Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Dien Bien Phu Cemetery


(PICTURE: Nameless headstones.)

Huyen and I went to the Dien Bien Phu cemetery where thousands of Vietnamese soldiers are buried. About 95% of the headstones do not have names on them because they are not sure who is buried in each tomb. I took some pictures -- but yes, my camera wire is still not working -- of some headstones where family members had carved into the back the name of the person who was buried underneath. We asked a worker at the cemetery about this and they said that even the tombs with names might not be correct as this is where psychics told family members that their loved one was buried.

When we left the cemetery, Huyen began to sob. I've never seen her cry so strongly and it really affected me. Between her tears she said that she hates that her uncle's body has till not been found and buried in his home land. For those of you who are new readers, Huyen's uncle was killed by the Americans somewhere in Cambodia. We've contacted some agencies in Vietnam about helping to recover his body but so far its been fruitless. This is definitely something we need to try harder at because it means so much to Huyen and her family.