Toward the end of last year, my partner Hamish, my father Danny and myself joined a small group of travellers on a life-changing trip to Laos. I was there as ambassador to MiVAC (Mines Victims and Clearance) – an organisation that commits itself to providing care and assistance to
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The Ban Xai Annual Report – Sandy MacGregor
The Ban Xai Annual Report In June 2013 John Salter delivered MiVAC’s Annual Report to assembled representatives of Phoukood District and Xiengkhouang MoFA. The day started at the MiVAC Farm at Ban Xai where Yang gave a briefing of what had been achieved outside the farm. This was followed by
One Site of Making Jars and the North Vietnamese HQ – Sandy MacGregor
One Site of Making Jars and the North Vietnamese HQ Not far from Phonsavan my brother Chris and I hired Yang on a Sunday to do some site seeing. The first place we went to was one site where the Lao people made the Jars. They hewed them out
Tourism not far from Phonsavan – Sandy MacGregor
On the Sunday afternoon my brother Chris and I were taken past Ban Xai to the old CIA airstrip. During the war the CIA using Hmong and Thai forces operated from three airfields. The one in the town of Phonsavan, the current airstrip called Xiengkhouang and this one which
New Use For Minefield – Sandy MacGregor
New Use For Minefield The month was June – June 2013. It was late in the afternoon and Yang drove me past the Pong Hor school, past the Police Agricultural buildings and then I spied it. New Fences! That’s right the area around the Khangpunghor Minefield had been fenced. I
John Salter – Report on Fish Pond.
We are now dabbling in fish, sooo we dug a big hole! That leaked! Lined it with plastic, annnnd it still leaked!! Soooo we then put in a concrete base and rendered brick walls , annnd now it is ready for fish. So any readers out there who know what to
John Salter on Lao Bunnings and Rice Paddy’s.
BUNNINGS and RICE PADDY’S We call our local hardware shop Bunnings , only because it makes it easier to say than Sopthaineuthang. Now in Phonsavan there must be 50 Bunnings type shops, all selling the same range of goods. At one end, Cement, then reo rod (no mesh here you
RENEW and MiVAC
PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT Project Implementation Brief In October 2012, Project RENEW and MiVAC signed an MoU agreeing that MiVAC would contribute $30,000 as matching funds to complete construction of a new building to house and operate new mushroom production equipment being donated by the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam. The MiVAC
Water Testing with IDEXX in Ban Xai
Water Testing with IDEXX in Ban Xai At the recent presentation of the MiVAC Annual Report John Salter – MiVAC’s Operations Manager in Phonsavan – told the gathering about the IDEXX equipment and what it could do. The next step was to tell the audience about the Ceramic Water Filter (CWF).
John Salter- Report on visit by Enrico Beretta, President Parramatta Lions.
Enrico Beretta ( that son of a gun) and his lovely Lao partner Savandaly, arrived on Wednesday. They were here for a two day visit, and stayed at the “Hard Bed Café” or is it just the Nice Guest house. We all went to Bamboozle for dinner and enjoyed a