thai-Burma Border

CPI co-founder Imbert Matthee is leading a group of CPI supporters to CPI project sites across SE Asia. All photos by Erin Fredrichs.

The story of the Fox and the Bird

Pah Ner tells us a Karen folk tale with a modern twist. It�s about a fox and a bird. The fox lives at the bottom of a tree. The bird lives at the top, where she pecks the bark to look for insects to eat. But the fox sees trouble.

�Please do not chip the bark because it will fall down and hurt me,� he says. The bird ignores him and, sure enough, the bark splinters into many pieces and falls down on the fox, hurting his back in many small places.

�Now I will take you to court,� says the fox. �You hurt me very seriously!�
Once in front of the judge, the fox makes his complaint with the bird as the accused. The judge asks: �Where are your injuries?� He shows the judge the spots on his back. They are barely visible to the judge.
�But those spots are tiny,� says the judge. �Why did you come to my court to complain about such a small injury?�
�Well, they may seem small to you, but they are very big to me,� he answers.
Pah ends his story and remains silent for a moment. Then, he explains the moral. �Never judge someone else�s injuries,� he says to the applause of everyone listening.
Hearing the story from him is a poignant irony. Pah is a landmine accident survivor from the Karen state. He lost both arms and the shrapnel from the explosion blinded him. Now he is dependent for his care on others at the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.
He is just about the last accident victim one would assign any resemblance to the fox, yet he tells the tale so he and his companions can keep things in perspective. All 14 landmine survivors who live with him at the �Care Villa,� a dorm hut in the sprawling refugee camp north of Mae Sot, Thailand, have injuries we would consider devastating. But no one here judges them as big or small.
The Care Villa for dependent disabled landmine survivors was started three years ago by the Karen Handicap Welfare Association. The KHWA is one of the ethnic groups Clear Path supports to help reach out to landmine survivors inside Burma with the help of new remote measurement technology.
The Care Villa, which has had limited international support, may also become a candidate for Clear Path assistance. The 24-hour-a-day care project needs funding for food, utilities and two nurses who assist the residents � all men aged 17 � 58.
�They have no one else to take care of them,� explains Father Simon Saw of the Mae La camp. �They are completely dependent, but they are well looked after here.�
Morikia, the head of the Karen Handicap Welfare Association, says 11 of the survivors were blinded by their accident and three can see only from one eye. Seven have lost one or both arms. Four have lost one or both legs. Only one can see well and he is a double leg amputee who uses a wheelchair.
Though most remain in their dorm with their eyes and heads cast down, it does not mean they are despondent. Being blind, they simply have nowhere to turn their eyes. But their loss of one sense has sharpened their others.
We were treated to several solo and group songs, some accompanied by a guitar, a mandolin and a keyboard. Without exception, their delivery was beautifully harmonious. Their voices were strong. Their singing was from the heart.
Some of the residents use their heightened sense of touch to their advantage. Three blinded survivors have taken up handcrafting beaded purses. We saw one practicing his newfound art. He reached into different bags for different colored beads and methodically strung them into a pattern for the flap of a purse.
Peh Kleh, the double amputee who can see, has taken a liking to making bamboo picture frames. They are simply, perhaps a bit crude, but it�s obvious they were made with attention to deal and a passion for creativity. We were his first customers.
Only three of the survivors have family in the camp, but their wives need to work during the day or look after their young children. The older children hang around the �villa� and seem inseparable from their dads.
�Their wives are faithful,� Father Simon says. �They have stayed with them despite their injuries.�
We spent several hours with the �boys,� listening to their music, their personal stories and their bittersweet folk tales. Effie, a massage therapist, worked with one of the survivors. Erin, the photographer, took her time to get comfortable with the group and to take relaxed portraits of them and their children.
Before we leave, they sing us one last song.
�Wherever you go, whatever you do, may God�s blessings follow you,� the lyrics go. All of us know we will be back to see them again.
refugee4.jpg

Erin Fredrichs Posts from Cambodia


Erin Fredrichs is traveling with CPI Co-founder Imbert Matthee through Asia. She sent in this report. She also took the photo.

In Cambodia, it won�t be the majesty of the many temples of Angkor Wat that will consume my memory once we return to the States. It will be the 17 kids I met at the Cambodia Landmine Museum.

Exhausted for the unforgiving heat and clamoring over the ruins of temples, we all packed in the car for our final stop on our list of touristy activities: the landmine museum. We drove down yet another dusty, pothole-laden Cambodian road and stopped in front of a cluster of huts guarded by a small boy. He granted us admission to the museum.


Established in 1999 by Aki Ra, a former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge, the landmine museum attracts far fewer tourists than the war museum in Siem Reap. However, the rawness of the landmine museum sets it apart from any other tourist destination I�ve ever seen.
I couldn�t believe it was real. There were thousands of defused landmines collected into nets and used as posts for benches. Bombs spelled out the word �museum� on the side of the main building. A display had been set up on the side of the property to show visitors the different ways mines are set and ultimately triggered. Inside a shed-like structure is a detailed explanation of every mine in the museum�s collection.
Then I met Hak Hort. He eyed me as I snooped around the museum, balancing on his remaining leg and crutches, waiting for me to acknowledge him. When our eyes met, he smiled a deep, warm smile and in clear English, asked me if I�d like a tour of the museum. I couldn�t refuse.
Hak was eight years old when he lost his leg to a landmine explosion. The country was still at war with itself. The Khmer Rouge and Cambodian Army were battling for power. Hak and his older brother and sister were in their family fields when they found a landmine. Unaware of what it was, Hak thought it was a toy. The landmine detonated, blowing off his leg and killing his siblings.
�It is okay now,� he told me. �I live here in Siem Reap for three years and I like it. I go to school, I give the tours, it is good.� His smile never faltered as he wound down the tour. When he asked me if I had any more questions, I just shook my head and thanked him for the wonderful tour. I couldn�t bring myself to ask him how he ever got over losing his leg. I wanted to know if he was haunted by the loss of his siblings. I was a stranger, one of the hundreds of tourists that visit the museum annually. I had no business prying into his innermost thoughts, so I let the questions go.
I only got an hour at the museum and I could spend months there. I want to know all the stories of the boys who live there. I want to teach them English, photograph them, help them build extra housing, do stretches with them so they retain mobility in their stumps. I just want to be around them. It only took an hour for them to impact my life. I don�t know how I could begin to impact theirs.
A handful of Australian tourists who are spending the month volunteering at the museum were situated near the entrance at a table, drawing tattoos on the boys. Eleven-year old Boreak had a snake drawn on his back, a dragon on his arm and flowers on his chest. Once he was sufficiently inked, he bounced out away from the table and tried to engage other boys in one-armed muay thai boxing spats. He laughed as he through jabs and giggled at whomever jabbed back. His energy was electrifying. Anyone who came within his little radius stepped lively and laughed with him. He was just a happy little boy. I realized that was what the camp was full of: happy little boys, not downtrodden disabled kids.
We have bore witness to the atrocities humans bring against other humans day after day during this trip. The boys at the landmine museum have a camaraderie that provides them with strength and a sense of family. Their vibrance seeped into me and all I want to do is go back to show them what an inspiration they are.
Erin Fredrichs

Friday, May 20, 2005

Meet the Johnson State Group

Listed below are the group partipants in the Johnson State College trip to Vietnam with the Break Away program.

Tess Gauthier
My name is Tess Gauthier, and I am 20 years old. This is my first year at Johnson State College. I've been involevd with service for the last couple of years. Last year, I worked for AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). I was on a team with 9 others, and we traveled through the country doing various service projects. I'm looking forward to Vietnam and being a part of the Vietnamese culture.
Celine Riendeau
My name is Celine Riendeau. I'm a 20 year old from Orleans, Vermont, and a sophomore at JSC. I participated on a Break Away trip to teh Creative Community for Non-Violence (CCNV) my freshman year, which led me to working for a year with NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) last year. I currently work at Clarina Howard Nichols Center, a shelter for women and their children fleeing domestic and/or sexual abuse.
Trista Reigert
Well, my name is Trista Reigert and I've been a Vermont rooted flower child all my life. Born in the town of Essex, where I lived until I was seven, when I moved with my mother to the small country town of South Strafford in Southern Vermont. Strafford has such a small population that there were only 18 kids in my class when I graduated 8th grade. Since the town was far too remote to have a high school of it's own, I attended high school in Hanover, NH, where I participated in a variety of activities from ice hockey to Amnesty International. Currently, I am an undecided freshman at Johnson State College; one of those kids who listens to indi-rock and buys organic. My personal ambitions vary vastly from music to creative literature, but as for a career path, I feel inclined to puruse psychology and political science.
Angela Twerdok
I am a native of Pennslyvania and now in my fourth year studying at JSC. I am studying anthropology and sociology, as well as pursuing certification in Nonprofit Managment. I have contributed on the statewide and national level at conferences in various roles, furthering the concept of active citizenship. I also hope to enter the world of nonprofits and NGO's upon graduation. This is my second time to Vietnam and I am very interested and excited about furthering relations that were established with the Vietnamese, as well as Clear Path International from last summer.
Galen Dickstein
I have been a students at JSC for over two years now. I have been student teaching this semester and hope to graduate in December 2005 with my degree in Elementary Education. I have been highly involved in the SERVE Office since setting my food on campus, and I am really excited to have the chance to travel to Vietnam with a wonderful group from Vermont. I love to travel and see new places, as well as learn about cultures that are different from my own. I am thrilled to be part of this group and have the opportunity to learn more about landmine issues in Southeast Asia. I hope to take what I learn from my experience and be an ambassador for this issue, which affects so many lives. I think that one's voice can be their most important weapon if it is used in the right way.
Laura Meyerson
My name is Laura Meyerson. I am 23 years old and from Burlington, Vermont. I just graduated from JSC as a psychology major. I feel honored to be participating inthe Break Away trip to Vietnam, and for the opportunity to work with Clear Path International. Most especially, I look forward to meeting and learning from the people of Vietnam.
Chris Anderson
I am a sophomore at JSC. I am a guitarist, a singer, and also very interested in the healing aspects of music. I am an Alternative Medicine major, with a focus in preclinical: Naturopathy. I am entering the program at Johnson State for the Nonprofit Management Certification. I transferred to JSC from East Stroudsburg University of Pennslyvania in hopes of seeking new horizons in my life.
I was born on Nov. 29, 1984 in Stroudsburg, Pennslyvania, where I lived my first 19 years. In the last couple of years I have been becoming moer and more in tune with my surroundings and the people therein. Along with this deeper connection, I have come to feel more and more the pains of others. I have deep concern for the welfare of all of the world's citizens, especially those bombarded by the unforseen and uncontrolled. I got to Vietnam in hopes to better understand these problems and to aid those effected by them, and in hopes that my actions can lead others to the same path. Someone once told me that nothing changes if nothing changes. Simple, yet true. For this change, everyone needs to rise up, grab hands, and leade each other towards a brighter day.

Rice Farmer Injured In Vietnam

On April 27th, a 20 year old Rice Farmer in Dakrong district of Quang Tri province was injured by a piece of ordnance left over from the Vietnam War while he was scattering rice seeds. He was using a metal stick to poke holes on the ground in order to put the rice seeds in when the unknown ordnance detonated.

He fell unconscious and was taken to Hue General Hospital for first aid and treatment.

He lost one finger in the right hand and received one abdominal injuries. This accident was reported to CPI by Hue General Hospital in May. The patient remains in the hospital, recovering.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Bomb Accident Injures Two Men in Vietnam

may18a.jpgTwo farmers in their twenties were severely injured by a Vietnam War era bomb in Huong Thuy district of Thua Thien Hue province on May 11th 2005. The two were planting eucalyptus trees in a hilly area less than a mile from their homes when the unidentified device exploded. They were then taken to Hue General Hospital for first aid and treatment.

One man received multiple of fragment injuries and his right leg was broken while the other had serious chest wounds, extremity injuries and facial burns. At the time of this posting he is blind, however it is not yet determined if it is permanent.

Battambang Hospital, Cambodia

Clear Path Co-Founder Imbert Matthee is leading a group of CPI supporters across Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. He has filed this report.

My Cambodian friend Sary has been telling me for years that I should go visit the hospital in Battambang, the second-largest city in Cambodia. �They do not have anything,� he keeps saying while shaking his head. That�s followed by another statement along the same lines and a short laugh that implies I can�t possibly imagine how deprived this medical facility is. It wasn�t much of an exaggeration.

What�s true for many hospitals in the developing world is true for western Cambodia. If they have equipment, it�s very old and patched together like Cuban cars. It�s one of the reasons we started a medical equipment donations program at Clear Path four years ago. If you have ever wondered why your medical premiums are so high, it�s partly because there is an enormous amount of equipment turnover and waste of supplies in the health care industry in the U.S.
Technology, government regulations and medical methodology keep changing, but the surplus that results is by no means obsolete at a hospital like the one in Battambang.
Take the OR. It has one functional surgery suite that serves hundreds of thousands of people living in three border provinces: Pailin, Battambang and Banteay Mancheay. And, frankly, I am not sure I would want to submit to an operation there myself.
The �ambulance� is a rusty old Japanese pickup truck. There is virtually no emergency room equipment. Beds are old steel monsters without mattresses. Of course, there is always the suspicion that the good machines from government support are diverted to private clinics, so we won�t ship anything here until our Cambodia partner organization has a regular presence in the province and can make sure the items stay where they belong.
Since 2001, Clear Path has sent 34 containers of equipment to hospitals in the developing world. This capacity-building program largely for landmine-affected countries has served hospitals in Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, Uganda, Thailand and the Philippines.
Just last week, with help from Sary, we shipped three containers of exam tables to Cambodia�s Medical Volunteer Association in Phnom Penh, which will distribute them to Battambang and other hospitals we will follow with.
One of he next shipments will have other items the 32 docs here can use: beds, gurneys, OR equipment, oxygen tents, defibrillator, gloves, dressings and all kinds of surgical supplies. The donation will give us some leverage too. In exchange for saving on his acquisition budget, we are asking the director to pay more attention to the landmine accident survivors we will probably refer to the hospital once the training center near the border is up and running (see the blog about Phan Thong Kam).

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Bomb Explosion Kills Two Children in Vietnam

Thanks to Hugh Hosman for forwarding us this report. CPI staff will repsond in the coming days and we will have an update.

Source: Agence France Presse -- English

May 16, 2005 Monday 5:40 AM GMT

LENGTH: 184 words

HEADLINE: Vietnam War-era shell kills two children, injures two

DATELINE: HANOI May 16

Two children were killed and two others seriously injured when a Vietnam War-era grenade exploded, doctors and officials said Monday.

The blast occurred Saturday when the four siblings were playing with a shell they had found near their house in southern Vietnam's Kien Giang province, a commune official told AFP.

The oldest girl aged 12 died on the spot and her seven-year-old brother died in a hospital, the official said.

"The two girls who survived in the accident, aged 10 and nine, are in stable condition now," said a doctor from the provincial hospital.

Their village, Phu My, bordering Cambodia, used to be a target of American mortar and shells during the Vietnam War.

Since the war ended in 1975, more than 38,000 people have been killed and over 100,000 injured as a result of unexploded ordnance, according to Ministry of Public Security figures published by state media.

According to the United States military, more than 15 million tonnes of bombs, mines, artillery shells and other munitions were used during the Vietnam War.

It is estimated that as much as 10 percent of this failed to explode.

Mine Survivor Phan Thong Kam

Clear Path Co-founder Imbert Matthee is leading a group of CPI supporters across Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Photo by Erin Fredrichs.
Phan Thong Kam�s household grows rice to make a living. But the 39-year-old farmer from western Battambang Province who stepped on a landmine while taking some cows to wash at the lake, says it�s not enough to survive.

He lost his left leg above the knee and fragmentation injuries to the right leg make it hard for him to use it properly. He can only get around on crutches. His wife and 14-year-old son tend the rice fields on the family�s two-hectare plot (about 4.5 acres).

Kam himself does some mechanics, mostly futzing with motos. Occasionally, he can help fix the low berms framing the fields or transplant seedlings, but often he feels less than useful and he would welcome a chance to change that.

Enter Clear Path and its partner, Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development.
Our ambitious plan is to set up a training center near Kam�s village of Ampil Pram Doem at the heart of one of the most heavily mine-contaminated chain of districts bordering Thailand. Each one has hundreds of survivors making a very marginal living.
First, CVCD would work with disabled survivor families and vulnerable households like Kam�s to create a cooperative of rice growers in the area. Their skills and yields would be improved by initial training in the field.
Then, the two organizations would build a rice mill on a plot of land, where we would also build a training center like the one we have had in Kampong Cham Province for the past several years.
A specialist would train two or three mine survivors in the art of running a rice mill, whose various products � rice, bran and animal feed � would be sold to the slum communities CVCD provides education and training to in Phnom Penh. CVCD already sells about 30 tons of rice a month to these and other customers in the city.
Once the mill is running and generates revenues, CVCD would expand its agricultural skills training by offering classes to survivors in
animal husbandry, vegetable gardening and fruit-growing. Plus, it would start a course teaching other survivors the art of small-engine repairs and possibly electronics.
Within about five years, the training center might be expected to pay for itself and possibly make a contribution to other CPI/CVCD efforts to improve the lives and livelihoods of disabled landmine survivors and other vulnerable groups, such as divorced single mothers.
Kam says he would be very interested in the animal husbandry program because raising cattle or other farm animals is something he can do to become a more valuable contributor to his household.
�That would make our income higher,� he says. �That would be very good for us.�

The New Road Seemed Like a Good Idea

Clear Path Co-Founder Imbert Matthee is leading a group of CPI supporters across Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. He has filed this report. Photo by Erin Fredrichs.


At Clear Path, we say we pride ourselves in reaching out to landmine survivors. But what does that mean? Well, our group got a taste of it in Cambodia.

In our three project countries --Vietnam, Cambodia and on the Thai-Burma border -- it�s our staff or partner organization who work with the survivors on a daily basis.

In Vietnam, it�s office staff of five: Toan, Chi, Phuong, Duc and Nhi. They cover a territory of 14 provinces along the central coast. Sometimes, the outreach is done remotely, through banking wires and local agencies that dispense our assistance to the families involved in the accidental explosions in this big area.
But most of the time, the staff responds directly to accidents and personally assesses the needs of existing survivors all over the former DMZ area. And they are fast. Thanks to a growing network of reporting relations, they get news about an accident within hours of its occurrence.
Says Dave Greenhalgh, project manager at Mines Advisory Group, the British mine-clearance organization whose office is next-door to ours in Dong Ha: �I will hear about an accident in the morning and the CPI staff will already be at the hospital by lunch. They are amazing.�
Duc gets behind the wheel of the Nissan Patrol, a sturdy 4x4, and heads off to where the team is needed with Chi and/or with Toan or Nhi. Since the territory we cover runs up to the mountainous border with Laos, reaching survivors there isn�t a stroll in the park.
Even a Patrol gets you only so far. Paths to the farms can be narrow, so they have to get out and walk. Some of the hill tribe villages are only reachable on foot. When I was going through some shots the staff sent recently, I caught an image of the team hiking through a rolling green sea of jungle mountains wearing their rain coats and looking very determined to let nothing stand in the way of CPI outreach!
In Cambodia, our partner organization � Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development � faces an equally challenging task reaching out to landmine survivors. Both countries are largely rural and a big number of survivors live out in the sticks.
Sarath but mostly Chanthon, who represents CPI at CVCD, travel for miles on the dusty rutted roads in Kampong Cham Province to reach out to potential students for or to keep track of graduates from our vocational skills training center for landmine survivors in Stoeung Trung.
The road is pretty decent from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham City: asphalt with potholes and dips sprinkled throughout. There used to be a boat up to Stoeung Trung, but since they built a road to this town on the wide and sluggish Mekong River, the boat owners were forced out of business.
That new road sounded good to us before we first saw it. We discovered it�s a glorified dirt strip meandering along the riverbank through the many Cham villages. We were told there were plans to improve it further, but in the last election these villagers voted for the Sam Raimsey Party instead of the Cambodian People�s Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen so road improvement plans here got pushed to the backburner.
You have to remember this is the dry season in Cambodia. Even with that, the road had some serious mud ponds. At one of them in the middle of a village, there was simply no other way but to go through it. There were huts and vegetables gardens blocking any path around it.
These hovels are photogenic to say the least: homes with thatched roofs or rough teak sides built on stilts in a traditional style to escape annual flooding in this flat land near the Mekong. Except for the occasional homeowner who can afford paint, the tones of the huts, the oxen carts, ruddy road and grazing water buffalo are beautifully monochromatic. It�s visually held together by a �glue� of fine red-brown dust that settles on everything after traffic passes.
Our minivan driver, who was phenomenal during all of our four days in the countryside, took a running start and headed for the pond. But even for him, this was an insurmountable obstacle. Sure enough, we got stuck right in the middle, gears grinding, wheels spinning, villagers watching and gesturing in animation.
We had to get out, which was tricky. Erin, the photographer, stepped deep into the muck to the delight of the onlookers. Good-hearted Cham women nonetheless offered to rinse off her chocolate-colored sandals and feet. The driver tried again, but to no avail. We needed a hand and got one after we offered to pay some sinewy young Muslim men and boys a price in Riel for getting us out of our predicament.
They got behind the minivan, stepping deep into the soft goo and started heaving the once-white back hatch until it started moving forward, spinning and fishtailing out of the pond. I couldn�t help feel there was some planned entrepreneurial aspect to the speed at which the strapping backs came to our aid. But the rescue was worth the toll.
A little further down the road, we were asked to make a financial contribution to a village effort to fill the many bone-jarring holes and treacherous puddles -- something I thought imminently more constructive. Of course, any constant care of this road has to be a labor of love since the slightest subtropical rain washes the handiwork away.
I can only imagine what all this looks like when the monsoons arrive in the coming months.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Effie Posts from Cambodia

Effie is a massage therapist travalling with Imbert Matthee, co-founder of CPI, across Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand. She posted this report. Photo by Erin Fredrichs.


On this trip, I�ve been searching for opportunities to work with landmine victims. I�ve wanted to help ease some of the physical and mental pain that remains long after their explosive accidents. We traveled to a small community center in the Bovel District of Cambodia. It is there we are met by three landmine-affected men, all have families, all are rice farmers. After the initial meeting, I ask, �Have you pain?�
�Yes,� they say. Their spines and femur bones hurt.
�May I help?� I ask, and indicate head and base of spine. They smile nervously, titter and tell us they want lunch first.

Quietly, without notice, it is decided who will try, Mr. Phan Thong Kam. I had been enjoying Mr. Kam�s broad smile and strong, wide hands. He consents to lie down on his back, on one end of a long wooden table. I move to the end of the table and sit facing the top of his head.
I ask Mr. Chanthon, our CPI liason to the Cambodia Volunteers for Community Development, to tell him I am going to pick up his head and proceed to do so.
�Relax your head,� I say. Mr. Kam, a little hesitantly, does so. We begin. I know at once, the compensatory patterns he has formed to adjust for the missing left leg and the oddly, medially rotated right foot and leg that must carry his medium sized frame.
Mr. Kam�s neck is thick with congestion and feels quite rotated to his right upper cervicals, base of the skull and spreading up into the right side of his head. I follow the weight of his head which leads me toward a right side bend, ear to shoulder. I know this is a neural pathway to his shoulders and left amputated leg. We work slowly, at the pace his central nervous system is able to tolerate work. His body�s soft, connective tissue is the guide. Stored within the fascia layers are his physical and emotional experiences, the map to unwind what has happened. He tells me that he has daily headaches.
Soon his head volunteers back bending (extension). I invite him to move back, dropping his head into my hands out in space, to allow extension. This is a way the brain begins to unwind and tonify the capabilities of the spinal cord and associated neural ganglia. The real work begins, that of neural connections.
Mr. Kam�s body responds readily. His neck congestion starts to break up, the hypertensive tissue starts to unwind. His eyes close and he rotates his his face right to deepen the release. I acknowledge the information flow to his left arm by lifting it.
Mr.Chanthon translates again for us. I tell Phan that he may feel different sensations and to move his attention toward them. We will go into and through these tense, strained places, the working edge, and feel them release.
�For me,� I tell him, �it is like driving a car. I know the roadways, the map, and simply help his body stay the course for self-healing�.
We all laugh, his body guides. He is the healer.

The Group Reaches Cambodia

Clear Path Co-Founder Imbert Matthee is leading a group of CPI supporters across Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. He has filed this report.

The short, energetic and somewhat nervous man with the boyish grin points to a field where his uncle was caught fishing by the Khmer Rouge. They sent him to the jungle near the Thai border and within a few months, he was executed.

Everyone in Cambodia has a story that marks a memory from 30 years of torturous civil war.

This is the story of Savorn Singha, 38, born in Bovel district, Battambang Province when the first fighting started and still shell-shocked by the trauma he shares with the rest of his country. His story is an introduction to the part of Cambodia where Clear Path International and its Cambodian partner hope to start their next project in support of landmine accident survivors.

Battambang Province and in particular the districts that straddle the Thai border have the country�s highest landmine accident rates. The day before our group arrived in the Bovel commune close to the new project site, a landmine exploded behind the community building. While our partner organization, Cambodia Volunteers for Community Development were here in April to survey landmine survivors about their interest in learning new skills to boost their income, two accidents happened back to back.
An explosion goes off at least once a week. Here�s why.
The trouble started in the 1960s. Savorn�s home village called Kauk is a good example of how communities got caught, then remained suspended in the crossfire, resulting in the thousands of landmines and pieces of unexploded ordnance that contaminate their environment to this day.
Kauk was strategically located on the Mongkol Borei River that runs somewhat parallel to the Thai border about 90 kilometers inland. At first, it was the White Khmer who set up a base in the land between the river and the border. That was the year Savorn was born: 1967. Supported by Thailand, the White Khmer fought the regime of King Sihanouk. The rebels would cross the river, capture Kauk until they were chased by Sihanouk�s troops.
The pattern would repeat itself for years. After 1970, it was the Khmer Rouge that fought the U.S.-backed government of General Lon Nol. From 1975 to 1979, the village suffered under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime until its troops were pushed back behind the river by invading Vietnamese troops.
Every week, the shells and rockets would fly overhead across the river. Khmer Rouge troops would cross the river, encircle the village, occupy it and reckon with anyone suspected of supporting the other side until the other side would launch a counter attack and beat them back across the water.
The conquering government troops would subject the villagers to the same treatment. Savorn says 20 people in his community of 120 families were killed by Khmer Rouge or government troops. School was constantly interrupted. Troops from both sides helped themselves to the village�s meager crop of rice.
�We were like a nail between the hammer and the plank,� he says, explaining that both his parents died in their fifties from �war trauma.�
The fighting across the river lasted for nearly two decades until it finally stopped in 1996. By then, Savorn had fled to Thailand, where he finished high school in one of the refugee camps and took an engineering course.
He came to Cambodia in 1992, though not to Kauk, and went to work for a village economic development project supported by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Oxfam and the Australian Embassy. Now, he is a program manager for Village Focus International, which is helping CVCD and CPI to put together the new project in western Battambang Province.
The two organizations hope to build a destination agricultural and vocational skills training center for disabled landmine accident survivors and members of their families. It would serve beneficiaries in three districts, including Bovel, where Savorn is from.
The meaning of Bovel in Khmer aptly describes its experience since the late 1960s. The word stands for �twirling water in the lake.�
Savorn, who has helped set up and run a similar facility in Pursat, says his personal history and his village�s experience make him very passionate about the project.
�I have seen the suffering of the disabled people in my village,� he says.
One of his hometown neighbors lost an arm and an eye in an explosion. Another lost both legs. In his village, six people were killed and seven injured by landmine accidents, plowing, cutting bamboo, hunting. Two were blinded.
�I can share my experience (in development),� Savorn says. �They need my help.�

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Le Thuy, Quang Binh Province, Vietnam


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Authored by CPI Co-founder Imbert Matthee.

When I was here in August, workmen were just starting to dig a foundation. Now, the new Le Thuy community-based physical rehabilitation training center has been completed. With the guidance of the center�s physical therapy nurse, several dozen disabled children use its equipment eagerly.

In one room, they pump the rowing machine and walk the thread mill. In the other, a teacher shows them how to exercise with weights. They are strengthening their muscles and, in some cases, relearning how to use their bodies.

Funded by Clear Path International and the East Meets West Foundation, the training center is the only of its kind in Quang Binh Province. It�s fully integrated with the school for disabled children on the same grounds.
Only two months in operation, center director Hu says, the training center is already showing results: �Some children only knew how to crawl. Now they stand and touch the wall.�
The center serves 19 out of the 28 communes in Le Thuy District, which has a total population of 145,000. About 70 children attend five classes a day � four academic and one dedicated to physical therapy. Twenty children live in the center�s dorm.
The staff was trained by specialists from the Vietnam Cuba Friendship Hospital in Dong Hoi, the provincial capital. The children�s parents go through an initial two-day training course so they can continue the exercise regime at home. Some parents attend their children�s training classes when they can, Hu says.
Former CPI country director Hugh Hosman worked with East Meets West to set up the center. EMW paid for the construction. Clear Path paid for the equipment and the training.
The center is a good example of our capacity-building goal for mine-affected communities in the former Demilitarized Zone. Le Thuy District has 691 disabled children, 300 of whom are mobility-impaired. Forty-two children from the district are scheduled to receive surgery at the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Hospital, after which they will come to the training center for rehabilitation.
It�s already a great community resource and could well become a model for similar centers in the DMZ area, where these kinds of facilities are still sorely lacking at the local level.