In "the Provence"

Today we returned from "the provence," an area near the Mekong River and the border with Vietnam. We had set out 3 days ago in our 3 vans loaded with dentists, support staff and supplies. We travelled on paved and then dirt roads to reach our destination. That evening we slept in a hotel that charged $5 per person. Awaking at 4:30 the next morning, we ate a breakfast of eggs, fried rice and French bread ($2/person) and arrived at our destination by 6am. With the help of the Budhist Monks and a local teacher, we quickly turned the monastery into a dental clinic. Our translators were 17 year old high school students. They had never met foreigners nor had they ever left their town. They helped us to see over 340 patients who ranged in age from 4 (thanks Dr. Jamie) to 14. Most of the kids had badly decayed teeth and therefore required extractions. But we were also able to do fluoride treatments and preventative sealants, and where possible we restored the teeth.On our second day we returned to the same Monastery and saw the children from the previous day who had work too extensive to be done in one sitting as well as children from another village. The Cambodian children are very reserved, but I was able to make them smile when I tried to pronounce their names. Everyone was very appreciative of our work. When we took a break, the temperature was well over 90 degrees, the monks would bring us fresh cut coconuts and we drank the water. At the end of the day, the translators busily collected our email addresses and promised to write. Though their homes lack electricity, the high school has computers and the Internet available. This dental mission is run by Bob, are retired prosthodontist, and Parobi, a retired physicist. Over the past 8 years, they have run missions to Cambodia, Guatamala and the Philipines. Each mission sees over 1000 children. Their energy is boundless.We are all resting now because tomorrow will be a hard day. Though we will see fewer patients, our patients will be children whose parents have died of AIDS. In the following days we will treat the "child of the dump." I will do my best to upload pictures.