When the pumpkin is a bomb, and your nearsight recues you!
Sometimes bombs can lay for decades without anyone knowing. In the peaceful village of Lak11 in Laos, in the Champasak province Ms Mounlong was indeed resucued by her nearsightedness.
Ms. Khambay Munloung, a 55 year-old farmer and housewife could not imagine, even in her worst nightmare, that her whole family and especially her kids, were living in temporary “harmony” with a life-threatening unexploded object for who knows how many years.
The day was like any other in her life, when she decided to do ordinary cleaning and burning of bush-cuttings with her daughter on her farm behind her house where she lived since 1973. The land has been used for planting coffee and chayote for over 40 years. In 2021, her family also planted some pumpkins in a part of the chayote farm which is close to their small vegetable garden and their kitchen.
“While I was collecting bushes and almost started to burn it in the small chayote farm behind my house, I found something that looked like a small rotten pumpkin. As I have a problem with my eyesight and it was also my luck, I asked my husband to check it and found out that it was an item of unexploded ordnance. I was terrified after I found out that I almost burned it”, she said.
Her husband thankfully knew what to do and took the right action straight away by reporting the item found immediately to the village chief, along with warning kids and surrounding neighbors not to come close to the area where the item was found.
The first thought that came to my mind at that time was that I have to report this explosive ordnance to the village chief. Since the explosive was found on the farm behind my house, I cannot even leave my house because I was extremely concerned that kids will come and play on the small chayote farm behind my house and they will find it, Ms. Khambay said.
The village chief then reported the explosive item to Norwegian People’s Aid’s Champasak Provincial Coordinator, Ms. Jalouny Insoutha. NPA Survey ST-21 team was tasked to assess the explosive item reported and to make a plan for removing the threat and the disposal of the item. The item was identified as a M-26 hand grenade. It was destroyed in situ, due to the condition of the itemwith cooperation and support from villagers to evacuate a few families in the proximity of the item.
Thankfully, the outcome was a happy one, and Ms. Khambay Munloung’s family, as well as her neighbors, can continue their lives and daily activities safely. “I am very happy and I have no concerns about my kids, my family members, and my neighbors anymore since the explosive item was removed,” she said.
