October 2011 Update from Janne Ritskes

October 12, 2011
Dear Friends and partners,
It's been a hard week for all of us. Last week we were rejoicing how our families in Prey Veng were hoping to have a bumper crop of rice. The floods had hit Kompong Thom project a month ago and our families had lost all their rice but for some reason Prey Veng wasn't flooded. This weekend the floods arrived - within hours everything was under water.
And yet - last year the fields were so very barren - year after year the fields turned into hard dry ground. Famine was always just a day's meal away. The men were never home - a number of children had been sold in order to meet just daily needs - it was such a hard place to work.

Then we started putting in field wells - so much excitement - the men came home and planted and harvested - they earned enough to buy their children back - they were so very excited - life had so much promise. 2 weeks ago it looked like one of the best rice crops they ever had. It stretched as far as the eye can see - life was good. We were all praying that the floods wouldn't come - it would have meant the first year of food security and income in remembered history.

The last Friday the floods arrived - there wasn't much that anyone could do. The water rose chest high - roads disappeared - and then the houses that were just grass - houses built by volunteers became a refuge for a number of families - they hold not just people but pigs and chickens as well. The water buffaloes wallow in the mud and children wade through chest high water. Life is hard.

And yet - there is hope - for once so many of our families know that the floods will recede and when they do - they will plant again. They know the hot summer months are coming and the flood will be hard, dusty earth - this year their fields will not lie fallow but grow life giving food.
A friend said to me - these people just never get a break, do they? It would be easy to agree but that would be a lie - so many in Prey Veng, Kompong Thom, Banteay Meanchaey, Siem Reap, Pursat - they do have a break - they have a field well or pond that will bring renewal back to their lives when the floods recede. For our families who have not yet received that break - for them - we will work even harder to make ensure that their breaks will be in place for the next set of floods.
Thank you to so many of you who have given a "Break" - a well or a pond - to so very many who have had none. Help us to ensure that all our families get a break - so that the next set of floods - although harsh - do not result in famine and despair.
I thank my God for the privilege of standing with these people - I thank Him for all of you who enable us to do so.

Janne