It's been much too long since I've posted something, and time is catching up with me. I just returned from my week long trip to Saigon and the Mekong Delta. The experience I had there is surly one I'll never forget. There was hardly a moment we weren't doing something. In Ho Chi Minh city we got the opportunity to visit an orphanage for kids who had been affected by agent orange. Agent orange is a pesticide that was used during the war for deforestation. It was sprayed over forests so that all the trees and shrubs would be stripped of their leaves, and the jungle would be much easier to burn. The main component in agent orange is a chemical called dioxin; if found in your blood, would cause mutations, and rare diseases. Many American soldiers were affected, but as you might guess, the Vietnamese soldiers suffered greatly from this. The main problem is that the dioxin is carried through generations, and results in serious birth defects. When we first arrived I was a bit uncomfortable raising my camera to the disabled children. I don't want them to feel like an animal in a cage, and us westerners coming by to stand and stare awhile. Then something clicked in me. I thought that instead of just being there feeling bad, I could use what I have, and take pictures. That's how I could help these kids. I won't fight with guns, my camera is my weapon, I'll fight will truth. Other parts of the trip included meeting and talking with university students at a school in Saigon, going to visit the Cu Chi tunnels and see what it's like to live as a tunnel rat, cruising through a mangrove forest and playing with monkeys in the delta, and touring an incredible ink manufacturing facility started by a Viet-kieu (Vietnamese that lived in the west). My biggest realization during this, was how the Vietnamese students were genuinely excited to just talk with us. It's hard for Americans to empathize with people from other cultures about what America is, and so for a lot of the people we meet; we are America. We are their first real life glimpse of what America really is, and it's difficult to put that into perspective. I'd try and go on, but for now I think I'll let my photo's do some talking.
