A visit by the Dentists...



A welcome to the Dental team





Kids arriving at the clinic


Yesterday a team of Dentists came to the orphanage and worked on over 200 kids. There are only 30 children in my orphanage, but kids from a lot of neighbouring orphanages and schools came. There was 10 dentists and 3rd year dental students who made up the team. They came from Japan, the USA, Holland and Germany, I think. There was other volunteers who came with them and basically did crowd control, comforting of the patients, post-op care (not that they operated, but they did do extractions, cleanings and fillings). The kids that had an extraction got to pick a prize from the prize table. There was hats, metal clips, pens, small whoopie cushions, etc.. that the dentists brought with them.



Some of the things donated for the kids that had extractions.




The makeshift Dental clinic


There was a shelter set up in the ophanage courtyard and under it was six desks from the school. These made up the dentists' workstations. The dentists rotated through the six stations and then got to have a break for 2 work stations. They started at 7:00am and worked through until about 3:00pm at which time they were utterly exhausted. There was still kids to see but they last 2 groups only had their teeth brushed with a flouride by the other volunteers.


One patient waiting for the dentist



The instrument sterilization table




The dentists hard at work

 There was 2 ladies (sisters) from Holland who came with the dental team to help entertain the children while they awaited their turn. I helped them with entertaining the children in the morning. One sister played the accordian and then other did most of the singing. It was very fun. We sang songs like: If your happy and you know it, twinkle twinkle little star, do you know the fisherman?, and couple of dutch songs that I did a terrible job at trying to copy, and head and shoulder knees and toes. The kids just loved it. We also did a couple of action songs that I had never heard or seen before. Unfortunately, they had to leave at lunchtime and go somewhere else to entertain some kids.

In the afternoon I had some of the kids from one of the last school/orphanage sing me some songs in Khmer and in English. Prior to this they were running a bit wild at the school and making all sorts of a mess. They are like kids everywhere. They love to sing happy songs, especially ones with actions.

I spoke to one of the dental students and he indicated that they were here in Cambodia for two weeks and that yesterday was day 3 for them. They spent the first two days with the Riverside kids and after today they would be going out into the provinces for about a week and then the last 3 days would be spent with the Garbage Dump kids.
They said the first day they saw over 230 kids. How exhausting, but rewarding would that be, and how wonderful for the children who may be suffering with their teeth but unable to go to the dentist for lack of funds.

Please pray for the Dentists - that they do as much as they possibly can to help the poor children of Cambodia. That the experiences that they have here help shape the people that they are to become as dentists. That they help take care of the poor in the world who wouldn't be able to access dental assistance without the services that they provided.

Pray for me this weekend as I am going with my orphanage on a 2 day field trip to the beach area of Cambodia. That this time be one of fun, relaxation, and a real getting to know one another. That God uses me in a mighty way in these children's lives and that I come back from the beach changed. All for His glory.