Clearing ordnance on the old Ho Chi Minh Trail.

August 25, 2007
Clearing ordnance on the old Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Nong District -Savanakhet Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Like a wide belt, Savanakhet Province spans the entire width of south central Laos. The western border of the province is the Mekong River, which also forms the national border with Thailand; to the east a jagged mountain range demarcates the Provincial border and the Lao...
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Along the historic Ho Chi Minh Trail: people continue to live with deadly refuse of war.

August 18, 2007
Along the historic Ho Chi Minh Trail: people continue to live with deadly refuse of war.

Nong District - Savanakhet Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Legends abound about the Ho Chi Minh Trail. While most Americans associate the term with the Vietnam War, the trail was actually cut through the forests of Laos in the late 1950’s as an infiltration network for Viet Minh forces moving from north to south in...
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It’s another rainy season. We’ve got work to do. I’m glad to be back in Laos!

August 7, 2007
It’s another rainy season.  We’ve got work to do.  I’m glad to be back in Laos!

Odoumsouk Village – Nakai District –  Khammouan Province – Lao Peoples Democratic Republic I arrived back on the Nakai Plateau two nights ago. It was raining then and it hasn’t stopped since. This is the rainy season so it’s nothing out of the ordinary, but coming here directly from droughty conditions in Wisconsin the...
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Parents share facts about their son’s death in hope of saving other children’s lives.

February 3, 2007
Parents share facts about their son’s death in hope of saving other children’s lives.

Tha Lang Village - Khammouan Province - Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Americans and other Westerners sometime rationalize the low life expectancy, high infant mortality, and staggering accidental death rate of Asians by repeating the old saw, “Life is cheap in Asia.” What that observation implies is that we in the West value the lives of our...
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Cultural Artifact Collection

January 30, 2007

Since the year 2000, we have been assembling a museum-quality collection of cultural artifacts.  The items we acquire have seen actual use in Lao, Hmong, Khamu, Akha and other ethnic communities throughout Laos.  Accompanying each artifact are photographs documenting the context in which the item is used within family or community life. The collection...
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From Laos to America

January 30, 2007
From Laos to America

The Exhibit As we have worked in America and Southeast Asia we have assembled a remarkable collection of photographs, videos, cultural artifacts, oral histories and other documents.  These resources have been organized into a traveling exhibition entitled, From Laos to America: Changing Worlds, Changing  Lives. Schools, universities, student groups, museums, cultural centers, religious congregations and...
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Unexploded Ordnance in Laos: A Deadly Legacy of War

January 30, 2007
Unexploded Ordnance in Laos: A Deadly Legacy of War

Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world.  During the Indochina War, American planes flew 580,000 bomb runs over Laos and dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs, including over 200 million cluster bomblets.  Today, as many as 27 million bomblets remain.  Since the war ended, more than 40,000 Lao people...
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Oudomsouk village is now a safer place. The 750 is finally gone!

October 16, 2006

Yesterday we made the village of Oudomsouk a safer place to live. Readers might remember that several months ago I wrote about the 750-pound bomb that was located under a house in the middle of the village. The bomb was discovered a couple of years ago by the homeowner when he was digging a...
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How to identify the neediest of the many poor.

October 15, 2006

Understandably, people who make charitable donations want their money to go to individuals and causes that are truly needy. Here in Laos most of the population is poor; eighty percent of the population lives at a subsistence level. Most people consume all the food that they grow in their fields or find in the...
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