Fallen Leaves, Broken Lives

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Shocked by what I was hearing, I turned to my guide, assistant director Nguyen Thanh Diep. "Don't worry," he said. "There are not so many children like this in Viet Nam. Now only about 35,000 children like this are born every year."

I HAVE RETURNED TO Hong Ngoc for extended visits every year since that first visit. In 2002 my group was greeted again by Diep and another teacher, Doan Xuan Huan, both 27. They explained that while there were 185 teens in the center, 60 percent of whom were deaf and mute, only 5 percent now suffered from Agent Orange-related disabilities. As my group toured, I met many students, dressed in clean white shirts, silently sitting or gossiping as they labored over their sewing frames. I saw no disabilities that, like Van's, would shock the uninitiated. It appeared that in one year's time the center had been transformed into a school and workshop for the deaf.

When my group left to tour the picturesque Ha Long Bay, I remained behind and Diep explained that the center had been forced to change its emphasis because there was no work, training, or government support available for children disabled by Agent Orange. And since it had proven difficult to teach wood and stone work to the most severely disabled children, the center had reluctantly sent some of them home.

I asked whether any of the deaf-mutism was caused by Agent Orange. I was also curious where the remaining children affected by Agent Orange were working. Making sure no tour buses were in sight, my friends asked a few students who had been out of sight to join us. First two, then three students limped over. One had shins shaped like flat plates standing on their sides. A second had a severe humpback. A third had hands and feet shaped like hooks. Others kept appearing. I asked Diep where they had been. "I must minimize Agent Orange reports to tourists because Americans and other nationalities do not want to see or hear of it," he explained. "We receive no government funding and are dependent on selling our products. We cannot afford to lose customers because they don't want to see our students."

"But this is more than 5 percent of your population with Agent Orange disabilities right here," I said as more handicapped students gathered around us.

"Five percent is the number of medically proven Agent Orange disabilities," he replied.

We were surrounded by more young adults than I could count, all with twisted or misshapen bodies, all patient, friendly, willing to tell me their stories.

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