Newsletters
With our regular newsletters, we aim to keep you posted on all the interesting and important news and updates of our programs and various activities. Enjoy reading!
March 24, 2004
Dear friends and partners, It has been an unusually busy time since I last wrote to all of you. Let me begin by saying that the hot season has arrived earlier than usual. This brings its own unique set of problems. It is in this time that so many of our staff and workers become ill. Last Friday, we were rejoicing over opening our first real shop in Siem Reap - as we were talking, Ani, our manager, received a phone call. One of our long time workers in cottage industry had passed away suddenly. Meng Sarouen was only thirty, she had come that morning to our devotions, she seemed to be fine, smiling and chatting with all of us. As is the norm on Fridays, she received her pay, picked up her work for this week and went home. When she arrived, she sat down on her mat and passed away. Meng had suffered from tuberculosis for many years - the hot season exacerbates the illness. She died without complaint - her 3 year old adopted daughter was taken home by her neighbors - orphaned yet again.
In many parts of our projects, the hot season leaves the land looking barren and dusty. We visited a new commune - Trapeang Sap - a community of 800 families whose main source of income is the making of brown sugar from palm trees. It was already hot when we arrived - as we entered the volunteer's home - the heat increased dramatically - over several open fires were large vats with sap bubbling merrily away. A young lady of 14 was stirring the sap and continually adding wood to the fire. Different families kept bringing more sap, all contained in PVC tubes, another fire started and the sap was poured to begin the process of changing sap into sugar. I told them how we made maple syrup in Canada where the heat was welcomed as it was often very cold. There was a bit of misinterpretation as one of the women put a blanket around my shoulders. No, no more heat thank you. It took a day and a half to render a vat full of sap down to 5 kilos of excellent tasting sugar. Cambodian cooking usually requires a pinch or 2 of this sugar to make the dish just right. Nary, Srei, Tharry and I all delighted in putting our fingers into the freshly made sugar - it was very sweet and made us all giggle. I marveled at how hard these families worked - their land is small as children grow-up and get married and receive their own parcel of precious land as a wedding gift from their parents. Most families only had a quarter of a hectare left to grow their main staple, rice. It is too small to feed the family for a year. The palm sugar was their only other source of income - for three months the sap runs and each day every member of the family is involved. The men, both young and old, tap the trees and then carry 30 tubes of sap to the cooking fires - some as far as 2 kilometers - each tube of sap weighing several kilos. Their backs are bent and their muscles are strained as they walked through the fields. The women tend the fires and constantly stir the sap until only the sugar is left - a hot and tiring task. The elderly and the very young spend their days scavenging for materials to feed the fires. The sap is sold for 1000 riels a kilo - unbelievably cheap for so much labor - we all bought several kilos - my share given to our staff at the office. These families renew our desire to reach out to so many more. There is so much to do. All of you have made this month so wonderful. Tabitha Singapore sent us joyful news - they had been accepted by Singaporean authorities to officially start Tabitha Singapore. The Friends of Tabitha arrived to select products for our next Silk Show to be held in Singapore, in April. Tabitha Australia worked with us in designing an innovative way of selling our products in Australia. We hope to begin this process in April. Tabitha USA, Canada and UK all came forth with the funds needed to work freely - without worry. Many individuals visited us and still many more contacted us through email, regular mail and phone calls. How good that is. We reached another milestone with our volunteer house builders - more than 200 volunteers arrived to build a record 37 houses in one month - the majority were students from various International schools in Asia. It is always very good to inter-act with these young people. To keep it all in perspective - to remind me that I have a family, Tuit, who is Miriam's nanny, developed lumps in her breast - they are benign. Miriam got to play with a cyclo while I was up country - breaking her arm and getting an overnight trip to Bangkok with mom. But the worst was myself - I developed a little blister on my big toe from having my nails cut - it was embarrassing as I greeted visitors and friends with a lemon tied around my toe - Cambodian herbal medicine - and pain that brought tears to my eyes. How could such a little thing hurt so much. Thank you to each of you - you are enabling us to do so very much. I am humbled and amazed by my God who has brought each of you into our lives. Life couldn't get any better. Janne
