Orphanages are big business in Cambodia. Unicef says that, since 2005, there has been a 75% increase in the number of orphanages in the country, with the number of children in them almost doubling to 12,000. More than 75% of these children aren’t orphans in the strictest sense, but are placed there by parents desperate for help caring for, feeding and educating their children.
Some orphanages are scams, with children rented or bought in order to part soft-hearted tourists from their dollars. But Wat Opot, an hour or so south of Phnom Penh, isn’t one of them. Established in 2000 by an American medic on land donated by the local temple, it cares for children whose lives have been hit by the scourge of HIV/Aids. About a third of the children there are HIV positive, and all of them have lost at least one parent to Aids. There are anywhere between 50 and 85 children living together at Wat Opot at any time, along with a number of adult patients.
In 2005, Gail Gutradt, a 60-year-old American, arrived at Wat Opot to volunteer, and she’s been back many times since for long stints. Now, in her new book, she weaves the children’s heart-breaking stories into a coherent and graceful narrative that is as uplifting as it is moving.
The thread that holds the narrative together is Wayne Dale Matthysse, an American medic. During the Vietnam War, he followed orders, allowing two children to die – and has since spent his life trying to atone for it. And if the book is to be believed, he’s doing one hell of a job.
As well as caring for vast numbers of sick and orphaned children over the years, he’s done much to change attitudes of local villages towards Aids. Living from hand to mouth, he refuses to shove his Christian faith in anyone’s face, happily coexisting with the Buddhist locals, even in the teeth of opposition from fund-providing churches back in the US. Since opening Wat Opot, Matthysse has cremated several hundred people who’ve died from Aids and related complications.
A Rocket Made Of Ice, the title of which was one child’s suggestion of how to get a man to the sun, is the best book I’ve read about volunteering in Cambodian orphanages. If it plays down the very real problems inherent in ‘voluntourism’; if it avoids issues of corruption and paedophilia; if it relies a little too heavily on the journey of a woman of a certain age looking to find her soul, it is also at times a terrifically moving and beautifully written story of a remarkable man and the remarkable children he has cared for. As Gutradt notes: “It is what we offer each other as human beings that endures; it is the simple and mutual acts of kindness that remain.”
In A Rocket Made Of Ice, by Gail Gutradt, is now available from Monument Books for $23.50.
I read this book twice and will cherish its soul and indelible memories it shares of Wat Opot, where I was lucky enough to visit 2 years ago. Wayne and Melinda are the most loving and committed ‘parents’ these children will ever have. Thanks again to Gail for writing this book which reveals the unique nature of this well-run, and authentic children’s center.