5/2: Peace Trees and 4 personal stories

About an hour and a half north of Hue is the office of Peace Trees Vietnam, in Quan Tri province. Quang Tri province is the northern most province of what was once South Vietnam, just south of the demilitarized zone at the 17th parallel, the dividing line of North and South Vietnam. Some of the heaviest American bombing in all of the American War occurred there - an average of seven tons of explosives per person was dropped in this province. Quang Tri province is still affected by explosive remnants of the war, where over 7,000 people had been killed or injured since 1975.

"Items" found in Quang Tri province

Information about Peace Trees Vietnam from Michelle M's report:
Peace Trees Vietnam was founded in 1995 by the family of a helicopter pilot killed in the American War in 1969. It's motto is: Plant a tree where a mine used to be. Its mission is to remove land mines and other unexploded ordnance and reforest those areas. Peace Trees Vietnam has two teams working to remove unexploded ordnance and land mines. They have supported the area by building schools, housing, and a library. Peace Trees Vietnam has also helped to support land mine victims with housing, money for medical support and family support, scholarships for education, and conduct community education about land mines.

The students met four land mine victims, who shared their stories, and then answered questions.

Tran Thi Be

In 1973, when Tran Thi Be was five years old in 1973 when the land mine accident occurred. Her mother and five siblings were killed. TranBe lost both her legs. She then lived with her dad only. She now has two children - a nine year old girl and a six year old boy. She runs a little shop selling beverages to high school students, earning about three dollars a day. She told us it was her children who gave her more language and strength to continue.

Le Van Hong

Le Van Hong is 17 years old. It was in 2004, at the age of twelve, when his accident occurred. He was very curious about a strange object, and picked up and played with it. He was alone, so no one else was hurt, but Hong lost his left arm. He was in the hospital for one and a half months, but it took about a year to regain his balance. He lives with his mother, who is a farmer. Hong can no longer help in the farming, but he can still help out around the house. When asked what he wants to do when he grows up, Le said that he loves to paint and wants to go to art school and become a painter. When asked about plans for an artificial arm, it was explained to us that this is a very rare occurrence in Vietnam. Peace Trees Vietnam bought Hong a bicycle because he lives very far from his school, and they bought his mother a cow to help out with the family finances. Land mine victims get no support from the Vietnamese government.

Nguyen Thi Cuc

Nguyen Thi Cuc is now 50 years old and lives in Peace Trees village. Late one afternoon in 1986, Cuc was out with her dad when she picked something up. Her dad was lightly injured, but Cuc lost both of her legs and seriously injured her stomach. Her family took her home, thinking she would die, but her husband took her to the hospital, where it took two and a half months to recuperate. At first she only wanted to die, but her little boy, only several months old at the time, was the reason she fought to live. For ten years she stayed inside of her house, afraid to go outside and meet other people. After some time she got a job at a toothpick and incense packing plant. When asked if something changed after ten years to get her to leave her house, she said it was the Para Games. Other people in the dame situation convinced her to join the team. She is now a decorated athlete, competing in weight lifting and shot put, though she was not an athlete before her accident. Last year, competing against athletes half her age, she won the gold medal for shot put.

Cuc used to be a sewer and knitter, but after her accident, with no legs she could no longer run a sewing machine. Some years ago an NGO bought her a hand-crank sewing machine, but now it is old and broken. Peace Trees Vietnam provides scholarship money for her children. Her daughter just graduated university as an accountant, and her son is in the 9th grade. (Her first born son, the reason for her continuing to live at the time of her accident, tragically died in a traffic accident in 2002). In 2009 Cuc left Vietnam for the first time, flying to Seattle for a Peace Trees Vietnam fund raiser. When asked if it was difficult to tell her story to Americans, she smiled and said, "No, not at all."

Ho Van Lai

Ho Van Lai is 20 years old. He is still studying, and first in his class. The accident occurred ten years ago. He was playing with his siblings - two sisters and one brother, at his grandmother's house, when he heard the explosion. He felt very hot. One brother and one sister died. He lost both legs, one arm, and badly burned his other hand. He was in the hospital for four months. One year later Lai returned to school, but found it very difficult to integrate back into the community, so he left school for some time. He went to the city, where he received two artificial legs, and went to a special school. When asked about what he wants to do in the future, Lai said he is still not sure. He worries if people will accept him.

After meeting these four people, students planted 37 trees. They were once again given the opportunity to give some of their spending money to help, and donated $270. We gave each person the money directly, and also gave Cuc the money to buy her sewing machine. We then took our four new friends and their family out to lunch.

Shirley and Hong

Cuc and Ben

Emmy and Be

Shirley learning Vietnamese from Lai

Be, Cuc and I

On the way back to Hue, we headed to the beach, where we passed a million ducks.

A lot of ducks

Ducks left one river and headed for another

The end of the duck story

The beach

May 1st: Thien Mu Pagoda & Tu Duc Mausoleum

We have had a number of great meals in Hue as we left the restaurants geared for tourists and explored the local food.

Banh Beo, a very delicious traditional Hue dish made with rice flour, shrimp and onion

In the morning we took a "dragon boat" on the Perfume river to Thien Mu Pagoda. Here, I am attempting to force Ha onto the gang plank, and for some reason, he wants me to come along with him.

Boat on the Perfume River

Group shot in from of Thien Mu Pagoda

Thien Mu Pagoda

Ben, our class expert on Thien Mu Pagoda, tells us a little about it.

Information from Ben's research report:
Thien Mu Pagoda is the tallest pagoda in Vietnam. It was built in 1601 by Nguyen Hoang. It has become an important pilgrimage site because one if its monks, Thich Quang Duc. In 1963 he drove to Saigon, poured five gallons of gasoline on himself, put a strand of wooden prayer beads around his neck, then set himself on fire to protest the mistreatment of Buddhists by the Diem regime in South Vietnam. He sat in a meditative, lotus position for ten minutes before he pitched forward.

This is the car that Thich Quang Duc drove to Saigon, now on display at the pagoda.

People used to be able to walk the seven levels to the top of the pagoda, but now the passage way is locked.

We walked to the back of the pagoda grounds to a shady spot, and there had a meditation lesson.

Guided meditation: Blessings or curses
In 1963 Thich Quang Duc got in his car, drove to Saigon, and lit himself on fire. How does one do that? Were his actions positive or negative?

There is a story in the bible: when the Jews escaped Egypt and wandered in the desert for 40 years, they came upon the land of Moab. The King of Moab feared them, and ordered is priest to go to the Jews’ camp and curse them. The priest went to their camp, but instead of cursing them, he blessed them.

My rabbi explains the important lesson here: at every moment, you have the choice – to curse or to bless. Every event is a blessing, even the painful ones, for they are often the most important lessons.

I heard a story about the Dalai Lama, the God-King of Tibet, who fled the Chinese to India in 1959, and has been a refugee ever since. Depending on your sources, one to four million Tibetans have died due to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The Dalai Lama, believed by the Tibetans to be the reincarnation of Chenrezi, the God of compassion, was asked about the Chinese government. And he said that this had been one of his most important lessons, for it is easy to feel compassion for those similar to you or for those that you love, but to feel compassion for the Chinese government has been a challenge for him.

Sometimes you feel anger, jealousy, pain, or frustration
All those feelings are inside of us
No one is doing anything to you, or making you feel a certain way
No one else is responsible for your feelings
Each one of us is responsible for our own thoughts and feelings
Things happen. You have no control over that. But you do have control over how you respond.
Maybe the only power we ever really have is how we respond.

We then had a silent meditation and a short sharing afterward, and I mean short. Students really didn't have anything to say, and it was my fault. I really wanted to have this meditation at this site, but communication was not clear, and most of the students had gone back to the bus, thinking they were done with the pagoda tour. I brought them all back to the shady spot, but by then, I don't think they were too happy with me leading a lesson.

My lesson:
I got in the way of the learning experience because I didn't set up a situation where my students were open to the experience. What I envisioned narrowed my perspective, to where I was no longer flexible to what was actually happening.

We then drove to Tu Duc's Mausoleum

Tu Duc's Mausoleum

Information about Tu Duc, from Emily's research report:

Tu Du came into power in 1848. His reign lasted for 35 years, the longest in Vietnamese history. During his reign, Vietnam lost its sovereignty to France, which invaded in 1858, and controlled Vietnam for almost 100 years, until their defeat at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Tu Duc had 104 wives and concubines, but no children.

Emmy, Theresa, and Michelle

Madisen

Really cool doors (I think)

Sleeping sales woman
In the afternoon I took a group of students back to Dong Ba market.

Vegetable stand

A woman reading the newspaper

Mango sales woman

Eggplants and carrots

Dragon fruit and other stuff

You still see people carrying stuff like this, all over Vietnam

rice (I really liked the light, shining down through the plastic roof tarps)

Towels drying on a motorcycle outside of a barber shop

In the evening we went on a "Dragon boat" dinner cruise on the Perfume river, which was an opportunity for my students to dress up in their tailor-made ao dais.

A few of the boys went to the tailor as well

Having fun on the "run way"

Trip leader Shirley with our tour guide Ha

Every year on the Perfume River dinner cruise, we pick a king and queen, who are then dressed up in appropriate costumes. Since we have two sets of twins in this year's class, we decided to pick the oldest of each set. But in Vietnam, the oldest twin is the one that comes out last, So Galen and Michelle were our King and Queen for the day.

"Dragon boat" dinner of spring rolls and vegetables made to look like a rooster