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| UXO = unexploded ordnance from the Secret War |
The UXO Lao visitor center was open today. A complex of offices ringed a courtyard filled with bomb casings dropped by the United States during the Secret War, the war in Laos in parallel to the Vietnam War. The visitor's center was only one room filled with a variety of the kinds of bombs and weapons used. The country is still covered in bombies, the small bombs released from large cluster bombs. Almost every day people are still injured or killed, most of them children, by these bombies from over 30 years ago. The Lao government in conjunction with many world governments and NGOs are working on clearing the country, but it'll take a long time. The United States has given money to this effort. The amount spent by the US since in helping with the effort to clear Laos of the bombs we dropped is equivalent to what the US spent in THREE DAYS of the bombing of Laos. Sobering... sickening.
no segue
Much later in the day we had sin dat, Lao BBQ. It's similar to Korean BBQ but instead of making lettuce wraps of grilled meat and veggies, you filled the edge of the grill with broth and veggies, grill the meat and make a soup of the whole thing. It was tasty and has limitless possibilities of flavors and ingredients. Fun dinner.
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