At home with children

Our son has a secret spy kit in his hat!

Our daughter likes drawing girls.

 

Not just our village in lockdown

Miss my bike! But a family walk is nice.

A week after the 12th case was found near our market, I think the town now has at least 19 cases. 

About 2 months ago there had only been around 400 cases in the whole of the country from since back in January 2020. Now over 5000 more. Daily tally in triple digits.

We have already been confined to our village since Sunday, and the capital has been in lockdown for a few days. Today we heard most of SR town is in lockdown, although people don't yet know the details. But I'm told the supermarket and markets have been really busy.

I think that would stress me out, lucky I've already been in lockdown for about a week.

Until a month or so ago I used Facebook on my phone. I'm glad I signed out before all this Covid 19 chaos took over, I know I would be too distracted. 

Apart from Soeun and Khmer Times I've been hearing what's going on from messages only, not from fb groups and what other people share on fb as usual.

Looks like there is now some English stuff on the Siem Reap lockdown here.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50839817/three-communes-in-siem-reap-b

Ever changing - jotting it down as it happens.

Our house guests can cook their own breakfast from what is growing in our yard.

So not only can we not leave our village, we also need to stay home. I had thought I could still go for walks and rides back and forth, 700m at a time. But no, only allowed out a certain amount of times to get food.

Most of the rest of our town is still open, I think we only have 16 confirmed cases so far. 

But as of last night the captial is also in lockdown. 

They have already had curfew a bit longer than we have, and already there is a ban on travelling between provinces. But the numbers keep rising, so I guess the government is putting in place extra measures.

I know of a few expats who got stuck in the capital when the travel ban started. They were about to go home to various provinces where they live but now have to stay in PP until at least April 20 or something like that. So they are in lockdown away from home.

The weirdest KNY ever! Grandma couldn't visit us, yet we ended up with an 8 person household anyway.

 

Today's stats from the front of Khmer times. Compare to ones I posted earlier. Or ones I post in the future.

Our second travel ban

 

Similar but different.

On March 20th our whole commune had a travel ban. No one in or out. For a week.

This time, it is only our village, not the whole commune. And you can come in, but you can not go out. We don't know how long for. Maybe 2 weeks?

Last time the market was still open, this time it is empty and taped off.

Last time we had some warning, less than an hour, but we did know ahead of time. It was connected to the breaking news of the second covid19 case in SR. It all seemed to happen at the same time.

This time, it happened without us knowning. A friend was visiting on Sunday 11th, he went to go home but was not allowed to. He will have to stay with us for New Year. 

I guess it was connected to the 12th case, but instead of happening at the same time it was 2 days later.

 12th case commotion happened on Friday night. So when we didn't hear of a travel ban on Saturday we thought there wouldn't be one. So not getting home on Sunday felt out of the blue.

More covid changes

 So after some chaos at our market last night we thought we might end up with the same as last time that happened. A commune travel, no one in or out. At the time we didn't know how long for but it ended up being a week.

But no, so far this time they just closed the market, a clinic and imposed an 8pm to 5am curfew on the town. 

(The captial city and at least one other province already had this.)

Heaps of new cases today

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50836543/black-friday-cambodia-detected-576-new-covid-19-cases-in-one-day/

March Time Capsule

Current fave toys and their whiteboard likeness. 7/3

Before last month moves too far into the past we’re making a collection of words and photos from March 2021.

A child-made scroll.

Hot season started, we paused our school work for our long summer break, the 38 roads project continued, walks and rides in the Angkor Park still happened but only in the early morning!

Srah Srang 6th March, 6:36am

Covid19 disrupted our lives with Cambodia’s worse outbreak to date continuing on from February 20, which gave me a vivid reminder that it was one year since it felt like the world turned upside down.

We still buy a lot of food, but not all of it. 7th March

“March 2021 is just like March 2020 only now we have toilet paper.” 

I saw this on Facebook and it felt true. Although we never had a toilet paper shortage here it did feel like we were doing March 2020 all over again. We hadn’t had to take much notice of restrictions for ages, then suddenly in March we had to cancel trips out of town and pay attention to how many new cases each day.

 

Wat Bo Road, 6th March, 10:15am

1^st March

A birthday party we went to on the last day of February 2020 popped up in my newsfeed memories. It was the last big gathering we went to before everything shut down for the new virus. We had just said goodbye to two families as they moved out of Cambodia. We didn't know a few more were about to leave. They didn't know either!

Bougainvillea- such colourful flowers in this season...and masks

4^th March

Hot season takes me by surprise every year!
The last few days the kids were tired and grumpy in the late afternoon and today one even fell asleep half an hour before dinnertime.
Time to think about some hot seasons habits.

Hot season habits might include:

Cornflakes for easy dinner

Naps during the day

Less or no school work

Less bike rides during middle of day

Less everything during the middle of the day

Ice cream

Drink more water

Eat mango

Angkor Wat, 12th March, 6:51am

6^th March

While feeling so tired from the 'feels like 38' humid day I questioned my son on  why is he  still so energetic even in hot season. He said without missing a beat, very loudly and while jumping around:

BECAUSE I GET MY ENERGY FROM THE SUN!
I'M SOLAR POWERED!
I AM A JAPANESE ROBOT!

Angkor Thom moat, 10th March, 6:54am

7^th March

It was on this day last year schools in Siem Reap town area were ordered to shut for at least 2 weeks.

I remember what I was doing when I found out, (I was in the middle of messaging a friend about kids and dental issues) .
It seemed like such a bizarre idea at the time. We didn't know that in a week’s time all the schools in the whole country would have to shut and for a lot longer than 2 weeks.

12th March, 6:44am

8^th March

This day last year was the first time to wash our hands at Khmer church. Soeun built a tap and sink for this purpose. We didn’t know at the time but it was also the last time for our children and I to go to Khmer church.

Wat Bo road again

9^th March

Countless diggers, dump trucks, detours.
Lots of destruction and dust.
Most of the main roads are construction sites these days, it is hard to describe how bizarre it seems. But also people just go about their daily business. “Reaper Roadworks” group on Facebook has a group collection of photos and videos of this transformation.

Part heat, part covid, we don't want to go out too much. Shop in bulk when we can.

Meanwhile the virus is creeping closer. Since Feb 20 cases have been rising. Mostly it was in the south of Cambodia, but last few days cases have appeared in provinces closer to us.   And today we heard just outside our town there was a case which meant schools there closed. Some community overlap with the high school near us, so our neighbours are impacted. Possibly geographically the closest we have been to people getting tested for C19. 

Fixing up the pond, although the kids pretended it was a World Wa trench

11^th March

Up until this date there had been no confirmed deaths from Covid19 in Cambodia, this was the day the government announced the first fatality.

Food by Aunty! She has been staying with us since June 2020. This is a corn dessert with coconut milk.

 

20th March

“Travel ban for our commune. No one in or out. Starts in 12 minutes”

Such a confusing shock to hear this, I didn’t know what it meant for us. A man had travelled from one of the infected provinces and sought medical treatment at the market near out house and about 3 other places in town. Our whole commune was banned from travelling for a week, and the pharmacy in question had police tape on it for two weeks.

I wanted to hurry in and see the sunrise, but some were more interested in how they are restoring the original bridge.

Sheepie and Koala

 

Always drawing

Summer holidays at home. 3pm is ice cream time!

Almost Khmer New Year during Covid

Finally had a chance to ride to Srah Srang this morning. It looks so dry and empty!

I collected some helicopter seedpods for our children the other day when I walked up the hill. Today I got some from near the srah. These ones are less pink and more woody, bigger too. Maybe from the same try but older? Or is it a different tree?

Came home to the news that Grandma will not be coming today after all. She already picked and packed fruit to bring us, she was coming a bit earlier in the month than she normally would for a Khmer New Year visit...but overnight the government closed travel between provinces. 

The timing is to stop the new year travel that normally happens in mid April ahead of the new year rush. Another attempt to contain the February 20 outbreak.

I'm getting news each day from Khmer Times, today's update is here.  Not many cases on our town so far, and the pharmacy near us is open again. It was closed and taped off with police tape for 2 weeks after a covid case was discovered around 20th March.

Also enjoying a Youtube channel called For Riel. Its the local news as told by Aussies while we see the view from their moto riding around town. Until recently they lived in the same town as us.

Good Hot Friday

You know it is a hot day when the tap water is still hot at 5pm and the internet says it feels like 41°. Yes, feels over 40° at 5pm.

On the kitchen floor this morning we had communion after looking at some colouring in sheets of the Passover and reading bits of Exodus and Luke. 

Much less stress ( in terms of prep, travel, kids ) and much more engagment (all ages, both languages) than we experience with a big formal church service.

Bakheng Good Friday

 5:59am

6:17am

Photos I forgot to take last week

 So Soeun made a box to keep eggs warm as the chickens weren't doing it. A styrofoam box, a light bulb, a glass window stolen from a photo frame. It would have been a cool picture, oops.

And then yesterday a boy found and collected a honeycomb from a tree out the back. Late arvo honey snack! Complete with wax and dead bees. Also would have been a cool photo.

Covid19 update

 Curfew in the captial and 15th death.

Bakheng

 I walked up Bakheng again this morning. Sunrise was 6am, took this photo at 6:17am.

Did I mention we are hot and tired?

 

In town

 Our commune travel ban ended on Friday night, so yesterday I went into town to stock up on meds. Although it has been happening for months, I still feel shocked to see all the roads being dug up. Not just some roadwork and detours on a few roads, they are doing 38 all at the same time. And everyone is still going about selling and buying as best they can.