I was excited for the kids.

I quickly became terrified with the kids.

Now I am SOOOOO proud of the kids.

The dentist pulls into APCA around 10am and is greeted by a few dozen kids. He is accompanied by his hygienist wife and a Khmer dental student. They lug their dental equipment into the first floor main room and quickly begin their examinations. I suddenly realized this isn’t going to be such a great day.

There is no separation between the dentist’s chair, his help, and the kids. Maybe a dozen kids will be looking on, crowded around the poor kid whose turn it is to lie in the chair. There’s lots of chit-chat and I think some of the older, equally scared boys are trying to hide their discomfort and fear. It’s like they’re trying to say, “When I sit in that chair, my heart won’t pump a little faster. My toes won’t curl and I certainly won’t need a hand to clench.”  And then it’s their turn. They nervously grin as they are seated and the younger kids look on, hoping to be inspired. When they see his toes curl, though, the little ones become even more uncomfortable and frightened.

I’m on the third floor discussing lessons with the other volunteers. We hear screaming. Lots of it. Loud screaming that can be heard over the dentist’s drills and equipment. I jog down the stairs to see one of the smallest  9 year old girls in the dentist chair kicking her feet as her flailing arms are trying to be captured by the dental assistant. Immediately, I want to vomit. From my view on the second floor I can see the daunting blood-covered metal plyers half way in her mouth. Her poor crooked, rotten front teeth won’t be in her mouth much longer. Her eyes are glued shut but tears manage to escape like a river.  To see her in this much discomfort makes me sick.  However, we all know (including the children) that we should be thankful for the dentist coming to APCA and all the work he is doing.  I attempt to take a few pictures before I realize I don’t really want to remember this. I put the camera away.

The dentist’s gloves are bloody as he helps her sit up. Her fresh gauze is already soaked. I don’t know how many teeth were pulled, but it was more than one or two. She sits in the row of chairs a few yards from the dentist. We try to help her control her tears but all we can do is give her a cold towel as she is spitting blood into the garbage can.

This happens again thirty minutes later. Except this time it’s Rortha, the smallest ten year old boy you’ve ever seen. He is flailing around in the chair and screaming. As soon as the dentist sets his metal plyers (I know that’s not what they’re really called) down, Rortha tries to sit up on his own but he needs help. His eyelashes are covered in tears and there’s snot running down his chin. I sit with him on my lap for the next hour and try to help calm him down. We have to change the gauze every few minutes.

For the next few hours I try to help as much as I can; whether it’s holding their hand while being examined or wiping the saliva/blood mixture that has covered some parts of the floor. The kids who aren’t studying hover around the dentist, preparing themselves for when they’ll get called up.  Even though I’m not sitting in that chair, I share the same uncomfortable feelings as the kids: we’re all terrified, nauseous, and extremely nervous.  I later pull out bingo in hopes of providing some sort of distraction.

The dentist and his wife are great. They are from New Mexico and have been traveling around Cambodia doing this for the past few months. They are very friendly with the kids and do their best to reassure and comfort them in Khmer. Within five hours, they examine over fifty kids’ mouths!

I would guess at least half of the kids had at least one tooth pulled. I held my big kid class right after the dentist and his crew left. The APCA kids in the class who were freshly Novocain-ed were adamant about taking their spelling test. I gave them the option to take it next week, but none of them were interested. They explain to me that yes, the dentist ‘very hurts’, but if they do not go their teeth will only get worse.

Since we’ve been teaching ordinal numbers lately, I figured I’ll continue the trend.

1^st: Last week I went to visit one of the beaches in Vietnam for the first time. I had been to Saigon three years ago; as the bus approached the city I realized how clean it is compared to Phnom Penh. The dozens of high-rise apartments and millions of motos in Saigon dwarf the Cambodian capital that I have come to think of as monstrous metropolis. I ventured to Mui Ne, a small resort town on the South China Sea. The first day I biked around the sleepy town. For the next two days, I basically did nothing but sit poolside, read, and catch up on my Car Talk and 60 Minutes podcasts. It was heaven.

Another 1^st: My yoga practice has gone international! There is a studio in Phnom Penh that I have been meaning to visit so I slipped in for a class last weekend. The instructor is Australian and there is a Khmer instructor who translates, although at the class I attended there weren’t many non-English speakers. I will definitely return.

2^nd: For the second time, I picked up a new APCA volunteer from Phnom Penh and showed her around the ‘big’ city. Diana is going to be an awesome addition to APCA. She came incredibly well prepared and has a TON of donations. Plus, she even has teaching experience! Imagine that – someone who actually knows what they’re doing! I’m excited to be at APCA with her.

3^rd: I visited my favorite place in Phnom Penh for the third (maybe fourth?) time: International Book Center. They have virtually every school supply, sporting equipment, party supply, teaching material, and little random necessity you never thought you’d need. I bought an English grammar textbook for the kids in my big kid class and then had them copied. The city is littered with three things: pharmacies, dentists, and copy centers. I was able to get 13 copies of a 267 page book for about $30. Thank you Aunt Helene for your donation – I put it to good use! I passed the books out today in class and the kids couldn’t wait to fill in all the blanks.

5^th: For anyone who was wondering if I have continued to visit Lhysa the blind masseuse, the answer is YES! Guess how many times I’ve gone? In fact, they love me there so much that my $7/hour rate has decreased to $6/hour.  Not a bad deal.

Some more developments:

Every evening the three of us volunteers hop on bikes and ride to Amret, a micro-lending office down the street. Their staff has asked us to teach them every day, so now we end our evenings conversing with 10 incredibly eager and energetic twenty-something business men and women. They were the first people I have come across in two months who have been able to point to a map and tell me exactly where I am right now. I have gotten to know PP pretty well only because if I don’t, and solely rely on a map to show a moto driver, I’ll end up miles from where I intended to go. Before this week, I just knew APCA was about an hour northwest of PP. For some strange reason, it feels better to know my exact location.

Speaking of location, I have decided to be located in Cambodia for an extra two months! Yep, I’m extending my stay! Instead of coming home May 1^st, I’ll return sometime in July. That means two extra months for anyone to come visit us!

Have you ever gone hunting for dried cow poop in the middle of a rice field with 60 kids? If your answer is no, I’ll brief you about it so when the opportunity arises, you’ll be prepared.

First, you will have children try to explain to you what cow poop is. Next, you will follow a group of bigger boys who are in charge of lugging the big straw baskets around. Your job is to scavenge up as much dried poop as you can find and throw it in the baskets. It’s really just like an Easter egg hunt since the poop is camouflaged and takes effort to locate. Then, you will have children try to include you in their game of tag, which involves throwing the poop. Others will come up to you with an unpeeled banana in one hand and a wad of rather fresh poop in the other. They’ll offer you the banana, and when you politely decline they’ll stuff it in their mouths.  Girls will come up to you and shove crabs into your face – apparently poop hunting isn’t exciting enough for some, so they choose to search for the mini crabs that can be unearthed from the 3 inch wide holes in the ground. Once the baskets are full enough, you will be told that you have collected a sufficient amount to fertilize the flower beds. This is when you’ll be informed (as you leave the fields) that you should never go close to those 3 inch wide holes because of the..…ummmm, what do you call it in English? Oh yeah, cobras.