Aki Ra, Landmines and News from the Jungle

My New Years Wish -

2011-12-29T23:10:00.000+07:00

Dear Mr. President,

I voted for you in 2008 and I will most probably vote for you in 2012.

I don’t live in the United States any more. In 2009 my wife and I moved to Cambodia. I work with a group of ex-child soldiers, widows, villagers and university graduates who are working in small villages around the country to clear landmines. With nearly 5,000,000 left I can spend the rest of my life here. My wife teaches English in a small school to kids who are landmine victims, were born without limbs, were abandoned, contracted polio, are orphans and come from families too poor to care for them.

My social security check pays the mortgage on my home in the US. I closed my business a few years ago when my friend asked for my help. I never went back and haven’t regretted it for a moment.

I wore my country’s uniform, albeit for a short time, and I proudly fly the flag of my country from my home in Cambodia. I am no apologist for the horrible and continuing damage America did over here, but I do make sure that people understand that my country is the largest contributor to humanitarian de-mining in the world, has not used landmines in over 20 years, has ceased their manufacture, outlawed their exportation, and began destroying our stockpiles.

Even though we have refused to sign the Mine Ban Treaty, to which 157 nations have affixed their signatures. We are, again, in the company of countries who do not share our stated values. Countries like China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, to name but a few. Not a pleasant group of neighbors.

Many of the people I speak to about landmines, Americans and others, tell me it is not their problem. But it is our problem. John Donne said “No man is an island.....any man’s death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

You inspired us when you told us “I am my brothers keeper.” Don’t forget that. We haven’t.

My brother is a 42 year Cambodian man who cleared 50,000 landmines by hand.

· My brother is a 20 year old Cambodian man who lost both his arms when he picked up a cluster bomb from his uncle’s field.

· My sister is a 24 year old woman who is building programs to empower Cambodian women – rather than pursuing a graduate degree.

· My brother is a 55 year old Englishman who has been clearing landmines around the world for nearly 30 years.

· Our brothers and sisters are dying every day around the world because there is not enough money to clear the aftermath of wars they never knew. Wars we waged in their name, on their soil.

I believe in the dream that all men, and women, are created equal and we all have the right to a life without the fear of war. While my country has not always left the world a better place, we mostly recognize our responsibility.

The work my friends do here is numbing. It is tedious, strenuous, and far more rewarding than anything I have ever done before. It is also partly funded by my government, my fellow Americans, and I thank them from the depths of my soul. Every mine we clear, every unexploded shell we destroy is a life changed for the better.

This month, (my Christmas) our de-mining team built a school for 150 kids who had nowhere else to go. There are now nearly 200 kids waiting for us to finish the building so they can have classes, and a life they never thought available. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of people around the world, who came together when they saw a need. Helping their brothers and sisters.

In 2012, Mr. President, our country, to whom millions still look for leadership and inspiration, can step up and join over 150 other nations who have sworn to never again plant, or manufacture landmines; weapons that kill indiscriminately and for decades. Please, sign the mine ban treaty. These horrible weapons kill more innocents than enemies, more friendly soldiers than foe, and they last for generations.

I wish you peace and prosperity in the New Year. I do not envy your position or responsibility. But I admire your fortitude and dedication.

And I remain your fellow American.

Bill

William Morse

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Playgrounds and Landmines

2011-12-15T23:05:00.000+07:00

Let Your Holiday Gift be Her Happy New Year

Dung Tang Village in northern Cambodia has over 150 kids looking for a school. But there was a mine field in the way.

The villagers built their own school last year, but it was made from sticks and grass, and surrounded by landmines. The recent rains just about washed the school away and their playground had been a minefield.

Aki Ra and the Landmine Relief Fund have promised to build them a new village school. It's going to be 30 meters long and about 7 meters wide. It will have a tin roof and desks and benches for all the kids. We are also going to pay the 4 villagers who act as teachers.

This job will cost us $3,000. We don't have it to spare, but we will not tell 150 kids they can't go to school.

This holiday season give them a Happy New Year and a better future.

Help us build Dung Tang Village school.

donate today at
www.Landmine-Relief-Fund.com
click on the PayPal button

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Real World

2011-10-16T19:15:00.000+07:00

I'm going to go off topic on this one. I'm not even sure anyone will ever see this post, but I've gotta put this down.

I'm living in a country that is undergoing severe flooding. Thousands have been put out of their homes, millions will go hungry in the next few months. My friend and his family are living with us today because his village is under water and he was worried about the health of his children.

And what do I hear about in the USA? The NBA lockout.....

A bunch of overpaid children and their bosses who cannot decide how to split up a $4,000,000,000 (that's billion with a B)pie.

The owners need a collective bargaining agreement to protect themselves from their stupidity, and the players are giving back money the owners would never see if it weren't for them.

But then we do hear about the players who will hurt financially by the lockout.

If you can't make do with a few million dollars, for the rest of your life, you should be shipped off to an island.

I have no use for any of them.

WE are the other 99%, and we just don't give a damn.

Babu

The Other Side of the World - It's alittle different over here...

2011-10-13T18:36:00.002+07:00

10/12/2011 8:58 PM PDT

I haven't written anything for a long time. It's been several months since I last posted on what is going on over here.

As many of you know my wife and I live in Cambodia. We moved here from Palm Springs a couple of years ago. My wife teaches English to children living in a relief center, sort of an orphanage. Some of the kids contracted polio, some were born without limbs. Others were abandoned by their parents. And we have others who are true orphans, while a few come from families too poor to care for them. One lost a leg to a landmine. There used to be 18 landmine victims here. Thankfully the number of causlties is dropping. But 1 out of every 290 people in this country is a landmine victim. the kids go to school every day and are tutored at the center. They sleep 3 or 4 to a room and pass down their clothes as they outgrow them. One child told us she used to have nothing, and now she has everything.

I work with, and for, a man who became a soldier at the age of 10 and fought for 12 years in 3 different armies. The common weapon to all was the landmine. Today I help raise money, and work with his de-mining organization. We call ourselves Cambodian Self Help Demining. We are made up of ex-child soldiers, widows, single mothers, single fathers, farmers, small villagers and university graduates; all working to make their country safe for their families, friends and countrymen.

Our Operations Manager was the 2nd woman to graduate from high school and college in her village. In high school she lived in a room with 6 girls, went to school 6 hours a day before working 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for $20 a month. She found a scholarship for college. While there she came to work for us. We pay a liveable salary. She was able to bring her 2 siblings to town and give them money so they go to school without working. She worked for us 6 days a week (the norm here), went to school full time, helped pay off her parents debt, and did volunteer work. When she graduated she decided to clear landmines in small villages and help empower women. She just built a library in her home village and is raising $3,000 for a kindergarten.

She is 24 years old.

I was home for a while this past summer and was stunned at the venality and anger running rampant in America today. We can make this world and our country better if we put forth a bit of effort and work together. No one is perfect. No one has all the answers.

We are one people. It is time we remember that and work to solve some problems together.

Another One of the Good Guys Gone

2011-05-18T17:41:00.001+07:00

Yesterday Harmon Killebrew passed away in Phoenix.

I met Harmon in Vero Beach at Dodgertown in 1988. I was a 40 year old wannabe old timer who was going to Fantasy Baseball Camp to play ball with 14 Hall of Fame players.

My first day at camp we found our uniforms hanging in the locker room and no one could withstand the draw of the field. We suited up and started a pick-up game. When my turn came to bat I couldn’t have gotten a hit if I stood in front of the ball. I heard a chuckle and turned around to find, to my mortification, Harmon Killebrew, Duke Snyder, and Frank Robinson watching me fan the catcher.

I tossed my bat in the air, and red faced, slunk from the plate. The Duke gave me some tips, and I did OK. Harmon was there every day watching me play and always had a good word for me and the other ‘campers’.

He was a true gentleman. One of the greatest hitters who ever played the game, he never came across as anything other than a regular guy. He was as interested in our backgrounds as we were in his stories.

I haven’t played ball since then, but I keep a picture of me and the Hall of Famers on my desk at home. And every time I watch a ball game I think of the joy Harmon and the others brought to a bunch of men who could only dream of doing what they did day in day out.

My deepest sympathies go to Harmon’s family and all the baseball players around the world who will no longer get the chance to share a moment or two with this truly remarkable man.

Babu in the Jungle

Helping a Friend

2011-05-14T18:29:00.001+07:00

Our good friend Sim Sao has a sister in law suffering from elephantiasis. She is going to Battambang Emergency Hospital tomorrow for some surgeries to her hand. Her entire family (10) came with her last month for the evaluation. Emergency offered to perform the surgeries for free, but she needed to have it done very soon.

She came back today. She and Sao will go check her in tomorrow and the surgeries will be performed next week. We will go to Battambang to check on her in a few days.

After her recuperation and therapy she can go home to her village near Kampong Cham.

We are all chipping in to help with the family costs of getting her here the first time (very scary for her) and to help with her recuperation after she returns home.

She's had the problem for a long time, but through the help of some good people here we found a doctor at Emergency who was happy to help.

A good story for a change.

UPdate From the Jungle

2011-05-08T14:38:00.004+07:00

It has been a very very long time since I have updated this blog, and I apologize to those of you who have chastised me for not keeping it current.

We've added a Facebook page for the Museum/Relief Center and for CSHD, and been updating that rather than the blog. But many of you do not do Facebook, so I will attempt to keep this site updated on a more regular basis.

It has been a busy 4 months. We've nearly completed our Tinkle Fund projects.

The first toilet block was finished in April and the second is in construction now.

The school stairs - The Stairs from Angkow Wat were demolished by the kids and replaced with modern wide stairs that everone can use.

We added a roof to the school building. It has helped keep the sun out of the windows and we no longer have leaks from the flat roof.

We are bulding a parking structure for the vehicles we have at the Museum.

We want to start work on the playground that was delayed from earlier this year. We had a group coming to build it with us, but they had to cancel at the last minute and we haven't had the chance to plug that into the schedule.

Our solar system got hit by lightening and we got hit with a $2,000 repair bill we didn't expect, but thanks to Jackie Russell - our Angel from Hong Kong - it's all taken care of. Jackie is moving back to London this month, and we hope to be able to visit her to do a fundraiser in sunny auld England.

We now have 34 children living at the Relief Center. We plan on having 50 by the end of the year - assuming we continue to raise funds as we have in the past year.

The Museum is fast approaching financial sustainability. We currently raise enough money to cover monthly costs. Funds are raised from ticket sales, donations made at the Museum, and sales from our small shop. While tourist numbers are down substaintially since the GFC (global financial crisis) hit in 2008, they appear to be coming back. Since September, our numbers have increased over the same months a year before. That is the first time that has happened since we moved to the new location in 2007.

Our building program has been funded by donations "extra regulum" (outside the norm). We have not had to dip into operational funding for any of our building projects. And that is thanks to you!!

We have positions for 3 volunteers: 2 teach English, one to the beginning students and the other with the advanced class. We also have a staff class for an hour each day. The 3rd volunteer position is as a tour guide in the Museum. That one is very hard to fill as everyone wants to work with the kids.

Thank you all, and I will try and update this a lot more often.

Babu in the Jungle

2010-12-20T14:20:00.001+07:00

It has been a busy year in Cambodia and we want to thank all of you for your tremendous help in making it as successful as it has been.

As you may know, our NGO (non-governmental organization) is the only all-Khmer demining NGO in Cambodia completely funded by volunteer donations. When we began this journey, in 2008, we wondered if we could have the impact we wanted.

We are. And it has happened only because YOU have made it so.

In 2010:

■we cleared 7 villages
■we built and support 2 village schools and pay the teacher monthly
■we removed 153 mines and UXOs
■we put 4,695 people back on land that had been killing them
We began the year with 15 deminers.

We ended the year with a team of 25. Twenty-five dedicated men and women who work 25days of every month making Cambodia safe for its people. Khmers working for Khmers.

We work in what we define as 'low priority' villages. These are villages with mine fields 1 - 10 hectares in size, who have suffered death and dismemberment from these fields for years. But because they are small fields, they have not yet reached 'the top of the list'.

These are the places we work. These are the people you are saving.

We judge our success not on how many mines we can clear, but on how many people we can effect, how many lives we can change, and how many villages are now more self sufficient than they were before CSHD arrived.

If villagers are afraid to use a field because it is killing them, it matters not if that field has 1 mine left, or is infested with 1,000 mines. That land is not being used. Most of this country is rural. Most of the population are farmers. Without usable land, they cannot feed their families, and must rely on the charity of other nations to survive.

CSHD, through YOU, is changing this nation!

Our budget runs around $9,000 per month. We pay our deminers $150 - $250 per month. The average income in Cambodia is just over $40 per month. Our second largest expense is fuel. Third is food and fourth is medical expense. If someone gets ill, they are cared for, and the cost is absorbed by CSHD. Malaria, dengue fever, and snakes are some of the every day threats we face. All our deminers are provided with anti-malarial medication daily. Later this month all will receive flu shots. We have a full time medic on site at all times.

Equipment, replacement costs for obsolete and broken equipment, and maintenance vary by month depending on what breaks and how bad the access roads to the villages we clear.

Your donations have kept us in the field. Without you - people die, and that is NO exaggeration.

Earlier this year Aki Ra was chosen by CNN as one of the 10 CNN Heroes of 2010. 10,000 were nominated from over 100 countries. This honor has helped greatly in raising our profile. Many of you receiving this email heard about Aki Ra's work from CNN. If you didn't see the show, it will be re-broadcast on Christmas Day in the US and Europe and Christmas Eve in Asia. Check your local listings for the time.

As the end of the year is approaching, our friends in America can make a final tax free donation to our sister charity in the US, the Landmine Relief Fund. Just click on the PayPal button.

Many of our friends have made donations to our work in lieu of Holiday gifts this year. If you would like to make a donation in some ones honor, let us know and we will acknowledge it to your friends.

And please...NO donation is too small. Together, we can all make a difference. You can be part of the solution to a huge problem. And all you have to do is take that 'one small step'.

Thank you all for your continuing support.

Bill Morse

Aki Ra
www.Landmine-Relief-Fund.com
www.CambodianSelfHelpDemining.org

'No man is an island...any man's death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls...It tolls for thee.' John Donne

Another Big Supporter of Aki Ra

2010-11-28T08:00:00.001+07:00

Valley business aids one of
CNN's ‘Heroes'

Debra Gruszecki •
The Desert Sun • November
25, 2010

America is thankful for its heroes.

And tonight when CNN televises its “Top 10
Heroes,” Debby Alexander, proprietor of Peabody's
Café & Bar, will quietly celebrate the good works of
Aki Ra and the role the Palm Springs restaurant
played to help his cause.

Ra, a former child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, has
dedicated his life to detonating and dismantling the
landmines he once placed in Cambodia.

For Alexander's part, Peabody's held three separate
fundraising events — at which Cambodian art and
donated items from Palm Springs businesses and
small hotels were sold — with longtime customer
Bill Morse to raise $22,000 for the landmine relief
fund.

When CNN taped its all-star annual tribute in the
Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Alexander was
one of 13 people to get an invitation from Ra and
Morse to attend the red carpet event featuring
Jessica Alba, Renee Zellweger, Marisa Tormei, Aaron
Eckhart, Demi Moore and Halle Berry as presenters.

“It was a real thrill,'' she said.

“When Renee Zellweger came out and introduced
Aki, he spoke before this big crowd with limited
English,'' Alexander said.

“He spoke about his wife dying last year, and how
much she had helped him. It got emotional.”

Alexander was able to see Morse for a few minutes
as well.

He and his wife, Jill, moved to Siem Reap, Cambodia,
last year to help Ra get international certification
and a license from the Cambodian government to
legally remove landmines that once were deactivated
with a stick.

Morse also helped Ra get a $100,000 grant to buy a
truck and assemble a rapid response team that can
respond to villagers who find mines.

Ra, who sometimes placed up to 1,000 landmines a
day in the 1980s, has not only cleared more than
50,000 of the estimated 6 million explosives the war
left behind. Ra has also cared for dozens of children
who have been maimed by mines.

“I got to see Bill for a minute before he and Aki Ra
flew back to Cambodia,'' Alexander said.

“I got to meet other people who have helped the
landmine relief fund. While at the taping, I also got
to meet Richard Fatoussi, who is making a film
about Ra.”

Alexander said that film, “The Perfect Soldier,'' has
just been presented to judges of the Palm Springs
International Film Festival.

The CNN show will be televised at 5 p.m. today.

Peabody's Cafe, 134 S. Palm Canyon Drive, will be
closed tonight for the holiday and this simple
reason: Alexander has a date with the TV.

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20101125/BUSINESS/11240374/Valley-business-aids-one-of-CNN-s-8216-Heroes-

CNN Heroes Broadcast Schedule

2010-11-24T08:52:00.000+07:00

CNN – Domestic (U.S)

Thursday 11/25/10
Showbiz Tonight @ CNN Heroes (Pre-Show)
(CNN & HLN)
7pm ET / 4pm PT
12am ET (Sat) / 9pm PT

“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
(CNN ONLY - All Airings)
8pm ET / 5pm PT
10pm ET / 7pm PT
1am ET (Sat.) / 10 pm PT

Friday 11/26/10
Showbiz Tonight @ CNN Heroes (Pre-Show)
(CNN & HLN)
3am ET / 12 am PT

“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
4am ET / 1 am PT

Saturday 11/27/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
8pm ET / 5pm PT
11pm ET / 8 pm PT
2am ET (Sat) / 11pm PT

Sunday 11/28/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
8pm ET / 5pm PT
11pm ET / 8 pm PT
2am ET (Mon) / 11pm PT

CNN International

Thursday 11/25/10
(Initial Global Broadcast)

ET Buenos Aires GMT & London Europe/Africa
8pm 10pm Fri 1am Fri 2am

Abu Dhabi New Delhi Hong Kong
Fri 5 am i 630am Fri 9am

Friday 11/26/10
(CNNI Exclusive airings)

ET Buenos Aires GMT & London Europe/Africa
5am /4pm 7am/6pm 10am/9pm 11am/10pm

Abu Dhabi New Delhi Hong Kong (PT)_____
2pm/Sat 1am 330pm/ Sat 230am 6pm/Sat 5am 2am/1pm

CNN Espanol

Thursday 11/25/10
(Initial Global Broadcast)
8pm ET

Saturday 11/27/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
7pm ET

Sunday 11/28/10
“CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE”
9pm ET

Update From LA

2010-11-19T18:20:00.002+07:00

Aki Ra and I landed in LA exactly 24 hours from the time we left Siem Reap. A long long trip, but worth every minute.

Wednesday we went shopping and Aki Ra bought some things he couldn't get in Cambodia....mainly a good pair of jungle boots. He's breaking them in now for the taping thursday nite..

This evening CNN had a private party for the 10 Heroes and a few of us 'extras'. What an amazing group of people CNN chose. With a very small staff, they started reading the nominations the day after last year's show ended. From over 10,000 they chose 25. A Blue ribbon Panel chose the Top 10. I refuse to say finalists because this not a competition.

Tomorrow is rehearsal and Saturday the big day.

Aki Ra is having fun. But he does miss the kids. I had my wife, Jill, gather Amatak, Mine and Metta together and call Papa this evening from the Museum. When he left and told Metta (almost 3) he was going to America, she said...'the mine field'?

Well, outa the mouth of babes..............

Gonna try and get some sleep.....

Babu from the jungle.

OFF TO LA LA LAND

2010-11-16T14:20:00.003+07:00

Aki Ra and I leave in 8 1/2 hours for the CNN Tribute Show filming in Los Angeles.

Gonna be a lloonngg trip:

5 hours from Siem Reap to Seoul
9 hour layover in Seoul
11 hours from Seoul to LA

We get in Wednesday morning. CNN was good enough to get us there a bit early so we could recoup some.

Aki Ra doesn't know it yet, but the kids from the Museum are coming to the airport to see him off. They spent the day making a big sign that says

GOOD LUCK AKI RA

OUR HERO

He still doesn't quite know what he's in for. But I've told him he doesn't need to do anything, this is all being done for him and the other 9 Heroes.

Don't forget to vote, again. Voting continues until the 18th.

Be sure and watch us on CNN on Thanksgiving nite (Thursday 25 November) at 8pm EST/PST.

Wish him luck and learn from him and all the other Heroes that it doesn't make any difference who you are, what you have, or how old you are....YOU can make a difference.

A Day in the Life

2010-10-19T22:49:00.001+07:00

Tonight I was sitting in my hotel room watching television when I got a phone call from Aki Ra. We’d spent the day getting his visa at the US embassy in Phnom Penh and running errands in town. We’d finished a phone interview with Voice of America at 8pm and he and a friend finally got a chance to go to his favorite restaurant in town and have Chinese dumplings. I went back to the hotel to get some rest.

At 9:45 he called me. While eating dinner one of the waitresses had collapsed on the floor. She couldn’t move or speak. The owner simply picked her up and tossed her out the door, telling her if she couldn’t work, she couldn’t stay.

Aki Ra went outside, picked her up, got a taxi and took her to a clinic down the street. When I got there she’d been there 30 minutes. Seems she had been working long, long hours and had collapsed from exhaustion. The doctor had treated her, given her some medication and she was recovering. When I got there she sat up, crying, and thanked Aki Ra for his help.

Aki Ra had called one of her friends, who came to the clinic to be with her. She got her prescription filled, we paid the $7 bill and Aki Ra was taking her home to rest.

He’d had a serious conversation with the restaurant owner also.

He was bewildered that anyone would toss a human being into the street like a bag of garbage. He’s going to check on her the next couple of days while he waits for his visa to be prepared.

He'd never met her before in his life.

Makes me even happier I nominated him as a CNN Hero.

Babu

CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY

2010-10-09T16:43:00.002+07:00

Been a real hectic couple of weeks here. Last month Aki Ra got nominated as a CNN Top 10 Hero and things have started to take off.

CNN arrives next week to do some more filming. We'll be working at the Museum, in the mine field and around Siem Reap.

Then on the 16th of November Aki Ra and I travel to Los Angeles for the taping of the Tribute Show for 2010. It will be taped at the Shrine Auditorium and broadcast on Thanksgiving night at 8pm EST/PST on CNN.

This has been a real labor of love for me. I nominated Aki Ra, not really expecting him to be recognized. We've struggled for so long to get the Museum up and running, to get the demining team in the field, and to get people to recognize the problems that still exist...I just figured that my little submition would get shunted aside.

Then when he was chosen as one of the 25 to be featured on the website and promoted on TV I was just amazed.

At that point I really thought maybe we had a chance to tell the world about the work this guy and his friends are doing. When he made the 25, I felt confident he could make the 10.

Now it's up to you.

The 'winner' ( a really bad term) will be chosen by on-line voting. The winner last year got 2,500,000 votes.

You can vote for Aki Ra at: http://heroes.cnn.com/vote.aspx

And you can vote more than once.

Thank you CNN for recognizing my hero as one of your heroes.

Babu out

AKI RA CHOSEN AS A CNN TOP 10 HERO FOR 2010

2010-09-27T11:15:00.008+07:00

AKI RA CHOSEN A

CNN TOP 10 HERO

everyday people

changing the world

It has been a hectic and busy few days since I last had a chance to post anything. On Thursday the 23rd CNN announced the Top 10 Heroes for 2010.

The announcement was made at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time, very convenient for those of you in the US and Europe.

It was midnight over here........

About a dozen of us got together at a local hang-out for expats, the Warehouse. We tuned into CNN at midnight ... and got the regular, hourly news report. Oh No! I'd been telling people for days to get up at midnight and see if Aki Ra was chosen. A bunch of the staff from the Landmine Museum had even driven into town and were at Aki Ra's house to see the show.

I got a little nervous......

Then I called my mother..... They were watching in the US and told me that CNN had announced that 'sometime' during the hour the announcement would be made.

About 12:40 in the morning we all started screaming at the barkeep to turn down the music and turn up the TV....the announcement was coming.

About 10,000 people were nominated as CNN Heroes this year. To have Aki Ra chosen in the Top 25 was an amazing honor. To be chosen as one of the Top 10 was, well, just stunning.

I first saw CNN Heroes a couple of years ago and I always thought Aki Ra should be nominated.

In June I sat down at my computer and filled out the on-line nomination form.

Then I pretty much forgot about it. I knew that in 2009 around 9,000 people were nominated and the odds were .... well ......

Later in June, just before Jill and I headed home we were notified that Aki Ra had been chosen as one of the 25 to be featured on the website and CNN TV.

The 'winner', and that's a bad word to use, since all the nominees have already proven themselves huge winners, will be chose by viewers in on-line voting. You can vote at CNN Heroes . (You can vote more than once).

The Tribute show will be broadcast Thanksgiving nite at 8pm EST. For those of us outside the US, that's Thursday 25 November at 8pm, New York time.

The show will be taped at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. They've held the Academy Awards there several times.

Aki Ra and I will fly to LA a few days before the celebration and return to Cambodia to watch it at 8am on Friday the 26th at my house. We'll have about 50 people there.

Should be a blast.

It certainly is an honor.

More as the craziness starts.......

Babu from the Jungle

New News From the Jungle

2010-09-19T12:22:00.004+07:00

It's been a pretty hectic 2 weeks. It's hard to believe we've been back that long.

On the other hand it's hard to believe we were ever gone.

We got back on the 3rd. Sophary got back on the 5th since she flew through Phnom Penh...we've seen her twice.

Last week it rained most of the week. We think we have the leaks in the house plugged. We're still waiting for the landlord to fix one.....we've been waiting since May, so I don't know when that will get done. I'm gonna duct tape it today.

I saw on the internet that CNN Heroes is announcing the Top 10 in their CNN Heroes program on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 1pm ET (US). That'll be midnite here. We'll all be up watching to see if Aki Ra makes the final 10. IF he does, you'll be able to vote on line for your hero of the year.

We were pretty excited when Aki Ra got picked. I don't know how many were nominated this year. Something like 9,000 were nominated last year. This year CNN chose about 25 to feature on TV and the website.

When I nominated him, I certainly thought he deserved it, but never really thought we'd make the cut to TV, and really had doubts about making the Top 10. I, personally, thought he should be number one, but to make the TV cut was such a long shot, and we are so far away.......

We'll be watching on Thursday with a lot of our friends. If you're in town (Siem Reap), come by the Warehouse at midnite and watch Anderson Cooper announce the Top 10.

Also, the artist Blake will be exhibiting his work at the Hotel de la Paix from 23 September to 3 November. His show, entilted 'Fragment', has been exhibited across the globe. Part of the proceeds will go to support Aki Ra's demining NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining. Aki Ra will make some brief comments at the opening.

More from the jungle as we uncover it.....

Babu out

Halfway Around the World and Into the Monsoon

2010-09-05T17:44:00.004+07:00

My my my....what a week. I can't begin to believe that it's only been 7 daze since we were driving through LA checking out the sights.

We got home on Friday after a 30 hour sojourn. We left Palm Springs on Wednesday afternoon and drove into LAX. Jill and Sophary helped pack the car. We said goodbye to my mom and dad for perhaps a year, locked up the house, put Mikki in the backseat and headed off.

We met friends at LAX, checked ourselves in and then had a tense 1 hours wait to check Sophary into her flight. Checking ourselves in is easy, but getting Mikki (our dog) into her kennel, and through the check-in routine is always heart wrenching. She just sits in her 'box' (a little stoned) and looks at you like 'What are you doing to me?' Really hard to do.

We also wound up taking a whole lot of extra stuff back. So much that we had an extra bag. Luckily, Thai Airways was very accomodating. When we explained what we did, they turned a blind eye to the extra bag, but asked us not to do it again. Ot ai tai (hakuna matata).

Then we went to check Sophary in............a VERY long line, and only an hour before we boarded. China Air let us use the 1st class line, and we were off.

Now ... have you ever had to check 6 computers through security? Not a pleasant experience. But eventually we got everyone and everything cleared and to the proper gates.

It's a 16+ hour flight to Bangkok. The flight attendants told us when Mikki was on board and as we were about to land told us she was fine. They could hear here barking in First Class. I bet those were some 'pleasent' conversations....

The last time we came through BKK we told them we were immediately going overland to Cambodia. That was not good; it cost us $170 to get Mikki out of the airport. This time we told them we were staying in Thailand. Cost us $31.

2 1/2 hours to the border, half an hour to cross, and another 2 hours later we were home. Sau and the family had all come into town to greet us, and it was great to be back home again.

It's monsoon season over here and we've been told everything leaks. Well, our house sure does. The master bedroom has 2 major leaks and we've had to move out. The master bath has a crack in the ceiling. The kitchen floods (but we knew that) and the living room windows aren't tight and leak.

DUCTAPE!!!

I brought back a BIG roll, bought some plastic sheeting and showed the Khmers how a fat old barrang (foreignor) takes care of leaks. They WERE suitably impressed. I then explained my house in California also has a flat roof and I learned these tricks over there. They were even MORE impressed.

I've asked a friend to send 2 more rolls of ductape. Cannot get it here. Proof that Cambodia still needs to progress.

So we are now sitting in a dry house getting ready to go out and have a quiet Sunday meal before starting work again tomorrow.

The repairmen came this morning and are going to go about fixing the leaks that happen on the roof patio. Then when everything dries they''ll do the fix ups in the rooms. $40........ I love it here.........

Good to be home.

Hell of a lot better than playing golf.

Babu out......

Ps: The radiator in the car blew at dinner. Ductape it?

It's Time to Sign the Mine Ban Treaty

2010-08-14T00:50:00.010+07:00

The following letter was sent to President Obama in May. It was signed by 68 Senators, 10 of them Republicans. To bacome law the treaty needs to be ratified by 2/3 of the Senate - 67 Senators.

It is now time to ratify the treaty.

Read the letter and understand why this needs to be done. The imbedded pictures and the hilited text are my own.

May 18, 2010

The Honorable Barack Obama,

The White House,

Washington, DC. 20500

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,

We are writing to convey our strong support for the Administration's decision to conduct a comprehensive review of United States policy on landmines. The Second Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, held last December in Cartagena, Colombia, makes this review particularly timely. It is also consistent with your commitment to reaffirm U.S. leadership in solving global problems and with your remarks in Oslo when you accepted the Nobel Peace Prize: "I am convinced that adhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do, and isolates and weakens those who don't.''

These indiscriminate weapons are triggered by the victim, and even those that are designed to self-destruct after a period of time (so-called "smart" mines) pose a risk of being triggered by U.S. forces or civilians, such as a farmer working in the fields or a young child. It is our understanding that the United States has not exported anti-personnel mines since 1992, has not produced anti-personnel mines since 1997, and has not used anti-personnel mines since 1991.

We are also proud that the United States is the world's largest contributor to humanitarian demining and rehabilitation programs for landmine survivors.

In the ten years since the Convention came into force, 158 nations have signed including the United Kingdom and other ISAF partners, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan which, like Colombia, are parties to the Convention and have suffered thousands of mine casualties. The Convention has led to a dramatic decline in the use, production, and export of anti-personnel mines.

We note that our NATO allies have addressed their force protection needs in accordance with their obligations under the Convention. We are also mindful that anti-personnel mines pose grave dangers to civilians, and that avoiding civilian casualties and the anger and resentment that result has become a key priority in building public support for our mission in Afghanistan. Finally, we are aware that anti-personnel mines in the Korean DMZ are South Korean mines, and that the U.S. has alternative munitions that are not victim-activated.

We believe the Administration's review should include consultations with the Departments of Defense and State as well as retired senior U.S. military officers and diplomats, allies such as Canada and the United Kingdom that played a key role in the negotiations on the Convention, Members of Congress, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other experts on landmines, humanitarian law and arms control.

We are confident that through a thorough, deliberative review the Administration can identify any obstacles to joining the Convention and develop a plan to overcome them as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Patrick Leahy,

George V. Voinovich,

Richard G. Lugar,

John F. Kerry,

Jack Reed,

Orrin G. Hatch,

Daniel K. Inouye,

Carl Levin,

Olympia J. Snowe,

Charles E. Schumer,

Joseph I. Lieberman,

Robert F. Bennett,

Jeff Bingaman,

Dianne Feinstein,

Susan M. Collins,

Ben Nelson,

Max Baucus,

Lisa Murkowski,

Judd Gregg,

Robert Menendez,

Arlen Specter,

Barbara A. Mikulski,

Sheldon Whitehouse,

Christopher J. Dodd,

Harry Reid,

Sherrod Brown,

Benjamin L. Cardin,

Kent Conrad,

Mike Crapo,

Bill Nelson,

Richard J. Durbin,

Patty Murray,

Ron Wyden,

Blanche L. Lincoln,

Byron Dorgan,

Mark Warner,

Evan Bayh,

George S. LeMieux,

Michael F. Bennet,

Mary L. Landrieu,

Russell D. Feingold,

Tim Johnson,

Maria Cantwell,

Thomas R. Carper,

Herb Kohl,

Kirsten E. Gillibrand,

Robert C. Byrd,

Frank R. Lautenberg,

Jon Tester,

John D. Rockefeller IV,

Edward E. Kaufman,

Daniel K. Akaka,

Mark L. Pryor,

Kay R. Hagan,

Tom Udall,

Jeanne Shaheen,

Claire McCaskill,

Al Franken,

Mark Udall,

Jeff Merkley,

Debbie Stabenow,

Robert P. Casey, Jr.,

Mark Begich,

Amy Klobuchar,

Tom Harkin,

Barbara Boxer,

Roland W. Burris,

Bernard Sanders.

CNN Heroes

2010-08-02T12:18:00.006+07:00

A year or so ago I saw one of CNN's programs about every day people making a a difference.

I was sitting in my guest house in Siem Reap after returning from a mine field with Aki Ra. I thought "Shoot, Aki Ra should be on that show!".

In June I sat down at my computer and Googled 'CNN Heroes' and spent about 15 minutes nominating Aki Ra.

I read about the process. Last year over 9,000 people were nominated as CNN Heroes. The CNN staff read every application and 28 were selected as CNN Heroes. Their stories were aired on CNN and its partner networks between February and September. A panel advanced 10 names to the final list. The final decision was made by viewers such as ourselves who had the chance to vote online.

A month ago I received a call from CNN telling me that Aki Ra had been chosen as a CNN Hero. CNN sent a film crfew to Siem Reap to film Aki Ra, Cambodian Self Help Demining and the Landmine Museum.

I was in the United States!!!

Jill and I had scheduled our annual return to the US for the week CNN arrived. When I bought the tickets the agent told me, in no uncertain terms, that I could change the return portion of the ticket, but under no circumstances could I change the outgoing portion. Oh well. Sophary, Gerry, Bomber, and Sao took the CNN crew all over the province to do the filming and seeing the results, they did a phenominal job.

It is a wonderful tribute to Aki Ra and the people who work with him.

Watch CNN Heroes - Aki Ra, on line at: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html

There are 2 videos to watch. One is marked 'video', and its about demining. The other is marked 'extra' and it is about the Museum and the kids. Be sure and see both.

Sophary and Naret are here visiting. They were unfamiliar with 'jetglag'. NOT ANY MORE!

Babu in California

Dogs, Planes, Automobiles, Earthquakes and World Cup

2010-07-08T11:57:00.002+07:00

We are back in the United States.

Deja vu.....all over again.

But before I get to that, let's talk about World Cup. I rooted for the US, they got beat. I rooted for England, they got beat. I rooted for Brazil and a friend is not talking to me any more because they got beat. Then I rooted for Germany, and they lost.

So Sunday for the final I will root for NetherEspagne. Probably be the first game decided by a coin toss after the shoot outs.

We left Siem Reap on Sunday headed overland to Bangkok. Upon arrival at 1pm we walked the dog and got her ready to check in for out 7pm flight to LA. But when we got to the counter they asked us for our "export license" for the dog.

Export License? I booked through Thai Airways, confirming with them, and they with me what paperwork I had, never mentioning an "Export License". Well we got bumped. We had to go to the cargo terminal on Monday and get our license for Mikki. Took 2 hours and cost us $1.50. Much better than the $150 they hosed us for when we arrived.

We eventually found a hotel that allowed dogs and had a good nite's sleep.

We arrived in LA on Monday evening and were home by Tuesday morning at 2am. Only additional was the car from LA. Arriving on July 4, the cost was $80. Arriving on July 5 it was $125.

Thank you Thai Airlines.

So yesterday we had a very quiet, get rested day. Today we started getting some things done. Jill has lost 20 pounds and none of her clothes fit, so she had to go shopping. I had to take the computer in, pay the gardener, see the rental company, get some emails done, and clean up around the house.

So I was sitting in front of the TV watching "Law and Order" about 5pm when we got hit by a 5.4 earthquake, centered in Borego Springs about 28 miles from us.

Woke me up.

Scared the heck out of the dog.

Jill laughed and said, "Yep, we are back in California".

Tomorrow start working on my taxes.......yuck.

But good to be back in California. And we can't wait to be home again....in Siem Reap.

Babu

2010-06-06T15:10:00.004+07:00

I want to tell you a story about someone I met over here in Cambodia.

Before I tell you about her, a bit of 'backstory' on how we wound up over here:

My name is Bill Morse. In 2009 my wife and I moved to Cambodia to help 2 Cambodian NGOs (non-governmental organizatons). One cares for injured, orphaned and poor children, the other clears landmines in low priority villages.

In 2003 I heard about a young man in Camobdia, an ex-child soldier of the Khmer Rouge who was going around the country clearing landmines with his bare hands. I went to Cambodia in 2004 to find him, and ultimately my wife and I moved here to help him in his work.

He was indeed clearing landmines by hand. He and his wife had also 'adopted' over a dozen children to raise as their own. Some were landmine victims, some were born without limbs, others contracted polio as children, some were orphans and some had parents who could simply not care for them. Today we care for 27 of these kids at the Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Center. My wife runs the volunteer program there and teaches English.

The man who started all this is named Aki Ra. He was orphaned at 5 and a soldier at 10. He fought for 3 different armies before he reched 21. The UN hired him to help clear landmines and he found he was quite adept at this unique profession. He went out on his own, clearing mines and unexploded ordinance wherever he could find them. In 2007 he was, for a number of reasons, ordered to cease all his activities in this regard, or lose his Museum.

In 2004 I had established the Landmine Relief Fund to help raise money to support his mine clearing work. In 2007 I closed my business in Palm Springs to spend all my time getting Aki Ra back into the mine fields. In 2008, with the help of a lot of people inside and outside Cambodia, we were able to establish a new NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD). CSHD is Aki Ra's de-mining NGO. We clear landmines in low-priority villages throughout the kingdom of Cambodia. It is run BY Cambodian, FOR Cambodians. In our first year we cleared over 163,000 square meters of land and returned over 2,400 people to fields that had killled them in the past. And we did it for $4,313 a month. Many of our deminers are ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers working to help repair the damage done in over 30 years of warfare.

Enough of that....let me tell you about Sophary:

Our Ops Manager, Sophin Sophary graduates from university in July with a degree in accounting. She has worked with us since 2008. She first worked at the Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Center helping us care for the children who live there. When Aki Ra started CSHD, she moved over there as the Office Secretary. She soon became our Office Manager and now holds the job of Operations Manager. She coordiantes all the activities of our NGO with the government officials who monitor mine clearing in the Kingdom. Without her we could not function.

She also goes to school full time, puts 2 siblings through school and supports her parents. In her spare time she has a volunteer job. Sophary has decided that rather than go on to graduate school she will start an 'all-ladies 'demining team. She has already secured approval from the government to clear some minefields near her home village. Fields she walked past daily as a child.

Sophary is 23 years old.

Sophary is an amazing woman, and an inspiration to all who know her. She will be visiting California from August 3rd through the 31st this year. Her purpose in coming is to meet current supporters, and tell her story. To establish her 'all-ladies' team she needs assistance wherever we can find it. Her story is amazing, and her dedication to her country and its terrible legacy is one that is difficult to grasp.

There will a free "Meet Sophary" night in Palm Springs in August. If you are in the desert, come and meet her. Be inspired and learn that one person with a vision can indeed make a difference. If you're not in the desert, or if you want more information about Sophary's work and how you can help, let me hear from you. Either on Facebook or by email bill@landmine-relief-fund.com.

She is one of our heroes, and when you meet her, she will be one of yours.

Thank you
Bill Morse
Landmine Relief Fund
Cambodian Self Help Demining

Musing on Cambodia

2010-06-02T12:56:00.005+07:00

Musing...I like that word. Webster defines it as 'calm, lengthy, intent consideration.'

I've been in Cambodia now the better part of two and a half years. Considerably longer than I would have been in Vietnam had I been able to stay in the army. But alas, that is another story altogether.

Jill came here with me in October last year, and has really settled into the rhythm of the work.

Cambodia is a difficult country to come to grips with. People here are dragging themselves into the 21st century. Most of the country doesn't have electricity, running water, garbage collection, or schools. So the people run their one flourescent light off a car battery, walk 5 km (in the dry season) to get water they have to boil, and build grass shack schools to teach themselves how to read and write Khmer.

Our demining NGO is paying for 2 teachers in villages we've cleared. We pay them $40 a month. I think one has a 12th grade education and the other a 10th grade. We're not trying to get the villagers into college. We just want them to have the basic 3Rs.

The kids stand in line to come to the school. In Chrung our youngerst student was maybe 6. Our oldest perhaps 60; and they sweep the school out every day with tree branches, so they have a clean area to learn.

Last year they couldn't play outside because the landmines hadn't been cleared. Now they have, and they have a yard to play football. and when the ball goes out of bounds, they don't die.

PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is a problem here....a BIG problem. I was told by a health worker that perhaps 40% of the country suffers from it in some degree or another. It can be treated with drugs and therapy. It's best to treat it with both if you use drugs. The psychiatrist can evaluate moods, etc. and modify and manage the drug regimen.

Sounds reasonable enough except there are only about 12 Cambodian psychiatrists in the entire country. And talking to a foreign doctor is pointless. One - they don't speak the language. Two - they don't understand the culture. Three - they are only here for short periods of time.

It's scary to see children curled into a ball wimpering and delusional as they relive the horrors of the past....often times landmine accidents. I've seen it more than once. And I am sure to see it again.

I have friend, the operations manager at CSHD, our demining NGO, who graduates from university next month. She could go on for a graduate degree on a full scholarship. Instead, she's going to start an all-ladies demining team and clear landmines and UXOs in small villages.

We had promised Aki Ra we'd be here for 2 years. ..... I think it will be longer.

Babu in the Jungle

Meet Veasna

2010-05-13T12:28:00.002+07:00

My name is Chron Veasna (Veasna). I am 31 years old.

I lived with my parents until I was 5 years old.

Then I went to school. I finished grade 5 and quit school to move back home and help my father farm. One day when he was plowing he found a landmine, and we had to stay far away from it. Sometimes we could not farm for days because of the fighting near our village.

When I was 21 I got married. My husband died in 2008. I left my home and Aki Ra gave me a job working at the Landmine Museum. I did that until CSHD started. Now I work as a deminer.

I want to clear landmines because I want to see them gone from Cambodia. I want my country to be safe and be able to develop. We cannot use a lot of the land because of landmines. We cannot farm the land. We cannot build schools for the children. We cannot build roads. Landmines are part of the problem and I want to help get rid of them.

G'dao na!!!

2010-04-28T12:53:00.002+07:00

G'DAO NA!!!

In English that means it is freakin HOT over here.

The weather report for this week says that the last 3 days have been the hottest of the year.

Today the temperature is about 95, but feels well into the 100s. And the humidity is runing in the 80% range. Our house is dark inside with high ceilings and ceiling fans, so it feels a bit better. BUT the a/c in the bedroom is on the fritz and working only at about 50% efficiency. I have the repairman coming out today at 2 to take a look at it. Money is no problem in getting that thing fixed!

Today is the Buddha's birthday and a holiday in Cambodia. Buddhist monks from throughout Asia are meeting at Angkor Wat this week. This morning Jill and 3 others went to Bayon Temple at 7:30 to give gifts of food to the monks. I was a bit under the weather and stayed home (and slept). There were thousands of people there today, many arriving as early as 3am to be able to feed the visiting monks. Jill and I bought 100 packets of noodles (like Top Raman - for $10) and she distributed them along with a bit of money.

Mikki, our dog, is dealing as well as can be expected with the heat. We thought we'd have to cut her coat (she's a border collie) but she's shed most of her undercoat and has found the coolest places in the house.

We got real decadent over the weekend and bought a vacuum cleaner. We're running out of tape to pick up the dog hair, and there are just places we can't clean well with a broom. My car also needs to be vacuumed pretty regularly. I brought a Dust Devil back with me from the states earlier this month, but the motor burned up in the 220v system here. Ah well......

More holidays are coming this next week, including the planting festival where King Sihimoni plants a field to open the planting season. It happens at the Elephant Terrace at Angkor Wat. We will be there for that.

We've pretty much had visitors since the first of the year. Most recently Pierre Odier, a buddy from the Adventurers Club of LA was here for 2 weeks. We're not expecting anyone else til fall, but if you want to visit, let us know.

More later
Babu in the Jungle

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

2010-04-07T14:33:00.002+07:00

WELL.....

The 3rd Annual Landmine Relief Fund Auction and Fundraiser was a roaring success.

The turnout, in person and online, was outstanding and we raised $6,775 to help clear landmines and unexploded bombs in Cambodia. That will clear nearly 22,000 square meters of land, and change countless lives.

On behalf of Cambodian Self Help Demining and all the people who are served by their work I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I'll be returning to Cambodia later this week to continue our work and this money will be put to use immediately to help people who are unable to help themselves.

The selflessness of all who support us, especially in these difficult times, is deeply appreciated.

I carry a notebook with me so I can remember what I talk about in meetings. On the first page I have quotation from John Donne:

"Every man's death deminshes me for I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

I am proud to have all you as friends and on behalf of all of us.....thank you agian.

Babu

3rd Annual Landmine Relief Fund Auction and Fundraiser

2010-02-28T11:25:00.005+07:00

THIRD ANNUAL

LANDMINE RELIEF FUND

AUCTION AND FUNDRAISER!

Cambodian Self Help Demining depends on donations from people like YOU to make a difference.

In the first 14 months we were in existence we:

Cleared 4 'low priority' villages in Cambodia
Cleared over 163,000 square meters of land
Put over 2,400 people back on land that was killing them last year

AND WE DID IT FOR $4,313 PER MONTH.

That paid for 15 deminers, a support staff (cook, guards, etc) of 3 and an amazing office manager who attends school full time, works for us 6 days a week, is paying for her siblings to attend school and does some volunteer work in her free time.

All of this work is funded by private donation.

Peabody's Cafe, a wonderful place to meet and eat, in downtown Palm Springs, CA, helps with a fund raiser every year.

Come help us clear more of the 5,000,000 mines left in Cambodia.

This year our fundraiser is:

Tuesday 6 April, 2010

Where: Peabody's Cafe, 134 S. Palm canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA

When: 7pm

If you cannot attend, you can still support Aki Ra and the team by donating at our website:

http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/

CLICK ON THE PAYPAL BUTTON

Thank you

Every dollar changes a life.

MINH MUI - CHEEVIT MUI

(one mine - one life)

Boots on the Ground

2010-02-20T12:49:00.002+07:00

CSHD has finished its first year demining. Let me tell what we have all done:

We cleared over 163,000 square meters of land.
We cleared 75 landmines
We put over 2,400 people back on land that was killing them
We did it for $4,313 per month!

Now maybe 75 landmines doesn't seem like a lot. It cleared land in 4 villages. It freed the population from the fear of death and dismemberment. It changed the lives of over 2,400 people. It is a huge accomplishment.

How much did that cost us? $26 to change a life!

That is what you have accomplished. That is what your donations do. They put 'Boots on the Ground'. And those boots are changing lives.

This year we intend to add a second team. It'll be run by Sophary, who graduates from university in July with a degree in accounting. She wants start an all woman team, to work alongside our current demining team.

You can help Sophary make this happen.

Watch a new video on CSHD. Here is the link: http://www.blip.tv/file/3071875

Arkoon Babu

Akira

Russian Trucks and Barrangs

2010-01-20T21:13:00.001+07:00

Well Aki Ra and I went to Phnom Penh yesterday looking for a truck for CSHD, our demining NGO. We’d been told about a couple of Russian troop carriers that had been used to carry the Prime Ministers body guards.

We looked at the first one. It was in several different locations. The engine was on the ground, the body was in the back of the lot, and the cab….well we never did see the cab. We looked at it, then we looked at the man who wanted to sell it to us, then we looked at each other, then we left to go see the 2nd truck.

The second truck. Well when we opened the door the cab was full of cob webs. The engine hadn’t been started in a year, but it WAS all in one piece. I asked the guy to start it and he kinda did a double take. Then they put water in the radiator, added a little bit of diesel, hooked up a battery and it actually started.

He told us it was made in the 80’s. I found the production sticker on the door, but since I don’t read Cyrillic, I’m not sure when it was made.

Barrangs. A barrang is a foreignor. It actually means French. They were the first westerners to get over here, and as they tell me, we all look alike. So everyone is a Frenchman, or barrang.

When Aki Ra first found the truck, or actually heard about it, they told him the price was $14,000. When I showed up, it jumped to $16,000. So while Aki Ra went on looking at trucks, the barrang flew home.

I spoke with him tonite and he thinks we need to keep looking. The seller offered to make the truck as good as new and drive it here. And that’s a 6 hour drive. But none of us are too sure we want to spend that kind of money on something this old.

And our budget is $20k anyway.

So the hunt goes on.

Babu Barrang

The Strange Case of the Missing Trunk

2010-01-09T16:52:00.002+07:00

Before we left California - in October - we collected a lot of donated office supplies and school books to be used here in Cambodia at the school. We bought a ‘steamer’ trunk, packed everything up tight and shipped it over here from Los Angeles. ‘

We thought that since the case weighed in at about 100 pounds it would be cheaper, albeit longer, to ship it by boat than pay the excess baggage and bring it by air.

Well, I won’t make that mistake again………..

The ‘box of books’ finally arrived in Phnom Penh, via Sihanoukville, Singapore and God knows where else, on 15 December. We have been trying to get it out of customs ever since.

We’ve provided the freight forwarder with

copies of our passports,
copies of our visas,
letters stating that we work at the Cambodia Landmine Museum,
copies of the NGO certificate from the Cambodian government,
copies of the Museum’s certification from the Cambodian Mine Action Authority,
copies of the bills of lading for the shipment,
copies of the commercial invoice declaring the value of the goods at $75 (they are all used stuff remember),
an inventory of everything in the box,

We are still waiting to receive the goods. Every time we have provided one piece of paper, it generates more paper.

HOWEVER – we have received a bill for clearing our donated school and office supplies - $814.45.

Here’s how it broke down:

- Camcontrol permit: $60

- Customs Permit: $210

- Customs Clearence $250

- Trucking fee $65

- Insurance $30 (remember – the stuff is worth $50)

- Camcontrol duty $10

- Warehouse fee $15 (because we didn’t clear it fast enough)

- VAT $65

- THC (?) Charge $6

- CFS Charge $5

- Scanning Fee $4.50

- Toll Fee $4

- Delivery Order $5

- Doc Fee $15

- CO-Load Fee $30

- Agency Fee $30

- Tax $9.95

We could have eliminated the VAT if we gotten a letter from a VERY senior government official stating that our NGO exists. Now this official works for the same agency that certifies us and from whom we provided copies of the certificate. We had to have a letter, I am sure in both Khmer and English stamped by his office with his thumb print on it. I am quite sure he would have very pleased to have gotten THAT request.

Sheesh…next time I’ll pay the excess baggage. My whole plane ticket only cost $350.

Messed up my budget for the month.

Babu in the freakin’ jungle…….

Holiday time in Cambodia

2010-01-07T11:01:00.001+07:00

Well, it’s still holiday time in Cambodia.

2 Weeks ago we had Christmas.

Last week we had New Years.

Today (Thursday) is Victory over Genocide Day. Its the day the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh from the grips of the Khmer Rouge. Siem Reap was liberated on 10 January. The high school here is named 10 January 1979 after the date of liberation.

There won’t be a lot of holidays here for a while after this. The next major one is in April. Khmer New Years.

I’m actually sitting here watching the GMAC Bowl. Who would have thought that Troy and Central Michigan would have been the best bowl game.

After this the Clipps/Lakers are on.

Back to work tomorrow.

Babu

Happenings in the Jungle

2010-01-03T12:03:00.005+07:00

They are now calling her 'Mikki Tuk Tuk".

All we have to do is walk past any of our driver friends, they say hello and she hops right in.

She understands "Onhkoy (sit)", "Jho (up)" and sorta understands "Komproos (don't bark)". The last one depends on how excited she is.

"Ot com day" means 'she doesn't bite'. When I used to say "Ot com" my pronunciation was always corrected. I could never get it right. But the grammatically correct way to say it is "ot com day". Once I started to say it properly, I've never been corrected.

We're all picking up a little Khmer here and there and we're starting to understand more of what is being said. I may not get all the words but I get the gist of many conversations.

We spent New Years Eve at a trivia contest held every Thursday nite at the Funky Monkey Bar in downtown Siem Reap. Last Thursday our team won. This week we came in 2nd, and there were only 3 of us on the team. We missed a couple of questions we should have gotten right:

1) What is the new search engine introduced by Microsoft this year?

2) Who starred in the old TV show "The Prisoner"?

(answers below)

After the trivia contest we went to the Warehouse, sat on the roof with 200 of our closest friends and watched the fireworks and roman candle wars. Now we used to have bottle rocket wars when we lived in the States. Here they have been upgraded to roman candle wars. Having a roman candle shot at you will get your attention REAL FAST. The cops were there. They thought it was hysterical.

There 3-4,000 people on Pub Street. We just hope the numbers stay up.

In December we had 3,000 visitors at the Museum. Up from the past and very encouraging. On Tuesday we're taking all of the kids to the Angkor Butterfly Museum to get them ready to build an 8 or 9 foot puppet for the Great Big Puppet Parade in Siem Reap. Kids from all over the province of Siem Reap build great big puppets and bring them to Siem Reap to parade around the streets. The Museum did it 2 years ago and Amatak screamed so loud during the parade he couldn't talk for 2 days. (We're hoping for similar effects this year)

We finished our most recent mine field on Tuesday the 29th of December. We finished in a flourish, finding a dense concentration of Bouncing Betty mines on the old road. We blew up several on Monday. It's always a great feeling to see these awful things disappear in a could of smoke.

Both the Museum and CSHD were re-certified by the Cambodian government. We fully expected it to happen, but its always a pleasure to have the paper in hand.

Tuesday we're having a party for the deminers. In part it is to celebrate the completion of the last mine field and in part its to send them off to the next one.

Suesadei Tfnam Thmai (Happy new Year) from the Jungle

Babu, Bibi and Mikki Tuk Tuk

answers: Bing (we said bling) and Patrick McGoowan

Ho Ho Khmer Style

2009-12-24T19:28:00.001+07:00

Well it’s been almost three months since we moved here and it seems like 3 weeks.

Most of the time.
It’s Christmas in Cambodia and it certainly is different. Christmas is not a holiday here, since this is primarily a Buddhist country. Heck most of the time you don’t even know what day it is. I had a meeting with Aki Ra this morning and we were trying to figure out when the next mine field visit would be. I suggested Monday and we both had to stop and figure out when Monday was (today is Thursday – I just looked at my watch).

The ‘official’ work schedule for Jill and I at the Museum is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Wednesday in town and off on the weekends. We don’t go to the Museum on Wednesdays because that is the day the art teacher comes and there are no English classes.
So far we have been at the Museum every weekend except 1. And that is not a complaint. There is just a lot that needs to be done, and we are happy to pitch in where and when we can. And being around the kids is always an experience.

We are taking off Christmas day, tomorrow. Saturday I’ll be at the Museum by 9am since we have a contractor coming out to quote on finishing the wall around the compound before it falls down.

Monday I am taking our volunteer, Harvendar to the mine field. We finish this field next week and she leaves in 3 weeks. Then Wednesday we are doing the First Annual Landmine Museum Shop Inventory. We hope to have it done by noon.

The kids are just amazing. There is not a day that goes by that they don’t have a smile on their face, and a hug for Jill and I. For all they have been through I would expect some ‘down time’, but we just don’t see it.

One of the kids, Boreak, is an excellent footballer (soccer for you Yanks). I knew he had a tournament coming up soon so I asked him when it was. He told me they couldn’t play since they didn’t have uniforms. They do now. They are sponsored by the LMRF. The money was donated to buy uniforms for all 20 kids. Now they just have to win the school round to go to the ‘big’ city of Siem Reap to play.

One of the girls in the Museum shop is getting married this weekend and she gave Jill and I an invitation to attend. The wedding is Sunday. It starts at 11am. That will be half time in the Emerald Bowl, which is being shown here live. (BC vs USC). No doubt in the world where I will be. I love Khmer weddings…I just have to find my earplugs. The music is Khmer… and loud. And barrangs (foreigners) get the seat of honor…right in front of the speakers. I’ve lost enough of my hearing already…..

Now if any of you don’t know me well, I’ll tell you that I am a HUGE college football fan, and I live and breathe USC. I haven’t seen a game since we left in October and have had the Emerald Bowl on my calendar ever since I found it was live here. But…no way I will miss this wedding.

Someone asked why I don’t Tevo it. I laughed so hard I almost wet myself.

More as Christmas and New year progress.

Happy Holidays from all of us to all of you.

Babu in the Jungle

A Month of Firsts

2009-12-06T18:46:00.004+07:00

What a hectic month its been.

I thought when Jill and I moved over here we could develop a routine and things would find some sort of 'normalcy'.

I was wrong.......

We are accomplishing a lot, but my goodness, it certainly is hectic.

We've got a real nice house to rent here in Siem Reap. We have several bedrooms, one of which we use for an office, a living room/dining room and a kitchen. We even have a washing machine. And that, my friends, is a BIG deal. I spent 2 years washing my dirty clothes in a plastic bucket. No more.

Well, to the firsts.

---I visited our newest mine field last week, and got to see my first 'bouncing betty' blown up. A bouncing betty is a landmine that has 2 charges. The first blows it into the air. The second kills you. It's activated when you step on it. Nice to see another one bite the dust

---Jill and I spent our first Thanksgiving outside the US and figured we'd just have another day at work. But our friends Jed and Terry, who own the Warehouse http://www.thewarehousesiemreap.com/ fed 25 of us. And they did it from a restaurant that isn't much begger than the one we had in our first house.

And it was their anniversary.

---Mikki (our mutt from home) saw her first water buffalo and tried to jump out of the car.

---We got our first visitor! Scottie Williams, who we've known for about 15 years (from the Clipper games) got some time off from school and took a 1 week trip to Thailand. Well it was really a 3 day trip to Thailand 'cause he took the bus to Siem Reap with his friend Valerie and they stayed with us for a couple of days.

---Jill trained her first volunteer, Harvindar (from London) at the Museum School and she starts full time on the 7th.

---I got to watch my first half marathon in Cambodia, Today (Dec 6) was pretty interesting. The Angkor Wat Half Marathon, 10k, 5k and Bike Race started this morning at 0620. we made it there at 7am. It looked like thousands running. I've done 11 marathons, 6 half's and a bunch of 10ks. this was a well run as any I've ever seen, and a LOT better than most.

Maybe I should run next year................

This week is kinda up in the air. We have some folks here from the US doing a story on land mines and that will take some of our time.

We may have found our truck! It's a Russian troop carrier and fits our budget. It will allow us to move everyone and all the equipment to the field in one shipment. Right now we need to make multiple trips. At least the mine field we are working right now is near by. The next one is way out in the jungle and we need to have that freakin' truck by the end of the month.

SOOoooo

If you haven't finished your Christmas shopping.......

Go to http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/

Make donation and we'll send a note to your loved one thanking them for changing a life here in Cambodia.

Babu out

back soon

Cal Worthgington - Khmer Style

2009-11-18T14:42:00.002+07:00

I am REALLY dating myself here by even referring to Cal Wortington (C'mon Down!!). Cal was a used car salesman 'par excellence' in Southern California for decades. Anyone over about 30 grew up with him.

And I found his counterpart in Phnom Penh about a block from the US Embassy on 'used car alley'...more like used car park, but whatever.

We've been using Sim Sao as a tuk tuk driver since we got here. But it's getting REAL expensive to use him every day and use fill in drivers when he is off or has found another fare. So we decided to buy a car!

I called my tuk tuk driver in Phnom Penh, Yuji, and had him start looking for a 1996-98 Honda CRV. He found one for $6,700, and that was a phenomenal price.

Used cars over here mostly come from the US and they are horrendously expensive. You buy a used car in America for say $5,000. Then you ship it here for another $4,000. Then you pay 'whomever' to get it out of customs. That's another $2,000. then you have to make a profit. So a 1998 Toyota 4Runner with 100,000 miles on it that costs maybe $5,000 in the US will wind up costing you $12,000 over here.

I didn't want a 4Runner. The mpg isn't very good and we are living on a very tight budget and I don't want to spend that much.

So I found a 1998 Honda CRV. the one Yuji found for $6,700 was way gone. I found one for $8,500. But it was pretty cheesy. I finally found one for $7,500, and after checking with some Khmer friends we figured it was a pretty good price.

Then we went to the bank to get the money. Then we had to figure out how to register it to me....I don't have 1 year visa yet...story for another time. Eventually 'Cal' gave me the plates and sent me on my way.

That was Thursday. Friday morning I woke up to a dead battery. Luckily Yuji was with me. In 5 minutes he turned up with 2 kids about 12 years old who had a battery and 2 screwdrivers. They jumped me and we went battery shopping. The first 2 places we went wanted $65 for their 'Japanese' batteries. They were Korean and priced about $15 too high. The third place was honest and I bought one from them and headed back to Siem Reap.

It takes 6 hours on a bus. I made it in 4.5. I also busted a ball joint, blew a shock, and the brakes got funky. I had everything fixed in Siem Reap on Saturday. Cost me $90. Great by US standards, but I still paid the 'barrong' price.

But the car runs pretty good. I've got a check engine light that comes on. The readout is '..catalyst system efficiency below threshold...' It could be a bad converter or it could be bad gas...there is a lot of that over here. I have an American friend whose cousin owns a a garage in Siem Reap. I'll have Ronnie take me there one day next week and we'll see what he says. The guy I've been working with is pretty good, but ...

It may sound the car is a lemon, but for the price we did pretty well. I'd love to have my old Jeep Cherokee here, but I'd never find parts.

Finally ... Who wants to hold a fundraiser for CSHD?

We have the money from the USDS and we need to buy that new truck right freakin' now. so if you'd like to hold a fundraiser I can help out with some really cool ideas and stuff if you want. We've had folks do them as house parties (Hawaiian and Mama Mia), auctions and dinner parties.

Can't Hold a fundraiser? I've got another option for ya:

Adam Kirby of New Zealand is doing a 160km bicycle race around Lake Taupo. He needs sponsors. If you want to sponsor Adam and help CSHD, contact Adam at adam.kirby@manukau.ac.nz

The Difficultiy of Language

2009-11-09T22:01:00.002+07:00

We have been in Siem Reap now for over a month and are starting to get settled into the routine, if you can call it a routine. We get up around 6 every morning, walk the dog, have breakfast and then head to the Museum. Sometimes I have to stay in town for meetings or to get things done at the printer, contacting people by computer, etc. but I try to get to the Museum 3 days a week minimum.

Then we are generally home by about 4pm. Jill's teaching schedule finishes up about 4 and it's a 45 - 60 minute tuk tuk ride back into town.

Mikki, our mix-breed Aussie, usually goes with us everywhere. She now knows that 'tuk tuk' (pronounced 'took took') means the same as '...go for a ride...' and if we're walking her and she sees a tuk tuk, she's as apt to jump in as walk past.

As to the language difficulties:

When you're walking your dog and you see people who are nervous about animals, you tell your dog to 'come here.' We say "Come Mikki"

Well it turns out 'come' in Khmer means 'bite'.

So for the first week or so we were in Cambodia people would see Mikki and we'd say "come Mikki" and they'd go screaming away. We couldn't figure it out.

Finally, a bi-lingual friend heard us call Mikki, borke into laughter and said "say something else when you want to call your dog."

The locals call Mikki 'ch'gai barrong'...foreign dog. We correct them and say 'ch'gai Siem Reap'...Siem Reap dog. They think that's hysterical. They all want to know how old she is and when we tell them 'braum mooi' (6) they are astounded. Dogs do NOT live to be 6 in Cambodia.

It was another holiday today. Independence Day (from France). Now it is back to work.

I'll probably go to Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Back on Friday. I need to go to a couple of Ministries and start some inquiries. You never finish them on your first visit. You only start them on your first visit. And I have GOT to buy a car. I can't rely on tuks tuks to get me around town. We'll probably wind up with a small SUV and a moto (scooter). We should be able to get a 10-12 year old Honda CRV for around $6-7,000. That's the plan anyway. And its not LMRF money. This is MY money.

Then Jill and I have to do a border run around the end of the month. We came in on a tourist visa and we need a business visa, so we have to leave the country and re-enter. Poipet is only about 2.5 hours away, so that will be our detination. Leave at 6am and get back around 2...we hope! Cambodia and Thailand are not happy with each other right now and Thailand keeps threatening to close the borders....I need to find a phone number....

That's all for now.

Babu...........

Dogtags in the Jungle

2009-11-07T13:15:00.000+07:00

It has been a very hectic and heady couple of weeks. We had a very nice story in the Desert Sun, and there a wonderful story on Aki Ra featured on CNN.com. And the people we visited in Hong Kong are still writing checks for the Museum and Child Relief Centre, so that is all really good.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/28/cambodia.landmines/index.html

But let me tell you about what happened last week.

I got an email from a good friend, Gary Christ, who works with the Angkor Association for the Disabled. They help landmine victims and have about 4 dozen people living at their facility in Siem Reap. The man who runs the organization had someone walk in the door with what appeared to be human remains, along with two dogtags from American soldiers. They wanted to return them to the proper authorities but didn't know how to go about it. And they didn't want to get in trouble. They had known about these dogtags for several years but hadn't done anything about them.

Geary emailed me because he knew I was in Cambodia. I contacted some people I know at the American Embassy and was put in touch with the MIA Researcher working here.

Keith Lane, a photojournalist from Maine, and I visited AAD and saw both the remains and the dogtags. We went together so we had verifying witnesses as to what we saw. I photographed the dogtags (not the remains) and sent the information on to the Embassy to confirm what information was given to them.

Then we waited.........

I went to several websites and searched the names. They were not among any of the KIA or MIA from the war, but that isn't necessarily definitive. I have a good friend whose brother died in Vietnam. She went to the opening of the Vietnam Memorial in DC and his name was not on the Wall. It is now.

Well... eventually it turned out that these were just a pair of lost dogtags that someone had found in an area where there had been a lot of fighting. From talking to the farmers who brought them in, we think the dogtags were actually found in Vietnam, but the border in the northeast is a bit, shall we say, fluid.

The researcher from the embassy told me there are thousands of dogtags lost during the decade or more in which we had troops in SEA. And they are turning up all the time. If you ever go to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) you will find American dogtags in dozens of souvenir shops. The government used to think there was a little machine shop somewhere in Vietnam pumping these things out, but now they believe them to be real, lost during the war.

So the bottom line is some 65 year old Vietnam Vet could get his identity stolen because he lost his dogtags in Vietnam when he was 19 years old. Dogtags have your SSN on them. Wouldn't that be kick in the behind. Getting bit by Vietnam 40 some years after you thought you had left it behind.

Well more later..........

Babu from the jungle

From the Palm Springs Desert Sun - nice stuff!

2009-11-04T20:00:00.002+07:00

November 4, 2009
Local man makes good on vow to help rid Cambodia of minesA world traveler, Morse has moved to Southeast Asia on a mission to help his new neighbors

Maggie Downs
The Desert Sun

The scene is bucolic. Swollen clouds hang in a technicolor blue sky. Schoolchildren, on break for lunch, ride their bikes in the distance. A cow grazes on lush grass next to a dirt road.

Only when you notice the objects lining the path do things seem slightly askew.

Bombs.

They stand on end, ushering visitors into The Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Center.

It's a modest $2 to enter the facility, and the paper ticket reassures visitors, “Everything on display has been inspected 100 percent free from explosives.

The displays are horrific. The centerpiece of the structure is a glass gazebo stacked with thousands of landmines in all shapes and sizes. Every room opens another chapter in the bloody genocide that stole more than 20 percent of the country's population between 1970 and 1979.

Even more horrific is the number of explosives that remain active in Cambodia. Though it's impossible to know exactly how many landmines still pepper the jungles and fields, estimates range from 6 to 10 million.

These weapons kill and maim thousands of children, farmers and other civilians every year.

That's why Palm Springs resident Bill Morse volunteered to help.

Clearing mines
The museum was established by Aki Ra, a former child soldier for the Khmer Rouge. In the 1980s, he sometimes placed up to 1,000 landmines per day.

He doesn't like to talk about that period, though. Aki Ra is focused on making the future better, not dwelling on the past.

Aki Ra has since devoted his life to making his country safe again. He has now cleared more than 50,000 landmines, an expensive, tedious, dangerous task — and one that he did by hand until six years ago.

That's when Morse entered the picture.

Morse and his wife, Jill, are adventurers by nature. The couple has traveled the globe, leading tours through Africa, China, Thailand, Peru, Israel, Tahiti, New Zealand, even trekking to the base camp at Mount Everest.

When they went to Cambodia, though, they had no idea how much their lives would change.

Morse heard stories about Aki Ra — who was seeking out and deactivating landmines with a stick —from a friend who was raising money to buy a metal detector for him.

Morse was instantly impressed by this man. Beyond running a landmine museum and clearing explosives, Aki Ra was also caring for dozens of children who were brutally wounded by mines.

Here was someone willing to place his life on the line in order to help his neighbors live a better life.

Nothing could be more admirable.

Morse told Aki Ra he wanted to help.

The Cambodian said he'd heard that story before.

“No, really,” Morse insisted. “I'm going to help you.”

And he made good on his promise.

Getting things done

Morse is one of those people who chips away steadily to get things done. As proof, look to the 11 marathons he has under his belt or ask him about the time he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

So as soon as he made up his mind to assist Aki Ra, Morse got busy.

He sold his sales and marketing consulting business in Palm Springs, then started spending about 8 months a year in Cambodia.

He helped Aki Ra get international certification and a license from the Cambodian government to legally remove the mines. He accompanied Aki Ra in the jungle, sought out explosives, helped disarm them. And he established the Landmine Relief Fund, becoming its director.

When back in the desert, Morse hosted events at Peabody's Cafe, raising thousands of dollars for landmine clearing efforts.

He also worked tirelessly, writing grant proposals, calling government officials and meeting with other groups to secure funds for his organization.

The work recently paid off with a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

Part of the grant money is earmarked for the purchase of a much-needed truck. It will also be used to establish a rapid response team that can quickly respond to villagers who find mines and need assistance.

“It gives us some breathing room for the things we want to do,” Morse said.

Looking toward the future
Last month Bill and Jill Morse packed up their belongings and turned their desert house over to renters. These days home is a small place in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The couple will be living there full-time for the next two years. Maybe more.

They figure it's the least they can do for an entire country that lives each day in fear.

“My wife and I have been able to travel the world and we've been astounded again and again to find that those who suffer most from our wanton disregard for basic human safety are often the ones who greet us with the biggest smiles, the warmest handshakes and the most gracious hospitality,” Morse said.

“We are the lucky ones.”

They have embraced Aki Ra's example: Rather than focusing on the ghosts of Cambodia's past, they look toward the country's future.

Maggie Downs is a features reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at
or maggie.downs@thedesertsun.com.

Additional Facts
About landmines
Landmines are controversial because they are indiscriminate weapons, harming soldier and civilian alike. They are the one weapon that continues to kill long after wars are over and enemies have reconciled. Because they remain active for up to 150 years, they also render land unusable for many decades.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines campaigned successfully to prohibit their use,
culminating in the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and
Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty.

As of 2007, a total of 158 nations have agreed to the treaty.

Thirty-seven countries have not agreed to the ban, including China, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia
and the United States.

Help the effort
What: The Landmine Relief Fund
Why: In Cambodia, about 1 in 250 have lost limbs to landmines. Unable to find work, many victims live in extreme poverty. Countless others have lost their lives.
To donate or get more information: www.landmine-relief-fund.com

About the museum: The Cambodian Landmine Museum is located about 20 miles from Siem Reap, on the way to the famed pink sandstone temple Banteay Srei. To find out more, visit
www.cambodialandmine museum.org.

Read the Blog
Read Bill Morse' blog: News from the Jungle, The minefields of Cambodia

Hong Kong Tsunami named Jackie

2009-10-18T21:49:00.003+07:00

A week ago I left Siem Reap for Hong Kong with Aki Ra.

I’d been to Hong Kong a few times, but Aki Ra had never been there in his life. And this trip might just have changed his life.

A wonderful portrait photographer named Tony Hauser met Aki Ra a few years ago and did a series of portraits of some of the kids at the Museum’s Child Welfare Centre. The photos are amazing. Life-size, you look the kids in the eye as you meet them. Then you can read their story. It’s dramatic, touching, moving, and very dignified. You connect, and you connect viscerally. ( www.vtonyhauser.com )

Well anyway, a good friend of Tony’s saw the exhibit in London. Her family moved to Hong Kong, and she moved heaven and earth to get the exhibit to come. Her name is Jackie Russell and she is a whirlwind. There is no way this exhibit was not going to be in Hong Kong once Jackie made her mind up to get it there!

The pictures were exhibited at the Canadian International School. If you have had the pleasure of visiting their campus in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, you know how beautiful it is. If you haven’t, go to their website (http://www.cdnis.edu.hk/) and check them out. It is truly one of the nicest facilities I have ever seen.

We met hundreds of kids and Aki Ra and Tony told their stories: Aki Ra of being a child soldier and deciding to spend the rest of his life making Cambodia safe, and Tony of stumbling on the old Museum and returning to do the photos. They were kind enough to let me speak a bit about the history of the conflicts in Cambodia and how I got involved in this campaign.

Jackie kept us running all week. We spoke at the Asia Society, met for nearly 3 hours with CNN, had an interview with the South China Moring Post newspaper, spoke at the FCC and Rotary Club of Kowloon and Jackie hosted a cocktail party on Monday for almost 200 people at the International School where the Canadian Consul, Ms. Doreen Steidle spoke.

But the crème de la crème came Wednesday evening where Jackie and her friends had put together a dinner for over 80 at Crown Wine Cellars in Shouson Hills. It was the armory for the British Army and the last place to fall when Hong Kong was captured by the Japanese at the outbreak of WWII. Now a World Heritage Sight, it is quite amazing.

And so were the people of Hong Kong who raised their glasses and open their wallets for the Child Welfare Centre at the Landmine Museum.

We will forever be in their debt. Jackie and her family are visiting us at the end of the month. We’ll never top what they did, but the smiling faces of the kids will say far more than either Aki Ra, Tony or I could ever say.

Thank you Hong Kong!!!

Babu

Floods and Feuds

2009-10-09T08:55:00.002+07:00

Okay, so the dog has been ignoring me now for about 2 days…although it should probably be spelled ‘daze’.

We left LA on Sunday the 4th of October. We left the house at 4pm, with more than a tad of trepidation. We’ve always wanted to live in Palm Springs; and while we moved 14 times in the first 28 years we were married, we’ve lived in this house for 13 years. Of course we will be back…but it’s still tuff to lock up and walk away from your life for a couple of years. At least…

We got to LAX, put Mikki (our mixed breed Aussie) in a kennel and boarded our flight for a 17 ½ hour flight to Bangkok. Sitting in our seat we could see Mikki in her crate sitting all alone on the tarmac at LAX while all the other luggage was loaded. I stood in first class and looked out the window until I was sure she made it on board. Jill was…let’s just say she was wiping her eyes.

The flight turned out to br the easy part.

Arriving in Bangkok we had to get Mikki out of customs, pay her ‘duty’ to be in Thailand for all of 4 hours and get outa Dodge. Turns out the vet at the airport was sleeping in a back room and no one could find him. Wish they hadn’t. By the time we got through with him we were out a nice chunk of change. We almost didn’t get her outa hock. No one could figure out how to do the paperwork since we were driving to Cambodia the same day. Then the customs guys got their 1,000 Baht. It wasn’t a bribe, ‘cause I got a receipt.

Our driver was waiting though. We loaded our 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, and Mikki's kennel into his ‘stretch’ cab and headed for Poipet on the Cambodian border. Not a problem. Smooth as glass.

Then we got to Poipet. We needed a hand drawn cart, 5 handlers, one chief and the 2 of us to negotiate the Thai and Khmer intricacies. That cost us well over $100. Then we had the 19 minute bus ride to the bus station. Don’t even ask….

But once we got there, Sophary and Sau were waiting for us. We got back to Siem Reap at about 2:30 and made it home by 3:00 after we fed the crew.

Jill had never seen the house; only pictures. It’s really very nice … 4 bedrooms, office and walled. We have a/c in 3 of the bedrooms and the office, which is nice. We spent the last couple of days getting things set up, buying a few dishes, silverware, and cleaning.

Sunday Aki Ra and I fly to Hong Kong where a wonderful supporter of the cause, Jackie Russell, has arranged a whole speaking tour for us, with an interview with CNN on Wednesday. When I find out when it will be on, I’ll let everyone know.

We get wifi at the house on Saturday so I will try and get more up on the blog on our return.

Bill

4 Bags and a Bark

2009-09-30T04:42:00.003+07:00

Well, the dog is not enthralled with her travel kennel.

But after a couple of Xanax, she will spend as much time in it as I want. (Heck with 2 miligrams of Xanax I'd probably let Jill ship me to Cambodia in a kennel). But dogs metabolize the stuff differently, so don't send me letters and emails. We are following the vets orders.

We leave in 5 daze for Siem Reap. We've packed our bags and are washing clothes every 2 days. What we're wearing now will stay here.

We've packed up the house, and gotten it ready for the renters we hope are coming.

We've shampooed the carpets and scrubbed the grout.

We've painted the bedrooms and put in solar screens in the living room and the den

We got new cushions for the backyard.

We bought a new grill.

We cleaned out the garage.

Hold on........I don't think I want to leave........

I talked to my amigos in Siem Reap this week. Our little house is ready. The water works. The electricity is on and on Thursday they hook up the Internet and the TV. I may be moving to Cambodia, but I AM moving there to work. We'll have room for guests, so if you want to come, call and make a reservation. haha

We leave Sunday from LAX and fly direct to Bangkok. Then we have an 8 hour car ride to Siem Reap. We'd fly, but the plane is not pressurized and it would be tough on the puppy. So we have a taxi driver picking us up in Bangkok and driving us to the Cambodian border and then a friend picking us up at the border and driving us to Siem Reap. Should arrive about 30 hours after we leave LA. About the same amount of time it normally takes me to get into LA on a busy day.....

Lots of good things happening after a very rough year.

Now we just need to raise the other $10k for the new truck.

Babu (almost) in the jungle

Increase in Federal Grant to $100,000

2009-09-27T12:47:00.002+07:00

Well, what can we say....

The State Department has increased our federal grant from 6 months to 12 months, and doubled the amount of money of the grant to $100,000.

This grant is not a replacement for the continuing support we all have given Aki Ra and CSHD.

This grant is seed money for Aki Ra and Cambodian Self Help Demining. The intention of the grant is to assist all of us in increasing the reach and scope of the work we do. The USDS was impressed enough with the objectives we presented and the unique qualifications and motivation Aki Ra and his team has demonstrated over the years, to fund us quickly and at the full amount requested.

This grant comes with qualifications. $10,000 can be used to buy a new truck (you have no idea how badly we need one). We need to raise the balance, $10,000 more.

The grant helps us hire a teacher who will work with the deminers, teaching them English and helping them improve their basic skills. We have to maintain the program.

The grant gives us the money to install a Rapid Response Team, who can respond to ERW (explosive remnants of war) threats outside the identified mine field in which we are working. We often have villagers come to our work site and tell us of mines they have found in nearby villages. We now have a way of quickly responding to those calls for help. We need to maintain the team.

This grant gives us some breathing room.

If we meet the many objectives we set for ourselves, we stand a good chance of receiving continuing grants from Department of State. But that will only happen if supporters like us continue to help CSHD with contributions.

And please, don't think for a minute that any contribution is too small. If everyone who gave $20 stopped donating, we'd have to close our doors.

Become a continuing donor. Go to wwww.Landmine-Relief-Fund.com and click on the PayPal button.

$50,000 Grant

2009-09-10T23:20:00.002+07:00

I am very pleased to announce that on the 9th of September, the Landmine Relief Fund received a $50,000 grant from the United States Department of State, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

In response to an acknowledgement of the grant award and a thank you, they said: ”... You brought in a good idea and made a very convincing pitch for it, turned the idea into a sound proposal, and navigated the flaming hoops of the bureaucracy in record time…”

The grant, which is for a period of 6 months, will be used to help Aki Ra’s demining NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining, make Cambodia a safer place. Working with the VVMCT-Cambodia, the Australian veterans group that has been so instrumental to CSHD’s existence, we can help CSHD continue changing the lives of Cambodians living in ‘low priority’ villages throughout the Kingdom.

This grant was not awarded to replace money we raise, from you, on a regular basis to fund CSHD. It was awarded to assist in the growth of the NGO. We’ll be using $10,000 of the grant to buy a new truck. It’s half of what we need, and we’ve agreed to raise the balance. Right now CSHD is driving a 1997 Toyota Hilux p/u truck. Let’s just say it has seen better daze. We can buy a very good used mid-sized Toyota pickup for $20,000. We’ll keep the old one for backup.

Here’s a chance to ‘double up’ on your donation. The US government believes enough in what we are doing that they are matching the $10,000 we will raise, and they’re doing it up front.

And how often do you get to buy the 'back end' of a pickup truck!?

CSHD exists because of the help Aki Ra’s supporters and their abiding belief that Cambodia can be made safe. Pitch in now with our newest supporter and help CSHD grow so it can save more lives.

Donate at www.Landmine-Relief-Fund.com

We Really Are the Lucky Ones

2009-07-31T03:30:00.004+07:00

We really are the lucky ones you know.

With all that is going on in the world right now its difficult to see how truly lucky we really are to be living in the West. Our economies are faltering, and our home prices are falling. Many of you, like me, may have lost most of your retirement account when the market crashed last year...

But we don't die from walking through a park. We don't have to bribe officials for an education. We still have clean water and enough to eat.

Millions across the planet struggle every day for the basics: food, clothing, shelter, enough education to pull themselves out of the grips of poverty. And millions more are threatened by the remnants of wars past. The most heavily mined country in the world isn't Cambodia. Neither is it Angola, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan. The most heavily mined country in the world is Egypt. 23,000,000 mines are estimated to be left over from the Second World War. Millions across the globe live every day with these threats.

My wife and I have been able to travel the world and we've been astounded again and again to find that those who suffer most from our wanton disregard for basic human safety, are often the ones who greet us with the biggest smiles, the warmest handshakes and the most gracious hospitality.

We decided that we needed to give something back for all that we have received. We found Aki Ra. His simple goal is to make his country safe for his people. He's adopted 2 dozen maimed and orphaned kids and his NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining clears landmines and unexploded bombs in 'low priority' villages across the country. We decided to help him in his work. We've been doing it for 6 years.

We decided that we really need to be on the ground in Cambodia to do the most good, so in October we are closing our home and moving to Siem Reap. We've committed to a 2 year 'gig'. If that works well, who knows....

And we really are the lucky ones.

Babu

Minefields Anew

2009-07-05T12:48:00.003+07:00

It’s been a long time since I lasted posted so this missive may be a bit long, but I want to bring everyone up to date on all that is happening over here.

First of all, for those of you who know me and my wife Jill: it looks like we will be moving to Cambodia in October. Jill visited me here in February and did some teaching. When we got home she asked if I’d ever considered moving to Cambodia. I told her I had, but didn’t have the nerve to bring it up. She simply laughed, and said ‘let’s go’. My parents, who live nearby in Rancho Mirage, with whom we are very close, were a concern of mine. I planned talk to them and when we met for dinner they asked me when were going to move since there was so much to do. Well, that settled that concern.

We’ll need to rent out our home as I don’t want to give it up, and we’ve committed to 2 years.

I said I would only do it with the consent of Aki Ra, as I don’t want to be here if he has concerns about any perceived interference. He was enthusiastic about it. So it looks like we will be making a big move later this year.

I’ve been over here pretty much since the beginning of the year. CSHD is fully established but not nearly accomplishing what it could. The main hindrance we have is funding.

It costs CSHD about $5,000 a month to operate. We currently have 12 deminers and an office staff of one, an incredible young woman named Sophary, who handles the books, and files all the necessary reports with the numerous government agencies to whom we must report. I can’t say enough good about what she does. AND, she is a going to night school to get her degree in accounting. We pay her what I consider a pittance, but it is a good salary over here. As a bonus, we are giving her a rebuilt computer. She doesn’t have one. She will now.

We operate with 2 vehicles: a 10 year old Toyota pickup truck and a 10 year old Toyota 4Runner we converted to an ambulance. Last month we bought a used Suzuki moto to run errands with.

We really need another vehicle.

We’ve applied to the US government for a grant to help fund us for the next 12 months, but frankly, the chances of getting it this year are slim. The USDS, which funds demining projects around the world, is in a pinch right now, and while we can operate at less than half the cost of other humanitarian demining companies, grants for new NGOs are probably not going to happen until the economy recovers. And that will be at least another year, I think. (The optimistic economist in me speaking)

What we need is about $100,000. That will get us the new equipment we need, allow us to field a ‘rapid response team’ that can deal with immediate crises in our operating theatre and keep us going for the next 12 months.

It sounds like a lot. But actually its only 166 people donating $50 per month.

There are thousands who have seen what Aki Ra has accomplished. There are tens of thousands who have visited Cambodia and are aware of the continuing threats these gentle people live with every day.

And there are millions, around the world, who can afford one less ‘dining experience’ a month to change the lives of villagers who live daily with the threats of unexploded mines and bombs.

2 years ago, Aki Ra was clearing mines in flip flops. He was arrested by the government more than once. His Museum was closed for a short period of time in 2006, and he was ordered to cease all his mine clearing work in 2007.

Today he has his own demining NGO, certified by the government and actively working to make Cambodia safer. And in June, partly because of his dedication to his country, he was promoted to Captain in the Royal Cambodian Army. Tremendous progress…

We can’t let these huge accomplishments fade into the jungle. We can all help Aki Ra and Cambodian Self Help Demining change the lives of thousands without a lot of effort.

www.Landmine-Relief-Fund.comClick on the PayPal button

Do it to help those who can’t help themselves.
Do it for yourself.

But please do it today.

Babu

Rainy Days and Empty Streets

2009-06-12T10:56:00.001+07:00

It’s the rainy season over here right now and the first time I’ve been here this late into the monsoon period. I thought it would rain all the time. You know, just pour from the sky, flood the streets, fill the rice paddies and swamp villages. But it’s not that way at all. It will rain a lot, sometimes every day. But the rains usually come in the late afternoon, and seldom last for more than hour.

By my goodness; when it does rain, it leaves little doubt. The storms roll in with dark clouds, lighting and thunder that sound like bombs going off. One struck just across the street from me once, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Then the rains start. I’ve seen it rain so hard you can barely see across the street. And if the winds come in, it can be nearly horizontal.

Then almost as quickly as it started it will go away. The clouds usually linger and that’s good because it’s always hot over here, but if the sun is blocked it can be quite pleasant.

Right now it’s 10:30 in the morning on Friday. I’m sitting upstairs at a little café in downtown Siem Reap watching the traffic pass by below me. It’s cloudy out today and the sun is passing from one huge cloud to the next. I guess we’ll have some rain this afternoon.

When I was here last year it was pretty crowded with tourists in Siem Reap. The economy hadn’t crashed…any where, and things looked pretty rosy. Land prices in Siem Reap, like many places around the world, were skyrocketing. Land that cost $5,000 a few years ago was selling for 20-30 times that now, especially with all the new roads that are being built. There was a lot of speculation and people were making tons of money.

Then came October.

The tourist industry didn’t start to feel the hit until after the high season ended in February/March. People visiting Cambodia last fall had bought their tours before the economic collapse and couldn’t cancel so they came. But people aren’t buying the tours in the numbers they used to.

Most of the tourists over here now are trekkers; young kids in their 20s, many recent college grads, who’ve decided to see the world since they can’t find a job. The middle class, mid-aged, and older tourists are far and few between.

I’ve been told that at least 7 hotels have closed. Temporarily they hope. And it is true that at this time of year, low season, hotels often take the time to renovate and may close for a while. But the locals are comparing this to the SARS epidemic of 2003 when tourism to Asia virtually ceased and hundreds of thousands lost their jobs.

Adding to the troubles is the political turbulence in Thailand where demonstrators have shut down the Bangkok airport for weeks at a time. Most of the tourists flying into Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor come in from Bangkok, so that too is affecting the whole industry.

But Cambodia will get through this crisis as it has all the others it’s faced over the last 50 years. As bad as things appear, no one is killing anyone.

More as the world turns……

Babu in the jungle

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

2009-06-06T15:46:00.000+07:00

It was a dark and stormy night……

Wait a minute … it was not…. (but I always wanted to write that)

It was dark and humid night though, and I was going into town at 2100hrs (that’s Mickey’s big hand on the 12 and his little hand on the 9 – at night …. Remember…it was dark outside).

Now guys like me don’t normally go into town that late at night. I’m the kinda guy who gets called “Papa” from the vendors and the locals. Even though I may be old enough to be their fathers, and often their grandfathers, I still don’t like it. It’s been suggested that may be the reason I’m over here in Cambodia trying to help my friend clear landmines.

Whatever.

I was headed into downtown Siem Reap at 2100hrs on a Thursday night to play trivia. There’s a local pub called the Funky Monkey, run by an ex-pat Brit couple. Rumor has it he worked on the docks in London and she was stunt-woman in the movies. They have a mutt named Floyd (think Pink Floyd) who is walked around Siem Reap on a leash by any of his many ‘attendants’. Floyd lacks for little and is the king of the roost at the Monkey.

The trivia contest usually starts around 9pm and lasts about 2 hours. Questions range from history and geography, to sports and the arts, with usually a lot of weird stuff thrown in for good measure.

Trivia Night is big ex-pat event. It costs $US1 to play and they usually take up a collection during the night. Proceeds go to local NGOs (non-governmental orgs). Last week we raised $240 for a medical NGO.

To give you an idea what the questions can be like: last weeks questions all came from the movies. Everything…geography, sports, history, etc. Then there were also famous movie lines.

The one I liked best was from True Grit: “That’s bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.” I often hear an off-take on that from my wife when I come up with some stupid trip like climbing Kilimanjaro or hiking to Mt. Everest.

I left when the grading started. It was after midnight and way past my bedtime.

I found out today we won.

Back again next Thursday if I’m in town.

Babu

Landmines Still Killing People

2009-05-28T10:53:00.002+07:00

First of all, I apologize for all the typos in the last post. There was a terrible storm in Phnom Penh and I got knocked off line several times and could not get back on. I decided to just leave the post as is...kinda gives you an idea....

To the subject....

There were 2 mine explosions in the last week. The first killed a Cambodian soldier and wounded two others. It was in Preah Vahear, near where the fighting has been going on for nearly a year with the Thai Army.

(Back story:) The border between Thailand and Cambodia has always been disputed. In the '60s an international commission established the border, placing the ancient temple at Preah Vahear inside Cambodia, although the access road runs from Thailand. No one ever disputed it until last year when Cambodia had the site declared a World Heritage Sight. At that point the Thais claimed the temple as theirs and sent troops there. Cambodia responded by sending their own forces. As many as 4,000 troops have been encamped in a face off since July of last year. Fighting has been sporadic. The Thais, earlier this year, shelled the Cambodian market outside the temple and destroyed it forcing the villagers to flee. Several Thai soldiers have died from wounds suffered when they wandered into uncleared mine fields. The Thais claim Cambodia is re-mining the area, but the area shows as 'uncleared' in the official records.

Nevertheless, last weekend some soldiers were helping local villagers gather rattan in the forest when they stepped on some anti personnel mines. 1 dead, 2 injured.

On Monday there was another 'incident' (I really hate that term). I haven't found any details of it yet, but will post when I know what happened.

There is fair chance that there will be more fighting in the area. The Thais certainly out-gun the Khmers. They have heavy weapons, tracked vehicles, and jets. But the Khmers have the experience and the jungle. A straight out battle would most likely go to the Thais, but an extended jungle war would favor the Cambodians, many of whom are veterans of the nearly 50 years of war inflicted on Cambodia by a multitude of different armies.

I had lunch last week with an army unit that just returned from a month of duty along the border. They had a Khmer New Years party so that was pretty interesting. They were back for a week and are now heading back north to face-off with the Thais. It's different over here. When the army marches north, the families follow...sorta like 200 years ago. Wives will set up camp, cook for their husbands who will do their 'shift' and come 'home' for the evening. A bit different to say the least.

More as it develops.....

Babu from the jungle.....

Rainy Daze and Running Around

2009-05-25T15:14:00.002+07:00

Well, it's rainy season here tight now and when it rains, it really rains.

I'm sitting at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh looking out over where the Tonley Sop and Mekong merge. Well, I'm sort of looking at it, since the rain is hard enough to cut the 25 yard distance to near zero visability.

But it should only rain for about 30 minutes or so and it dows knock down the humidity which is currently running about 80%.

I had to come here yesterday so I could take 3 of our mine detectors in for repair. It sohould take about a week or so and theen we'll be back up to snuff on that. I also had to come down and buy one new GPS unit. We only have one, and we really need about 10, but they cost $550 each and we don't have the cash to buy them. So we'll make do with two. It takes a bit longer to do the work as we have to pass them around between the deminers as they do their work, but we still get it done.

We started our nwest village last week, Daearv. The second day we found an 82B Vietnamese AP mine and an old American hand grenade. Probably used by the Vietnamese from caches we left behind at the end of the war.

I head back to Siem Reap tomorrow morning and will head back here in another week.

In the last 2 days there have been 2 mine3 explosions near Preay Vahear Temple. The first one killed a Cambodian soldier and wounded 2 civilians. There were collecting rattan near the border and wandered into the field. There was a second detonation this morning. I don't have details on that one yet.

More as it develops.

Babu out

Ps: Please don't forget to order your Kokchombok Bracelets. Order at the website:
www.Landmine-Relief-Fund.com

From the Phnom Penh Post - May 20 2009

2009-05-22T08:03:00.004+07:00

(full story and photos at http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009052025945/National-news/Former-child-soldier-s-demining-efforts-finally-gain-recognition.html)

Former child soldier's demining efforts finally gain recognition
Written by Tracey Shelton
WEDNESDAY, 20 MAY 2009
Anlong Veng

As the sun rises between the trees, Akira, president of the Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD) team, begins his morning by setting a stick of TNT next to a land mine. The mine lies within a 4-hectare minefield his team is clearing in Anlong Veng.

Local military, police and authorities are notified of the impending explosion. As the rest of the team stop work to take cover, Akira, wiping sweat from under his thick protective clothing, helmet and face shield, counts down. A boom rings out, the ground shakes and debris flies into the air as the land mine is destroyed.

"Before, it would only take me a minute to defuse and remove a mine," Akira says, referring to his former gung-ho method of clearing mines with nothing but a stick and a knife. "I would collect the detonators in my pocket and make a fire at the end
of the day to burn explosives from the mines I collected.... When I cleared the old way, I could wear a sarong and sandals. But now we must follow NGO procedures."

For more than 10 years, Akira was famous throughout Cambodia for his controversial demining methods. Although opposed by government authorities and other demining groups for not following international safety standards, Akira, a former child soldier with the Khmer Rouge, became a local hero, clearing the countryside of more than 50,000 mines, many of which he had once laid.

Earlier this year, with the help of supporters both here and abroad, Akira gained the equipment and training needed to meet international standards and obtained a licence for him and his team to demine, creating the first Cambodian-run demining
organisation.

"Now we have much support, so there is no more trouble," Akira said, after relating stories of being arrested for his work and the land mine museum he opened in Siem Reap in 1997 being closed down periodically and its contents confiscated. "At that time, I liked to demine alone in the jungle or with my wife. I didn't have the equipment to start an NGO, but I knew how to lay and I knew how to defuse. All kinds of land mines and bombs I know how to make safe, and I have cleared many, many thousands until now."

BACTAC country director Peter Ferguson, who helped Akira prepare for demining zccreditation, said many changes were required.

BETWEEN 4 million and 6 million mines, 6 million to 7 million cluster bombs and countless unexploded ordnances (UXOs) are estimated to remain in Cambodian
soil, according to data from the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority.

Since demining began in 1992, licensed deminers have cleared 829,325 anti-personnel mines, 20,542 anti tank mines, and 1,791,373 UXOs. These figures do not include over
50,000 mines and UXO's cleared by Akira prior to receiving his demining licence. By the end of April this year, 493,488,595 square metres of land had been cleared.

Although formal research has not been conducted, it is estimated that a further 700 square kilometres remain contaminated. Between 2000 and 2008, 6,144 casualties and fatalities occurred in Cambodia due to landmines or UXO explosions. In its ntegrated Work Plan for 2009, the Cambodian Mine Action Centre estimates that it will clear more than 35 million square metres of landmine and UXO fields by year's end. The group's plan further states that as many as 132,000 UXOs will be safely extracted and disposed of.

Fifteen families are farming that land right now. A year ago that land was killing
them.

"The way he used to work was to go into the field, find mines, render them safe and
remove them, often bringing them back for display at the museum," he said. "In
humanitarian demining, you can't operate that way. Particularly with land mines, they
cannot be moved. You locate them and destroy them in place." But after the necessary equipment was donated and training completed, field reports on Akira's methods were excellent, Ferguson said.

Along with his new accreditation has come respect from those who once opposed him.
Two years ago, the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA) certified the contents of
Akira's land mine museum in Siem Reap safe - the first time in the world such a museum has been opened to the public.

In an email, CMAA said they welcomed Akira and his team's help in clearing contaminated land. "Akira should be commended for his hard work in educating the greater public about the dangers of land mines," the statement read.

With their workday over and dusk approaching, the CSHD team settles into hammocks
around a campfire, boiling their jungle soup of wild fruit and animal innards. Akira tells how he lost his entire family in the late '70s - all but one aunt, a Khmer Rouge solider, who took him in. Unsure of his birth date, Akira estimates he was between 10 and 13 when he became a soldier for the Khmer Rouge, learning about warfare and weaponry. Later, joining the Vietnamese army, Akira says his job was to control the K5 mine belt that stretched along the Thai border, planting new mines and training others to do the same.

"I never knew anything but war," he said. "It was normal. When the UN came, I met many people from many different places. They explained that in the rest of the world, it is different. They explained about poor and rich, war and peace. It changed my ideas."

He became passionate about seeing his country free from war and the remnants of war,
particularly the land mines he had helped lay.

Bill Morse, president of the Land Mine Relief Fund, an American NGO he established to
support Akira's work, said when he first met Akira in 2003 he was "amazed by how much
one person could do".

As one of many who helped Akira establish CSHD, Morse proudly spoke of the 3-hectare
minefield in Siem Reap province the team completed clearing last month. "Fifteen families are farming that land right now. A year ago, that land was killing them," he said.

Despite the major achievements of CSHD this year, the team received a devastating loss last month with the death of Akira's wife of nine years, Bou Senghourt, due to prenatal complications. Having defused more than 1,000 landmines by hand, the genial mother of three was a key part of CSHD and an inspiration to many.

Richard Fitoussi, director of the Cambodian Landmine Museum Relief Fund, which has
been supporting Akira's work since 2002, described her as Akira's right-hand man in the field. "The vision she shared with Akira was of Cambodians clearing for Cambodians, and she extended that to include women," he said. "I have no doubt she was the inspiration for the several women that have joined the demining team."
Back in the minefield in Anlong Veng, Akira explained how people and livestock had been killed in the area for years. While widening the road last year, a work truck hit an antitank mine, killing all on board.

Back in the Jungle Again ... I think

2009-05-18T17:22:00.002+07:00

22,000 miles in 10 days. Make that daze.

That's what I did at the end of April.

I left Siem Reap and headed home at the end of April. My godson, Adam, was graduating from Clemson University and there was no way we were going to miss that. I was home for 72 hours and we flew from LA to Charlotte.

Adam graduated on the 8th of May. We got to have a good few days with him. He and I played golf on a really beautiful course that Clemson owns. I haven't picked up a stick in over 8 years. And even then I didn't play a full 18. I shot a 105 and beat Adam by 3 strokes. I was pretty pleased. Kids 23....I'm ... well ... a lot older than 23.

Jill and I got to spend a nice weekend at a beautiful B&B in Davidson, NC. Davidson is right out of a tourbook. It is charming. I would move there in a heartbeat. We even looked at condos.

Then we flew back to LA, where I spent the night at LAX and left the next morning for Cambodia. I'm still not sure what day it is.

Things are going better over here.

CSHD has completed clearing its 2nd village, and begins its 3rd this week. Ive been trying to update the website, but for some reason I can't. I'm having to re-import the entire site and that could take me in excess of 8 hours with the absolutely feenominal bandwidth they have here in Siem Reap.

I'm a little annoyed......

We have the Kokchombok bracelets all set to sell, and can't get them on the site. Sheesh.

Our newest village, Daearv, is north of Siem Reap on the way to Anlong Veng. The village chief asked us today if we could raise enough money to help them finish a new Pagoda.

They need $1,000. And you get your name on the Pagoda.

Look at it this way. You're gonna cover a lot of bases here what with the karma you can get for helping a small village get a new pagoda.

Well, I am about out of battery juice and the bandwidth still stinks. So I am gonna go back to my guest house and have dinner.

Babu from the Jungle........

Mind the Gap

2009-04-26T13:48:00.013+07:00

If you're English you know what that means.

If you're not English you might think it refers to David Letterman or something...and well, I guess it does in a way.

As a little aside, and to let you know what it's like to live over here, let me describe a little search I've been on for a few days.

Wednesday I broke a tooth. Not a big deal, more like the facing on a tooth I'd had some work done on. Luckily, the piece that came off is still intact and I found it before I bit it into pieces. It didn't seem like a major problem and I figured I could buy dental adhesive or Polident, glue it back and deal with it when I got home. I usually carry a little dental repair kit with me when I travel, but this time I left it at home. Murphy's Law....

So I spent the last 4 days looking for dental adhesive. I went to pharmacies in Siem Reap ... they didn't even know what I was talking about. I had to go to Phnom Penh on Friday so I checked there. Someone offered super glue; I graciously declined.

Now my absolute last resort is to go to a Khmer dentist. Last resort begins with excruciating pain and several days of lost sleep screaming into a pillow. You'd understand that if you ever saw a Khmer dentist's office. They are usually store fronts along the side of the road or downtown. They may be next to a small market or just off the dirt path. You can find them because they have a big sign out front with huge tooth on it. I've never actually seen anyone in one of these offices....

Finally today, Sunday, I decided to go see the new shopping center in town. They have a little bitty pharmacy in it, mostly selling cosmetics. But they had Polident. A 6 ounce tube cost me $12.

Probably more than the dentist....

So while I was in Phnom Penh I had some meetings. I was to meet a good friend for dinner at 1830. At 1800 he called and said 'I can't get out of my house.' It had rained Friday afternoon. 3.5 inches of rain in 45 minutes. Absolutely flooded the town. While his car is 4WD and sits high off the road, the ones stuck weren't. We met for breakfast.

Last night I was gonna go downtown and have dinner then try and watch some sports at the Warehouse. It started raining about 1630 and rained until after 1900. and when it rains over here during the rainy season, it rains HARD.

I stayed at Green Town and watched Indiana Jones on the new big screen TV.

Today is Sunday and everyone is taking a rest.

Back to work tomorrow.

Babu

Personal Update

2009-04-23T19:24:00.002+07:00

In the last day or so I've begun to feel the enormity of Hourt's death. I spent a good deal of time with Aki Ra and Hourt's brother, Senghour and his wife Sotling (who is expecting their first child any second). They are bearing up well. This afternoon I was at the office, which is part of Aki Ra and Hourt's house, and I spent a lttle time with Amatek, their oldest child. He ran over and started playing a little name-game we play and then jumped up into my arms and gave me a big hug.

That was difficult.

I'm helping Sophary in the CSHD office get a handle on things that Hourt used to do. She is very capable, but relied in Hourt a great deal. She'll do fine.

Tonite I had dinner downtown and was deleting some pictures off my mobile phone when I found one of Hourt and Mine I didn't even know I had.

When I ran a business I had what I called the "Runaway Truck Theory of Management", meaning if the boss got hit by a runaway truck, could someone step in and figure out what he did. This is just way too surreal....

I've been calling home a couple of times a day and talking with Jill about what's going on over here. Without her advise and support this would be infinitely more difficult.

Richard Fitoussi, from the Canadian NGO CLMMRF arrives this weekend and I will be very happy to have him here. Having someone to knock around with makes this less horrible.

Okay...enuff whining.

Every Thusrday night the NGOs in town get together and have a trivia night at one of the local pubs, The Funky Monkey. I'm headed over there in about an hour to see how well I can do.

Babu

Update

2009-04-22T15:08:00.003+07:00

It's Wednesday afternoon here and things, amazingly, are getting back to some semblance of normality after the terrible tragedy of last week.

The children have all returned to the Museum and are back to their ruoutines, which is good, since they need that structure, involvement and activity.

Mine and Amamtak are back in school. I'm not sure they quite yet grasp the fullness of their loss, but Aki Ra is there with them every day.

The deminers are back in the field and Yon, Aki Ra's brother has joined the team as a supervisor.

I visited Hourt yesterday with Babes Feddon, a representative of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority, seconded to them by the United Nations. He left a wreath and we went to the Museum where he paid his condolences to AKi Ra.

Word is just getting out over here about Hourt's loss as many were away from the cities for the holidays.

Thank you for all the donations to help pay for Hourt's funeral. Aki Ra and the family have been deeply moved by the outpouring from around the world.

More later
Bill

Hourt

2009-04-19T17:50:00.003+07:00

To all those who have emailed me in the past few days, I apologize for not being able to give a personal response. I'll be posting here on a regular basis updating everyone on the happenings here in Cambodia.

Hourt's funeral services finished yesterday at noon. I arrived at 1330hrs. While I was unable to be here for any of the ceremonies, I was able to meet with Aki Ra, and Hourts family and convey all of our deepest sympathies and the depths of our sorrow.

As for the circumstances of her death, I am not going to go there. It is enough that she is gone, and our thoughts should be on her accomplishments and successes.

The children are doing alright although they don't understand that she is gone. Aki Ra is coping well. He has a lot of support, family and friends with him. I actually think they are coping better than we are. They are together and have been grieving together. We have to do it by ourselves, alone with our memories of this wonderful woman who accomplished so much in such a short time.

Her burial place is just outside Siem Reap in a lovely Pagoda surrounded by the countryside she loved so much. Her stupa (burial mound) is covered in flowers and there are dozens of incense sticks around her resting place. I visited her yesterday with Aki Ra and I will post a photo of her stupa later in the week.

The work goes on at the Museum and at CSHD. The children who had families went home a week ago to celebrate Khmer New Years which ends today, Sunday. Most were notified by phone of Hourt's passing and the others will be told as they arrive back at the Museum. Aki Ra returned there yesterday as did Sanghour and his wife Sotling. They are expecting their first child, a girl, any day.

The Landmine Relief Fund and the Cambodia Landmine Museum Relief Fund have raised most of the money to pay for the funeral expenses and for Hourt's stupa. We wanted to do this to not merely help the family meet these expenses, but so that we can all share in this tribute to a very special woman.

The flags at the Museum are flying at half staff and will do so for the next month.

More later.

Bill

THE PASSING OF HOURT

2009-04-18T03:05:00.006+07:00

It is with profound sadness that I announce the passing of Aki Ra's wife Hourt. She was the mother of Amatak, Mine, Metta and dozens of children who now and in years passed have called the Cambodia Landmine Museum their home.

She will be deeply missed. She made all of our lives better for having known her.

I am en route to Siem Reap for her funeral services which have already begun. I will be there for a couple of weeks to help where I can and let Aki Ra and the family know that they are in our hearts and prayers at this terrible time.

Donations to help them cover the cost of the funeral can be made at the our website:
www.landmine-relief-fund.com Any excess monies will be used to carry on the works that were so close to Hourt's heart.

With deep sadness
Bill

New Year and Gratitude

2009-04-12T06:32:00.002+07:00

It's Khmer New Years so I thought it was a good time to sit down and tell a story about a young man who taught me how to look at the world through a different pair of glasses.

In February I sat with a 17 year old boy who told me how his hands were blown off when he picked up an unexploded cluster bomb.

He'd been told about landmines and UXOs. But he was 17! Remember when you were 17?

You were invincible.
You were immortal.
You would never grow old and wrinkled, bent and wheezy.

But this young man is grateful. He's grateful that he's found a home where he is cared for. He's grateful that he has the opportunity to go to school and get an education where most in his country don't. He's grateful to have others around who understand his physical limitations and push him beyond them.

He's actually a pretty happy kid.

There are a lot of kids in Cambodia who aren't happy, grateful or coping.

That's why my friend, Aki Ra, started clearing mines wherever he could find them. That's why he does it for free; and that's why he and his wife Hourt have adopted dozens of maimed, orphaned and destitute kids.

And its my very great honour to be allowed to help in my small way.

We can all make a difference. We just have to try.

Today is the beginning of the Cambodian New Year Celebration. So to all:
Sua Sdei Chnam Thmei

Happy Easter
Happy Passover

Babu

YOU TOO CAN BLOW UP A LANDMINE

2009-03-07T05:22:00.008+07:00

There are over
5,000,000
LANDMINES
Left in Cambodia

HELP US BLOW THEM UP

2nd Annual Landmine Relief Fund Auction

Peabody’s Café
134 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
(760) 322—1877
Wednesday March 25 - 7:00 PM

CLEANUP SOAP - WASH AWAY THE DIRT WHILE YOU WASH AWAY LANDMINES

CAMBODIAN SELF HELP DEMINING T-SHIRTS

PALM SPRINGS FOLLIES TICKETS,

LA ANGELS BASEBALL TICKETS,

LA CLIPPERS BASKETBALL TICKETS,
HAND-MADE JEWELRY FROM UNEXPLODED BOMBS,
CAMBODIAN HANDICRAFTS,

CLIPPERS AUTOGRAPHED TEAM BALL,
PAINTINGS BY LANDMINE SURVIVORS,

RESTAURANT COUPONS,
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE

CAN'T BE THERE?

DONATE AT:

http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/

CLICK ON THE PAYPAL BUTTON

The Costs of Demining

2009-02-26T19:19:00.002+07:00

Cost Benefit Analysis: A process by which you weigh expected costs against expected benefits to determine the best (or most profitable) course of action

We get asked all the time: "How much does it cost you to clear a landmine?" or "How many mines can you clear with the money we donate?"

Let's restructure that questions a bit:

If you were told there was a landmine in the park where your children played, how much money would you spend to find it? Or more simply put: what’s the value of your child’s life?

Cost benefit analysis in mine clearing tries to put a dollar value on a life versus the cost of a clearing program. You tell me what the dollar value of a human life is? I certainly don’t know.

How much does it cost to clear a mine field? We spend whatever it takes.
One mine – One life.

CSHD is clearing mines in ‘low priority’ villages. Many in the government don’t like that term. All villages and all lives are of equal importance. But in reality, some villages will be cleared later rather than sooner. Sometimes it’s because teams are not available, sometimes because funds are scarce, and sometimes because more mines can be cleared in a shorter period of time in other places. All these reasons ‘shove’ villages to the bottom of the list…low priority.

But they are NOT low priority to the people getting blown up.

We’re often asked ‘How many mines can you clear for the dollar?’ It’s an impossible question to answer clearly. If we clear a densely mined filed it’s low. If we clear a jungle field, where we have to hack our way in, with only a few mines per hectare, the cost may be high. The village we’re clearing now is the latter. Yet they’ve lost 5 dead, 3 maimed and 15 cattle. We’re clearing the land slowly because of the jungle bush we need to clear. But when we’re through 15 families will have land to farm and safely raise their children.

I can’t cost/benefit that. Can you?

The next mine field we’ll clear is an open field. We should be able to move quickly and clear it in a matter of weeks. Faster equals cheaper. But if we tried to work faster in Kokchombuk we’d likely miss some little mines. Faster may be cheaper, but it can also be deadly.

How do you cost/benefit a life; or a leg? Is the loss of your right hand worth more than loss of your left? If a child dies, do you value that at a lower amount than a working adult? Or do you calculate the ‘potential’ income the child would have in a lifetime to determine your cost/benefit ratio?

And the ultimate question: if you can cost/benefit a mine field, when do you just walk away and say: “It’s cheaper to let ‘em die.” That will clear the field too.

We don’t cost/benefit mine clearing. We’d rather look at lives changed and villages made free from fear.

One Mine – One Life

The Recovery of Sim Sao

2009-02-21T12:14:00.002+07:00

Sim Sao has been a tuk tuk driver in Siem Reap for 7 years. Before that he was a monk. He’s married with children now and supports them on the little income he gets from the tourists in Siem Reap. When he works, he sleeps on the floor of a restaurant a friend owns.

Those of us who work with Aki Ra and the kids have been using Sao as our driver for the last several years. We hire him on a weekly basis. He can find anything, knows tons of people, and can get us anywhere we want to go on time, and most importantly, in a country where it is bad luck to look over your shoulder (no kidding), he gets us where want to go safely.

About 6 weeks ago Sao was driving home to his village, about 45 minutes from town, when he had a collision with a food cart vendor. Sao was driving down the road on his motor scooter when the food cart turned in front of him. (Remember it’s bad luck to look over your shoulder.) The two collided, and the boiling oil from the food cart spilled all over Sao’s right leg. He sustained severe 2nd degree burns to his inside calf and thigh.

Unlike at home, there is free medical coverage in Cambodia. But like the poor in the US, you have to sit in the emergency room for hours to get treated. To get good, fast care you have to pay, and it starts at about $50 for a visit to a private hospital, plus meds. That may not sound like a lot to us, but the average income over here is less than $1 per day, so private care is pretty much impossible for the average Khmer.

Sao’s options were pretty limited…..
• Sit in the emergency room at the provincial hospital and hope to get treated
• Go to Calmet hospital in Phnom Penh, a 6 hour drive each way and get treated there
• Have the local village ‘doctor’ treat him with potions and herbs

I knew he’d had an accident, but had no idea of its severity until he came back to town on the 30th of January to try and get back to work. He’d sent some pictures of his leg to our compatriot, Asad in the US and Lisa McCoy, a Canadian working here in SE Asia.

I saw Sao about the same time Asad and Lisa saw the photos. We called a Western doctor working here in Siem Reap and he offered another ‘option’. The Royal Angkor International Hospital was opened a year or so ago. It was built by Thais and staffed by Thai doctors. We were told we could take Sao there but it would be VERY expensive. It’s of western standards and better than many I’ve seen in the US.

Let’s see …… we could send Sao to the local hospital where he might get some help, let him keep going to the local ‘doctor’ or spend a little of our own money and get him some good treatment…hmmmm

Pretty much a ‘no-brainer’.

Lisa and I took him to Angkor Int’l on the 30th. He was with the doctor a good 90 minutes. They cleaned and dressed the wound and gave him some meds to take. Then we got the bill! $80.81

We took him back to the hospital every day to have his dressing changed. He’s started calling it ‘The Happy Place.” Poor guy can hardly walk after they clean and dress his burn. On the 15th a nurse from Canada arrived to do some volunteer work and she’s cleaning the wound now and we’ve taught Sao how to change the dressing so he can go home and spend some time with his family.

All the treatments and all the meds have run just over $500. Pretty cheap by western standards, but way beyond the grasp of the average Cambodian citizen. Sao’s friends from around the world are chipping in to cover the costs. If we collect more than we’ve spent, we’ll donate the balance to his local school. If you want to help cover the costs go to:

www.landmine-releif-fund.com and click on the PayPal button. Drop me a note to let me know the donation is for the Sim Sao Recovery Fund.

I got a text message from Sao right after we started taking him to the hospital: ‘Bill, I am so happy. I’ve never had anyone help me before. Thank you all so much.’

How could we have done less?

Babu

Corporate Greed and Eminent Domain in Cambodia - (And you thought it was bad at home!?)

2009-01-31T17:21:00.002+07:00

There was a pretty nasty incident in Phnom Penh last weekend. And I don’t think it was covered much at all in the United States.

Over 150 families were forcibly evicted from their homes on land that had been sold to Korean construction company, 7NG http://www.7nggroup.com/ According to their website:

The in-laws of a good friend of mine lost their home. They still have the title. It was signed by the Prime Minister himself.

Lot of good that did them. Read the story as reported by Amnesty International.

Hundreds left homeless in Cambodia after forced eviction
Over 150 poor urban families were forcibly evicted from central Phnom Penh in Cambodia at the weekend. The vast majority of them have been left homeless.

Cambodian security forces and demolition workers carried out the evictions of 152 families from Dey Kraham community in the early hours of Saturday. At around 3am, an estimated 250 police, military police and workers hired by the company claiming to own the land blocked access to the community before dispersing the population with tear gas and threats of violence.

At 6am, excavators moved in and levelled the village. Some of the families were not able to retrieve belongings from their homes before the demolition. Officials from Phnom Penh municipality were present during the destruction.

Amnesty International called on the Cambodian authorities to stop denying people the right to housing and to ensure adequate compensation and restitution for those evicted on Saturday.

"The most urgent task now is for the government to immediately address the humanitarian needs of these people, who have lost their homes and face imminent food and water shortages," said Brittis Edman, Cambodia researcher for Amnesty International. "They will also need assistance for a long time to come."

The Phnom Penh municipality has provided less than 30 of the 152 families with shelter at a designated resettlement site at Cham Chao commune in Dangkor district, some 16 kilometres from the city centre. Most of the other structures at the site are still under construction and lack roofs.

There is no clean water, no electricity, sewage or basic services. Earlier, most of the affected community rejected being resettled there because it was too far from Phnom Penh, where they work, mostly as street vendors.

Since the forced eviction, the Dey Kraham community has been told that the company, which is alleged to have purchased the land, has withdrawn earlier offers of compensation, leaving families who have been living in uncertainty and insecurity for more than two years, now faced with rebuilding their lives with nothing.

Local authority representatives sold the land to the company, 7NG, in 2005 without the knowledge, participation or consultation with the affected community. Some 300 families were coerced into moving amid threats, harassment and intimidation, while the 152 families continued to dispute the validity of the sale and refused to give up the land without compensation.

Just over a week before the forced eviction, the affected community told the authorities and the company that they were willing to move if they received adequate compensation for the land. Many of them have lived there, uncontested, for decades and have strong claims to the land under the 2001 Land Law. The company then increased the offer of compensation, but the two sides had not yet reached an agreement.

According to 7NG's website:
Through all of our efforts we are building futures for our stakeholders including the environment. Our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts and environmental planning are helping us to be both good neighbors and an environmentally responsible contractor.

As Master Builders we serve the needs of the people, and are happy to be a part of building a better Cambodia.

Sounds nice huh? Regardless of how bad things are at home, they are worse in other places.
Babu (in the Jungle)

Ramblings from the Jungle

2009-01-26T16:54:00.003+07:00

26 January

It’s been a pretty hectic 2 weeks here in Cambodia. I arrived on 10 January and I’ve already made 2 return trips to Phnom Penh…each one is 6 hours…or 10 depending on traffic and accidents….mostly ours. (I take a bus, and it’s big and the road is narrow.)

The weather is actually pretty decent. It’s winter over here so the humidity is down and the temperature in the mornings is actually pleasant…usually in the mid to high 70s. But by mid afternoon its been getting into the 80s with just a touch of the humidity that absolutely drops you later in the year.

I’ve been to the mine field twice. It is really amazing to see the differences between now and 2 years ago:

- in 2007 only Aki Ra cleard mines
- Now we have a 5 man team in the field

- in 2007 we cleared in flip flops and sandals
- Now we are equipped with the newest body armor available

- in 2007 new had to do everything very quietly since we were ‘uncertified’
- Now we have full government approval for our activities

The village we are clearing now is called Kokchumbok. It’s led a troubled existence in years past. A lot of fighting went on there, since it was a Vietnamese army camp. We’re clearing right next to their old firing range…lots of lead still laying around. They’ve lost several people. I spoke to a 34 year old woman whose mother was killed when she went behind a bush to use the toilet. The womans husband finally cleared a patch of land they can farm. He cleared it with a knife – on his hands and knees. Imagine.

Aki Ra and Team1 have been there for 3 months and expect to be there for 3 more before the field they identified is cleared of mines and UXOs. It’s grueling work. The area where the mines were laid is now dense jungle. I mean DENSE. You can’t walk into it. We start by cutting down the jungle brush so we can run a mine detector over the ground. (Last week Aki Ra saw his first ‘weed eater’. We bought one and if it works we’ll get another.) Once a mine or UXO is IDed we mark it and blow it up. Aki Ra doesn’t disarm the mines any more, it’s just too dangerous. He told me that every time he did that, he risked his life, and with a wife and 3 kids he doesn’t want to take that risk any more.

I talk to people all the time who want to know how they can help CSHD. There are 2 things we need:

1) We need people to be aware that the landmine problem still exists in Cambodia. Heck, most people can’t even find the country on a map, and the war has been over for 10 years. But there are still 5,000,000 mines and at least 5.000,000 unexploded bombs over here…just waiting for someone to find. We want that someone to be us, and not a farmer or some kid taking a shortcut home from school.

2) But most of all - We need money. Aki Ra thought it would take several years and $1,000,000 to start CSHD. With a lot of help, we did it in 8 months for less than $60,000.

But unless we can sustain it…pay our deminers and staff… we’ll have to fold our tent and go home. It costs us $5,000 to run the operation for a month. That pays salaries, feeds everyone in the field, pays for gas and supplies and leaves a little reserve for unexpected contingencies like blown tires and hidden logs in the rivers we cross that take out your radiator…but I digress.

That’s what we need. And every single dollar you donate saves life and limb. If you want to make a difference…this is where to do it.

I’ve spent the better part of a year and a half over here helping Aki Ra set this thing up. I’ve shut down my business and, thanks to today’s economy, run through a good deal of my savings. But Jill and I don’t regret a penny spent, a gray hair earned, or a moment not spent together. We can’t think of a better legacy to leave than a safer world for those who follow us.

If not now - when
If not us - who

Bill Morse
International Project Manager
Cambodian Self Help Demining

Founder & President
Landmine Relief Fund

Ps: And please pass this Blog on to your friends. Anybody know a movie star looking for a cause?

Inauguration Night in Cambodia

2009-01-24T20:13:00.002+07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia

On Tuesday the 20th, as I walked the streets of this small tourist haven in the north of Cambodia I was asked by several people, Americans, Euros,Japanese and Cambodians where they could watch “our president” take over the helm of the United States.

It was a surreal day. All over town the talk wasn’t of the growing economic crisis in this country, the lack of tourists, or the continuing friction with neighboring Thailand over the temple of Preah Vehear. It was about the hope and the expectations the world has for Barack Obama and the return of the United States to leadership in these trying times.

The inauguration happened at midnight here and I, along with at least 100 others gathered at the Warehouse Bar to watch the festivities. As Barack entered the stands a cheer went up, and when he took the oath of office you could people all over town cheering as hundreds gathered in different restaurants and bars to watch the vent.

You could hear a pin drop during his speech.

I’ve been traveling the world for several years now, from Peru to Nepal, Tahiti to Cambodia and it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to call myself an American and not have to defend my country. Today I can say I’m from the United States and people smile and tell me how happy they are that Obama is leading the world to a better time.

As I left the Warehouse at 1am, a tuk tuk driver came over and said “Obama is okay”.

Imagine that, people all over the world watching the US with hope and happiness instead of fear and loathing.

It was a good time to be an American.

I’ve waited my whole life for a time like this.

Babu in the jungle

Obama is in Cambodia too

2009-01-20T20:51:00.000+07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia
8pm Tuesday, 20 January 2009

All day long I've been meeting Americans, Europeans, Japanese, Aussies and Khmers who want to know where they can watch the inauguration of 'our new president'. Last night I had dinner with some new friends from Brisbane and they told me about hope they have that Mr. Obama can lead America and the rest of the world to better times.

It's 4 hours until the inauguration. Several of the pubs in town are having Inauguration Parties. They start at 10. The inauguration is at midnight here and the parties will go until we all need to go home and get ready for work tomorrow. Several people I know rested up this evening for the parties.

I haven't met a person here who doesn't know who Obama is. One bar is selling kramas (the traditional Khmer scarfe) with Obamas likeness on it. T-shirts that say Obama are plentiful, and not just on Americans.

And I'm in Cambodia. Imagine.

It's been a long time since I've been able to say I'm an American and not have to defend my country. Everyone is so excited. Even with the problems the world faces. (It's pretty brutal here. Last January it was shoulder to shoulder tourists inside Angkor Wat. Today it's deserted. The tourists aren't coming and people are starting to get worrried.)

But as I said, even with the problems the world faces, economic woes, wars, etc., people are hopeful again and optimistic that maybe the worlds greatest democracy has found itself - at last.

Babu
Off to the Party of the Century

I'll let ya know how the inauguration was over here later.

Babu

Bus Ride to the Jungle

2009-01-13T09:48:00.001+07:00

4 days after leaving Palm Springs, and 30 hours in the air and in transit I’d decided to take the bus to my final destination and save almost $100. Heck, $100 paid 10 days in my hotel.

It was a very interesting bus trip…to say the least!

We left Phnom Penh at 0830 and were due to arrive in Siem Reap, Cambodia sometime around 1300 (1pm) Saturday afternoon. You’re never quite sure when you’ll arrive depending on the traffic. Now traffic here is a bit different than traffic in SoCal. Where the I-5 may be backed up because of a traffic accident or Caltrans work, Hiway 6 in Cambodia gets clogged when an oxcart or several turn over. It’s an hour by air, and a ‘scheduled’ 5 hours by bus.

The trip was pretty uneventful for the first few hours. We made our stop in Kompong Thom, a small town in central Cambodia, just north-east of the Tonley Sop lake. We got to stretch our legs, get something to eat, ice cream, crickets, spiders, or soup…whichever you prefer. Then we headed north for the last 2 hours of the trip.

About 1.5 hours south of Siem Reap I heard the tires screech and several people scream when we hit a man on a motor scooter…head on. I was in the back of the bus reading a book and couldn’t see out the front. Being on the right hand side of the bus, I did have a very good view of the poor guy careening off the side of the road. His moto ended up on top of him and the bus came to a lurching stop on the side of the road. The guy had been going down the wrong side of the road and tried to cut in front of the bus, I learned later.

Several of the riders and some locals ran to his aid, and amazingly he stood up and walked hesitantly away from the quite damaged motorbike he’d been riding. It appeared that he’d broken his arm and had a scalp wound, but otherwise he seemed okay. The locals lookied him over and immediately put him on another moto back to Kampong Thom where there is a medical clinic.

Then the interesting part of the trip started for the rest of us.

Our driver hopped off the bus pdq and as fast as he could ran down the road into the countryside and disappeared. Over here, when you are the drive and hit a local, you run the very good risk of getting the crud beat out of you by the victim’s friends.

So we were left by the side of the road, on a running bus with no driver. And when the local police showed up, who knows.

We got off the bus, and discussed among ourselves exactly how we should deal with the situation. We had several options. We could wait for the bus company to send another driver or, more likely, another bus to pick us up. Or we could try and ‘flag’ another ride. We opted for the latter.

A few minutes later we saw the ‘local’ bus coming up the road. That’s the one that stops at every village on the highway, but eventually got to our destination. He stopped and was only partly full. We dragged our bags off the first bus, stuffed them (pushing and kicking to make room) onto the local and climbed on board. It cost us an extra $2, a total of $13 to get to our destination.

Still beat the $100 by air.

Travel is such an adventure.

Babu in the jungle.

US Army Destroys Last of 44K Landmines Filled with Nerve Gas

2008-12-29T06:11:00.003+07:00

From The Birmingham (AL) News
This GOOD news:

Last of nerve agent at Anniston Depot destroyed
2 million pounds of mustard agent left

Thursday, December 25, 2008
KENT FAULK
News staff writer

ANNISTON - The last of the deadly nerve agent weapons in the chemical weapons stockpile at Anniston Army Depot were incinerated Wednesday.

Destruction of all the nerve agent weapons means that more than 99 percent of the risk the stockpile posed to the community is gone, incinerator officials said.

"With the VX mines gone, there is realistically no risk for the community," said Timothy K. Garrett, site project manager at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

Incinerator employees gathered in the control room to watch on monitors at 11:51 a.m. as the final M23 mine began its trip along a conveyor to be incinerated.

A munitions handler had written "Last Mine" and "Good Bye" on the top of the mine, and "End of VX Munitions" and the names of companies involved in the incineration on the bottom, before placing it on the conveyor system.

Seven minutes later, after machines sucked the VX out and into a liquid tank for incineration, the mine was dropped into another incinerator.

"Congratulations, guys. Merry Christmas to you," Robert C. Love, project manager for prime contractor Westinghouse, said to the group of employees.

Destruction of the last of the nerve agent was good news Wednesday for officials in Calhoun County, where residents have lived with the stockpile for nearly a half century and its incineration for the past five years.

"That's wonderful. It couldn't have happened any too soon," said Calhoun County Commissioner J.D. Hess.

The most recent batch of weapons destroyed consisted of 44,131 land mines filled with the VX nerve agent. Incineration of the land mines was about eight months ahead of schedule, Love said.

With the completion of this phase of the destruction, 54.6 percent of the stockpile has been incinerated, said Mike Abrams, a spokesman for the Army. In all, 361,802 munitions and 293,003 gallons of nerve agent have been destroyed. That includes 219,374 VX-filled munitions and 142,428 GB-filled munitions.

Workers now begin preparing machinery to destroy the remainder of the stockpile - World War II-era mortars, artillery and containers with nearly 2 million pounds of mustard agent. Incineration of mustard agent weapons is scheduled to begin in the next five to seven months but could begin sooner.

Mustard agent doesn't cause problems unless someone comes in direct contact with it, and that's why there is less threat to the public than with the nerve agents, Garrett said.

Workers will be trying to finish the mustard agent incineration by April 29, 2012, to meet the deadline in an international treaty to destroy stockpiled chemical weapons, he said. After destruction of the mustard agent weapons, the incinerator will be dismantled in a process that will take a few more years.

Front Page - Above The Fold

2008-12-27T05:40:00.003+07:00

From the Desert Sun:

December 26, 2008

Palm Springs man helping to clear Cambodia of explosives

Stefanie Frith
The Desert Sun

The humidity is intense. More than 80 percent, on top of the 90-degree weather. He uses a kroma — a thin scarf — to wipe the sweat out of his blue eyes and over his closely cropped gray hair. He carries rice, water, Spam, Cup of Noodles, coffee and tea on his back. Maybe tonight there will be something else to eat with it other than rat.

Ahead of him in the Cambodian jungle, one of the metal detectors goes off with a “wow, wow” sound. A land mine has been found. Palm Springs resident Bill Morse never thought he would be running a charity to help clear the unexploded bombs and land mines in Cambodia.

He owned a marketing and sales consulting business, which he closed last year to focus his efforts in Cambodia. Now he spends up to eight months a year working in Cambodia, in the Landmine Relief Fund office or in the jungle, clearing land mines, eating whatever he can catch, and sleeping in huts or on the ground.

“There is a perception that Cambodia is handling it,” Morse said recently, sitting in his living room, surrounded by artifacts from his trips around the world. “Our objective is to clear land mines in low-priority villages.”

The land mines and bombs are from when the United States infiltrated the country and when the Khmer Rouge was in power in the 1970s, Morse said.
More than 500 people were injured from exploding land mines in Cambodia last year, Morse said. An estimated one in every 250 Cambodians has been injured since the 1980s, he said.

Finding Aki Ra

Five years ago, Morse traveled to Cambodia. He had heard of a man named Aki Ra from a friend who had raised money to buy him a metal detector so he didn't have to search for land mines by hand.

Aki Ra has cleared 50,000 land mines — and still has all his limbs. By age 5, he was orphaned. By age 10, he was fighting with the Khmer army, laying the land mines he would later seek to eliminate. When he was a soldier, he could lay 1,000 land mines a day. “Nobody kept a record,” Morse said.

He survived the genocide that killed 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979 — more than 20 percent of the country's population, according to Yale University's Cambodia Genocide Program.

It wasn't easy finding Aki Ra. He ran a land mine museum on a dirt road, but the hotel concierge either didn't know of it, or wouldn't tell Morse where it was. When he did find him, Morse said he was overwhelmed by this man, and knew he had to help.

Morse not only set up the Landmine Relief Fund and became its director, but he returned to Cambodia to help Aki Ra with international certification. He joined Aki Ra in the jungle, hunted for meals as they looked for land mines, and stood by his side as he located them in the ground.

“You dig the hole at an angle, so if you hit the land mine, you hit it on the side,” Morse said.

Land mines were never designed to kill, said Morse, who spent a year in the U.S. Army. Injuring people was more effective in the war — as the injured had to be carried by at least two people. This is not to say the mines haven't killed.

Recently, Aki Ra was clearing land mines in a village when the government ordered him to stop. Shortly after, five people were killed when their truck went over one.

Morse spends several months a year in Cambodia, working in the Landmine Relief Fund office and in the jungle with Aki Ra and a five-member crew. When land mines are found, the area is roped off and the devices are blown up. Morse said he used to stand next to Aki Ra as he did his work.

Now, with recent government accreditation, Morse said he goes into the area last and documents what the team does. It takes a team of five to clear the mines — four people are needed to carry a stretcher — he said.

There are several land mine clearing organizations in Cambodia. The issue gained prominence when Princess Diana campaigned for the clearing of devices. There are also several groups affiliated with the cause. Project Enlighten provides educational opportunities for children in Cambodia, including those living at the Landmine Museum run by Aki Ra. Project Enlighten Founder Asad Rahman knows Morse well and said he is one of the “most honest and driven men” with whom he has worked. “His vision and passion to help eradicate the land mine issue is unparalleled. He is a saint,” Rahman wrote in an e-mail from Laos to The Desert Sun.

Morse only wishes he could do more. Donations have dribbled recently and he said he would like to have a celebrity step in as a spokesperson to help gain publicity for the cause. He wants to raise $45,000 to put another team of five into the Cambodian jungles. “I couldn't think of a better way to spend my money and my time. We are going after the stuff we left there. I'm (just) a janitor.”

For more information, or to make a donation, visit
http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/ or http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/.

Landmine Relief Fund,
P.O. Box 4904,
Palm Springs, CA 92263.

Donate Today - Change a Life Tomorrow!

2008-12-17T06:59:00.011+07:00

Cambodian Self Help Demining Is clearing Kokchambok Village

It will take us 4 months and cost $20,000 to change the lives of the villagers of this "low priority" villagein the heart of Cambodia.

They've already lost 5 dead, 3 woulded and 15 cattle.

We will change their lives and you can help...right now.

For a donation of $50 or more we will send you a CSHD window decal .

For a donation of $100 or more we will send you a copy of “Look at us now!” - The Children’s Story (and a decal)

For a donation of $200 or more we will send you a copy of Beth Pielert’s Film, “Out of the Poison Tree” featuring Aki Ra. (and a decal and a book)

Donate at:

http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/relief-fund.com/
Click on the PayPal Button

Thanks

Babu

Cluster Bombs - the gift that keeps giving

2008-12-04T02:02:00.002+07:00

The first cluster bombs were dropped on Grimsby, England by the Luftwaffe in 1943. They have been a staple of war since.

During the Vietnam War the United states dropped over 383,000,000 cluster munitions on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It's been estimated that as many as 30% failed to explode on impact and are just waiting for some unsuspecting civilian to discover.

If those figures are only half right, there are 57,000,000 unexploded cluster munitions littering SE Asia.

Cluster bombs are not considered landmines, although they are unexploded munitions lying on the ground, that explode, maim and kill when disturbed.

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...........

100 nations are meeting in Oslo, Norway today. They are signing an international treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions.

The United States is NOT signing the treaty. We did NOT sign the treaty banning landmines.

We still use cluster munitions. We still use landmines.

And we still are not cleaning up our mess.

We leave that for the innocents to do.

Shame on us.

Bill
Janitor

In The Field!!

2008-10-24T06:37:00.004+07:00

Aki Ra and CSHD are in the field clearing landmines. It has been a long and tedious process, one we sometimes were not sure could be accomplished; but with all of your help we did it.

Thank you.

Now the work really starts.

It doesn't cost us a lot of money to run our operation, but it's not cheap either. and we depend on small contributions from lots of people to make this stuff happen.

People like all of you. We don't have corporate sponsors. No celebrities have dropped in to endorse our work, and we haven't been around long enough (certified) to attract any foreign government grants.

Everything we get comes from friends and people who have gone out and raised money to help keep our program, and Aki Ra's dream of a safer Cambodia alive.

The LMRF pays no salaries.
The LMRF pays for no airplane tickets.
The LMRF pays for no hotels or meals for any of its volunteers.
We all cover our own costs. What you donate goes to support CSHD.

We had a fund raising effort going this fall. We wanted to raise $20,000 by October. In September the world found a new minefield called the economy and donations came to a screeching halt.

We'd raised about $12,000 before the ceiling fell in and donations dried up. Aki Ra and the team need your help to keep the team in the field. We have enough money in the bank to operate for the next month or so, but we need your help to continue and certainly to grow.

We rely on small donations from lots of people to make this happen. So please, dig a little deeper, and remember why you gave to begin with.

Click here to donate:
www.landmine-relief-fund.com (click on the PayPal button)

Stay tuned for a really cool announcement.

Babu

Draw Your Own Conclussions

2008-09-20T18:30:00.006+07:00

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know the difficulties CSHD has had in getting up and running. It’s been frustrating and more than once I’ve wondered if it wouldn’t just be better to do things the ‘old way’; clear where it’s needed and the heck with all the paperwork. But we believed that if we could get certified we could get more deminers into the field and be a much more effective tool in making Cambodia a safer place for all who live here.

I perhaps naively believed that a new, all-Khmer demining NGO would be welcomed and could compliment the work being done in this country to save lives.

The red tape and delays came home to roost earlier this month.

But let’s back up a bit, to the beginning of all this, and give you a short history:

Aki Ra, an ex-child soldier, who’d laid thousands of mines during his years at war, decided in the early 90s that he wanted to make mine-clearing his trade. He traveled throughout the areas in which he’d fought for nearly 20 years, plying his trade: clearing mines, UXOs and booby traps wherever he or anyone else found them. He cleared over 50,000, without injury to himself or anyone he ever trained. And he did it for free.

To support his work he started a small museum to show off some of the mines he’d cleared and to care for the children he and his wife had adopted. The original Museum was modest and a Canadian NGO helped to build a new one. The government required that the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA) certify it. In return for certification Aki Ra had to cease his ‘uncertified’ demining activities and apply for a certificate. With little other choice he agreed and asked for my help to get it done. I immediately said yes, closed my business, and have spent most of the last year in Cambodia working on the ‘process’.

To certify CSHD we had to do 2 things:

Register CSHD as a Khmer NGO
Apply for certification with CMAA

We couldn’t even get an application to register the NGO without a letter from CMAA authorizing the Ministry of the Interior to issue the application. CMAA readily agreed to provide the letter. We were asked to prepare it and send it to them for signature. After claims of never receiving the original letter and not getting several email copies of the letter I hand carrying a copy from California to Phnom Penh and handed it to the official in charge of certification. Upon receiving the letter I was told it needed to be in Khmer. With the intervention of a senior government official, the letter was issued in less than 24 hours; 10 weeks after CMAA had agreed to provide it to us. We asked for it in January. We received it in March.

We prepared the application and it was eventually issued at the end of May after more ridiculous delays, 5 months after we initially visited the Ministry.

Our ‘provisional’ certification, good for 180 day’s was issued at the end of June, just in time for the rainy season to ground Team1 for 60-90 days.

Chrung village asked the government years ago to clear the mines that threatened them. It was assigned to one of the authorized humanitarian demining groups. But with all the mines still in the ground, Chrung was far down the list, and never cleared. The village chief contacted Aki Ra, and working as an unauthorized deminer, most of the time alone, he cleared 16 anti-tank mines and a ‘rice sack’ full of anti-personnel mines. Then he had to stop.

Chrung came back to haunt this country earlier this month when a horrible ‘accident’ occured. I put the word ‘accident’ in quotes only because it need never have happened.

A group of locals were traveling from a nearby village to Chrung. They came via a tractor hauling a cart. On their return, traveling down a narrow cart path, they ran over an anti tank mine. Five died and three were horribly wounded. The villagers had to cut down a tree to retrieve the dead body of a 3 month-old baby. The bodies were cremated where the accident happened, in a ceremony attended only by the people who lived in the villages. The area is still littered with the clothing of the dead and the empty sacks of rice they carried in the cart. The crater is still there, 3 feet deep, filled with water. Anti tank mines in this area were usually laid 10 meters apart. The villagers paced off the distances and marked where they believe 2 more mines are buried.

10 minutes after the accident happened the village chief called Aki Ra and asked when he could come back and finish his work. We still had equipment to buy and paperwork to complete before we would be ‘allowed’ to clear any land, but Aki Ra got the team together and I traveled with them to Chrung to watch them survey the village, prior to commencing a full demining operation. We had planned on spending a week, but had to leave when monsoon rains made continued work too dangerous. We decided to spend the extra time in the provincial capital, getting the necessary paperwork done so that we could return when the rains let up.

But CSHD can’t clear Chrung. It was assigned a long time ago to someone else and the villagers will just have to wait until they have the time to get there. CSHD is ready now.

Maybe the funeral pyre for the 5 dead will build a fire somewhere else. This need never have happened.

There’s a lot more here I haven’t said and can’t say, so read between the lines and draw your own conclusions.

Babu

Baked Beans, Tuna, and a Paperback Book

2008-09-12T16:09:00.006+07:00

Kinda sounds like a song from the 60s huh?

Actually it's what I spent the afternoon doing today. Buying my stuff for the little excursion we're making into the north of the country tomorrow.

I don't want to get into the details of where we are going and what we'll be doing, since you all know pretty much what it is already.

It's been fairly hectic all week over here and it has finally started raining in earnest. (And boy, is Earnest unhappy) - I'm sorry , I couldn't resist.

I was here in June, the beginning of the rainy season and didn't see much rain at all. I came back at the end of August and saw more, but it still wasn't raining a lot. Every other day or so it would rain HARD for an hour or so, but it was fairly predictable. Then on Sunday it started raining a lot. It rained very hard Monday, all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday and yesterday. Today, Friday, it's been raining off and on all day. Never hard. Never enough to keep you from going out, just a constant drizel.

So it will be very interesting to see how Babu copes with it in the jungle. Actually, we'll most probably be staying in a village, under cover. I've got a poncho, hammock, food, a change of clothes, and trash bags. Oh yeah - TP too. Can't forget the TP. uh-uh....can't forget the TP. and a big paperback book. While the guys are working I have to stay put, so to speak.

We'll be gone for at least 3 days, possibly a week.

Oh yeah - I forgot to mention...tomorrow morning, before we shove off, some people from Iraq are visiting the Museum. Now that should be interesting.

More to come when I get back.

Be good. Fight On!

Babu

5 dead - from the net

2008-09-09T16:01:00.002+07:00

This is what it's all bout:

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A truck hit an anti-tank mine in a former stronghold of Cambodia's ultra-communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas, killing at least five people and wounding three, police said on Sunday.

The victims of Friday's accident in the northwestern district of Anlong Veng included women and children who were traveling in a truck carrying rice to a mill, police said.

The area near the Thai border, was once a base for Khmer Rouge guerrillas and is where the group's chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Recent heavy rain could have loosened the soil and shifted the mine onto the road, provincial police chief Menn Ly said.

Decades of civil war, especially in the former battlefields of Khmer Rouge, left Cambodia as the world's most mined country -- an estimated 4-6 million landmines are believed to be still planted in the countryside.

Mine-clearing teams have cleared over 400 square km (155 sq miles) of land but another 4,000 square km are still to be de-mined, said Leng Sochea, a spokesman for Cambodia's Mine Action Centre.

About 450 people are killed each year in Cambodia by mines, down from about 800 in earlier years. Many more are maimed.

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

5 Dead

2008-09-05T19:05:00.002+07:00

I was going to write something cute today. Then we got the phone call.

I was sitting in the office of Cambodian Self Help Demining when the call came in from the village chief of the first small 'low priority' village we are to clear. He wanted to know when we could come up and start demining. He was pretty frantic. Five minutes earlier a truck had run over an anti tank mine and five of his villagers died a pretty ugly death.

This is why I've gone to Cambodia.

This is why I started the Landmine Relief Fund.

We're still raising the money to get to Chrung, the village that suffered the accident.

We're still trying to get our story out.

I will be in Chrung in a week to see CSHD begin their survey. I hope we all get back. Yeah - this is serious stuff. It'll kill you.

Babu

Bureaucrats, Ambulances, Jails and Happy Chicken Soup

2008-09-01T18:39:00.001+07:00

Well let me tell tell you what’s been going on around here in the last few daze.

I spent 4 days in Phnom Penh trying like crazy to get some tools released from Customs that we shipped over here in July. They’ve been sitting in the warehouse since about the 20th of that month.

I went to the Customs office Thursday and the agent who told me last week I had to have all the copies of the original document now told me I had to go to another office to get a form filled out so we get them released with no duty. I headed over there only to find out I needed 2 letters written stating what the goods were and that CSHD was a recognized NGO. While I had the NGO registration certificate and the invoice, I still needed the letters.

So I went back to my hotel, wrote the letters, had them printed out and returned to the office the next day. Then I was told that I had to have 5 copies of the original docs and they were closing in 5 minutes. It was now Friday and they wouldn’t be open until Monday. So I called our good friend Bunra, a lawyer who’s done a lot of work for us and asked him if he could get this stuff released. He’s handling it for us. Today he called and I needed another 2 letters. One saying that he could negotiate the ‘deal’ for us and the second telling then exactly what was in the shipment. Now – they have the invoice, and one of the letters already details the contents, and they have catalogue pages with descriptions and pictures of the 3 items we shipped….but they needed a separate letter detailing the details. So I wrote those and fired them off to Bunra. We’re waiting to find out the outcome. Let’s just say I am peeved, and certainly will think twice about ever using DHL again. They assured us that they would take care of all the details. After it got here, they turned it over to their broker and washed their hands of the entire transaction.

Did I say that originally the broker wanted $650 to clear it? Hmmmm……..

Then I got to go to jail.

Bunra, as I said is a lawyer. He picked me up Friday and asked if I had a bit of time to run some errand with him. Sure. He had a client in jail and said he needed to go see about getting him out. So we headed off to the ‘new’ Phnom Penh Central Jail. It’s a complex on the road to Sihanoukville, near the airport. Looks pretty much like an office complex.

The jail here is better than many of the others, only a few guys per cell, and families can see them on a regular basis. We spent about a half hour there and I decided that if I ever get in trouble over here I’ll start screaming ‘US Embassy” at the top of my lungs and fall down and roll on the ground like a 3 year old. No way I want to wind up there.

We’ll be setting up the CSHD office at Aki Ra’s house in Siem Reap. The deminers are building a nice fence around the house now and we’ll expand the gate so we can get our 2 vehicles inside and locked up at night.

Our Australian buddies, from the Vietnam Veterans Mine Clearance Team, are footing the bill for an ambulance for CSHD. That’s a huge donation and very much appreciated by Aki Ra and the team. We have to have one to do our work. It needs to be a 4x4 and able to carry a casualty to the nearest hospital in case we have any accidents in the field. I spent part of Saturday looking through the used car lots in Phnom Penh. We’ll probably wind up with a Toyota Land Cruiser that we’ll retrofit to what we need. There are lots of them available in PP. The pricing I got gives us a base to work from. I am sure that Aki Ra and Pov, our number 2 at CSHD will beat my “barrang’ price.

On a personal note, I bought a couple of pairs of shorts before I left home and brought them over here. I’ve already gone down to the last notch on my belt and I can take off the shorts without undoing the snap or zipper, so I guess that’s good. But they still call me ‘Grandfather’ and it STILL pisses me off.

And lastly, for dinner last night I had soup…’Happy Chicken’ they called it. I didn’t read the entire description. Turned out to be Alice B. Toklas soup. If you don’t know what that means, Google it. And yes, I WAS hungry after I had the soup.

Back to PP later this week to buy the ambulance and then north to the jungle.

Babu from the jungle.

Gaelic Khmer

2008-08-26T18:28:00.007+07:00

Alright, I finally found the ultimate in uniqueness. Certainly in Cambodia, and probably in the world I know.

I've only been able to use the internet at length from a bar on pub street called Molly Malones (http://www.mollymalonescambodia.com/). If you look at the web site, I'm right now sitting at the upstairs table you can see in the center picture, when you see the pub. As the name implies, and the website says, its Siem Reaps only authentic Irish pub. I sat here yesterday doing emails and posting while I listened to two hours of vintage Beatles music and Irish folksongs.

When I got ready to leave and was paying my bill I started chatting with the barmaid, a young Khmer girl. I told her I really liked the choice in music and she said everyone liked the older stuff. She asked if I was Irish and I said I was part Irish. Then she started to say stuff to me in Gaelic.

Now, I've been to Ireland. And most of the people who LIVE there can't speak Gaelic. And here I am, standing in the middle of Cambodia listening to a teenaged Khmer girl talk to me in a language that is mostly dead and spoken only in Ireland and the UK.

I was impressed. This country is really moving ahead.

When we were first setting up CSHD we had to open a bank account, so we had somewhere, other than Aki Ra's mattress, to keep our money. We couldn't open an account in CSHD's name as we weren't yet a 'registered' company, so we opened it in Aki Ra's name. Now that we are registered we all headed down to the local ANZ Bank to open up an account for CSHD. Two hours later we finally had it done. Two trips back to the office for paperwork we didn't have with us and countless trips to the 'back room' to figure out what to do eventually left us with a brand new bank account. I opened it with some of the money you good people have donated. I kept about $1,500 out since we were going shopping for stuff later in the day.

We headed off to the Central Market to buy tools, uniforms, hammocks and other sort and sundry items we can't get when we're in the jungle. It was interesting to watch Pov and Aki Ra haggle with each and every shop owner. Even the ones we've dealt with before. One of them brought a chair out for the 'old man' (me) to sit in. I'd describe it best as the kind you used in kindergarten. I got into it, not quite sure I'd ever get out again. I did, which makes me think that maybe my early morning exercise routine is doing me a little bit of good.

I get up at 6am every morning and walk 'crisply', as the English say, around town and back to my guesthouse for a breakfast of fried eggs and coffee. Nicely done too, I might say.

Well, I'm back to the Museum tomorrow and then on to Phnom Penh on Thursday to try and finally get the goods taken care of that I shipped there in July. A bit more than annoying.

Off to bed now.

Cheerio

Babu

Make a Difference

2008-08-25T17:24:00.002+07:00

We all talk about what’s happening in the world today and give our two-cents worth, but few of us ever get the chance to make a difference.

I was the same way one time.

I talked a lot about what I believed in, about how ‘those in charge’ should be handling things and what I thought needed to be done. Whether my politics were, at the time, right, left or centrist really makes little difference, I was unhappy with the status quo.

Now, I’ve always voted, sometimes for Republicans, sometimes for Democrats, and occasionally for an independent. But I never felt that what I was doing really made much of a difference in what was happening in the world in which I lived.

I’m sure you all know exactly what I mean.

I ran my own business for a number of years. It provided a nice income for myself and the other people who worked with us. But I always felt like there was more that I could be doing.

My partners and I sold the business a few years back and I drifted from one thing to another. I tried ‘retirement’ and decided that slow suicide was not how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I did some consulting, but I still had an emptiness, a feeling that somehow, somewhere I could do more. You know, as corny as it sounds, that maybe I could leave the world a bit better than when I lived in it.

Five years ago I heard about this young guy in Cambodia who was clearing landmines by hand. He’d been a child soldier during the Khmer Rouge genocide and decided that he’d do what he could to make his country safe for his people.

My wife and I had traveled a lot over the years, and we’d always wanted to see the temples of Angkor Wat, so we singed up for a tour of Thailand and Cambodia. I did my homework. I read all I could find about the wars that had enveloped that small nation during the last half of the 20th century. I was astounded at what I found.

I knew that during the Vietnam War my country had invaded Cambodia, going after the Ho Chi Minh trail that was used by the North Vietnamese to supply their allies in the south. I knew that we had extensively bombed the country and mined a lot of the border areas. I didn’t realize the extent to which we had done this: more bombs than we dropped on all of Europe and Japan in WWII. I hadn’t known that the war in Cambodia lasted until the late 1990s. I hadn’t realized that when the Khmer Rouge fell in 1979 the fighting continued with landmines being one of the main weapons of choice. I knew there were a lot of landmines in Cambodia, but the estimates I found ranged from 3,000,000 to 10,000,000 mines left littered across the countryside and that as many 500 people a year were victims. I didn’t know that one in every 250 people in the country had lost a limb to landmines. And I knew nothing about the millions of unexploded bombs and artillery shells that lay waiting for some unsuspecting soul to discover.

I really wanted to find this guy who thought he could make a difference. I was intrigued, and more than a little curious to find out what he thought he could accomplish.

We got to Siem Reap, Cambodia in October of 2003. We spent the first day visiting the astounding temple complex in Angkor National Park. If you’ve seen the movie Laura Croft, Tomb Raider, you’ll remember the temples that were covered with vines, hidden in the jungle. That’s where we were. And that’s where this guy had spent a lot of time clearing landmines.

I spent the second day trying to find him. None of the hotels seemed to have ever heard of a man named Aki Ra or his Landmine Museum. Then I asked a tuk tuk driver, one of the locals who made his living driving tourists around in motorized rickshaws. I asked him if he’d ever heard of the Landmine Museum? “You’re looking for Aki Ra?” he asked. “Yeah, you know him?” He smiled and said, “Sure, everyone knows Aki Ra”. I hopped into his tuk tuk and we headed out of town, down a dirt road, through the red-light district of town to a very modest compound behind a stick fence with a tree house in the middle. This was where I found Aki Ra.

The Museum, which he started to support his demining efforts, was simple. In it he told tourists about the landmine problem in his country, displayed some of the thousands he’d defused and asked them to support him in his work any way they could. I also found that he and his wife had ‘adopted’ nearly two-dozen kids to raise as their own. Most were landmine victims, some were orphans, and some were just kids whose parents couldn’t afford to raise them.

I wandered around the Museum for a while and listened to Aki Ra tell his stories of fighting for the Khmer Rouge, being captured and forced to fight for the Vietnamese and then, when they left, fighting with Cambodian Army.

I asked him how he got into clearing landmines. He told me he’d planted them for years and when the UN came they hired him to help clear the temples at Angkor Wat. He said he found he was good at it and liked making his country safe. Every mine he cleared could save a life, change someone’s future.

He said he’d found his trade.

So had I.

I’m not a beauty pageant winner so I can’t work for ‘World Peace”. I’m just a sixty-year old fat man who can make a difference right here, right now.

My wife and I talked long and hard about what we could do to help Aki Ra and his wife eliminate these terrible weapons that were destroying lives on a daily basis. We decided to start a charity to raise money to help Aki Ra in his work. We decided that all the money we got would go over here to further his work.

It started out simple. A few hundred dollars a month to help with what he needed. We committed to a figure and sometimes wound up writing the check from our own account when the donations were slim.

Aki Ra got a new Museum in 2007 thanks to the work of a Canadian NGO (non governmental org) and an American film producer who put up most of the funds.

But to get the new Museum, Aki Ra had to stop demining. The government had instituted a certification procedure and he didn’t have one. Our group, the Landmine Relief Fund, agreed to help him get it and I’ve been over here most of the last year working on the process. I shut my business down last year so I could spend as much time in Cambodia as necessary to see the process through. I won’t go into the details. Those of you who follow us know what we’ve gone through. Those of you who don’t, suffice it to say, it took us a long time, but we got everything done in June

The point of all this is that you can make a difference. Right here. Right now.

Aki Ra and his new NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining start work this fall to make their country safe for their people.

I started work in 1972 teaching school. Until 2003 I thought that was probably the most fulfilling work I had ever done.

Now I know that what I’m doing over here is the best work I’ve ever done.

I can give you lots of explanations about why. My country is responsible for much of the havoc reaped on Cambodia in the last 50 years. We tried to bomb the country into the Stone Age. We supported the Khmer Rouge when Vietnam invaded the country and we’ve not done all we can to clean up our mess. But we’re doing a lot, and if I can help, I will.

So don’t think that you can’t make a difference. You can. Right now.

Step up. If you don’t like what we’re doing, then find something else. But don’t wait for someone else to do what needs to be done. Don’t complain. Act. Give up one Sunday morning breakfast-out each month and make a donation. Take an afternoon and help at a homeless shelter. Volunteer to work at a USO.

Just do

If not us – who?
If not now – when?

Bill Morse (Babu)
Siem Reap, Cambodia
25 August

Back on the Far Side - Part 5

2008-08-24T09:28:00.003+07:00

Well, I'm back on the 'far side' again. Fifth trip in the last year.

Seems like I live here. Sometimes I feel more at home in Cambodia than I do in the United States. I got into Phnom Penh on Thursday morning and checked into my little hotel on the riverfront and everyone welcomed me back like a long lost son. Well, not son exactly, since I turned the ugly 'six oh' earlier this year. Now they call me other names. Ones I used to call my parents and grand parents.

A bit annoying, but I guess it beats the alternative, which is being dead.

If you've ever wondered why I sign all these things "Babu" it started when some friends and I went to Africa in 2006 to try and climb Kilimanjaro (we did). Every time we got into camp the porters would call out "hey Babu, you doing good" or 'you okay Babu?". I asked our guide, Frank the Tank (who chain smoked all the way to 15,000 feet) what Babu meant. "Term of endearment" he kept telling me. After a few days of pestereing him for a better translation, he said it meant "grandfather". Let's just say I was NOT pleased. Then my buddy Jack said, "Bill, these guys are like 19 years old. You ARE old enough to be there grandfather." I was still not pleased, but at least I could rationalize it some.

I need to cut this short, as the Blue Pumpkin, where I am writing this has no power this morning and my computer is beeping at me.

Well, I'm back again. I can't believe all that happens arund in the short spurts in which I am gone. The Blue Pumpkin is doubling its size. It's what you would call a "patisserie' in France. they have wonderful pastries and good, if small, coffees. And they have AC. They have wonderful fruit shakes which go down well on the hot and humid Cambodian afternoons. But the 'net is often down and their power, as noted above can be sporadic.

So I headed down the street to my back up location, the Warehouse, a nice American owned bar that has a balcony overlooking the stret and a real good internet connection. While it's open-air, and doesn't have AC, it's a nice place to hang out and do some work. But they are re-doing the upstairs and the wifi is out. So I headed to my third location, Molly Malone's, an Irish bar at the end of pub street. While the wifi is good, the coffee strong and the balcony empty, they are a haven for mosquitos. They know this and offer free squirts of "Off" insect repellant for when the little buggers get too interested in my sweaty body ( I know, that's a real scary picture.)

Our most recent 'project' at CSHD is getting some tools released from Cambodian Customs. I bought some thngs CSHD needs. I bought them in the US and had them shipped DHL to Cambodia. I spoke with DHL and was assured they would take care of all the customs transactions over here. Right.

The goods arrived on 24 JULY and are still tied up. Seems someone at DHL turned them over to Cambodian customs, through their own broker, and then wiped their hands of the whole transaction. Our initial 'quote' to get them released through DHL's broker was $650. Now the stuff only cost us $600.

I met with DHL on Friday and played the 'crazy barrang' (foreignor) - quite well I thought. Our price now looks to be around $150. Threats of police, judges, the anti-corruption committee, and the US Emabassy seemed to knock the price down a bunch. We only have one problem. The paperwork is in Siem Reap and the customs guy is in Phnom Penh. So I get to go back to PP next week to finish the deal. No problem. It was cheaper to tak the bus here, stay at Grentown, and go back to PP than to just stay there an addtional 3 or 4 nights.

Our fundraising campaign is chugging along real well. Look for an email from me later today or tomorrow about our progress. We've received checks rangning from $5 to $1,000. NO contribution is too small. Thank you everyone who has donated. And to those who haven't - go to our website: www.landmine-relief-fund.com and click on the PayPal button.

Don't forget to pass our video on to your friends. We want 1,000 hits as soon as possible. Its quite good and gives you a rela feel for what Aki Ra and his team want to do over here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmKTu8xVxHg&feature=email

More from the jungle as it develops.

Babu
Just chuggin along in Siem Reap

Babu
from the Far Side.

Cambodian Self Help Demining

2008-08-16T10:27:00.001+07:00

A Little Background

2008-08-02T07:20:00.002+07:00

I first met Aki Ra in 2003 when my wife and I went to Cambodia to find the man we’d heard about who cleared landmines by hand and did it for free.

A friend of mine had told me about Aki Ra and I was determined to find this guy and find out if what I’d heard and read was true. A little bit of research had told me that Cambodia has as many as 10,000,000 landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXOs) littering its countryside, much of it delivered by our planes during the Vietnam War.

Aki Ra lost his family to the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s. His mother was killed for the crime of compassion. His father, who he thinks was a teacher, was killed for recovering from an illness.

He’s not sure how old he is, but he thinks he was born in 1973. Aki Ra got his first gun at 10. By the age of 12 he was a battle tested soldier. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1978, 3 years, eight months and 20 days after the KR had instituted their infamous Killing Fields. Aki Ra was captured by them and given the opportunity of joining their army or being shot. It was a simple choice.

He fought with the Vietnamese Army until they left the country in 1988. He’d been a soldier most of his life, was adept at designing landmines, booby traps, and what we would now call IEDs . He could lay as many as 1,000 mines in a day. The UN hired him to help clear the landmines around Cambodia’s most treasured temple, Angkor Wat.

He was really good at this. He’d found his trade.

For the next 15 years Aki Ra cleared mines and UXOs wherever he could find them. He did it by hand and he did for free. In 1999 he opened a small museum at the end of a dirt road, behind a stick fence to show off some of the mines he’d cleared; and to explain to the few tourists who could find him how serious the problem continued to be in his country. He asked for a $1 donation and used the money to help fund his work.

People kept asking him what he wanted to do. “Make my country safe for my people” was the best explanation he could give.

He’s cleared over 50,000 to date and he’s never had an accident, nor has anyone he’s trained.

Not everyone liked what Aki Ra was trying to do. He didn’t follow international standards, he didn’t wear any body armor when he worked, and he didn’t coordinate his work with the existing authorities, (nor did many of the demining companies, but that made little difference to his detractors). More than once his Museum was closed by the local police in Siem Reap, who were unsure of the safety of the defused mines he showed to the public, and who claimed he was ‘scaring the tourists’. And for other reasons I’d rather not write about.

But those same police came to him when they’d found a landmine behind their police station and none of the ‘recognized’ demining companies showed up to remove it.

We found Aki Ra in his modest Landmine Museum, showing off some of the defused mines, bombs and bullets he’d unearthed over the years. And taking care of some of the 20+ maimed, orphaned and destitute children he and his wife raise along side their own 3.

We talked for the afternoon and I asked him a thousand questions about what he did, what his aspirations were and how he supported himself and his ‘extended’ family. His mission was simple: make his country safe for his people. He supported himself and his family through donations. I knew then and there I had to do whatever I could to help this guy in his work.

My wife and I returned home and started the Landmine Relief Fund to support the work Aki Ra does, primarily in clearing landmines.

Aki Ra wanted a better museum. A real home for his family and a place that would showcase the devastation landmines are still wreaking on his country. Through the dedicated work of a Canadian NGO, an American movie producer, and the Canadian government, a new Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Center was built and dedicated in 2007.

But for the Museum to become a certified NGO, Aki Ra had to stop all his demining work.

Aki Ra agreed to suspend his work until he could secure an NGO license and a demining certificate to continue his mission.

And he asked for my help in getting it done. There was no way I could refuse. I’d watched him dedicate everything he had, and everything he could be to one task: making his country safe. And my country was in a large responsible for the devastation his people suffered.

Aki Ra had always had a dream about starting an all-Cambodian demining company; run by Cambodians, for Cambodians. And he wanted to call it Cambodian Self Help Demining.

And that’s what he and I set out to do in 2007. And the government was NOT going to make it easy for us to accomplish our task.

We first had to register the NGO. The Ministry of the Interior wouldn’t give us an application without a letter from the Mine Action Authority saying it was okay to establish a new demining company. It took us the 3 months and the intervention of a senior government official to get the letter.

Time and again we tried to get the application completed, to no avail until a local judge intervened and had his staff complete the process for us. He had enough clout that all the demands for “assistance money” evaporated.

We next had to complete a demining application. It was first rejected because we didn’t have a local bank account, which we couldn’t get until our NGO application was approved, which we couldn’t get without a letter from the that same agency.

We had to prepare and submit Standard Operating Procedures. We were able to complete these with the help of some international deminers who wanted to see Aki Ra ‘back in the field’.

We were rejected because we had no funds on hand, in country, to fund the company. We couldn’t get serious funding until we had a company to fund.

I had a small consulting business in California that provided my wife and I a modest income and a lifestyle that met our needs and allowed us to do a bit of traveling when we wanted to get out of the California desert heat.

In 2007 I closed my business and pretty much moved to Cambodia to help Aki Ra complete the process of establishing CSHD. I’ve spent most of the last year in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh working to keep the registration and certification process moving forward.

The process seemed to have come to a halt in mid 2008 when we received help from a most unexpected source. The United Nations.

The UN oversees and assists countries around the world in establishing and operating mine action operations. One of their contractors took up our cause and helped us promote the work Aki Ra wanted to accomplish. He’s been clearing mines around the world for 20 years. He told us in all his work, Aki Ra is the only true ‘humanitarian deminer’ he’s ever met. He couldn’t stand the thought of Aki Ra being forced to abandon his dream. He wants Aki Ra to take his model and teach it in other countries.

Cambodian Self Help Demining became a recognized Cambodian NGO in May of 2008. It received its provisional demining certificate on June 23, 2008.

We are currently in the process of ‘kitting out’ our first demining team and training them to operate to international standards. I’m returning to Cambodia in August to continue assisting in the start up and to be on hand when the government conducts its field evaluation of CSHD, which will give us our formal demining certificate. They need to know that ‘others’ are watching this process and won’t stand for any ‘manipulations’.

With the help of our donors and grants for which we shall apply we will begin active demining in September.

We will make Cambodia a safer place. Our concentration will be in small, ‘low priority’ villages throughout the Kingdom. Now understand, these villages are ‘low priority’ to all but the people getting blown up on a daily basis. The large international demining NGOs are doing wonderful work in Cambodia, but with so many mines and UXOs they can’t be
everywhere and our concentration will be in remote and small villages that wouldn’t otherwise be cleared for years to come. Aki Ra has requests from dozens of villages and gets more each week.

Last year there were nearly 500 reported incidents in Cambodia. And that was only west of the Mekong River. East of the Mekong there is no reporting system in place, and that’s where we dropped most of our bombs. More tonnage than we dropped on all of Europe and Japan in all of WWII.

To give you some perspective, Cambodia had a bomb dropped on it every four minutes for ten years. Think about that for a moment.

Aki Ra is a true humanitarian. He does his work without complaint. He goes wherever and whenever he’s asked. His only request is to be allowed to make his country safe.

When I came back to the US in July the last thing Aki Ra said to me was “Thank you for helping me.” High praise from a man who normally lets his deeds do the talking.

I intend to continue working with and raising money for CSHD and the work Aki Ra does as long as I can. I hope I live to a ripe old age.

This is a lot more fulfilling for a an old 60 year old like me than playing golf.

Have I Got a Story to Tell!

2008-06-24T14:14:00.016+07:00

Baseball and a Bottle of Red Wine

I got to the ballpark just in time to watch the end of morning workouts for the Cambodian National Baseball Team. The coaches were in the field hitting flies to the outfielders, the infielders were taking fielding practice, the water buffalo were grazing in the outfield, and Joe Cook, the man who brought baseball to Kampuchea (Cambodia) was standing behind the cage with a big smile on his face.

Joe left Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Wounded by a landmine and hiding from those who would have shot him on the spot, he reached Thailand and eventually made it all the way to Dothan, Alabama where he works as a cook in a Japanese restaurant. The locals didn't take to his Khmer name, so they just call him Joe Cook.

Joe fell in love with baseball and decided it was a great sport to bring home. He's spent everything he has made, and could borrow to develop this league. He has a few teams across the country and they play every day. 2-3 games a day take place at the rough field he built next to a rice paddy and behind a small village about 35 kilometers north of Kampong Chnang.

It wasn't easy to get there from where I work in Siem Reap. I took a 6 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh, spent the night at my cozy little hotel on the water front and hired a driver to take me on the 2 1/2 hour drive north to find Joe and the Cambodian Boys of Summer. (Actually Boys of Summer is a misnomer, since you can play every day of the year here.)

It cost me $180 to make the trip. $10 for the bus and $170 for the driver, Mr. Ryvann. Now there is another story in Mr. Ryvann. As we left downtown Phnom Penh he and I were talking, exchanging our resumes so to speak, and he said he had another friend from California he drove all the time, and asked if I knew Asad Rahman. I was speechless. As many of you know, Asad and I work together helping Aki Ra at the Landmine Museum.

My mother was right. Always be on your best behaviour. You never know when you will run into someone you know.

Anyway, Mr. Ryvann is a also a major in the Cambodian Air Force. He flies small planes, Cessnas and the like. But the Cambodian Air Force is grounded. They don't have enough money to keep the small fleet of planes, including 22 Mig 21s in the air. But he does still get his pay. $75 a month. That's why he is also a taxi driver.

We got to the field at 10:30 and I finally got a chance to meet Joe. I also got a chance to meet a couple of really great coaches who came all the way from California at their own cost to help the team. Tom Dill is the coach of the Notre Dame High School Baseball Team in Sherman Oaks, California. (He is a USC fan, so I didn't have too big a heart attack when I saw Joe wearing an ND hat). Tony Rondinella is a friend of his who couldn't wait to come over here and help Joe. They brought over 5 bags of equipment including gloves, hats and bats and balls. I brought over 80 t-shirts from the Dodgers, 175 balls from the Angels and 24 from the Palm Springs Power.

I forgot to bring my hat, so Joe gave me an extra one they had laying around. It said ND in big white print on the front. I looked at the hat. I looked at the cloudless sky, and decided the sunburn would go away faster than any pictures of me in that hat.

The balls were a good idea. The ones they were using were missing covers and beginning to unravel. Joe's built a pretty good backstop and that helps keep most of the balls out of the rice paddy that stands directly behind the field. But these guys can hit. And they sure can foul them off. It's fun to sit and watch the little kids chase balls. It's just like at a PS Power game. As soon as that ball goes behind the field or into the nearby lake, the kids are off as fast as they can to bring it back. But they do it for a different reason. If they run out of balls here, they quit playing. Ain't no Big 5 down the street. The nearest place to get balls is Bangkok. Or from supporters who are traveling over from the states.

The ground rules here a little different. Time is automatically called whenever a moto (motor bike), water buffalo, or buffalo cart passes through right field (See the picture at the top of the post). The field encompasses part of the village road, you see.

I guess the main thing you want to know is can these guys play ball. Yep. They play pretty darn good ball. They don't have the arm speed that American kids would have, but remember, we play ball from the age of 6 or 7 in the US and Canada. Most of these kids hadn't seen a baseball until they were in their teens.

The pitchers are throwing in the 70's and low 80's (they had a gun on them at the All Asia Games last year in Thailand). And they've got a catcher who is really good. I never saw him miss a throw, he blocks the plate well and can make the throw to second as good as anyone I've seen. The infielders are handling the ball pretty well and these kids took to coaching like a fish to water.

Tom and Tony watched them play a bit and realized the pitchers had no pick-off move at all. And the kids thought you stole on every play. It was a pretty wild game. Tom spent the morning working with the pitchers on pick-offs and when they started the game after lunch, you would have thought they'd been doing it all their life. Even picking off a guy trying to steal second.

I had to leave at 4pm since highway 5 is not very safe after dark, and it being monsoon season, we had a good chance of getting caught in the rain. And in a monsoon rain, you can't see more than a few hundred feet in front of you. Not good on a 2 lane road with pedestrians, motos, trucks, horse-carts, water buffalo, and cattle headed home. Not to mention the occasional chicken crossing the road.

We got back to Phnom Penh just as the sun was going down, and I went through my pictures. I can't wait to get back to see these guys again. I'm meeting Tom and Tony in LA when I get back and I'll bring some more of their equipment over in August.

A Bottle of Red
Friday afternoon, taking the bus to Phnom Penh, I got another one of those phone calls that stop your heart.

We had just pulled over for our potty stop in Kampong Thom when I got a call from the CMAA.

As you know, we've been working with the CMAA for most of the last year to certify CSHD as a demining company. We completed our registration in May and have been awaiting completion of CMAA's review of our demining application.

I took the call.

The signing ceremony for CSHD was to be held on Monday, 23 June at 10am at CMAA headquarters in Phnom Penh.

They wanted to know if I could be there with Aki Ra.

We'd be there if we had to walk naked.

I wasn't really dressed for a formal ceremony. Khaki cargo pants and a khaki shirt. I'd spent a good part of Sunday trying to find a nice shirt and maybe some better slacks, but everyone had Khmer sizes, not barrang sizes. Aki Ra had the biggest smile I've seen.

We met with HE, Mr. Sam Sotha and his staff and he and Aki Ra signed our 'Provisional Demining Certificate". It's good for 6 months. By then we need to secure formal certification, which will come after field inspectors from CMAA determine that CSHD is following their SOPs and conduction operations 'the right way'.

Then we opened a bottle of wine and toasted everyone.

It only took 30 minutes to sign the documents and take the pictures.

It only took years to get there.

Babu

Cambodian Self Help Demining EXISTS!!

2008-06-18T10:28:00.004+07:00

Ever log on and look at your emails and your stomach drops? You see an email in front of you that you've been expecting but you're not sure exactly what it's gonna say?

I got one like that this morning. It simply said Accreditation Board Decision on CSHD.

It's what we had been waiting to hear about for almost a year. It said:

...the CMAA Accreditation Board ha(s) decided to provide the CSHD with the provisional Accreditation and from now the CSHD can start your activities in the fields...

Cambodian Self Help Demining exists.

As many of you know, Aki Ra had been deimining for over 15 years when he was requird to stop his activities and become certified. He stopped his demining activities a year ago. We've been working working with him to get his new NGO, CSHD registered (we got that on 28 May), and certified.

What does that mean, he got 'provisional' certification?

It means that we can start raising money, since we actually have a deminng company to fund.

It means we can start training deminers, since we actually have a demining company that can employ them.

And it means that we can start our demining program.

Aki Ra has letters from village chiefs all over the country asking him to clear their fields and villages. He has more than enough work to keep him busy for a long long time, I am sorry to say.

We'll spend the next few weeks buying the equipment we need, and training our deminers in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that we've developed over the last few months.

We will need to be inspected by the CMAA after we get into the field to insure that we are indeed following our SOPs and that we have all the equipment we need to do the job the right way.

We'll do it the right way. We promise.

I can't begin to explain how momentous this is. For years Aki Ra did his work 'under the table'. Then 2 years ago CMAA started requiring all deminers to be certified. Aki Ra wasn't and it didn't look like it would happen at all. Up stepped a dedicated group of supporters from all over the world, Bomber and Roy and the VVMCT from Austrailia, the CLMMRF from Canada, Project Enlighten from the USA, Phil from the UK, and the Landmine Relief Fund from the US.

I promised Aki Ra a year ago I would work to get him registered and certified. With the help of all the other groups, dozen, hundreds of supporters around the world, I came here in September to see how the process worked. After Aki Ra took his last bomb disposal class in the UK, I came back in 2008. Except for the months of February and May, I've been here all year. And we've been working and waiting to see this process through.

And there's been a lot of waiting. A lot.

We still have much more to do. No one will be satisfied until CSHD gets their 'final' certification. That will come only after the team is field tested by CMAA. That's what all the training is for now. To make sure we are ready for CMAA's 'cert-test.'

A little aside, if I may. I was riding down the main street of Siem Reap with Sao the other day and we saw an ambulance rush into the hospital just up the street. Sao heard later it was a 'bomb hunter' who'd lost both arms and a leg when he was trying to pull a UXO out of the ground so he could sell the metal for scrap. He did it wrong and it cost him not just his arms and a leg, but his life. He died the next day.

This is why we do what we do. This is why Aki Ra can't wait to get back to the field.

This is why we need your support!

I WILL be posting again soon.

Babu

Every 4 minutes for 10 years

2008-06-10T16:30:00.005+07:00

A bomb was dropped on Cambodia every 4 minutes for 10 years.

Just think about that for a minute.

Whether that bombing was intentional, accidental, or simply a 'dump' is pretty irrelevant. The country is still suffering the consequences.

Many of the bombs dispersed what we call cluster munitions. Those are hundreds of small 'bomblets' that cover the ground and are supposed to explode on impact. Problem is they often don't. And they lay their for years and years until someone steps on it, picks it up, or hits it with rock or stick.

And don't you just love the name: bomblets. Sounds so cute. But they are landmines just as sure as the ones that are planted by hand or machine. And they are just as dangerous.

I met a 15 year old boy last week. He'd just lost his hand to a landmine he'd found in a field. It was Russian I think, and it was small enough that when he held it in his hand and it went off it only blew off one hand, injured the other and disfigured his face.

He didn't bleed out. He got some medical help quickly and now he lives with some friends of mine who are helping him recover and move on with his life. And this happens all the time, all over the country.

Well, enough of that. I've been traveling a bit the last week or so. I was in Phnom Penh for the last 2 days and it really is a busy place. It's the rainy season but it's only rained about 3 times the entire time Ive been here. And even then it only rained for less than 30 minutes. My friends tell me it used to rain so much that the river would overflow leaving fish flopping on the riverbank and in the road. Now the river seldom overflows.

For the past few years it seems to be raining less and less during the rainy season.

It's a beautiful country and the people are just amazing. They work like crazy. Stores are open seven days a week. I have to look at my calendar to figure out if it's the weekend or a weekday. But they are very family oriented. On holidays it seems like the whole nation is moving from place to another. It may just be from one end of town to another - to visit Grandma, or it may be from one side of the the country to another, to visit Grandma - but they are gonna visit Grandma.

And everyone is smiling. All the time. I've been in a lot of countries, first and third world, East and West where no one smiles. Life is a grind and everyone dwells on it. Not here. Life is certainly a grind, but people enjoy what they have. And that's a lot to say when you have so little.

Well, more to come soon.

Babu

A New NGO and Baseball in the Jungle

2008-05-31T18:28:00.001+07:00

I’m baaacck!

My goodness, I feel like just left Siem Reap and here I am back again. Well, actually, I guess I did just leave.

I arrived in Phnom Penh Wednesday morning and called my friend, the judge, whose been helping us work through the miasma of officialdom, here in Cambodia. He asked me if I thought I was going to have the new demining NGO registered in May? My first thought was, “oh boy, we got the NGO registration!” Then I read the text message he sent me a second time and had second thoughts.

I was wrong.

As I was landing in Phnom Penh, the official registration for Cambodian Self Help Demining was being delivered. CSHD is now an official NGO in Cambodia. We were afraid it would take us a lot longer. It’s taken some NGOs over a year. We got it done in less than 90 days. A remarkable feat, and one that was a real group effort.

NOW we need to finish getting the demining certificate from CMAA. We’re working on that and I will be here until early July to push, pull, and help where I can. CMAA is being thorough and complete on their review of our submission and I can’t ask for more.

And what else am I doing you might wonder? Well, I came a bit earlier than planned so that I could be spend some time with some real interesting blokes…Royal Australian Engineers from the Vietnam Veterans Mine Clearing Team. Three of them are here right now helping Aki Ra: Bomber, who I’ve written about before, Mac and Marty. They all served in Vietnam and they’ve been here for about a month working with Aki Ra to get CSHD up and running. Just some amazing guys, and I am honored to be able to work with them.

As you know, if you’ve been reading this epistle, I met Joe Cook from Cambodian Baseball and got a donation of balls (190) from the Angels and t-shirts (90) from the Dodgers. I packed them all up in 2 duffle bags and carted them off to LAX earlier this week. Now if you’ve been reading the paper you know that the airlines have been looking for any way they can to boost revenues, and overweight bags has been a godsend. Not only did I have 3 bags to check (you get 2), but the equipment bags were each 20 pounds overweight. I was just a bit nervous as I hauled them off my cart and put them on the scale. I saw dollar signs in the eyes of the ticket agent until I told her they were donations from the USA to the baseball players of Cambodia. Thanks goodness baseball is popular in Taiwan, and I was flying the national airline. Cost me $100 extra. Not so bad.

I got to deliver the baseball equipment on Thursday morning to the Cambodian National Baseball Team. I needn’t have worried how we should find each other. One of the guys wore his uniform. It was supplied by MLB and looks just like a Dodger visiting uniform, except it says Cambodia across the chest. Looked pretty good. They had a ball and glove sitting on top of the bags. They saw that too and when I tossed the ball to the them they caught it just like a pro. The young man in the uniform was a pitcher. No curve ball yet, but he can throw it fast.

In 2 weeks I get to help with a tournament. Should be quite the time.

More as it happens.

Babu

Why We Do This and Who We Are

2008-05-24T03:09:00.002+07:00

Well, I'm back to the jungle on Monday. Lots to do and lots to accomplish. We are most of the way to getting CSHD registered, and I've been working with CMAA on the certification process while I've been home.

I arrive in Phnom Penh on Wednesday morning, have some meetings there and then head to Siem Reap on Thursday for more meetings and hopefully some time in the 'bush' with Aki Ra.

I thought I would post the following excerpt from our brochure. I hope you all can take a moment and read it, and remember why we are doing this:

THE CHILDREN AND AKI RA

The man's son was injured when he went into the rice field with some soldiers, who often had children walk ahead of them so they could clear the field of mines. The children didn't know they were in danger. The boy stepped on a landmine and remembers being blown into the air by the explosion. His friends tried to carry him, but couldn’t. They found his father who quickly realized his son’s leg was badly injured and needed removing. He used his son’s clothes as bandages to stop the bleeding. He stuffed a piece of cloth in his mouth to stifle his screams of pain, then he cut off his leg with a wood saw.

His son was six years old.

Aki Ras’s story

I first heard of Aki Ra when a friend raised enough money to buy him a metal detector so he wouldn’t have to search for landmines by hand. It’s amazing that after clearing over 50,000 landmines he still has all his limbs and digits. I was intrigued by this remarkable man who was raised in the wars of Cambodia and fought with both the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese armies. I traveled to Cambodia in 2003 to visit his museum, and talk with him about his life.

Aki Ra isn’t sure when he was born, but he has information from an old teacher who thinks he was born in 1973. Both of his parents were killed in the infamous Killing Fields of Cambodia. His father was a teacher, a serious crime in the days of the Khmer Rouge. He was given the job of constructing roads and became ill. He was given pills made from rabbit droppings and an IV made from contaminated river water. Getting sicker, the Khmer Rouge gave him a bowl of soup and he began to recover. Accused of lying about being ill, they took him away and killed him as punishment. His mother collected sewage from the houses to be used as fertilizer. One day she called out to an old man to “be careful” as he was about to fall and spill his bowl of soup. For this act of “leadership” she was sent away to school, from which no one ever returned.

At the age of 5 Aki Ra was orphaned and conscripted into the Khmer Rouge Army. He learned how to lay mines, fire guns and rocket launchers, and make simple bombs. He received his first gun and began actively fighting with the Khmer army at the ripe old age of 10. The fact that Aki Ra survived the Cambodian Wars and the Killing Fields is no small miracle. What he has done with his life since then is remarkable and restored my faith in humankind.

When the United Nations eventually sent a peace keeping force to Cambodia they hired Aki Ra to help clear landmines. When they left, Aki Ra had “found his trade”. He clears landmines. He clears them quickly and he clears them for free.

To help support his work he opened the Cambodia Landmine Museum in Siem Reap; near the entrance to Angkor Wat. In it he displays some of the 50,000+ de-activated mines and unexploded ordinance (UXO) he has removed in the years since he began his work. He can’t charge admission, he can only collect donations and sell t-shirts. Through the dedicated work of a Canadian charity he’s been able to open a new, modern Museum that was fully certified by the Cambodian government in 2008.

While working to remove the landmines and UXO’s, Aki Ra collected children who had been abandoned to the street and whose families could not support them. To date he has adopted nearly two dozen kids, many maimed by those very devices he designed and planted. And which he now has dedicated his life to remove.
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She was carrying her baby son while running from a Vietnamese bombing mission. Both were injured by shrapnel. Her son lost his arm below the elbow. Having no money for a doctor, they paid three dogs for his surgery. The family had no money to raise him, so they sent him to live with Aki Ra in 2003. He wants to be a teacher.
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Another boy lost his hand and an eye when the 652A mine he picked up exploded. His parents removed the metal fragments from his eyes by hand and carried him on a bed for 12 hours until they reached the nearest hospital. They heard of Aki Ra and asked him to take their son in as one of his charges. They knew he had a better chance at life with Aki Ra than at home. He never saw his parents again. He wants to be a boxer.——————————————————

These heartrending stories go on forever. There isn’t a person in Cambodia who didn’t lose a family member or an entire family. The Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. In 1978 the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge government collapsed. By then they had murdered millions, nearly half the population of the country. There were 14 doctors left alive in Cambodia. There were no teachers.

We’ve led a charmed life. Stories like Aki Ra’s are the things we read about in novels or watch on the screen. But these aren't characters in a story. They are real people. Leading desperately hard lives.

Cambodian Self Help Demining
After meeting Aki Ra I knew there was something we could do to help him in his work.

Aki Ra is establishing a new, all Cambodian demining organization to continue his dream of “making my country safe for my people.” Cambodian Self Help Demining will be certified by the Cambodian government, meet all international standards, and will concentrate on clearing mines and UXOs in low priority villages throughout Cambodia; places that would not otherwise be visited by the larger international organizations for years. He has requests from villages all over Cambodia to clear mines and UXOs from their fields. We, the Landmine Relief Fund, have agreed to assist Aki Ra by raising the funds he needs to accomplish his work. The task is daunting. We’re asking you to help.

Let's help Aki Ra make Cambodia safe so we can't read any more of these stories!

Our budget for 2008 is $60,000 for equipment and $32,000 for salaries in the first 12months. We can't do it without your help. So help all you can.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Babu

Batter Up!

2008-05-14T12:47:00.001+07:00

He tripped a landmine when he was a boy and has lived with shrapnel in his back ever since.

Two of his cousins were killed by landmines.

His father was killed by the Khmer Rouge.

He, his mother and two sisters escaped when he was 8 years old. They ran and hid for three days before finally making it to the Thai border and freedom. Four years later he made it to the United States.

He arrived 25 years ago today.

He fell in love with baseball as a boy and it became his passion. He decided to take it home and introduce it to his country. The only problem he had was finding an area large enough for a baseball diamond that wasn’t mined.

Cambodia had never seen baseball before Joe Cook ‘brought it home.’

I read about Joe in the LA Times and gave him a call last week. We talked for almost 30 minutes tonite. On June 21 and 22nd Cambodian Baseball is having Baseball Carnival in Kampang Chnam a little town about 6 hours from Siem Reap, between Batambang and Phnom Penh.

They want me to pitch. Problem is … they’ve never seen me pitch.

Maybe I can find something else to do.

I asked Joe what they need. Man, they need just about everything. And I do mean everything, but mostly gloves, cleats, and balls. Balls are the most important because if you hit one out of the park, you might get killed trying to get it back. There are still some 5,000,000 mines left littering the countryside. It’s pretty clean around Kampong Chnam, but there is no such thing as 100%. Aki Ra tells me that all the time.

Joe and I are going to get together in June and I’ll see what I can do to help during the Carnival.

I’ll also take over what I can. I’ve contacted both the Dodgers and Angels and asked for a box or two of balls. Hope I hear back before I leave.

Oh yeah, Joe got fired. Seems he spends too much time helping his Khmer friends.

Do what you can, when you can.

Babu

We Can Help in Burma

2008-05-13T01:17:00.004+07:00

The terrible situation is Burma calls out to all of us to do what we can.

Project Enlighten, a sister organization of ours, has put together a program to assist, and already has Lisa McCoy on the ground to manage the assistance.

Asad Rahman sent out the following appeal, and we repeat it here:

Dear friends and family-

Project Enlighten has sent PE Team member & Burma Education Coordinator Lisa McCoy to Mae Sot on the Thai/Burma border this morning!

Our focus is to raise $10,000 this week to help aid in the massive relief effort. We desperately need your valued donations!!

We are coordinating with organizations on the Thai-Burma border that are assisting in the delivery of desperately needed supplies, food and medicine. The groups are comprised of and run by local Burmese, whom are effectively providing aid. Our partners in the region are offering their assistance without administrative costs; therefore 100% of the money given goes towards direct and immediate aid to the cyclone survivors!

Lisa will be on the ground in Mae Sot assuring accountability of all funds raised!

You know how desperate the situation is, children and families are dying hourly due to lack of basic supplies, WE have an opportunity to save lives and help those in an otherwise hopeless situation. Again our goal is to raise $10,000 this week! Will you forgo a basic pleasure like a dinner at your favorite restaurant this week to save a life?

Help us raise money, Help us raise HOPE!

Utmost respect.
--

To donate to Project Enlighten's Burmese Relief Efforts, click on the following link and then click on the PayPal button.

DONATE HERE FOR BURMESE RELIEF: http://projectenlighten.com/donate.html

Thanks
Babu

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jog

2008-05-01T00:36:00.000+07:00

Where in the world should I begin?

Since the last time I posted so much has happened I just don’t know where to start. So let’s just start where we left off last time.

Sau and I were planning on visiting another old temple site last week, but as it was my final few daze in Cambodia it just never happened. There were so many things to do I just didn’t have time to get them all done and still do some sight seeing.

Aki Ra, Hourt and their new baby, Meta, needed to get passports so they could travel to Canada and the US this summer. All this needed to be done in Phnom Penh, so I had made bus reservations for them and myself. Becky was coming along as she wanted to buy a new car, having sold her old Toyota earlier this month. Aki Ra got a hold of me a couple of days before we left and said he’d rather drive to Phnom Penh in the truck. No problem; I cancelled the bus tickets and planned on the 5 of us driving.

Oh, what a surprise I had coming.

On Tuesday I checked out of the Green Town Guest House and told Ming, my host, I would be coming back on June 6. He said he’d hold me a room. About 7:30 Hourt, Aki Ra, Amatek and Mine came over to pick Becky and I up. We were going back to their house and load up what we all needed, drop the kids off and head to PP. That was the general drift I got. When we got back to Aki Ra and Hourt’s it looked like the Greyhound Bus Station. People were everywhere. I knew most of them, but not all. I was introduced to Hourt’s mother and father, her grandmother some cousins (I think), her sister, and some friends of Aki Ra’s. Senghour and several folks from the Museum were on hand as was Uncle Rain. I thought that was a pretty big group just to send us off on a 3-day trip to Phnom Penh.

Then they all brought out their luggage and climbed into Aki Ra’s pickup truck. We had 7 in the cab, 10 in the bed of the truck and Senghour sat on the roof. 18 people in a mid sized pickup.

Oh yeah, we also had 3 fighting roosters in bags, all the luggage and a cooler full of food and water.

And a 6-8 hour drive.

But you know what? It was a blast. This is what I came for, and this is what I got. A real taste of n Cambodia. No a/c buses. No big groups of barangs with an English speaking guide. No chilled towelletes. Just a bunch of friends going on an adventure. They were going to get the passports, buy Becky’s car, drop me off at the airport, and then head for the beach! Only a couple had ever seen the ocean; but they were all as excited as any tourist anywhere to be heading on vacation.

The a/c quit working about 30 minutes out of Siem Reap. It just couldn’t keep up with the load. We averaged about 35-45mph. The temperature was pushing 95, and the humidity was a comfortable 65%. If you are a fan of steam baths, with no chance to rinse, you would have loved it.

My leg went to sleep somewhere around hour number 2. Since there were 3 of us in the front of the cab, I had to hang my arm out the window. As my sunscreen was in my bag somewhere, I now have a deeply tanned (and peeling) right arm, and a lightly tanned left.

About 4 hours into our trip we stopped for lunch at a little roadside rest area. We had fruit, water, and bread. Aki Ra and the boys let the fighting cocks out of their bags and they pecked around at the insects and cuddled up to the kids. I figured these things would go after each other and anyone who came near them, but no, they were as mild as Clark Kent.

We got to Phnom Penh somewhere around 3pm I guess. The Tonley Sop River divides the town in 2 and there is only one bridge, and it’s always crowded. It took us a while to work our way to the hotel, the Cozyna, located right on Sisowath Quay, the riverfront. As we drove down the street we got some very amused looks from the locals, and as we pulled up in front of the hotel one of the bellman asked if we were ‘just coming in from the countryside?’ We all sorta giggled and said “yeah, take our bags inside”. That took a little while.

That night we all sort of went our separate ways and met up the next morning. It took about 2 hours to get all the work done for Aki Ra and Hourt’s passports. We went to lunch and then headed out to look for used cars. Now looking for used cars in Phnom Penh is sort of like looking for used cars in LA, except they are not sold by new car dealers. There are 2 or 3 ‘auto rows’ in Phnom Penh dedicated just to used vehicles.

It’s real hard to find a 2-3 year old used car in Cambodia. Most people keep their cars for 5-6 years and just beat the hell out of them. The roads are just now beginning to get paved and graded around the coutryside, so you can imagine the beating a car can take. We were looking for a midsized SUV, preferably a Toytoa 4Runner, for around $15,000. We found out pretty early that our choices were going to be in the 10 year old range, somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000. We could get a newer car, but the price jumped significantly. We’d talked to Becky’s insurance agent and he’d given us an idea on what we should pay, so we knew we weren’t getting hosed on the price.

I asked what kind of warranty came with the vehicle, just to see what kind of answer I would get. The salesman said, ‘I promise it’s not stolen.’ Good enough for us.

We found a car that looked like it met Becky’s needs, a 1997 Toyota 4Runner with about 70,000 miles on it. It had originally been sold by a dealer in North Carolina and still had the service record in the glove box. I was pretty adamant about having a mechanic look at the car. The salesman said he’d put it on a lift and let us look underneath, which he did. Everyone oo’d and ahh’ed, pointed and discussed what they saw. It looked just like the underside of an SUV to me. Then we took it to a friend’s mechanic and had him hook it up to the computer. Everything looked fine so Becky made arrangements to buy it the next morning.

At 9am we met the salesman at the bank. Becky took out the money, paid for the car, and signed the docs. We took it to the DMV for its emissions test (yep they need a smog cert in Cambodia) and got the registration filed. After making sure the car was insured with AEG, we headed back to the hotel.

Now the departure was much less impressive than our arrival. With two cars, there were only 9 people in the truck and no one on the roof. I stayed at the Cozyma as my plane left the following day and the rest headed off to Sihanoukville for a bit of a holiday. They road the ‘big blue banana’ swam in the ocean, ate crab, and had a blast from what I understand.

I headed back home to Jill and Mikki and some much needed R&R.

I return on June 4.

More from the Jungle as it happens.

Babu

Temples in the Jungle and Flying Candles

2008-04-19T12:20:00.000+07:00

For the last few days I’ve been trying to get to Beng Mealea, a huge temple complex about 2 hours from Siem Reap that many believe was the prototype for Angkor Wat. It’s been left pretty much alone, overgrown by jungle with many of its stones piled in great heaps.

It wasn’t much visited in the past since the area was heavily mined. Halo Trust and CMAC cleared most of the mines a couple of years ago and as long as you stay in the temple complex you’re fine. I say most because there is no such thing 100%.

The trip was originally going to be just myself and Sau, my friend and driver. Then more people started saying they wanted to come. Eventually we had Sau, Becky, Aki Ra, Hourt, Amatek, Mine, the baby, a Japanese couple who are volunteering at the Museum, about 6 kids from the Museum and me. We piled into 2 vehicles and headed to Beng Mealea, about 10 yesterday morning.

We got there a little after 11 and there was hardly anyone around. You have to buy a ticket to see the complex, but it’s only about $5, so still pretty cheap for what you get.

After the mines were removed the Apsara Authority , sort of like the Department of the Interiror, installed walkways throughout the temple complex. It was good and bad. Good in that you can actually walk around the complex now and enjoy the amazing sights of huge stone piles covered in jungle growth. Bad in that the locals used to make money by hiring themselves out to help the tourists climb over all the rocks. Two locals per tourist. And you needed it. I went off the walkway a couple of times and had to be very, very careful climbing around and over the stones. Plus it was 92 degrees and 55% humidity so you are sweating like a sponge.

In the center of the complex, up a set of stairs is a beautiful wooden deck that overlooks the entire inner complex of the temple. That’s where we had our picnic. Hourt hung her hammock so the baby had a nice place to nap and the rest of us munched on pineapples and water and just enjoyed the beauty of the moment. Chet and Tul took my camera and climbed down into bottom of the complex and started taking pictures of all of us up above. They asked me to climb down with them. I begged out. Now both of these guys are landmine victims and missing a leg. Didn’t seem to keep them from climbing all over that complex like mountain goats.

Now you and I both know that a westerner would have walked through that temple complex, taken his pictures, rested for a couple of minutes and headed right back for the bus, another box on his to do list checked. The Khmers take the time to enjoy where they are, enjoy the moment and savor the experience. There was no need to run back to the cars. What were we going to do? Where were we going to go?

Interesting you should ask.

About 2:30 we headed back to the cars. I thought we’d be going back to the Museum. But when we got back to the village, neither Aki Ra nor the truck were anywhere to be fund. Amatek, his 5-year old son, had stayed back with daddy and they had decided to go hunting, with a slingshot. They got back about 4 with a small squirrel and bird that they had found in the jungle a few kilometers away.

Our next stop was not the Museum but a village called Sambrow (sp). They were having a huge new year’s celebration next to the pagoda. There was dancing, tug of wars, lots of baby powder being thrown around, a bit of local ‘moonshine’ available on the back of truck, and a whole bunch of little kids who’d never seen a ‘barang’ before.

I found out later that this was Aki Ra’s home village. After that I watched everything with a different perspective. He may not have known everyone there, but everyone certainly knew him. He was in his element, laughing, dancing in the crowd, helping the girls’ team in the tug-of-war and generally having a blast.

Later in the afternoon Hourt took us to the pagoda and showed us around. The monks’ house is next door and we climbed to the roof which is actually a big patio and looked out over the whole village. A bunch of the little kids had followed us. They’d never seen a barang (foreigner) before and were peppering Hourt with questions. “How do berangs eat?” “Where do berangs sleep?” “How do berangs sleep?” I’m not sure how we eat or where we sleep, but apparently the ‘how we sleep’ is standing on our head with our feet in the air, to which I added “with our eyes open”. You could almost hear their little chins hitting the tile floor.

About 6pm we headed back to the car, tired, thirsty, covered in powder with our ears ringing from Khmer Rap. Ai Ra said “one more stop. A village near here is having a party in the field with movies and a play. The play is about during the war. “ Sounded good to us.

We got to the village about 6:30 or so and parked in the field in front of the stage. Aki Ra backed the truck in so the bed faced the stage. Just like the drive-in. We bought some food from a local vendor. All you could eat for 3,000 riel ($0.75). The second course was the bird Aki Ra had shot that afternoon with his slingshot.

Ron, one of the kids who works at the Museum is from that village so we headed over to his house. The women decided to shower (a bucket from the well pored over their heads) so Ron, Sau, Amatek, Mine and I sat outside Ron’s house watching the lightning show in the sky. Mine, Aki Ra and Hourt’s 3-year old, fell fast asleep in Sau’s lap. Amatek doesn’t like thunder so he climbed into my lap, grabbed my hands and put them tightly over his ears.

We headed back to the field just as they started flying what I call burning kites. Like the burning kites at the Kratong festival in Thailand, they are big paper bags that when turned upside down and fitted with a candle float off into the sky like hot air balloons. Eventually they catch fire and fall to earth. They are about 6 feet high and fly for quite a while. They were launching them about every 15 seconds for quite a while. They filled the sky. Amatek and Mine were in the car hanging out the window absolutely fascinated by the burning kites.

The rains came at about 8:00 so we bailed and headed home. Got back to the hotel at 10pm. Slept until 8.

All in all, one of the best days I’ve had since I got here.

Monday Sau and I are going to visit Kbal Spean out near the museum. It is an ancient Khmer site with a waterfall and river. It’s also called the River of 1,000 Lingas. The area was a fetility sight and has 1,000 lingas carved into the riverbed.

All from the jungle
Babu

The Dead zone

2008-04-17T12:24:00.002+07:00

I feel like I’m living in some Stephen King novel.

Maybe more like Groundhog Day, the movie with Bill Murray. I wake up every day and realize it was just like the last. They all have started blurring together. I turned on the TV this morning and they wre showing the Pope's arrival in the USA. Just like they were showing it yesterday. Super freaky.

It’s New Years over hear, as you know if you’ve been reading my blog. And new year over hear is celebrated with family, not in the streets. So that means everyone goes home to their village or hangs around the house and visits.

That means no one goes to work.

That means everything is closed. And for the first three days, I mean everything. All that was open was the Blue Pumpkin, a little bakery with wifi, sorta the local Starbucks, and a couple of restaurants.

And if you know me, I don’t do ‘nothing’ very well.

I’ve done all the tourist things, seen all the temples, visited all the local wats, ridden through the floating village, been to the alligator form (it’s closed anyway) yada, yada,yada. And the scary thing is, I’m running short on books and the bookstore doesn’t open again until Sunday. I suppose if worse comes to worse I can always head to Raffles Hotel and see what they have in their gift store to read. But it’ll cost me what I pay for a night at the Green Town.

I’ve gotten all the paper work done that I came to file and am just waiting to hear back from the local authorities, and they won’t be back until probably Monday. So I’m going to do a little more paperwork today and then maybe head over to the swimming pool and spend some time there this afternoon. It’ll cost me a bit, but there really isn’t much else to do.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to Beng Malea, a recently opened temple ruin that is about 2 hours from here, still covered in jungle and was the prototype for Angkor Wat. Should be quite fun. It’s taken a week to put this little jaunt together. Nothing ever seems to go smoothly.

Well, more tomorrow or Saturday after I get outa town for a few hours.

Babu

Happy New Year

2008-04-13T20:18:00.000+07:00

Sur sdei chhnam thmei (pronounced: soosdie chnam t’my)

It’s New Years over here. The Khmer new year starts today, 13 April and the celebration lasts for 3 days. Actually it’s going to last all week. All the schools are out, many of the stores and restaurants are closed and the banks closed early yesterday (Saturday) and won’t open again until Thursday. I was warned to hit the ATM yesterday ‘cause they’ll all be out of money by Tuesday. So I stocked up on $50s and settled back to see how this compares to New Years in the West.

Very, very different.

First of all it lasts for three days. Each has a particular name and activities involved. The holiday revolves around family and friends. On Friday I went out to the Museum and on the way back there must have been a dozen buses headed out of town. All full of Khmers headed for the countryside, back to their home villages.

Moha Songkran is the first day. It celebrates the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new. People dress up and light candles and incense. They pay homage to the Buddha’s teachings and wash with holy water, their face in the morning, their chest in the afternoon and their feet at night before they go to bed.

(They also shoot off a whole bunch of fireworks. I sat on the balcony of the Soup Dragon Restaurant and had my soup and salad and wtched fireworks go off every half hour for two or three hours. Pretty neat.)

Wanabat is the second day of the celebrations. It’s a day of charity. People give to the poor, and the less fortunate. They also attend ceremonies at a monestary honoring their ancestors.

The last day of the celebrations is called Tngai Laeung Saka, when people bathe the Buddha statues and elders with perfumed water. It is looked on as a good deed that brings longevity, good luck and prosperity.

There are parties like in the west. There was a costume ball night, to which I was invited. But I really didn’t want to dress up and hang out with a bunch of foreigners (berangs). And besides, I was really tired. So I hung out downtown until I realized it was darn near empty, grabbed a tuk tuk and headed back to the Green Town.

I had a meeting this morning with a Khmer friend who is in town for the holidays and then I headed for a 5-star hotel, paid my $8 and hung around the pool for the day.

It’s interesting to watch the Khmers celebrate the new year by paying tribute to their heritage, family, and celebrating together the coming year. It certainly is different from the crowds, screaming and foolishness we see at home.

Well, that’s it for now. We’ll see what Wanabat brings.

More from the jungle as it happens.

Babu

Snakes in the Jungle

2008-04-09T20:21:00.002+07:00

I hate snakes. I mean I really, really really hate snakes.

Remember that movie that came out last year called ‘Snakes on a Plane’? I won’t even watch the trailer.

So why am I talking about snakes when I’m sitting in an internet café in Siem Reap, Cambodia? ‘Cause there be snakes over here. Not little bitty garter snakes, or king snakes. I mean great big cobras that flatten out their heads and stand up before they bite you. They’re real easy to see, ‘cause some of them stand about 3 feet high.

Yesterday I was walking from my hotel, the Green Town Guest House (www.greentownguesthouse.com) to downtown Siem Reap. The hotel right next door is ‘Le Residence’, a big fancy, 5 star resort. Three of the workers from Le Residence were poking in the bougainvillea bush by the front door. They’d stick a pole into the bush, shake it around and then run away, wait a minute and then do it again. ‘Bees?” I naively asked. ‘Cobra’ was his reply.

I left.

Aki Ra and I had dinner at a local Korean restaurant last night and we started talking about the things you find when you’re hiking. I told him about mountain lions, how Jill and I had run into a bear, with cubs, one time when we were camping. He thought it was real funny that you shouldn’t try and run from a bear. When I said that you were supposed to lie down and play dead and let the bear play soccer with you, he was sure I was pulling his leg.

I asked him about cobras. ‘Oh, they everywhere’ he said. ‘We have some by the Museum. I see the hole and the skin from when they shed’. I asked him if he sees them in the jungle much and he said ‘why do you think I make you sleep in a hammock when we go to the jungle.’ Silly me, I thought it was because it was more comfortable, and harder for the bugs to get to you. Nope, it’s mostly so the cobras won’t curl on top of you during the night.

Then I asked Aki Ra what he did when he saw a cobra. ‘Run. Run very, very fast.’ He said one time he was walking through the jungle, disturbed a cobra who raised up to his full 3 feet, flattened out his head and struck at him. He said he turned around and ran as fast as he could. Every time he looked back the cobra was still there, striking at where Aki Ra had been. He said he’d look back, scream and then put on a little burst of speed. “Scared me very much.” I friggin’ bet!!!

So why the big deal, you ask? Aki Ra and I are probably going to the jungle next week for a day or two. He usually goes out at sometime during the week and checks out some of the schools he’s built and looks for new locations, etc. I said I wanted to come if it was okay with him. He said, ‘just you and me, okay.’

I asked him what we should do if we see a cobra. He said, ‘run very, very fast.’ I just keep thinking about that old joke that says “I don’t need to outrun the bear Bill. I just need to outrun you…..”

Glad I have a completely enclosed mosquito net on my hammock. But don’t worry. If I see a cobra, you’ll hear me screaming all the way back in USA.

Khmer New Year is 13-15 April. Should be quite the time.

More from the jungle as it happens.
Babu

Phnom Penh - from a different perspective

2008-04-08T12:48:00.001+07:00

We took Aki Ra’s uncle with us to Phnom Penh last week. He hadn’t seen the city since he was fighting there as a Khmer Rouge soldier during the war. He lives right along Highway 6, the main road between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. From his village it’s about 90 miles to the capital. It might have been 90 light years.

The last itme he was in Phnom Penh, the city was deserted and the Vietnamese were shelling it.

We had to take a car to get to PP since all the buses were full, we didn’t want to spend the money to fly and Aki Ra wanted to take his uncle and show him the changes since the war.

Now there is a story that Aki Ra tells about he and his uncle that happened during the war:

Aki Ra spent his early years fighting with the Khmer Rouge. Then he was captured by the Vietnamese after they invaded in 1978. He at first thought he’d be able to go home. But the Vietnamese had other ideas. They pretty much offered him a place in their army or a bullet. Aki Ra said he only had to think about that for a nanosecond.

During one battle he was firing his AK47 over a log at the Khmer Rouge on the other side of the field when he recognized one of the KR soldiers shooting back at him…his uncle. Now Aki Ra is a very good shot. I’ve seen him shoot a sparrow out of a tree with one shot at 50 meters. But that day he couldn’t hit a barn door. He shot in the air, he shot in the dirt, and he shot over the enemy’s heads. One of the Vietnamese officers saw what was happening and came over to him to find how come one of their best shots couldn’t hit squat that day. Aki Ra told hem he was sick so they sent him to the rear to see a doctor. His uncle had no idea he’d been fighting Aki Ra until the war was over and they met up near Siem Reap. They both think its hysterical.

Aki Ra and I got talking one day about the war. I asked him how difficult it was to have fought for the Khmer Rouge and then to have to fight against them. He must have had a lot of friends in the KR? He said ‘oh, that was no problem. We saw each other all the time.’ When I asked him to explain that he said that the Vietnamese used to send the Khmer soldiers into the jungle to hunt. The troops on both sides lived off the land. They sent the Khmers for a variety of reasons. Of course, many of them knew the countryside well. But if anyone was going to get caught in an ambush, a booby-trap or a minefield, it might as well be the Khmers, and not the Vietnamese.

Anyway, he explained, as though it were as common as going to Starbucks, that when they went out to hunt food, the Khmers hunted together. I mean ALL the Khmers, the ones who fought for the KR and the ones who fought for the Vietnamese. Aki Ra said, ‘we all knew each other. We’d grown up together. We were friends. So we’d help each other hunt. Then we split the food and go back to our camps. Then next day we try and kill each other.”

How do you put your arms around something like that?

Well, we took Aki Ra’s uncle to Phnom Penh. We ditched the car and got a tuk tuk and headed for a hotel that Aki Ra likes, right on the waterfront. Boy was it nice. A/C, hot water, a balcony overlooking the river, color TV. And it was only $28 a night. Pretty neat. We ate dinner at the Peking Restaurant near the new market, a place Aki Ra likes a lot. Excellent food and no berangs (foreigners). Just the kind of place I like to frequent. I bagged it early and Aki Ra and his uncle went out to see the big city.

The next morning we had a 6:30 meeting after which I go a chance to talk to his uncle about his impressions of Phnom Penh during the war and now. They were very to the point. ‘It’s noisy and it smells.’ Yep, that’s right. It does.

More from the jungle as news breaks.
Babu

International Mine Awareness Day

2008-04-05T12:36:00.003+07:00

Friday April 4 was International Mine Awareness Day. I figured that would be a good time to give you some statistics about landmines.

The most heavily mined countries in the world right now are Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia. I won’t list the numbers in each country as its frankly irrelevant.

There are roughly 80 countries thought be effected by explosive remnants of war (ERW). Mines don’t merely destroy life and limb; they destroy the economy of an entire village or region. Oftentimes the villagers have no other recourse than to farm a suspected plot of land. It’s either that or starve. Or move to the city and beg on the street. And if they pick the wrong plot of land – boom.

There were over 450,000 reported landmine incidents around the world last year. Don’t you like that word, “incident”? What is an “incident”? An incident is a person who ‘interacted’ with an ERW. Some poor soul who found a mine or UXO and if he was lucky, merely lost a few fingers. In the worst case, there’s not enough left to bury.

Now those were 450,000 reported incidents. Everyone agrees the number is vastly higher, but the countries affected hardly have adequate reporting systems. Sometimes they barely have an operating government.

There are some wonderful groups working around the world to clear these weapons of terror. They are called humanitarian deminers. The largest group is undoubtedly The Halo Trust (www.halotrust.org). Many of you know them as Princess Diana’s charity to clear landmines. I’ve been remiss is not talking about them and the wonderful work that they are accomplishing here in Cambodia. They have removed thousands of landmines throughout the country. They currently have over 1,200 demining staff working in 5 different provinces of the country.

Another group very active in the country is Mine Action Group (www.mag.org.uk). MAG was the co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize awarded for its work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. They have about 500 employees in Cambodia working to clear ERW, and 34% are women.

The 3rd large group doing demining here is the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, (www.cmac.org.kh). CMAC employs over 3,000 people in its organization and operates across the country as the ‘national’ demining organization. As well as demining it does mine awareness classes, mine verification, and UXO clearance and training. That’s a bit of a simplification, but it gives you the flavor of what they do.

So the obvious question is what can CSHD offer, and how can it enhance the work of the existing organizations in the country. And that is a very fair question and is being asked right now in Cambodia.

First of all, CSHD is a Khmer (Cambodian) NGO. It will not be funded by the government, as is CMAC. It will be an all Khmer demining company, run by Khmers for the benefit of Khmers. It won’t be working in other countries, only in Cambodia.

CSHD has no intention or desire to grow to the size of Halo, CMAC or even MAG. It wants to be a small, fast response demining operation that can meet immediate threats and needs as villagers around the country identify them. To give you an example: I know of one village in which a landmine was found, and CMAC contacted immediately. 7 days later no one had yet arrived to clear the mine. In a case like this the villagers could contact CSHD, who would immediately respond, clear the identified threat, search the area for any additional ERW and report their findings to the national authority. We’ll be driving a Volkswagen, not trying to redirect the Queen Mary.

CSHS hopes to field a 5-man team of deminers this year. We hope to field 2 – 3 teams in the following 12 months. Our total staff will be under 24, allowing CSHD to concentrate on areas that aren’t currently being cleared, but have suspected ERWs in their area.

Numerous villages have contacted Aki Ra across the country asking him to help them make the area safe. That’s all he wants to do.

We were in Phnom Penh this week for some meetings and Aki Ra and I started talking about Halo and MAG and CMAC. I asked him what he thought of them and he said ‘anyone who clears mines is making my country safer and doing good work. I like them.’ I have NEVER heard Aki Ra say a bad word about another demining organization.

Riding around in our tuk tuk from place to place, I asked Aki Ra which he liked best, Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. He looked back at me and said, “I like the jungle. I want to go back and clear mines.” With your help we’ll make his wish come true.

The last thing I'd like you to do is go to the following link and watch the video. It's self explanatory

(Click on "See the video" Then choose whether you have a hi or low speed connection. Most of you have hi speed.)

http://www.stoplandmines.org/slm/index.html

Babu

The Shame of it All

2008-03-31T11:36:00.002+07:00

I’ve kept my postings pretty light. The funny things that have happened, and nice people I’m dealing with.

Today I’m just mad. More than mad, I am furious.

About 2 months ago, when I returned from my January trip, I asked people to contact their Senators, Representatives and MPs and ask for letters of support for Cambodian Self Help Demining. Foreign support, especially from politicians, means a great deal over here, a great deal. I cannot begin to tell you how important it is. It tells the local bureaucracy that they are being watched. That the rest of the world not only knows but cares about what happens in their country. It gives transparency to the process.

Here’s the letter we asked our politicians to sign:

To: Cambodian Mine Action and Victims Assistance Authority
Subject: Aki Ra and Cambodian Self Help Demining

I have recently become aware of the work of Aki Ra in clearing landmines and making Cambodia a safer place for its citizens. This work is of critical value in a world today where too few individuals are willing to place their lives on the line to help their neighbors live a better life.

I urge you to as quickly as possible allow Aki Ra's new NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining, to become a registered demining company in Cambodia and to give it full certification, meeting all national and international standards set for other demining NGOs.

Thank you for all the CMAA is and has done to make Cambodia safe for its people.

Regards,
What a controversial document!

Let me just tell you what we heard back from 4 American politicians.

My congresswoman is Rep. Mary Bono-Mack. I don’t agree with all her positions, but she’s been pretty good for the district. I asked her to sign this letter. She sent us a letter endorsing the Landmine Museum and the work of the Canadian government! Huh?? The Museum was registered as an NGO in 2004 and got certified last year. What we got was totally worthless, off point and a waste of her and my time. I sent another letter to Rep. Bono-Mack’s office asking her to sign the letter. Not a word has come back.

My Senators are Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. I sent them both a request and have not even had the courtesy of a reply from either. Oh yeah – I donated to Sen. Boxer’s campaign. She certainly gets in touch with me when she needs something.

Some of our donors are from Maine. Senator Collins was contacted and asked for a letter of support. Nope, out of my district. Uh….I thought she was a Senator? Maybe I’m wrong, but don’t they vote on things outside their districts? Like wars and foreign aid and stuff?

We’ve got 2 letters from MPs in the UK and been promised more. But squat from the US.

I am flatly ashamed. We’ve had literally dozens of people write their representatives and senators and ask for this simple letter that will do nothing more than save lives. There’s a lot of cheap shots I can take right now, and frankly they are well deserved. But I’ll leave them to you.

We read all the time that the American political system doesn’t work. Well I’m pretty sure that if I were donating thousands or millions of dollars, these politicians would be all over me like white on rice. I won’t call them representatives any more, ‘cause they sure don’t represent me.

When it looked like the Museum wouldn't get built the Canadian Ambassador stepped in as did the Prime Minister. I have been totally unable to reach anyone at the US Embassy. A bit annoying? Yeah...a bit.

Maybe we can shame them into supporting Ai Ra.
I am certainly ashamed of them.

I’ll try and be more ‘upbeat’ next time.

Babu

Big Box Deliveries in Cambodia

2008-03-28T19:59:00.001+07:00

As you know, I’m over here to work on Aki Ra’s demining program. We need a place to keep all of his equipment so we bought a container. You know, the kind you see being hauled down the street behind a truck. The ones that get delivered on container ships to the harbors.

In the US you can buy these things for a few hundred bucks. That’s because we import a whole bunch more than we export. So the number of containers in the US just grows and grows. Over here they have an export surplus, vis a vis containers, and they cost a bit more. We paid a goodly amount for one, had it outfitted with lockers and a steel crate weighing several hundred kilos for storage of valuable items and had it shipped from Phnom Penh.

Building the crate was pretty neat. The company that did it is called DTW, and they employ a lot of handicapped workers, some of them landmine victims. Very nice.

The container got shipped from Phnom Penh up here the other day. The trucker left around 8am. Now a bus, as you know if you’ve read my earlier postings, can take anywhere from 4-6 hours, 8 at the most to reach to Siem Reap.

It arrived at 5pm. Ah - Khmer time. The temperature was about 90 degrees (30c) and the humidity was at 75%.

Don’t know what took the guy so long, but at least it was still light out when he got there.

The gate of the compound where we store the container is 3 meters wide. The bus was 3 meters wide. Who was gonna win that battle? A brick fence or a 2 ton truck? I have to give it to the driver though, he was really good. The bus made it through the gate with about 2 cm (less than an inch) on either side. That was after we cut the branch off a tree that was hanging into the road.

Well, we missed the buildings by less than ½ meter, only ran over one real small palm tree (don’t worry, there are plenty left), and delivered the prize next door to Aki Ra and Hourt’s house.

There was a crane on the truck and they got the container ‘planted’ with no problem. It was on the ground maybe 30 seconds when Chet and Boreak, both landmine victims, had scaled the sides and were jumping up and down on the roof. Hey, I was impressed.

Once they got down, they asked me what it was for. I told them it was for boys who didn’t follow the rules. Both gave me sideways look until I started to laugh.

We got back to Siem Reap a bit after dark and that in itself is a story to tell. The road we were is, let’s say, less than adequate. That’s in the daytime. After dark it is simply scary. People drive on either side, cut across opposing traffic, and blow their freakin’ horns every time they pass you. Sort of like Boston.

We made it back in one piece so I took our Tuk Tuk driver, general fix-it man, and good friend, Sim Sau to dinner. We eat off the menu. Sau goes to the kitchen and orders special. It’s also twice the size we get. Hmmmm…………

Today Aki Ra and I worked some more on the registration and certification process. It takes a lot longer over here to get things done than it does at home.

I don’t think I’ll have the certs done before my visa runs out, so it looks like I will be back here in a couple of months.

I hope you all got a chance to see the ‘Bomber and Roy” story. I’ve been in close contact with them both and it is really hoppin’ ‘Down Under’. They are getting a lot of emails, as are we. The show is being shown again tonite and Sunday, I believe. I have not been able to watch it yet, although it is on-line. The internet connections here are just too slow. I did read the transcript though. These guys are truly amazing.

All for now. More later

Babu

Bomber and Roy

2008-03-24T21:32:00.004+07:00

Whatever you are doing right now stop. Go to this website:

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/bomber/default.htm

Australian TV did a show about Bomber and Roy, 2 Australian Vietnam Vets who have done amazing work helping Aki Ra over the past few years clearing landmines in Cambodia.

They are my heroes.

If I can do half what they have done to help Aki Ra I will die a happy man.

You can access the the entire program there. It is awesome!!!!

GO TO THE SITE NOW!!!

Babu

Update from the Jungle

2008-03-23T13:29:00.002+07:00

23 March 2008

Don’t eat the Mexican food.

I don’t think I have to explain to any of you what I mean by that. Whether it was the way they made the enchiladas or the fact that I’d been eating chicken and rice for a week, the dinner and I did not much get along.

Oh yeah, also make sure you have plenty of tp in your room. ‘Nuff said.

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted, but last week was a lot busier than I had expected it to be, with meetings with Aki Ra, trips to Phnom Penh, meetings with government officials and contractors and then paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.

Monday I went out to the Museum and had some meetings with the people there. It was very good and we went over a lot of things that need to be done. As I mentioned earlier, they ran into a really bad mouse problem. The mice even started eating the money they keep in a drawer for petty cash. Then last week they ate the copier. Well, not the whole thing, but enough of the wire inside so that it doesn’t work any more. They were going to try and get it fixed, but it’s one of those HP ‘all in ones’ that cost about $150 (even here) and the cost and time to fix it isn’t worth the effort.

And everyone thinks the mouse traps are ‘very dangerous’. Now, these are folks who run a landmine museum and have cleared a whole bunch of mines and UXOs. I found that amusing. But if you’ve never put together a mouse trap and had one snap on your finger, you know what they mean. So we had a little class in mouse trap setting. Just hope none of the kids start looking in desk drawers for candy. Nasty surprise.

Aki Ra and I flew into Phnom Penh Wednesday for a few meetings and boy what a difference to Siem Reap. Crowded, traffic, dusty and impersonal. We had a couple of good meals and my $30/nite hotel had a huge room and internet access so I was able to get a lot of work done, all except the blog.

The weather over here just gets hotter and hotter. It’s Sunday afternoon at 1pm right now and the weather is already over 90 degrees and the humidity is at 63%, so it is ripe. I’ve gone down 2 notches on my belt and if I don’t tuck my shirt in, 3. Svelt I am not, but I do seem to be losing some kilos.

The people here are very nice, both the barangs (foreigners like me) and the Khmers. I made some good friends in the NGO community over the last few months so I run into a lot of them around town and it’s nice to be able to sit down with friends and have coke or a quick meal. If I get really hungry for a home cooked meal I can set up a meeting at the Museum for late morning or early afternoon and catch lunch. Always great, and always more than I can eat. And if you know me, that’s a lot.

It’s Easter Sunday today. Since almost the entire country is Buddhist there isn’t much to see regarding Easter except that several of the shops are selling chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs. I cannot imaging buying chocolate bunnies in this weather. You better eat everything quick, ‘cause I don’t think anything would make it back to the guest house.

There are a few Christian churches here and they are having Easter services today, although I haven’t seen much about it. Just seems like a day in Siem Reap. Sunday is the only day folks have off, but since this is primarily a tourist town, everything is pretty much the same as any other day.

Next week we work on all the certification papers.

More to come

Babu