September 2021: Heartprint Gratitude Month
HEARTPRINT GRATITUDE MONTH
There’s no way around it but to say September was one tough month. And we will just leave it at that.
Instead, we’ll focus on the fact that September 21st was International Gratitude Day and our unilateral decision to give it a bit of a boost by declaring all of September Heartprint Gratitude Month.
We are grateful for the free vaccines available to all people living in Cambodia and for the fact that all of our team members are fully vaccinated. It’s why, when two of our build crew contracted Covid while building a house, they had only very mild symptoms (almost like a cold) and recovered quickly, but government regulations still required them to be quarantined for four weeks. Needless to say, because of our daily proximity to them before they tested positive our whole team had to self-isolate for two weeks. No one else tested positive. We are grateful for that.
On the subject of health, our gratitude knows no bounds for the generosity of Laing+Simmons Glenwood/Bella Vista who have provided a gift of health to our team by sponsoring each staff member with health insurance. For many people here, it’s very hard to get adequate medical care if you can’t pay the fees, so this is a gift of such life-enhancing significance for our team.
On Friday, September 17, the Siem Reap government announced a sudden and very strict lockdown to try to prevent further spread of Covid, which was evidently popping up in rather alarming numbers. Some areas were yellow zones, where we could go out with restrictions. Other areas were red zones where families were technically not even allowed to leave their homes. As you might imagine, this created dire circumstances for people unable to work to buy the food they would eat that day. Even if they had a bit of money, they were not allowed to go out to buy food.
OK, we were not grateful for that.
But we are grateful for the fact we have such can-do people working with us. There was no hand-wringing here - just pulling out the phones and the maps and all the contacts and figuring out how to get food to people across the various zones. Some border guards were stricter than others. Some we could cross and some we could not. With lots of explanations it was sometimes allowed for a person within a closed off zone to meet us at the border and take the supplies from us to distribute to our families.
Once, Pheap and Wendy went out on the moto to deliver baby formula to a mother in desperate need. All sorts of negotiations at the border barricade ensued, but the formula finally got where it needed to be. Then to top it off, the moto would not start. The border guard must be a moto mechanic when he isn't manning the barricades and was able to fix it and send us on our way home.
Roads were deserted
Yellow zone delivery
Pheap and Wendy deliver baby formula
We did finally locate a food delivery service with a pass to get more easily into the red zones for delivery (yes, for which we are grateful). But then, again, quite suddenly, all of the restrictions were lifted and there were no zones at all. So we were able to distribute the rest of the food.
This was a real crisis for thousands of people whose access to work, money, and food was cut off for two full weeks. It was a surreal situation when we went out to make deliveries when we were able to cajole our way through the barricades. Our area was inundated with army trucks and guards because Heartprint is located close to a large market where multiple cases had been detected.
The streets were deserted. Not even a random tuk tuk parked on a sidewalk. That, combined with the state of the roads in Siem Reap with all the construction (read: torn up, lots of dirt mounds and potholes with everything turning into muddy rivers during the frequent monsoon rains) and our little town had a post-apocalyptic feel to it that was, in a word: Creepy.
Families in red zones receiving food
But, like a switch was turned on, all is back to normal. Tuk tuks, motos, dusty cars and giant trucks full of dirt from the roadworks crowd our streets and most shops are bustling. Dine-in in cafes and restaurant details are still being worked out, but we hope the worst is over.
And for that, we are grateful.
Finally we could get supplies out easily
Once again, though, it reminded us of the extraordinary fragility of life here in Cambodia. And how grateful we are to you for supporting us, giving us the ability to do something both as simple and as complicated as providing rice or baby formula to help keep people from starving through absolutely no fault of their own. So, thank you.
Silent September is over and, for 30 hours Wendy didn’t speak out loud or online or even in a hastily scribbled note to Garry. And since all of our staff were in self-quarantine because of the two positive cases found in our building team, Garry became silent by accident, as well! It was a reflective time for the five of us participating, and gave us a sense of calm in the midst of troubling times. We want to give a special shout-out to Pheap for her taking the silence “vow” this year. As everyone knows, she holds us all together here at Heartprint and we are grateful for her every minute of every day.
The support we received was tremendous. We over-reached our goal and have the funds now to pay for 92 counselling sessions. GRATEFUL!
And, our friend Jimena Medina left us jumping for joy when she raised almost $2,000 through a birthday fundraiser to support our ID Active program. As you know, ID Active is an important way for people with intellectual disabilities to get active alongside their siblings. Not only do the participants love it, parents also find respite in the program. Finally, they have a place for their child to be accepted and participate and they can share stories and ask for advice from other parents.
These donations came from all over the world, 20 different nationalities, across 15 different countries in fact. From Panama, Switzerland, Chile, and Cambodia, just to name a few.
