The civil war ended three years ago, you think. I must go fetch water from the lake or oasis a kilometre away. There's nothing to fear, the fighting is over and the bombs are gone.
Then you make a fateful step - BOOM!
And you wake up in a field hospital, contemplating if you will ever work again, because you lost most of your left leg to an unexploded land mine.
This is a sad reality in many parts of the world where while wars and skirmishes have ended through conquest, rebellion, treaty or suing for peace, yet the unexploded bombs and landmines remain.
In this reality, however, a retired military officer from Grand Falls-Windsor is part of a humanitarian organization whose mission is to demine the world.
Paul Brown, who left his home town in 1987 to join the military, spent just under 20 years as an ammunition technician with the Canadian Armed Forces. Now he is a Technical Field Manager with the non-governmental organization (NGO) MAG (Mines Advisory Group).
When he was with the Forces, he was in Halifax for four years, Baden, Germany for two years, Petawawa for another four years with a short tour to Bosnia, then Gagetown, New Brunswick for five years, then onto Suffield, Alberta for his last five years. Then he retired from the military.
"I had an ex-military friend who was working with MAG and he referred me to them, and I am happy he did," he said. "They are a great NGO and have a good reputation in this world, demining world, that is."
As a Technical Field Manager with MAG, he deals with unexploded bombs (UXO) and mines. Presently, Mr. Brown is living in Benghazi, Libya, and is working around different areas of this part of the country. Here, he and his team are locating and removing unexploded bombs mostly that have resulted from the ongoing war.
Most of Libya remains in political turmoil, as many of the country's population were fighting to remove their leader, Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, As of press time, the dictator's whereabouts are currently in question, but main centres, including the capital, Tripoli have fallen to the mass rebellion seeking his departure.
Qaddafi's regime has been largely rife with human rights violations over the four decades he has been in power.
"I basically go from town to town clearing UXO that the local people find and report for removal and subsequent disposal. Most of my work puts me in a place called Ajdabiya; it is about one and a half hour drive away from Benghazi," he said.
Since joining MAG in October 2006, Mr. Brown has worked in a number of different countries, including Lebanon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and is now in Libya.
The organization is a humanitarian group which has no political leanings; their main goal is to make the world mine-free. MAG was a co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (www.icbl.org), which culminated in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty - the international agreement that bans anti-personnel landmines, sometimes referred to as the Ottawa Convention.
"Our work is inherently risky as you can tell, not much I can say about that, not to mention the ongoing war in the country," explained Mr. Brown. "Where I am it is peaceful, the fighting here is non-existent. Life and work here is pretty good compared to some places I have worked since I have joined MAG. The people are extremely friendly and helpful."
If I had to choose a challenge, he added, it's possibly the desert weather as it can "get a little hot here at times." Otherwise, everything is fine where he is. The political situation here where I am is good, stable, no major problems for our work."
At the moment, MAG's international team where Mr. Brown is working includes six people, but it has also hired local personnel to create work teams. They number approximately 30 people, including support staff.
"For me my job is the best I could ever have, I love my work. We get to help out people who have been affected by war from the remnants left behind by the fighting. We are able to give people a safe life without fear of these items." According to MAG's website (www.maginternational.org), its teams work in current and former conflict zones, to reduce the threat of death and injury from remnants of conflict. These include anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines, as well as rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades, ammunition, small arms and light weapons, and many more types of deadly items.
But it's not just about mines and bombs.
MAG teams educate people who live, work and travel through contaminated areas and to minimize the risks of them, their friends and families being killed or maimed.
"We focus on the many millions of people who benefit from our work," states the website. "We release reclaimed safe land back to the local population, enabling recovery and assisting the development of communities affected by conflict.
"More than this, we tackle poverty by training and employing staff from the local populations, in order to build a robust and sustainable national workforce. More than 90 per cent of our 2,300-plus staff around the world are natives of the countries in which they work."
More than 70 states are believed to be affected by mines. At least 25 states are affected by uncleared submunitions. Explosions in poorly managed ammunition storage areas killed and injured hundreds of people in 2007 and 2008, contaminating previously safe land.
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