Experience the gentle spirit and remarkable tranquility of SE Asia’s most laid-back nation. The simple grace of monasteries, lush Mekong life and relics of Old World French Indochina provide an unforgettable landscape to explore the “Secret War” from the Vietnam era. Through meaningful service-learning projects, participants on our Laos student travel program are introduced to the national problem of subterranean munitions -- UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) through visits with MAG (Mines Advisory Group) and COPE (Center for Occupational and Prosthetic Education).

Experience the gentle spirit and remarkable tranquility of SE Asia’s most laid-back nation. The simple grace of monasteries, lush Mekong life and relics of Old World French Indochina provide an unforgettable landscape to explore the “Secret War” from the Vietnam era. Through meaningful service-learning projects, participants on our Laos student travel program are introduced to the national problem of subterranean munitions -- UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) through visits with MAG (Mines Advisory Group) and COPE (Center for Occupational and Prosthetic Education).

People to People: Local Community
Meet with villagers along the old “Ho Chi Minh Trail” for an intimate connection to rural communities still farming amidst “bombies,” an undeserved the legacy of the Vietnam War. Participants on our Laos student travel program meet innovative non-profit and humanitarian organizations working to support amputees, clear land for family farmers, and innovate creative solutions to economic self-sufficiency. Long-term success is found in compulsory education for the nation’s children. Educational enterprise has inspired hope and improved quality of life for people in rural and urban areas. In Luang Prabang, we experience the monastic tradition, amidst French colonial architecture along the mighty Mekong Delta. We balance our purposeful projects with restorative time in nature. Hikes to waterfalls, an elephant sanctuary, and visits to the Night Market, are testament to the quiet ease of modern Buddhist Laotian life.

History Matters: Learning From The Past
A tiny landlocked nation little-known to westerners until the Vietnam War, Laos found its neutrality challenged amidst the geopolitical posturing of Cold War powers. For 9 years during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, the U.S. secretly carpet bombed the Laotian countryside in pursuit of the North Vietnamese guerilla resistance to western “nation-building” of South Vietnam. Today, over one third of Laotian agricultural territory still suffers the persistent threat of “bombies,” the UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) which injures or kills an average of one person per day. Our travelers understand the ethics of post-conflict military justice, and ideate solutions with creative locals remarkably devoid of bitterness for their plight.

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