Project Phongsali 2011: School makes good use of land that we cleared last year.

Teachers in Sop Houn wanted to expand the school grounds but were afraid of finding old ordnance. Last year we cleared new land for the school. Now students use the expansion area for gardens and athletic fields.

Week Two

Day Ten:

When we were in Sop Houn yesterday several villagers told us that they had indeed found new ordnance during the months we were gone.  So…we asked the village naiban to spread word that next week, when our full team is in place, we will again remove or destroy any dangerous refuse that people lead us to.  (In 2010, we destroyed 105 items, the smallest a hand grenade, the largest a 750 pound bomb).  As we walked from house to house chatting with people, Yai began mapping this year’s problem ordnance.

Last year village teachers told us that they had long dreamed of expanding the school grounds but were constrained because the acreage beyond had never been cleared of refuse.  (When the relatively new school was built, whenever workers found ordnance they simply heaved the items off the hillside and into the river below).

Teachers said that if they knew for certain that the land adjacent to the school was clear of UXO, they would immediately push back their school boundaries and begin using the new area for demonstration gardens and athletic fields.

So…last year…our team went to work, first searching the existing yard for UXO and then clearing the environs.  I struck a deal with teachers:  if they would cut and clear the brush that covered the expansion area, our team would search every square inch and clear any ordnance.  (I forbade any student help with the scrub cutting, because there was no knowing what might be underfoot.  Teachers and parents did that work themselves).

In the end, we learned that the teachers had valid reason for caution.  We found an M-81 cluster bomblet less than 100 yards from the school’s front door, evidence that forty years ago the area had been targeted with cluster munitions.

Today, when we visited the school I was pleased to see how the school was using the new area.  After we departed teachers and students worked together to level the site and to removal offending rocks and stumps.  Then, they erected rudimentary goal posts and let student foot traffic clear all remaining vegetation.  Rude as the field may now look, the teachers are proud of what they and their students accomplished.