Big Brother Mouse and COPE

When we began our trip eight months ago in Nicaragua, we weren’t even out of the parking lot of the airport when two young boys approached our car trying to sell us small straw flowers. The next day beggars approached us as we sat at a restaurant. We started to talk as a family about how we would handle this. Should we buy the trinkets the children sell, should we hand out pencils and food or is there some alternative?

Everywhere we go, locals urge tourists not to buy from young children on the street. They say it encourages them to stay out of school. So, we decided that we would give instead to a worthy organization s in each country we visit where we encounter children and beggars on the streets. This is particularly difficult for me sometimes as the children are often very young and can be very engaging. In Laos, there are many, many groups working to improve the lives of Laotians. These are two that we liked. We will try to add links on our blog roll of some of the others that we encounter along the way.
-Margit

Big Brother Mouse

On the 4th Mom and me got up early and got in a mini van that was going to take us to a elementary school in a small village to give books in Lao to Lao kids. We were going to a book party with an organization called Big Brother Mouse. The school was very small with about 7 classrooms and nothing else except for maybe a bathroom. First, we went to the smaller kids classroom.

Once there, we handed out worksheets of the Lao alphabet. I did one of the worksheets also. Second, we went to the older kids classroom. Once we got in there they were drawing things that they owned. Most of the pictures were things like: water buffalo, chickens, and rice fields. I sat down at one of the tables and did one too.

After that they sang a song in Lao. Once they were finished, two of the girls I was sitting next to grabbed my hand and brought me outside to play a game with the rest of the school. It turned out to be Simon says in Lao. After that we played some more games like: some jumping game, a game where you hold on to the person in front of you and make a long chain, and tug-a-war.

Once we were finished, we got snacks and sat down for a while. During that time I learned the names of the two girls who brought me outside and stayed with me the whole time: Anna, and something like Bonnie. I also told them my name.

Anna and Bonnie telling me their names.

After that, the school kids got their books and all ran outside where they sat down and started reading. After we walked around awhile, we left.
-Emma

A boy reads his book.

COPE
The only American president we heard mentioned in Laos was Richard Nixon. He’s the one who ordered the secret bombing of Laos. As you can imagine, he’s not very popular. During a period of 6 years, Americans dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos making it the most bombed country in the world. Unfortunately, a whopping 30% of those bombs didn’t explode and they litter the countryside. In a country so poor, the scrap metal from one bomb could feed a family for a month. Many adults and children are tempted to pick up these bombs despite massive education campaigns. Every year many people die or are maimed from these UXO (Unexploded Ordinance).

The most heartbreaking of all are the cluster bombs. We dropped millions of these during the Vietnam war. They are larger bombs that contain many smaller bombs within them. These small bombies, as locals call them, are basically ball bearings wrapped around explosives. The 20 to 30 percent that don’t explode lie on the forest floor and are about the size of a softball; particularly tempting to children as they are small enough to pick up easily. Incredibly, Americans still use cluster bombs in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

We learned all of this from an excellent organization called COPE. They run a center for amputees that provides medical care, artificial limbs and wheelchairs especially adapted to the rugged conditions of rural Laos. COPE also has an excellent visitor center that explains the UXO problem with interactive exhibits, videos and displays. Our family spent an afternoon there watching several documentaries, exploring their exhibits and eating their karma ice cream. It motivated all of us to help in some way.

If you are inspired to help as well, just visit this website for Cope www.copelaos.org and donate online. Another organization, MAG, www.maginternational.org, works to remove UXO in Laos and many other countries.

The words of a Lao boy still haunt me, “They came and dropped these bombs. They do not belong to us. They should come and take them away.”
-Margit

We found these bomb casings by a bridge in Vang Vieng.