118 cases in SR, 29000 in Cambodia

Cases are still rising but for us it feels mucj calmer than hot season. 

In March and April we were checking the numbers every day, and in and out of lockdowns with new restrictions popping up all the time.

 

Cambodia news update, 26 May 2021

Cambodia news update, 19 May 2021

Oops, spoke too soon

5kg of prahok, 100kg of uncooked rice

So Sunday was cool enough for a walk, but today and yesterday afternoon were horrible and hot. Too hot to play outside in the afternoon and everyone was tired and grumpy. So glad I was able to go for a morning ride both days.

On the up side, we have a large containter of prahok! Wait... is that an up side?

It will be if we have another lockdown. We aren't expecting one, but feels like we need to expect the unexpected. (Something unusual did happen in our village yesterday morning, but we don't have  details.) 

Just read this blog post about a foreigner getting a vaccine in Phnom Penh! 

Hot season is over.

The start of rainy season means the start of when I can go for afternoon rides. Husband and sister in law don't need to water the garden every day so I can sometimes leave the kids at home at dusk. Yesterday rode around Ta Prohm and back via AT/Bayon. So fun! 

 No ride today, but some afternoon walks, including one with our daughter. She walked almost 3km and was rewarded with an ice chocolate, popcorn and a blister. We caught a tuk tuk home. First time she has been out since March 9th.

Same but different, different. (April time capsule)

Dawn hill walk, pre lockdown 2, when my bike was brokenish.

It’s what we normally do- stay home during hot weather over the big holiday (New Year) in April. So it was kind of the same. Stock up on food, stop homeschool lessons and trips into town.  Being at home together is cool and relaxing compared to being out in the hottest part of the year.

But different this time because it was with neighbours rather than extended family.  Neighbours who were stuck in the village like because of the lockdown that happened when 20^th  Covid case in the province was detected near our market. And extended family were stuck outside the province due to the Covid 19 provincial travel ban (April 7^th).

A whirlwind of pandemic related breaking news seemed to surround us along with some new and surprising experiences, another difference to our familiar holiday.

2nd year in a row- Easter at home!

We already experienced a weird new thing back in March. They taped us off from the rest of town, along with our whole commune.  No one else in town had this, and we had never heard of it before so it was hard to understand what it was at first.

Straight off that weirdness my mother-in-law had to suddenly cancel her Khmer New Year visit. The fruit she picked and packed fruit to bring us for the biggest holiday of the year had to be unpacked on April 7^th as travel between provinces was banned.  Disappointing for us (and devastating for others), but happy the government drastically reduced the chances of the virus spreading. 

A couple of days later...

Next up another confirmed Covid-19 case was found near our market on April 9th.  At first all we knew was that there were lots of uninformed people and chaos in our village one evening. A family taken away, buildings taped off. Scary.

Then, like dominos the bits of news came out- at least one case- the market shut but commune still open...no wait, now the village is taped off and manned by uniformed official looking people.

Once the confusion settled we were left with a teenager (he came for the afternoon but ended up having to stay 2 weeks), orders to stay in our house (apart from twice a week out to get food), and no access to a market, supermarket or ATM. The village is a smaller area than a commune, so it was a more extreme lockdown than the first one and with no market how would people make money and buy food?

April 10th?

Around the same day, April 9^th, cases in Phnom Penh suddenly spiked.

” The COVID-19 situation seems to have fallen into a state of emergency as the MoH reported 576 new cases today, a number which exceeds the total tally in all of 2020.” April 9^th, The Khmer Times

Siem Reap joined in Phnom Penh in having an alcohol ban, and 8pm-5am curfew and schools were shut  around that time.  Those things hardly impacted me especially as I basically wasn’t allowed to go out at all and didn’t have brain space for noticing, although these things would have seemed significant to me before.

A few days later....

A friend from outside the village brought us some cash, handed it over at the village border checkpoint.  A few days later his commune and two others in town went into lockdown, so was not able to help us anymore.

A few days later...

Milk, bread and toilet paper other friends brought to the checkpoint for us had to be sprayed before members of our household were allowed to put it on their bikes to bring it home.  I didn’t dare go to collect these strange foreign items myself.  My walk back into the village past the empty market and various checkpoints made me realize I’m probably the only white person here and I didn’t want to draw attention. (The walk also reminded me of things I’d read about April 17^th 1975, I wasn’t eager to repeat that feeling.)

A few days later...

A casino about 150km away found a positive Covid-19 person. It shut suddenly with our neighbour inside (April 23^rd).  Was she going to have to stay at work for 2 weeks with no access to her bed, money, clothes, food etc?

The next day...

She tested positive too and was moved to a restaurant (makeshift medical facility). (At first she thought  she was being taken to a hospital in a bigger town.)

Meanwhile other neighbours were stuck in a Red Zone in Phnom Penh.  They had even more extreme restrictions than the Orange and Yellow zones in the capital, and struggled to get food even before the government shut the markets down.

At that point we didn’t know if our lockdown would end in a couple of days, or did we have 2 more weeks? Or was it five more days?

After much confusion the “lockdown refugee” who had been camping in our yard was finally able to go home! He was so excited he came back to tell us within the hour!

I think I had imagined that the end of lockdown would feel exciting and freeing, but confusion was overwhelming as I mentioned here.

The superficial sameness of it tricked me. Each day looked normal, but the emotions that popped up at the end of the month said otherwise.

I felt scared to go past where the checkpoint had been.  After 2 weeks anticipating the moment I could finally ride my bike again, it was a big anticlimax.  First ride out I rode really slowly, waiting for someone to stop me.

I felt surprised to see people going about their everyday business and realised they had been doing that the whole time we were locked up. I had known that of course, but seeing it was a different feeling.  Even though some parts of town had commune lockdowns I don’t know of any other extreme village lockdowns like ours.  As far as I know others had access to shops and banks the whole time.

I felt like our family needed some time at home together to recover. Even though we had just done that for 2 weeks! But it was by force, and with neighbours. And we all knew no one could come or go. I didn’t realize I found that intense until it was over.

A few days later...

Restrictions lifted- travel between provinces allowed (apart from worst areas such as Phnom Penh), and then the 3 commune in Siem Reap were also freed.

Such a relief in some ways. People were stuck away from their families, and limited access to food and money. But also, cases are still going up, so we expected and indeed saw more cases once those bans were lifted.

At the start of April: 2478 cases of Covid-19 in Cambodia and 15 deaths. The whole month felt like a whirlwind of changes. Constantly surprised and having to readjust. By the end of the month over 13,000 cases and at least 90 deaths.

Riding out the hot season at home is what we usually do. Nothing new about that. But seeing a child barred from going home for 2 weeks, and the feeling of not being able to access money and buy food was a bizarre surprise.

Same but different, different.

This is an attempt to sum up April, I was doing small updates each day as new things popped up. Hopefully this post brings it altogether for our time capsule collection.

And while we had been at home in Siem Reap, the capital city was also in lockdown, you can read about it here. 

Finally back inside Angkor Thom after not riding for over 2 weeks.

81 cases so far in our province

HUMID day, late afternoon was hard, glad to be able to go for a ride. MIL left this morning and made it home safely. I didn't try to stick to our homeschool routine this morning but both children ended up doing some English and Maths in the morning.

76 in Siem Reap

Things feel kind of a bit normal for us at the moment, after all the events of March and April. Homeschooling, bike rides, internet speed all seem to have returned to pre hot season normal. We are still mostly staying home and case numbers still climbing. I read here the covid strain that transformed in India is bad news, and it is in Cambodia now. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-designates-india-variant-being-global-concern-2021-05-10/

Cambodia news update, 11 May 2021

75 cases in our province now

Things feel a bit calmer for us this month, although we are still planning to stay stocked up on food.💧 Of course once Red Zone people were free they wanted to see family so they are now travelling all over the country.💧A quick glance at the news might lead youbto believe it is a crime to be sick.

Why pay for a trainer when you can just break the law?

Children requested hamburgers. Its been 2 months since they last went out.

First proper ride since lockdown. I haven't been able to go more than 10km until today. Went to Srah Srang and walked IN it. Looks so bizarre empty.

63 and no quarantine for coming into province

So the new rules I read about yesterday are already old. Our province said people coming in would have to do a covid test and 14 days, but today I read the Prime Minister said no mandantory quarantine for province travel. Meanwhile, over the last few days I've been reading about Aussie who aren't allowed to travel to Australia (those who are in India right now, they face a huge fine and up to 5 years gaol time) as well as Aussies in Australia who aren't allowed to travel out, even to see dying parents. And it seems Red Zoners are out and about...and the last few days of numbers reporting has been lacking the usual detail...

61 now, and 14 days of laziness

Rats in the roof, hornets in the house, and some ill health. Just in a week SR has jumped from 19 to 61, and now there are new restrictions. If you want to enter our province you need to have a covid test and quarantine.

54 cases altogether in our town

For ages we were sitting on 19, but in less than a week its gone up to 54. I've started riding again, although I can only seem to ride 10km max. The photo is from yesterday's ride to Angkor Thom. Meanwhile 3 digit numbers are still coming out of Phnom Penh but today was supposed to be the end of lockdown. I haven't figured out what this means, it seems Red and Orange zone still can't go anywhere. Although the curfew changed from 8pm-5am to 8pm-3am. We're well back into our Maths and English routine. I'm now learning about what I think we will use as our long term maths program. What I'm using as the backbone at the moment is for preschool to aboit year 2 I guess. Not that we really have grades in our homeschool.

At least 47 today

So our province has 41 cases now. It doesn't sound like a big number, but for weeks now its been sitting on 19. More than doubled in a few days. They were mostly imported cases due to the travel ban between provinces being lifted, tested at the border, so that feels safe.

Finally our nearest supermarket was accesssible. Between our lockdown and then their lockdown it had been over 3 weeks. I was planning to go sometime in the next few days bit ended up rushing there this.morning when lockdown 3 felt like it might be upon us. Also, now that travel between provinces is possible, trying to work out what it is actually like. What happens at the checkpoints? A recent article makes it sound like you might end up with medical care.