I woke up the other morning to find an email from a good friend of mine, Nathaniel. He sent me a nice little surprise: an article on America’s National Public Radio (NPR) about the man, Manophet, that was the impetus for the creation of the school in Laos, The Lone Buffalo Foundation, where I volunteer.
See the article The Lone Buffalo Cleared Unexploded Bombs And Boosted Needy Kids here.
The sad thing is in the main photo of Manophet: he’s climbing out of a bomb crater—and I knew exactly where he was. I had visited the same area last year for the Plain of Jars Project. It is an area called Ban Kai (ban=village).
I shot two short videos there, Visiting The Plain Of Scars Part #1 & #2:
While I was looking at the photo of Manophet, the first verse of Tom Waits’ song Hell Broke Luce popped into my head:
I had a good home but I left
I had a good home but I left, right, left
That big fucking bomb made me deaf, deaf
A Humvee mechanic put his Kevlar on wrong
I guarantee you’ll meet up with a suicide bomb
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Hell, indeed.