We drove west out of Saigon for two hours until we reached a
small restaurant owned by relatives of Kim Phuc, the napalm girl. There they
showed us a movie about Kim, about the day the photo was taken, and about how
she has coped with the pain and forgiven everyone for what happened to her. It is
amazing that she has been able to forgive everyone, to be able to see eye to
eye with them after they caused her so much pain and suffering. After the movie
we walked to a neighboring Cao Dai temple. It was a vary colorful building with
lots of brightly painted statues and murals. Cao Dai is a vary new religion,
starting in 1926 in south Vietnam.
Once we left the temple we drove for an hour
to lunch and the Cu Chi tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels were under ground tunnels
used by the Viet Cong to fight against south Vietnam and the United States. We
watched another movie and got to crawl through the actual tunnels. Here we saw
a different side of the American War in Vietnam, a different perspective. Unlike
in America, south Vietnam and America were seen as the bad guys here, and the
Viet Cong as the underdog that persevered and beat the technologically superior
and wealthier enemy. It was definitely strange to hear, but also vary
interesting to see the opposite sides point of view. After crawling through the
tunnel we were given the opportunity to shoot some old guns that were used
during the war. For many of us this was the first time we had ever fired a gun.
It gave us perspective on what it was like to be soldier fighting in Vietnam
and the technology they had at the time. Overall, the day was loads of fun and
gave us tons of insight in to other people’s perspectives and a different side
of the war.
Off to the Mekong Delta for a few days!
- Marcus
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