my adventures in southeast asia this journal is going to be a documentation of my travels and experiences in se asia this summer. i will be traveling with my university (of which i am a recent alumna), and touring the countries of vietnam, laos, cambodia, and thailand.

we took the bus to dong ha today which is the area that peace trees operates in. we met some land mine victims and heard their stories. chi cuc was one of the women who lost both of her legs and her story of loss and of hope was truly moving. we also heard a young man tell his story. he was about 8 when his neighbor was cutting one for scrap metal and he was too close. he lost his arm, part of his fingers on the other hand, and both legs. i also believe he is blind in one eye. he is only 21 now, and i cant imagine the life he has now. how grateful we all have to be just for something as small as walking. i mean we walk around every day without having to think about it, our brain just moves our legs. how would our lives be different if we struggled everyday doing something that to us is so simple. not only is he disabled, but in a country that does not care for them the way americans do. they dont have ramps, automatic door, handicap parking, or anything that could make their lives easier. another lady gave her story too. she was five and she lost not only both of her legs, but everyone else in her family except for her father. all of her brothers and sisters and her mother were killed in the explosion. there was not a dry eye during her speech. i am sure the pain i imagined could not even come close to the pain she felt that day and every day since. after the heart breaking stories we had a chance to do our part. we went out and planted trees. it was hot and sticky but no one complained because we all knew it could be so much worse. we had dinner with the woman union tonight and i got to meet viet and voo who were in high school. they were adorable guys and spoke very good english. after dinner we headed out for drinks. i spotted this massive rat running a crossed the sidewalk and i whispered it to laurie but she thought i meant it was dead so when is darted out in front of us her and tony screamed at the top of their lungs. it was hilarious. we finally made our way to this little red bar... well we thought it was a bar. we tried to get a menu but they guy was not understanding us. we decided to be simple and just order huda beer. well all of a sudden this guy on a moped drives up with a case of beer and what do you know, they open it and give them to us. instead of explaining to us that they did not have alcoholic beverages, he thought it would just be easier to buy beer and sell it to us... oh how i love vietnam! tony and i decided to take a walk from there and check things out. everyone was yelling hi to us because we were so clearly not vietnamese! we stopped for some doughnuts and then passed a guy who offered us beer. we turned him down, but then he offered us a quail egg. we took the quail egg and quickly thanked him and walked away. i thought it was raw so i wanted to hurry so we didnt have to eat them in front of him.... little did i know it was cooked... cooked with a baby quail inside!!!