Beating Swords Into Plowshares

"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”
- Isaiah 2:4

I’m not a religious person, but this verse from Isaiah is my favorite Bible verse. It also seemed especially appropriate based on what I learned in and around Phonsavan.

One of the stops on the tour was Ban Napia village, also known as “spoon village”. There, we watched the villagers fashion spoons - a commodity that is in shortage, apparently - out of scrap aluminum from UXO. They used woodblock molds and poured molten aluminum into them - a modern day equivalent of hammering swords into plowshares. The aluminum solidified surprisingly fast. Here, I bought two spoons - my first souvenirs since I set off in July.

Ihttps://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ban-napia-unexplode…

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