Jeff Harrell over at The Shape of Days has a great story about one of the Gunners from Gunner Palace who came back from Iraq and couldn’t get the kids out of his head.
After reading the emails from Sergeant Niece and seeing the pictures of her and the kids in Iraq, I can completely understand.
Don’t skip the story, but if you’re short of time, just go check out WAR KIDS RELIEF.
One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen was the kids in Cambodia pushing themselves around on skateboards because they lost their legs to one of the 5 million landmines still kicking around from the Khmer Rouge days. Vietnam’s recovered pretty well from its conflict around the same time - and indeed one of the most touching things I’ve ever seen is when I discovered that the advice I’d had from an experienced traveller that Vietnamese kids appreciate pens and pencils more than token small change is actually true - but the effects of the KR conflict are still very much in evidence, and still happening.
Comment by Al — 20060402 @ 0507