^{Today we visited a family in the rural area near Dong Hoi. The family had 15 children, but 12 have died of Agent Orange-related problems, two live in the home and are expect to die within a year or two and one is mildly retarded from AO, but is married and living away from home. One daughter, Hang, is really beautiful but suffers terrible seizures that may last as long as 20 hours. She is 15 years old and has gone through 4 rounds of brain surgery to try to ease the seizures, but the doctors expect her to die within the year. As some of our group arrived yesterday for a preliminary visit, there was terrible moaning and they were led to her bed where she was writhing in the throes of a terrible seizure. 10 minutes later she had recovered sufficiently to be interviewed and we learned that her greatest wish was to have a computer. She was quite bright and personable.}

^{Hang holds her sister on her lap Hang sits attentively and talks with us.}

^{Karla from our group decided to buy a computer and a year’s worth of internet service for Hang from her non-profit agency’s funds and we returned today with it. She was overjoyed and perhaps a little overwhelmed. Her parents said that excitement often triggers her seizures, but thankfully nothing happened. Hang told us her dream was to be a teacher or singer and then proceeded to sing us some sweet songs from traditional Vietnamese opera and pop music. It’s not the first time an AO kid has sung for us and the subject always seems to be of hope for the future. It’s really a rough message to listen to from these kids who have so little real hope.}

^{Hang takes delivery of her new computer}

^{Hang’s sister is much more seriously affected, even though both are given a very short lease on life. She is severely mentally affected and seems able to only say “Ba” or “Me” (father and mother). Her legs and feet are also affected and she walks with difficulty. Her only activity is to walk up to whoever is closest and to try to hug and kiss them. Her “kisses” consist of putting her face against yours and sniffing. This went on incessantly for the hour we were with the family.}

^{Hang's sister in a rare moment when she wasn't seeking affection}

^{After visiting with the family in their house, the father led us up a sand dune to a small family cemetery plot where there were 12 small graves for the twelve dead children, and two spots reserved for Hang and her sister. Hang’s sister insisted on coming along but had to be carried up the dune on her father’s back. There were no names but only numbers on the graves representing the dead child’s place in the birth order of the children. Numbers 2, 8 and 12 representing Hang and her two sisters were missing. The father lit incense sticks and placed some on an altar at the front of the plot and one at each grave. He also got on his knees and said a prayer and spent some time tidying the cemetery. The children who died as infants didn't have names, only the birth order numbers carved in the cement at the foot of the grave. The dad couldn't recall the names of any of the others. He goes through this routine each day and must think about the day he will carry each of his remaining daughters up the dune for the last time.}

^{Twelve little graves await the arrival of 2 more sisters Child number 14}

^{Dad delivers his daily prayer for his 12 lost kids. Sis gets a ride up to the cemetery plot}

^{Next we walked to a neighboring house where a little teenage boy lay on his hard wooden bed. This is his existence every hour of each day. The Agent Orange has affected his brain and central nervous system to the point where his existence is barely above vegetative. I sat beside him on his bed and stroked his head, arm, hand, and back. It seemed he turned toward me and I hoped I was making a connection, but I couldn’t be sure. His parents say he is non responsive, but he takes the full time care of his mom, which reduces family resources tremendously.}

^{Next we walked about 200 meters up the road to a house where we were taken to two brothers in their twenties on a wooden platform in their combination bedroom/kitchen. I tried speaking to them and found them both to be aware, but only one was able to respond even minimally. The mother helped the more healthy of the two to sit up and we saw terrible bed sores on his lower back and buttocks. The room and house were in disarray and had a bad stench and we constantly waved away flies that buzzed around the bed. The father died a year ago from a stroke and the mother seemed to be overwhelmed. In addition to a cash contribution, we resolved to get a special mattress to help reduce the bedsores when we return to Saigon in a few weeks.}

^{This boy's bed sores look painful and horrendous. His brother was responsive but unable to speak or move on his own.}

^{This was really a hard day. From the rows of babies’ graves in the cemetery to the bleak hopelessness of the lives of the kids and families it was hard to find a silver lining. I’m sure the donations we brought and the items we buy will help some, but in the end to give our thanks to the parents for allowing us to visit and telling them we’ll try to visit again next year just doesn’t feel like enough. The boys on the beds will spend each minute of the rest of their lives lying in their own filth and unable to go anywhere and the little girls will join their sisters in the cemetery on the dune before long. And until then and after their parents will face the same situation each day and wonder what they did to deserve this fate. And we will always know that it results from a C-130 aircraft bearing U.S. military insignia that flew overhead and sprayed a white cloud that drifted gently to the ground on a warm sunny day 40 years ago.}

^{Yesterday our group suffered some dissension and hurt feelings about how things were going. Today, as hard as we tried, not one of us could find anything in our lives to complain about today.}

^{The other day we stayed at a hotel with massage facilities in Tam Ky that clearly doubled as a house of ill repute. In the late afternoon I was lying on my bed next to the window in my pajama bottoms watching Alien Resurrection when I noticed that 4 of “the girls” were standing at the window. There was a particularly gruesome and slimy scene and they were emitting sounds of horror and disgust completely appropriate to what I was watching. I looked up and realized that they were looking at my right foot and couldn’t have cared less about the movie.}

^{The foot has healed in subsequent days and hopefully will make it the rest of the way to Hanoi without comment.}

^{[Anyone who knows Vietnam or has paid much attention to my photostream will notice that my blogs are all out of order. I have had enough problem with cameras and computers that I am weeks behind in uploading blogs and I am just struggling to get them where they can be read.]}

^{After the morning visit to the families yesterday, I tended to my blisters by cutting off the 2 x 2” patch of loose skin after the blister drained. It looked like I was down to meat and even when bandaged was too painful to walk on. In order to be useful, I agreed to drive the jeep and trailer to the next hotel site and to ferry water and walkers during the day. My only scare was when were within a mile of the hotel and the local police came tearing up behind me with lights blazing. It turns out they were after the truck I was following and not me. I want to be as helpful as I can and our lack of legal drivers really cuts into Doc’s ability to walk with us, but I don’t want to be arrested again if I can help it.}

^{By noon my foot felt much better and I expect to be walking again tomorrow.}

^{Most main roads here are either 2 or 4 lane highways with paved shoulders making up an additional lane in each direction. The shoulders are for bikes and motorbikes. There isn’t really a dedicated place for walkers, of whom there are few. There are several conveyances for passengers on the road, ranging from big intercity buses to more local buses to vans. The latter two stop frequently for passengers and the vans seems to actively solicit riders. There are quite a few large trucks on the road and smaller trucks and cars. By far the most common are motorbikes which can be carrying a whole family or amazing amounts and types of cargo. I have seen motorbike drivers carrying a bundle of 20’ rebar, 3-4 large sacks of something or other, and even huge blocks of ice (1’ x 1’ 4’) tied down behind the driver and between his legs.}

^{When motorbike traffic is heavy and we have to move off the road surface, it’s not always so smooth and comfortable. You feel obliged to step off the pavement when you see a number of motorbikes approaching on the shoulder and there are large motor vehicles in the main road lanes. Everyone uses their horns constantly just as reminders of their presence. At first we walked on the right shoulder in the direction of traffic, but the constant horn blasting without being able to see who is coming behind and how close was nerve wracking, so we crossed the road pretty early on.}

^{Most people and curious and kind. A lot of truckers and bus drivers wave from behind their wind shields. It’s pretty easy to get younger bicycle or motorbike riders, especially the girls, to flash a smile and wave. It varies in between. Once a day or so some jerk plays chicken with us on his bike and pretends to be trying to run us down. This really isn’t very funny, but the other day one such guy came to close and as he swerved away to avoid us he hit a cyclist and all went flying hard. The cyclist didn’t move for a while and we were a little worried. Bystanders corralled the offenders before they could run away. Knowing that all was under control, we left quickly, not wanting to be take the chance of being implicated in any way.}

^{Every ½ mile to a mile there is normally at least one small “café” or hut with tables selling bottled water or soft drinks. These are often warm and not always conventional. One of the more interesting is “Bird Nest Drink”, whose key ingredients are “water, sugar, bird nest, white fungus”. There are also a lot of green tea based drinks.}

^{When you spend a day driving the jeep, you get a real good idea of the ground we are covering. Even when you have actively participated in the walk, seeing the 20-40 miles covered in a day or two is really impressive.}