In a Rocket Made of Ice: The Story of Wat Opot, a Visionary Community for Children Growing Up with AIDS, by Gail Gutradt
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In a Rocket Made of Ice: The Story of Wat Opot, a Visionary Community for Children Growing Up with AIDS, by Gail Gutradt
Best PDF Ebook Online In a Rocket Made of Ice: The Story of Wat Opot, a Visionary Community for Children Growing Up with AIDS, by Gail Gutradt
In 1997 Wayne Dale Matthysse, a former Marine Corps medic who served in Vietnam, returned to South East Asia offer his service . With Vandin San, a brilliant young Cambodian aid worker, he transformed Wat Opot, a haunted scrubland behind a ruined temple, into a place of healing and respite. Here children with or orphaned by HIV/AIDS—the first generation of children to grow up with AIDS—could find a new family, and live outside of fear or judgment. Disarming, funny, deeply moving, In a Rocket Made of Ice gathers the hopeful stories of children saved and changed by this very special place; the story of a war veteran’s redemption; and the story of the author’s transformation in her contact with the powerful life force of Wat Opot.
In a Rocket Made of Ice: The Story of Wat Opot, a Visionary Community for Children Growing Up with AIDS, by Gail Gutradt- Amazon Sales Rank: #366818 in Books
- Brand: Gutradt, Gail
- Published on: 2015-06-23
- Released on: 2015-06-23
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.99" h x .76" w x 5.21" l, .81 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
Review “A wrenching memoir of the time Gutradt spent volunteering at Wat Opot, a residence for Cambodian children and teens living with HIV and AIDS.” —Sarah Meyer, O, The Oprah Magazine “A testament to the thriving life in Wat Opot can be found in Gutradt’s powerful book. With patience, compassion, and an eye for the poetic, Gutradt’s memoir of her time as a volunteer at Wat Opot beautifully captures the heart behind the heavy circumstances that bring the community’s residents together.” —Joe Muscolino, Everyday eBook“This might have been one of the saddest stories ever told. Instead, it is an interesting and often uplifting one [that] also offers universal lessons in compassion. The book is based on the personal journal of Gutradt, an American who has worked over the years as a volunteer at a tiny orphanage in rural Cambodia. . . . Much of In a Rocket Made of Ice is devoted to sketches of the many children the author has met and grown to love, the stories enhanced by photos taken by the author. . . . Gutradt writes sensitively, sometimes lyrically. . . . As director of the community, Wayne Matthysse is a constant presence that binds together both Wat Opot and Gutradt’s narrative. He is a complicated man [who] considers his work atonement for the deaths of two children he witnessed [while he was] in the Vietnam War. He has a highly individualistic moral sense. . . . In a Rocket Made of Ice concludes on an up-note, with stories of children who are now in their teens or early 20s. Wayne is helping them obtain educations, find jobs and learn to live ‘on the outside,’ separate from their Wat Opot family. Compared with the early days of the orphanage, these are welcome challenges. Some people need to travel far from home to find their calling—Gutradt appears to be one of them.” —Melanie Kirkpatrick, The Wall Street Journal “Affecting and deeply felt. . . . Part journalism, part memoir, In a Rocket Made of Ice is Gutradt’s story of her four stays at Wat Opot from 2005 to 2012, and the empathy, selflessness, humor and willpower she was met with at every turn. Where once Wat Opot’s purpose was to see HIV+ children and adults through to their inevitable deaths, the compound has since hummed to life. . . . Despite the tragic circumstances that bring people to Wat Opot, the community roars with positivity and laughter.” —Joe Muscolino, Biographile “An extraordinary book about an extraordinary place. . . . Gutradt, a Maine native who has spent several stints volunteering at Wat Opot, paints an achingly beautiful portrait of [Wat Opot], which may not have many material resources, but is imbued with a much-needed sense of family for children who have been orphaned by AIDS. . . . The ultimate goal of Wat Opot is not just to get kids healthy, but to instill in them a belief that they can live and thrive among other Cambodians, where the stigma of HIV and AIDS lingers. Many of the children go on to university, a testament to the powerful work being done on a shoestring and a prayer. Gutradt has given us an inspiring, unforgettable book.” —Amy Scribner, BookPage “Neither sentimental nor solicitous, Gutradt’s memoir of her work in a small Cambodian community is a compassionate window into both their lives and hers.” —Bruce Jacobs, Shelf Awareness “Gutradt takes readers into the Cambodian community of Wat Opot, where children who suffer from HIV or have lost their parents to the virus are cared for by a dedicated group of volunteers. Led by charismatic Vietnam veteran Wayne Matthysse, Wat Opot is recognized by UNICEF and other international agencies for the work it does on this most human of scales: by making sure otherwise overlooked children are fed, clothed, educated, and loved. Gutradt is clearly enamored with the work done here, and her deep affection and admiration for Matthysse are obvious. . . . The good work being done at Wat Opot is admirable and to be emulated, and Gutradt writes effectively about how she’s been transformed by her association with this important place and the many delightful children who live there.” —Colleen Mondor, Booklist“Moving, insightful. . . . The story of a tiny community in Cambodia where children whose lives have been shattered by AIDS are cared for, educated and raised to live full lives in the outside world. . . . Gutradt first volunteered in Wat Opot in 2005 and returned there multiple times. . . . Her many photographs of the youngsters are appealing; her warm stories generally avoid sentimentality: the needy children are not angels, and as they grow, they sometimes present truly tough problems for those concerned about their welfares and futures. Gutradt also discusses the problems created by unreliable government agencies and well-intentioned but uninformed do-gooders. A refreshing account of generous people devoting their time and energy to doing something right.” —Kirkus “Wat Opot is a community that not only saves the lives of its residents but enriches our lives through its lessons in generosity, empathy, and resilience. Before I read Gail Gutradt’s moving account, I had never heard of it. Now I will never forget it.” —Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down “It’s hard not to fall in love with the author, the subjects, and the message of this beautiful book of stories and photographs. The warmth, the thoughtfulness, the writerly craft Gail Gutradt brings to an orphanage in Cambodia—and the stories and people she finds there—teach us not only about wisdom and compassion, but also about how to give our lives meaning, right now. Read it, and act on the heart-lifting vision of a universal humanity it brings so movingly home to us.” —Pico Iyer “This is an inspiring, first-hand account of personal sacrifice to help dying children, an insight into courage, and a vivid portrait of life in rural Cambodia.” —Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams “Much more than a story of hope in the face of grim news and chronic disappointment, Gutradt makes a compelling case for the efficacy of ingenuity, imagination, and a commitment to human dignity in accompanying each other through adversity.” —Dr. Paul Farmer
About the Author
Gail Gutradt has volunteered at the Wat Opot Children’s Community in Cambodia since 2005. Her stories, articles, and poems have appeared in the Japan-based Kyoto Journal, as well as in the Utne Reader and Ashé Journal. Her first Kyoto Journal article, “The Things We’ve Gone Through Together,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. chapter 1SitaShhhhhh. Listen. Sita is waking the day.Sita turns on her portable radio the moment she wakes up. She raises the volume as high as it will go, way past the point of distortion, then twists the dial back and forth searching for something that pleases her: the trailing melodies of Buddhist mantras, a marching band playing the national anthem of the Kingdom of Cambodia, karaoke tunes, monks chanting, more mantras, marching, karaoke, monks and on and on and back again.I open my eyes. It is still dark outside, and only the dim differentiation of wall from ceiling, sky from wall, barely perceptible through the pink mosquito net, shows where my single window looks out onto the world. In the distance a rooster crows weakly, sounding cross. Is it too early for him as well?A wandering many-voiced chant arises from the Buddhist temple next door, the morning prayers of young and aged monks. One dog barks. From across the way another answers.Sita is playing a Western song now with lyrics in Khmer. Her cheap speakers crackle under the strain.A gecko begins chirping on the stucco wall.On the porch outside my room Wayne is still a snoring mountain. His mosquito net is tucked into the black fleece blanket on his bed. Wayne says he sleeps outdoors so he can hear the children when they cry, and manages to sleep, often uneasily, through noises less urgent.Somewhere in the children’s quarters a baby cries out from a dream and is comforted. Wayne rolls over and draws his body upright, dangling his feet over the side of the bed. He wears yesterday’s black trousers, dried mud still on the cuffs from working in the garden. The crying has stopped now so he sits quietly, wrapped in his blanket, collecting his thoughts for the day, breathing himself awake, perhaps praying. A pair of small feet drop over the other side of the bed and stumble off toward the bathrooms behind our house. Mister Phirun, at nine years old the oldest boy with AIDS, sometimes wets the bed. None of the boys wants to sleep with Phirun, so Wayne lets him crawl in with him sometimes when he is worried or lonely. Wayne wakes up often during the night and he will carry Phirun out to the yard, hold him at arm’s length to drain and return him to bed without waking him.Wayne calls all the kids Mister or Miss, especially the very little ones who run around with no pants. It is a matter of respect for the children but also on occasion affords much-needed comic relief, as in “Mister Vantha! Where are your shorts?”The children begin to wander in from their various sleeping quarters, gathering near the bathrooms outside my window. They are still half asleep, most of them, and sit in dazed solitary silence on the bamboo slat bed next to the wall in the manner of small children softly awoken, holding their toothbrushes and soap and waiting their turn in the bathroom. Their towels are draped about their shoulders or dangling unconsciously from their hands. Now and then a little one nods off to sleep as he waits, and his towel drops to the ground and he draws his bare shoulders in and up against the morning dampness and hugs himself and looks even smaller than before.Now Sita squats by the faucet outside her woven mat house and draws a little water to wash herself. She wears a worn flowered sarong hastily tucked in above her breasts, and her hair tumbles uncombed about her neck and shoulders. In spite of the radio, in spite of the insects and the chirping gecko and the whispers of children, in spite of dogs and roosters and monks chanting, the air has until this moment still possessed the integrity of night. But when Sita opens the tap her simple gesture signals the onset of the day’s activities, because somewhere else Mr. Sary has opened the valve that allows water to flow down from the holding tanks on the roof and the water hits Sita’s plastic bucket with a noise like a string of small firecrackers. In the bathroom next door I hear the cistern beginning to fill and the children splashing about, giggling and whispering, washing themselves modestly under their clothes.Sita has lived here, on and off, for six years, her residency interrupted by a series of transgressions, petty thefts and infractions that have made her at times unpopular with her fellow residents and unwelcome in the community. Each time she has left and failed to make a life for herself in the outside world Sita has returned, tentatively at first, testing the boundaries, subtly insinuating herself, promising that she has mended her ways, until finally Wayne’s resolution fails and he persuades the other women to allow Sita to move her few belongings back into her small house.As with nearly everyone here, her life has been a series of the setbacks and rejections, catastrophes and abandonments, that beset people infected with HIV/AIDS the world over. Such stories abound, every imaginable permutation of sorrow and many that are unimaginable. Sita’s own story includes elements not uncommon: an abusive father, a lover who impregnated her and infected her with the HIV virus, then the death of her baby and beatings from her family and, when her illness became public knowledge, a village that tormented her and made of her a pariah. Perhaps like many poor women she has sometimes been forced into prostitution, at least informally, to feed herself. Wayne considers these things when he advocates for her in the community, and the others relent because, after all, Sita’s life has not been so different from their own.The daylight has begun to come up now and Sita emerges from her house, dressed for the day, and begins sweeping the pounded dirt courtyard, bent over her short broom. Her dusty sarong has been properly tied, falling in a modest pleat from her waist. She wears a black blouse with panels of openwork lace, a garment that hints of the dressier ensemble it may have been part of before being sold as surplus from the sweatshops of Phnom Penh. Her high cheekbones, full mouth and high forehead give her a face that might be called sculpted rather than pretty, with a trace of knowing irony in her eyebrows. Yet I have seen her transform, and once, when she was clearly smitten by a young volunteer, she became girlish: radiant and unguarded and wonderfully soft. I could see then the beauty Sita had been and the wife and mother she might have been and the passionate woman she can be.She moves aside a grass mat barrier to reveal a small space adjoining her house. It is no more than eight feet on a side and forms a tiny walled garden on one side of which Sita has planted pink, orange and red zinnias. Once the garden was open, but the bony cows that are allowed to graze freely in the dry season, topping Wayne’s young mango trees and eating whatever else they can find, made a meal of Sita’s flowers. So she has enclosed it, a hidden jewel, radiant in a dusty world. It is her refuge, her pride and her testament, like her radio that blares forth its witness every morning to the world and declares before Heaven, “Yes. I am still here. Listen! I am alive!”
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful. A heartwarming book about a challenging subject By KmVictorian Can anything good come out of an AIDS epidemic?Cambodia, like many other Third World countries, experienced an HIV/AIDS epidemic starting in the 1980s. "In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot," plays out against that tragic background.Cambodian families and communities were devastated by the new disease. A father might become infected by HIV and bring the infection home to his wife. Children born into this family might also be infected.In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when available attempts at treatment failed, both parents probably sooner or later died. Sometimes only a frail grandparent--or no one at all--might be left to care for the surviving children. Other people in the community often avoided or were actively hostile to the survivors for fear of catching the frightening new disease.Helping to fill the need for care and support of HIV/AIDS survivors in Cambodia is Wat Opot, a charitable, inter-faith agency whose children are the subject of this book. Author Gail Gutradt, an American, has been a volunteer at Wat Opot over five years. She writes with warmth and great empathy about the children, their joys and their sorrows, and also about the staff, caregivers and volunteers who pour out their lives in loving service to the surviving youngsters.This book is both inspirational and informative.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Wat Opot is brought to life here, and I hope the book will inspire many to help with its mission By Suzanne Amara Wat Opot is a community in Cambodia serving people affected by AIDS, mainly children orphaned by the disease, some with AIDS themselves. It is run by Wayne Matthysee, an ex-Marine who has devoted his life to helping others. This book is written by Gail Gutradt, who has volunteered at Wat Opot for a total of about 13 months over the years, coming and going.I was very touched by the stories in this book, especially those of the children of Wat Opot. They are stories of amazing abilities to rebound, of extreme dedication to siblings, of great happiness and sadness. I liked very much that Gutradt didn't try to portray the children as perfect. I was struck by one story where older girls treat a younger one meanly, and Gutradt reflects it reminds her of middle school cruelty in the 1950s growing up. This realism makes the stories of kindness and sacrifice stronger and more meaningful.Wayne, however, comes across as basically a saint. I know there are people like that, and I believe he probably is a wonderful man, but this read as him being almost too perfect to believe. I was also not as interested in the part of the book that talked about the author's experiences in India, or the few times the book strayed in mystical or supernatural ground, like photographs that showed "orbs" as maybe spirits.As often with a book like this, I hesitate to say anything negative, because I so much want this to be read and for people with the means to do so to donate to Wat Opot. It's horrible to think that the worldwide recession could put AIDS patients back to the time before new drugs. It's sad to think of children at Wat Opot possibly not graduating from school because of the money needed for bribes to teachers for good grades or passing tests. I found myself rooting for the children here, and very much wanting them to have everything and anything they need, and I thank Gutradt for her writing, that will hopefully help those children grow to their potential
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Sad, Inspiring, Great Read By Irish Cambodia has seen its share of misery. Add to the list of war, dictators, Agent Orange, etc. is the AIDS epidemic. The virus spread like wildfire and unknowing culprits brought the sickness home to their families to infect wives and new born babies. Villages shunned sick people and many children were/are left homeless without a means for survival. Wayne Matthysse saw a critical need and with only $50 in his pocket, built Wat Opot from scratch using old temples and grounds and revamping them with the help of volunteers-this new place-and critically needed place became a haven for women and children with the virus.A Rocket Made of Ice is the inspiring and harrowing story of the children of Wat Opat told by a reporter/volunteer who continues to help at the clinic. This is not only a story of the clinic and those who reside there, but an example of how a good work can transform. Even the villagers benefit from the clinic. They were fearful of catching the virus, but when they met Wayne and the volunteers, they too would go to the clinic for a variety of ailments, making the clinic a great outreach source for an area sorely in need.In this book one learns the rituals and the daily trials of the kids and workers of Wat Opot. The cremated remains of those who have died sit vessels with a picture tag hanging from the top. The urns connect the children to their loved ones and they are encouraged to visit and burn incense to honor those lost. Important medicines are provided to the children who without this place, would receive no treatment.This book is a testament to life. Wat Opot gives people hope and a new chance with education, food, clothing, medicines and often, more importantly, love. It is the love that provides these kids the strength to continue and to look forward even though many have suffered through horrible circumstances. They all live simple lives, but live full of hope thanks to Wayne and the volunteers.This is a great book-
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