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Georgia Diary
August 8, 2003
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Our new task is a very important and interesting one. The Green House was built on this area before the war. Now the area is ruined and called a minefield. So as soon as we started to work here, the local people came and asked many questions such as
"What kind of machine is this?"
"How does it work?"
and
"How long will it take to clear this area so we can start to rehabilitate the Green House?"
During our first days here, while we were preparing to start work, we of course answered all the questions asked by the locals.
Some days ago we saw some local children sitting on the branches of a big tree watching us work from a distance. They were even watching us smoke during the break. And yesterday one of those boys came and asked for a job. He was about 10 years old with big blue eyes, full of interest. He spoke without any full stops. He said that he had decided to be a deminer in the future and that it was better to start now to gain experience. He would like to start with some small job such as helping the team with equipment cleaning or some such thing. He also said that he would sort out any problems with his mother and ask her to sew a uniform for him!
We were laughing, but he was very serious. Then we thanked him for wishing to help but advised him to start thinking about some other job. We explained to him that we hoped to clear all the minefields by the time he would be able to work for HALO.
He was disappointed but we promised he could take some photos of our Crusher machine. Only that point brought us to a bilateral agreement.
Peter Shoua
Field Officer Crusher Team
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