Day 11

Today was a pretty intense day. We started the day off by going to the Cuchi Tunnels which was really interesting. It is always so eye opening to see the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese side. We saw all the traps that they used against the Americans, there was one where they covered the spikes in sewage so that when an American would fall into the trap they would get injured and the injury would get infected. The traps were aimed to injure the soldier not kill them because then other soldiers would have to help take care of them so it took a few soldiers off their hands instead of only one. The cool part of the Cuchi Tunnels was when we actually got to go inside the tunnels. The tunnels were so small we had to be on our hands and knees the whole time, by the end of it we were all dripping in sweat so I can't even imagine being a soldier and dressed in army gear in those tunnels for days. After the tunnels we went to the War Remnants Museum. This museum was a little more intense, it really hit home seeing all the horrific things the American soldiers did to the Vietnamese. It's amazing how forgiving the Vietnamese are of all that happened. If you ask almost any Vietnamese their feelings towards Americans it is nothing but positivity and forgiveness. Our culture teacher was telling us that his father was exposed to agent orange and him and his brother were not affected but his brother's daughter has a deformity because of it. However he said there was no reason to be angry with Americans and that it is in all in the past which I really admire. Personally, I was most amazed by the agent orange display in the museum. The images and stories are so heart breaking because people are still being affected by it today. They don't know how long it will take for it to stop being passed down from generation to generation. Even people who weren't exposed to it in the war but ate fish out of a sea that was contaminated with it by accident have had children and their children had deformities. There were also stories of American soldiers who went home and had babies and their babies had deformities from the soldier's exposure to the agent orange while they were at war. It just is so sad to me that it all had to happen and so many innocent lives were taken. Out of the 3 million Vietnamese killed during this war, 2 million were civilians.
      So on a brighter note, to cheer ourselves up after the museum we went back to Snowy and got ice cream. Then we went to a famous souvenir shop downtown to do a little last minute shopping since we won't have time to shop tomorrow and tomorrow is our last day :(. Tonight we are taking our Vietnamese friends to dinner at a famous beer garden downtown and treating them as a thank you for their hospitality. After dinner we are going to go out to our favorite clubs and make the best of our second to last night together. I'm not ready to leave all these people we have all gotten so close.