Shooting the Rabbit

I'm back from Luang Prabang. A great place, by the way. But I was there for work, so I had to go out into the rural areas and small villages around LP to visit unexploded ordinace search and removal sites, visit with farmers who have been given recently cleared acres on which to farm, detonate a charge that blew up a pile of cluster bombs found about 2 feet from a foot path used by farmers and their families, and watch a community awareness program in a small, remote village with all the village children and most of the adults, including a very old woman who continually smiled at me with a huge mouth full of betel nut. A few pictures to come later, but all in all a very good trip.

It's also mind-boggling to think about the sheer number of deadly unexploded bombs, mortars, mines and (especially) cluster bombs, or bombies as they are called here, that still litter the country.

Oh, and I learned my new favorite Lao saying....Driving down a muddy road, after bouncing along for about an hour and drinking quite a bit of water, I had to go to the bathroom. So I asked if we could pull over. A Lao guy asked me if I 'had to go shoot the rabbit'. Turns out, I did have to shoot the rabbit. Anyway, he also let me know that when women go to the bathroom outdoors, they 'go water the flowers.' Also a lovely saying.

Katherine is back on Tuesday, but for the weekend, it's just me and Jak (we've shortened the name to Jak, even though it's a girl) She went to camp the past two days and had a wonderful reunion with her sister, who is now resident at a friend's house. She's now back and sleeping on my shoulder as I type. All in all, a pretty top-notch cat if you ask me.