Project Phongsali 2011: Clink! A young mother finds a bomblet by accidentally whacking it with her machete.

We've never had a villager killed while waiting for us to destroy a bomblet. But sometimes people are killed when they discover the bomb. Mrs. Sone was lucky, she gave this bombie a good whack, but it didn't detonate.

Day Nineteen:

Today we the headed back to Sop Houn to destroy ordnance that villagers showed us last week. We started with a cluster bomb in a tree plantation. The woman who found the bomblet often carries her children with her to the fields so she can tend to their needs while she gardens; the kids were with her the day she happened upon the bombie.

The lady’s name is Sone and I remember her well from last year. She’s always quick to offer a warm greeting but, for one so gregarious, is quite shy. I’ve often seen her smiling broadly while blushing beet red.

When Vilasak and I inspected Sone’s bombie we recognized that she’d had a close call. The bomblet’s casing had a prominent scar commemorating the day that she accidentally whacked it with her machete. I reacted with words that Sone had no doubt thought to herself many times: “You’re lucky to be alive. Bombies hit that hard often explode. Your children are lucky to still have a mother!”