Acts of Atrocity and Big Dissapointments
Sunday, September 14th, 2008‘This has been the best week of our trip,’ Lauren and I both agreed as we left Nha Trang, and it had, we really enjoyed our time teaching. I couldn’t wait to get some pictures up to show you all back home. I am sitting in front of the computer now, about 5 minutes ago I was poised to upload a string of images of our time, then something terrible happened… the C.D. with all our Nha Trang, Hoi An and Lauren’s birthday pictures broke in my hands. I am still in shock.
We have just got back from the War museum, it was eye opening. Inside are pictures taken by both sides of the conflict, ranging from GI’s taking a quick smoke break to an American infantryman holding up the severed head of a Vietcong soldier. It was particularly upsetting when we got to the section of the museum based around the effects and after-effects of Agent Orange, quoted to be the most dangerous chemical ever discovered. Children born as late as 1996 show huge mutations where one or both of their parents were exposed to the chemical over 20 years previously. The mutations are legion, ranging from Flidamide reminiscant short arms and legs to skeletal structures being so twisted that the sufferer is forced to walk like a dog. The museum did step up into overkill in some places, there was a box filled with preserved Agent Orange affected feotuses which induced both contempt in me for the atrocities of war and for the museum operators for making the shift from photographic evidence to a dead child in front of me.
Of course, the museum was incredibly biased in most places, but that doesn’t alter the fact that children were still being born in the mid-nineties with deformities that would look like a spoof film if they weren’t so indisputably true.
We were then held privy to replications of the ‘tiger cages’ which Vietnamese prisoners were put into in the bad old days. With depictions of the torture carried out there. (Cheery day we’ve had, non?) Without wanting to ruin anyone’s lunch, there were plenty that consisted of fingernails, teeth and snakes.
On a much brighter note, Lauren has made an important step into being a smug traveller. You might need to sit down for this one, go ahead sit down, I’ll wait, you ready? Lauren occasionally doesn’t wear foundation!!!
And she looks even more beautfiul for it!
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