QUANG TRI PROVINCE, VIETNAM–The third nursery school we dedicated today was built 300 hundred yards from a former U.S. air base in Quang Tri where Allen ran med-evacs for three months in 1968. Although most of the runway was gone, the immediate area was still pock marked with bomb craters. Across the dirt road from the school were family grave sites – some simple raised domes, some with elaborate cement head stones.
 
Earlier in the day, Jim Taylor up — a former Marine corps special forces recon officer — wept openly as he dedicated an elementary school in honor of three of his platoon members who had died in the war. He said he hoped the children would fulfill their potential and grow up to help their country.
 
Dave Gillis, an army anesthesiologist who served in Vietnam and in a medical supervisory role in the first Gulf War and in Iraq, dedicated a medical clinic that had been completed two weeks earlier with his financial help. With tears streaming down his face he spoke of those of had died on both sides of the war and thanked the village for allowing him to help the community live in better health. The two-story cement block structure — painted marigold yellow for prosperity — had eight rooms each with two beds and one cabinet that held medications and equipment.
 
I am learning Vietnamese as fast as I can — I’ve never been so frustrated with my inability to talk to people. So far, no one speaks French and only our translators speak English. The children are extremely shy and frankly, astonished at out presence, and the men are all business. However, the female teachers and nurses reach out and grab my hands, pulling me close for hugs and even kisses, talking all the while.
 
Vang, one of our translators, told me if DOVE didn’t fund and build these projects, they simply wouldn’t happen. Because there is no tourism in Quang Tri, it’s one of the poorest areas of the country, with most people surviving as rice farmers, living on $80 a month.
 
It’s been drizzling all day, making for some difficult driving on the red dirt roads. Tonight we’re staying in Dong Ha — a rather desolate town about 40 miles from the Laotian border. But after dinner we’re having the joining locals in a Karaoke bar, so I’ll be polishing my Patsy Cline.

Barbara