I posted a similar image quite a long time ago. But when I was browsing
the negatives (from 1993), it was the children in the background which now caught my
attention, and I began to think of the significance of this meeting to these post-war village kids.

As for me, and the village elder shown here, mis-communication was the order of the day, which
we both found quite funny. I left the small village never quite sure if he was my former friend
or foe (or both) and frankly, it didn't matter. Although 1967-1968 and 1971-1972 were
'interesting times' for an infantryman in South Vietnam, my first post war visit in 1993 was
wonderful.

(The photograph, by the way, was made by my traveling companion, Zina, who very kindly
came with me on that visit to Vietnam to lend moral support for what I assumed would
include emotional highs and lows. I will always be indebted to her for that thoughtfulness.)