Today we left Hue and arrived in Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province! Last night we went out to a bar called "brown eyes," that turns into a dance club at night. Apparently there are a lot of bars around here that kind of seem like divebars until about 10 pm, when the strobe lights roll out and people start pouring in! After embarrassing myself at a game of pool, I had a great time!! It was lots of fun.

Before we went out to the bar, we went to a bridge by the river, where there's an informal night market, a couple of restaurants, and lots of families, teenagers, and couples hanging out. We enjoyed ourselves greatly! I managed to capture an interesting few minutes on camera...

Here's the link to the youtube video, in case you want to watch a bigger-screen version directly from YouTube:

http://youtu.be/mzyhKTXjsHQ

Anyway...on to Dong Ha/Quang Tri (quite a change of pace, I assure you)

Today we visited a preschool in "Friendship Village", an NGO that helps widows, children, and families who have been severely disabled or impoverished as a result of unexploded bombs left over from the American War in Viet Nam. We will be working here for a few days...all I can say is that I am EXHAUSTED and it was HOOOTTTTT hot hot hot to

More bombs were dropped in this area, about the size of King County (Seattle) than all of the bombs dropped in WWI and WWII combined. There are unexploded ordinances everywhere here, and thousands of people are killed, injured permanently, or badly wounded every year. In many cases, small children go playing in the fields or stray off of a path, and find hand-sized round metal things and think they are toys, but they explode and kill the child. Family breadwinners (fathers) usually work out in the fields, as Viet Nam is a highly agricultural society. Often times the father/breadwinner hits a bomb (sometimes a HUGE one) and either loses his legs/arms, or is killed on the spot.

Tomorrow we are going to visit an "unexploded ordinance" clearing organization. I am not sure if this is happening tomorrow, but I know at some point we are going to watch the disposal (i.e. explosion) of a batch of bombs that the organization has gathered. I'm nervous!

Anyway, there you have it - two VERY different days lived here in Viet Nam. I'll upload more pictures later!