Cambodia: Recap

Dear photography lovers, dental patients, dental team, and friends,

Thank you! Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you for holding down the fort to allow me to travel thousands of miles to bring smiles to children in Cambodia!  Without your support, this would not have been possible!  A huge thank you to the teams at Burning Tree Family Dentistry and Creekside Dental for holding down the fort!

Cambodia was, and is, a distant place!  It is the only place in the world where Khmer is spoken, and so it feels like a place unto itself.  Not only that, but it's a kingdom - not a democracy.  Couple that with the buddhist religion that is everywhere, and you have a land that truly feels as foreign as it possibly could!

The people were as sweet as could be, though.  They truly are a people with their hands at heart's center.  They meet you with hands at heart's center.  They thank you with hands at heart's center.  And, they couldn't be more grateful for the dental care!  For many, this was their first dental cleaning.  The average 12 year old had half of their teeth ruined.

Our clinic conditions were primitive.  Notice our "trays" for our tools, and the sophisticated sterilization techniques we had.  Chuck was in charge of the sterilization, aka boiling, process!  

Cambodians will eat just about anything, and they pride themselves very highly on that fact.  The markets are full of bowls of tarantulas and waterbugs to buy and eat.  The culture is also highly dependent on rice, and they use the presses below to make rice milk.  The one thing Cambodians WILL NOT eat is elephant.  They believe it to be sacred and hold it prized above almost anything else!

Of course, it would take hours to recount all of the experiences we had in Cambodia.  It was an honor to serve them and help bring a few more smiles to that piece of the globe.  Thank you for sharing in our journey and seeing a piece of Cambodia with us!

Smiles,
Cary