Humble Pie

Finished house this morning - hurrah. Well, strictly speaking there is still a mud bridge to make but the mud wasn't delivered so we declared the house done anyway as the monks are coming to bless it tomorrow.

Visited war museum this afternoon. It wasn't so much the displays of rusting Russian tanks, personnel carriers or landmines as the guide here.

There is nothing more humbling than a person whose opening line is 'I am very lucky - I have been shot three times, hit by shrapnel and stood on a landmine and I am still here.' His wife died 6 weeks ago from TB and once he heard we were building houses he took Martyn quietly to one side and said 'Thank you very much, you had nothing to do with this and you come to help us'

There are still more than 4000 landmines left here and they are all the ones made of plastic which they need sniffer dogs to find. Even now roughly 32 people a month are injured or killed by landmines.

Needless to say we needed ice cream to cheer ourselves up.

And we still managed the Pol Pot film after that (we missed it yesterday as dinner over ran). Apparently it is quite watered down (for which I am eternally grateful - it was bad enough as it was). Had to read between the lines a bit as it was a 'government approved' film but still, informative and just, well, very sad.

Needed something to cheer ourselves up after that as well. Will power prevailed and we didn't have another ice cream. Went for fish spa instead. Felt a bit sorry for the fish really but they seemed to enjoy it. Feet all sparkly and tingly now!

You see the thing is, with Hiroshima (and most of the other war memorials / cemeteries etc we've been to) its very peaceful, well balanced and informative with interspersings of horrific photos but somehow there is a sense of detachment. This is yet another beautiful country with the most stunning friendly innocent people who have seen things that just shouldn't be.

Ah well, hugs to all. Stay safe.