Ejected

 “Travel ban for our commune, no one in or out. It starts in 12 mins.”

The short message from my husband on Saturday March 20 was a shock, 12 months into the pandemic and I had never heard of a commune travel ban.  I was too far away to get home in 12 minutes. How long would this ban be? Would I be separated from my family for days, weeks?

At first I wasn’t going to rush home as I knew I wouldn’t make it by that time. But then thinking about the many who ended up apart from their family for months on end last year made me decide to try. So I quickly grabbed my stuff and called a tuktuk.  

Would I be able to get back home? What would happen if I couldn’t?  (And why wasn’t tuktuk driver wearing a mask? Recently they brought in fines for not wearing masks, although where you need to wear them wasn't clear.)

I normally think of tuktuks as trundling along the road, but this ride felt like I was hurtling. The ‘eject’ button had been hit and I shot up in the air. Unexpectedly on a new trajectory, not happy about leaving where I was, hoping to get home but unsure if that would happen.

Although it was a shock, it was also not so much of a surprise.  For the last month the cases of Covid-19 in Cambodia had been steadily rising. At first it was mainly in southern provinces, but then began creeping north. On March 9 the first case in our province was discovered, and although not in our commune we had some community overlap with the patient. So we were already starting to feel like it was close.

So then, it kind of felt like the next step that a case was found in our commune, although had no idea they would suddenly close the roads. Hopefully it really does help limit transmission.

I was not the only one who had to scramble with the travel ban news. Even the people who were enforcing it could not keep to the timeline it seems. Luckily for me they were still getting organised when my tuktuk zoomed along the road. 

Phew! I made it home, where I had been hoping to land.

But what does a commune travel ban mean for us anyway, and how long will it last?