A young widow discusses the accident that killed her husband. They were a poor couple who had recently experienced the death of their only child. The man envisioned using explosives harvested from old ordnance to stun fish, a practice the Lao call “bomb fishing.” His desperate effort led to his death. WHWV produced this...
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Nakai District - Khammuan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Eleven young men from a village near Lak Sao, up in Bolikhamsai Province, came down to the Nakai plateau for a weeklong fishing trip. They had hoped to lay in a sizable store of fish to supplement their food supplies back home. I suspect that the...
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Nakai District - Khammouan Province- Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Last month I wrote about the young man who drowned in the reservoir near Nakai Tai Village. A couple of ironic events followed quickly in the aftermath of that event. Within days of my telling readers that I avoid using village boats except as a last...
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Ban Mai - Boualapha District - Khammuan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic When I sat down to talk with the family in Ban Mai about the death of their son the week before, I was mentally prepared for the conversation to go in one of two directions. One possibility was that the family would express regret...
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Mai Village - Boualapha District - Khammouan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic During my recent trip to Boualapha District to observe scrap collectors and interview villagers associated with the trade, I heard bold comments from the children and teenagers that I found searching for scrap. All described ordnance that I knew to be deadly; all were...
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Boualapha District - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Over fifty percent of the Lao people wounded or killed by unexploded ordnance (UXO) have been injured while intentionally handling the stuff, often while collecting bomb fragments and other war material to sell to scrap dealers who, in turn, sell the metals to foundries in Laos and Vietnam....
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Nakai District - Khammouan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Last year I was down in Nong District in Savanakhet Province during the rainy season and just missed crossing paths with an American military team that was in the Laos looking for the remains of American service personnel missing since the end of the Indochina War. ...
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Nakai Tai Village – Khammouan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic A guy from Nakai Tai drowned last evening. We didn’t know about the accident when we stopped by the village to inquire about unexploded ordnance reported in the area, and to make a social call on my friend Soon, but when we stepped out...
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Click below to view video: Wisconsin Public Television: Jim Harris and We Help War Victims, Inc.
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Lao Luong Village - Hin Boun District - Khammouan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Yai and I often meet villagers who have health conditions that have lingered for months or years without treatment. We meet long-suffering people who could have relief from pain if they only knew where to find therapy and rehabilitation. We meet people...
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