Clean Teeth, Happy Village

It's day 3 in Cambodia and time is already flying by.  I'll try to hit the highlights. First the flight. Here's me leaving on my adventure at 5 in the morning. Just a warning, if you have an early flight you should be more organized than me and get to bed at a decent hour.  The flights were all fairly smooth despite having a couple of long layovers. I flew with my friend Jessica who is also  here on the internship.  We got to meet up with my uncle Scott in Singapore during our layover because he was there on business. What a small world!

Sunday Jessica and I flew into the airport in Siem Reap.  We went to church shortly after getting settled into the Heartprint House and neither of us realized how tired we were until we sat down. It was a struggle to stay awake, but everyone was very inviting and friendly.  It's wonderful to have a ward family wherever you go.

Monday was a planning/orientation meeting with Erin and Jody from Kindredhouse and Wendy from Heartprint House. These are the organizations we will be working with. Tuesday we went out to the Chansor Health Clinic and met the staff.  We will be helping them to build a walkway as well as creating a form to submit their in-patient records.  Although their will be a sharp learning curve it will be very helpful in the long run for them to have a digital record.

Today has been a great day.  We are having a dental hygiene clinic.  This morning we had just about 130 people come which is more than we thought.  Most of the kids close to Heartprint have school in the morning so we are expecting more in the afternoon.  It's been such a great thing to help teach them about hand washing and tooth brushing and then to provide an enamel varnish for all who come to help prevent cavities.  One of the coolest things was when someone would come through and try it out and then come back later with siblings or other children or even neighbors to encourage them to do it too.  They are excited to learn and see how they can improve their lives and the lives of their children.  It's true some of the children were not super happy with the varnish, but their moms and dads were setting great examples for them.  I was talking with Wendy at one point and it's amazing to think how much the Khmer Rouge has effected their lives.  If you think about it, most of us learn good hygiene from our parents, particularly our moms.  But with the Khmer Rouge much of the older population was wiped out so their knowledge base was lost.  They now seem to be in the recovery stages with more and more children getting an education.  I can't wait to see where Cambodia is in ten or fifteen years as these children begin to take jobs and vote and make a difference in their communities.

Well, that's all for today, but I'll write again soon.

Haven and Pheap at the tooth brushing station.

McHale playing with about 5 kids.