Project Phongsali 2011: Phongsali might not be the end of the world, but you can see it from there!

Week One

Day Two:

We are packing for the trip north. Metal detectors, radios, bull horns, and a mile of firing cable. Everything we will need to search for ordnance and then destroy it. Well…everything except a sizable load of TNT. That will come up by special transport under the care of Vilasak, our team leader.

We’re also packing all the items we’ll need to live comfortably in camp. Tents, cots, mattresses, mosquito nets, water buckets and a full kitchen with dining service for ten. (We’re a team of just seven this year, but we learned last year to be prepared to host visitors). In Laos, proper hospitality counts for a lot!

No way do we arrive in Phongsali with everything that we need. I don’t have that kind of luck. I am certain that, in spite of consulting a lengthy packing list, we’ll discover after arrival that some critical item has been forgotten, lost, stolen, or broken in transport. Last year it was the power cord that carried electricity from our generator to our lights and, more importantly, to the unit that charges our metal detectors.

I don’t know what critical piece will go missing, but it will be something. (The suspense is just killing me!) Whatever it is, we’ll have to improvise around or live without for weeks and possibly months to come. There’s no market anyplace in the entire province of Phongsali that offers the inventory you’ll find in one of a hundred Chinese-owned hardware shops in Vientiane.