Laos: A Pleasant Surprise

Next up would be..LAOS! In case any of you do not know, Laos is a country. We went there to renew our visas and honestly I wasn’t expecting too much. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Laos. It’s a country that I definitely want to learn more about. The history of Laos is very interesting and I would urge you to do some research. You will thank me, If you like learning and like history. If not…I’ll do what I can to give you a little bit of what I’ve learned from being there. Through pictures and captions of course!

Beautiful Laos! We stayed in Vientiane, which is the capital of Laos. 

The entrance to the temple.

Laos was full of strange figurines in shops. Prime example above. 

Downtown Vientiane. 

At the market! Markets have become a favorite no matter where we go.

Laos was under French rule for a really long time. In fact Laos didn't gain independence until 1953! Prior to that, French was the official language and so Laos has a lot of French influence in its architecture. The mix is very beautiful. 

These are pictures taken at the COPE center. I do want to take a minute to write and explain what the COPE center is, because it was one of the best parts of my entire journey thus far. COPE stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise. Laos has been the most bombed country per capita in the world. During the Vietnam war they were a country heavily bombed because the Vietnamese had camps set up there. Huge bombs were dropped that were then filled with hundreds of miniature bombs inside. A lot of the bombing was from the USA and was a secret mission under President Reagan. The biggest problem is that many of these bombs have not yet been detonated and continue to kill 100 Laos people a year, to this day. The people there are so poor and they go looking for scrap metal. Sometimes that scrap metal turns out to be a bomb and it either kills them or leaves them amputated. Many of the victims are children. The COPE center is a rehabilitation center that gives prosthetics to these victims and helps them to function on their own again. There is also a museum where you can read about all that has happened, watch documentaries, and meet some of the victims. They are very open to Westerners visiting, which speaks loads of there character. It was such an emotional day for me, as I watched and listened, taking in everything I was surrounded by. It's hard to put into words how I was feeling that day. Can you imagine being poor enough that you would risk your life digging for metal that could explode at any point? In the documentary I watched they were training Laos men how to move bombs and destroy them so that they couldn't hurt or kill other people. There were two bombs that were discovered in a Laos school yard. The kids were actually a little disappointed to see it leaving because the metal would've been worth a lot of money. 20 dollars was enough for them to risk their lives. The COPE center doesn't charge it's patients and runs off of donations. It was so neat to be able to give back to an organization that does so much good. I was able to meet one of the victims. His name was Peter and he was about my same age. He was left without any hands and was blind due to a bomb. His attitude was so positive though and he was so funny flirting and laughing with us. I learned a lot about the history of Laos through the COPE center. If you're interested here is there website, http://www.copelaos.org/tic a
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Those are the little cluster bombs that come out of the big one.


All the red is where bombs were dropped.



Homemade prosthetics that people try and get by on before coming to the COPE center.

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