Today we visited 'A New Day Cambodia' orphanage. It is a well funded organization with bright and friendly boys and girls aged 8 to 18.
The older children served as translators, oral hygiene instructors and dental assistants for the many children that were shuttled to this location for us to see.
Unfortunately, today was the hottest day that I have experienced in Phnom Penh. It's currently well over 100 degrees and humid. In the courtyard of the school we assembled our clinic taking advantage of ever bit of shade that surrounded the central plaza made of dirt and sand.
When we arrived, the children had swept the courtyard removing every footprint and proudly displaying their school with its best foot forward. But in our haste to get our clinic established we have marked the courtyard with our footsteps as if we were recording the sum of our efforts.
The children that we see today have lived through extremely difficult circumstances. One group is from a government run program. Each child has been the victim of some type of trauma, whether physical or mental, having come to the orphanage when the police rescued them from an untenable home circumstance.
As the various orphanages arrive their paperwork is checked for parental permission and the proper background information. A very capable group of New Day students works with the new arrivals teaching oral hygiene.
From there, our prospective patients, some smiling, some looking concerned and others with a blank look, arrive in the examination area for Bob and I to determine how best to treat them. We joke with the happy faces, reassure the concerned looks, and mostly, wonder about the blank looks. Is it nutrition, or worse, a history of physical or emotional trauma? After their examinations each patient receives a fluoride treatment and/or a fluoride varnish. Karen, who is a KIDS board member and a lawyer in real life, is timing the fluoride application.
For some patients, their day of dentistry ends here. While others, who require extractions or minor restorative work, will receive numbers to help insure the right person receives the right treatment. Rakish is an engineer from India. He's is applying numbered wristbands to our charges.
We are lucky to have a nurse on this trip. Ellendale watches over the children following their extractions. Today Kevin, a computer guy from Australia, shared this duty with her.
Throughout the day, we were observed by a small toad who dutifully watched over us making sure we were vigilant in the heat.
And of course Fifi pitched in. Here she is shuttling some of the children back to their school.
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