Laos documentary

Watch your Television listing schedules. PBS stations across the country have begun airing "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," a feature documentary on Laos. It had its theater run last fall and was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best documentary feature.

We had the occasion to watch its premier in New York City and got to talk with its co-director Thavisouk during a question-and-answer session after the show. He told us that after his family's internment at a Thai refugee camp, they were flown to the Philippines where they stayed at our center there for Indochinese refugees before they were resettled in the USA.

To witness how they survived their experience and how it compares with our own Mekong Circle Laos exodus and resettlement in the USA is to ponder how fortunate we have been.

To read a synopsis of the documentary and view the trailer, click the image above, or go to the link: http://www.pbs.org/pov/betrayal/

To find out when it airs in your local market, go to this link http://www.pbs.org/pov/tvschedule/ and enter your ZIP code.


Message from Pete Fuentecilla

Operation Brotherhood in Kengkok

We are passing on two inquiries from former workers in Laos, regarding a reported 1972 incident at the village of Kengkok. If anyone has any information, you may e-mail the parties directly. Their contact information is included.

=====

The first request comes from MacAlan Thompson, who worked with the Refugee Relief Operations of USAID, supplying airdrops of food and other materials to the northern provinces. He used to visit OB Ban Houie Sai. During his last visit there five years ago, he reports that the OB Hospital still stood there, and that OB is well remembered. (NVA is North Vietnamese Army; IVS is International Voluntary Service).

Mac can be reached via e-mail at mactbkk@gmail.com

The report he is inquiring about has been floating on the Internet (It references NVA: North Vietnamese Army; and IVS: International Voluntary Service):

28 October 1972

That morning an NVA patrol of about a dozen men entered the village of Keng Kok - located about 35 miles east of the airport - and taken some prisoners.

There was a Filipino medical mission called Operation Brotherhood, s well as a Canadian Christian mission located there.

Back at Savannakhet we learned that 4 Canadians (2 women, then 2 men who'd gone looking for them) had been abducted by the NVA, and were last seen tied up and held in one of the houses.

An Air America helicopter from Savannakhet picked up 16 members from both missions in a rice field nearby.

Around noon the Lao Army attacked the village, set a few houses on fire, and the NVA escaped to the east.

A day or two later we heard that the bodies of the two men had been recovered, but there was still no account of what had happened to the women.

=====

The second information request comes from Judy Porter, who sends along a photo taken in 1973:




















She's wondering if anyone can identify those who are in the photo.

From her e-mail to Mekong Circle:

I was an Air America wife living in Udorn but doing free lance photography and writing articles for Asia Magazine in Hong Kong. I talked USAID into letting me photograph their entire project in Laos from North of Houi Sai to South of Pakse.

I did that in 1973 and while in Kengkok I heard about that terrible NVA attack and the loss of two women. I'm now Editor of the Air America Newsletter and one of my contributors came up with a story about being called to Kengkok in 1972 to rescue those who escaped the attack. I told him what I heard and we made inquiries and have learned much more. He's a good writer and will tie it all together. I thought those in the picture might offer even more.

If anyone has any information, Judy can be contacted at: JudyinanRV@aol.com

Wanted 1960s Photos Mahosot Hospital Vientiane Laos

To all:

During our OB days in Vientiane in the 1960s, team members did work together with some Mahosot personnel. I remember that we did in-service training for their nurses. If any of you have photos you can email to Kathryn, please email together with the necessary info -- dates, occasion, etc.

During our "Return To Laos" trip November 2008, our group dropped by Mahosot on November 15 and presented to hospital directors a Mekong Circle donation of a larynoscope set (from Rusty Ramons) and a digital pressure monitor (from Fely Navera).

We first met Kathyryn at the Second International Lao Studies Conference in Tempe, Arizona in 2007. She joined our riverboat cruise during our "Return To Laos" trip in November 2008. She is a Senior Program Manager of the Development Cooperation Section at the Australian Embassy in Vientiane. She pak pasa Lao keng lai.


======================================


-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Olness
To: Kathryn Sweet, Pete Fuentecilla, Penelope Flores
Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 11:22 pm
Subject: Re: Mahosoth Hospital is marking its 100th year!

Dear Kathryn,

I have photos from the Mahosot, taken in the sixties. I just need to dig into our storeroom and find them. We are planning to visit Laos in October. I will try to find some and bring them along.
Some are in slide form.

Hakon and I also said that we would send a batch of our old Laos photos/slides to the University of Wisconsin archives i.e. website with Laos photos. We have not yet done it. Inasmuch as we are not getting younger, we really must attack our store room.

Warm regards,

Karen


>>> <<<


At 08:53 PM 7/12/2009, kathryn sweet wrote:

Dear Pete, Penelope and Karen

Hope this finds you well.

Mahosoth Hospital in Vientiane is marking its 100th anniversary next year (2010) and staff are searching for any old photos to form part of an exhibition of how the hospital has developed over the years. I know that OB focused its attention on Setthathirath Hospital in Vientiane, but wonder whether any of you may have some old photos of Mahosoth staff and/or buildings tucked away?

Regards

Kathryn

PS: I have submitted my research proposal, and am now waiting for answers from a few universities.

>>> <<<

From: Pete fuentecilla
To: Kathryn Sweet
Cc: Karen Olness, Penelope Flores
Sent: Friday, 6 February, 2009 6:19:52 PM
Subject: Re: OB visit to Laos, 2008

Hi Kathy,
If you do get an ok on your proposal, one primary source for your research is Dr. Karen Olness. Her NGO, Health Frontiers, which has an office in Vientiane, has been running a medical residency training program in Laos, for more than a decade now. She also oversaw the OB program in the 70s. I met with her and her husband Hakon at the last two international conferences on Lao Studies. Best wishes on the proposal.
Pete
OB doctors and nurses in the U.S. and the Philippines maybe able to tell you what it was like to practice medicine in Laos in the 1960s to mid-70s. I have some addresses. I am sure you have also read Dr. Charles Weldon's "Tragedy in Paradise."


-----Original Message-----
From: kathryn sweet
To: Penny Flores, Pete Fuentecilla
Sent: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 8:17 pm
Subject: OB visit to Laos, 2008


Dear Penelope and Pete



My apologies for the delay in contacting both of you.



It was my good fortune to meet you and the OB group in Vientiane in late 2008,

and I really enjoyed hearing more of your wonderful stories of working in Laos

during the dinner cruise.



I have copies of both your books, "Goodbye Vientiane" and "Filipinos in Laos",

which I am drawing on as I prepare a research proposal on the history of

medicine in Laos. I will advise you of which university I end up at, and the

direction my research finally takes.



Best wishes for 2009



Kathryn

Suggested reading

Two books by Mekong Circle member Dr. Penélope V. Flores of San Francisco State University.

Good-bye Vientiane
Untold Stories of Filipinos in Laos

2005









The Philippine Jeepney
A Filipino Family Metaphor

Understanding
The Filipino American Family

2008





Both are published by:
Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.
P.O. Box 31928
San Francisco, CA 94131-0928
pawa@pawainc.com
www.pawainc.com

Welcome to the new MekongCircle.org

This redesign of our Web site is aimed at making it easier to communicate our messages to the members of Mekong Circle.

For those of you who are online regularly, you will notice the familiar elements of a blog, which hopefully will make the site easier to navigate.

In this main space you will find the latest updates, just as at the old site.

But this space also will be used for stories about members, obituaries, reports, minutes of past meetings, organizational details and other information. To make information easier to find, each entry will be labeled.

The labels will make it easier to find all entries related to that subject with a single click. Just look for the list of labels on the lower right side of this page. Find the subject you are looking for and click the label. To navigate back to the main page, click the "Mekong Circle" title bar at the top.

You also will notice that each entry features a comment link, where you can post your ideas and reactions that other members can view. (All comments will be subject to moderation.)

Each entry also features an e-mail icon that allows you to forward the post.

For our biggest event, our biennial reunion, there is a separate box at right for details. Our next reunion is scheduled for 2010.

As members share photos, we also will post links to those pages in the photos section.

The newest feature is the Mekong Circle Twitter feed. (For those unfamiliar with Twitter, you can take a few minutes to read an article on it here.) You can follow the Twitter feed here: twitter.com/mekongcircle.

Most of the pages from the old site will remain active, and for now we may even link to those pages. The old site itself still will be accessible while we transition to this new site (see the link at right) but the pages may expire at the end of this month.

Our hope is that over time, you will find this site easier to navigate, enabling you to find the information you need quickly and easily.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me, the webmaster.

Sambai Dee! And thank you for your continued support of Mekong Circle International.

-Webmaster (bjr)

Oscar Frias; hydrologist, field engineer

Mekong Circle International lost another member. OSCAR FRIAS, who was diagnosed with a Cerebro Vascular Accident (CVA) last February 27, 1991, died on March 26, 2009 due to kidney failure complications. As a CVA patient, he was confined at the Trillium Health Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada for 15 years. In compliance with his final wish and through his insistence, he spent the last 4 years of his life in his hometown of Basista, Pangasinan, Philippines. He was laid to rest on April 5, 2009 in Basista, next to his father's grave. He was 66 years old. Oscar was a graduate of the University of the East, Department of Engineering.

Oscar is survived by his wife, Connie dela Pena Frias and three children (Janet, Robert and Oscar, Jr.). Although affiliated with USAID (Connie was the Administrative Associate in the General Service Office), both have strong OBI connections. Lydia Palma sung at their wedding on December 30, 1967 with Father Matt Menger as the officiating priest, and Pol Custodio serving as the altar assistant. Connie is a second cousin of Jojo Pablo.

Oscar worked as an Hydrologist in the Pamong Project of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Vientiane, Laos for a year, before serving as Field Engineer in the Agriculture Division of USAID/Laos. When Laos fell to the communist, both went to Iran - Oscar in December 1975 and Connie, who took the last Air France flight out of Vientiane in April 1976. In Iran, they were hired by Fluor Corporation; Oscar as the Field Engineer and Connie, the Executive Assistant to the Manager of the Ahwaz Office of Flour Iran, Ltd. After 4 years, they moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE. Once again, Oscar served as the Field Engineer and Connie was at the front office of Fluor Continental, Ltd.

Connie joined the United Nations in New York in 1984, while Oscar stayed in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia with Fluor Arabia, Ltd. In 1986, Oscar joined Connie in the U.S. and worked in the Engineering Department of a hospital in Paramus, New Jersey. Two years later, Oscar moved to Canada as an immigrant and had their 3 children later joined them. Connie continued working for the United Nations in New York and commuted every so often to be with the family in Ontario, Canada and vice-versa. The commute from New York to Canada became more often after Oscar suffered a stroke. She brave the New York thruway for a one-way 10 hours trip in her van every other weekend to be with Oscar and her children, making sure that his medical needs and documentation were properly attended to. While confined in the hospital with CVA, a memorable event happened to Oscar which he would proudly relate to his relatives and friends in the Philippines over and over again. On May 16, 1993, a Judge of the City of Mississauga, Ontario personally visited him at the Trillium Health Hospital and after a session of Canadian History, conferred on Oscar his Canadian citizenship.

When Oscar returned to the Philippines, his medical expenses went up and Connie came out of her retirement to work for the United Nations again. She accepted UN mission assignments in dangerous countries for more pay for the sustenance of her husband. She is presently on assignment in Kosovo. If you want to get in touch with her, she can be reached at frias9596@rogers.com.

(Obituary by Dr. Raul de Jesus)