Arun's Village

If you have ever followed this blog before then you'll remember that Arun's village has a name we just don't know it. Arun used to work at the hotel where we stay. On a trip years ago to another village he asked Bob and Purobi if the team could visit his village. Hence this town, which involves a 1.5 hour ride to this remote village, and a rickety ferry ride across the Mekong river, came to be known as Arun's village. 

We arrived at the ferry just as the sun burst over the horizon. Wake up was 4 am. Vans were loaded at 5:30. 

The village was as I remembered, dusty and dirty, with roads that, pardon the expression, caused our fillings to rattle. POI here, I don't have any fillings and I'm proud of it - fluoride does work. In my case, I felt my body rattle. And if you know me, this will come as no surprise I have been prone to injury lately. 

Our work site was the local school.

And today is a national holiday. We feared that, many children would stay home.  We were wrong. It's 9:30 am and Bob and I have already screened 250 children. Almost all of them need extractions. We are temporarily stalled with an overflow of patients needing treatment. I walked out into the throng of patients to be screened to look for children who we could fast track to a fluoride treatment. No luck, everyone needs extraction. 

While we work, the parents and some of the patients who we've seen wait in the shade. 

Though we are happy to be here helping, we are nonetheless frustrated that our effort to educate this village over the last seven years about hygiene and diet, have had little impact on the rate of cavities. At some point a difficult decision will have to be made - does this village continue to receive this level of donated care or do we move it to another venue where our efforts might be more sustainable? We've seen the program work in other villages and in the orphanages where we can get the adults to buy in to the program. 

For those of you who are following FiFi, she is doing well. She's never had more attention and appreciates those who ask about her.