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

Packing Up

All hands were on deck as we cleaned up a few days ago.  We couldn't believe that it was already time to pack everything up.  This trip could not have happened without the help of EVERYONE on the team!  We have been preparing since August for this trip, and day by day, we got better working together.  It was a strange feeling to pack it all down and move on.

The life expectancy here is age 55 for males and age 62 for females.  50% of Cambodians are between the ages of 18 and 34 due to genocide in the past.  The Cambodian health system mimics their social system, where the upper class gets anything they want, but the lower class gets nothing. We were able to give that lower class a piece of healthcare they rarely have access to.

After we were all packed up, we visited a local dentist office, Room Chang Dental.  We found out this is the largest dental office in Asia!  They have 30 dentists, 100 employees, and 9 floors to their facility!   The office was a great chance to see a fully-operating dental office in Cambodia, though.  Everyone had to take off street shoes to go in.  Dr. Tith showed us around.  He is an amazing doctor, and was miraculously spared by Khmer Rouge Soldiers when he was a boy.  He's here now changing lives through dentistry.

Educating Families For Healthier Teeth

My insights and experiences are vast...but my time and our bandwidth is short for now.  I have hundreds more photos that I want to share now but our internet is very unstable here.  I'm excited to get back to my high speed and download all of the pictures that are capturing our time here.


















Our dental care is very needed here. (Creekside and Burning Tree Team:  you will laugh at the disorganization of supplies compared to our offices!)  The sugar cane, that is so popular here, causes so much of the dental misery.  Many young children suck on it and eat on it constantly.  By age 5, many, if not the majority have black teeth.  Their mouths are almost entirely ruined due to rampant decay and fracture.  This results in a lot of pain and also a lot of infection.  We're hoping that education to the moms and families (through our translators, of course), can change the course of their health and teeth.


Looking out of our clinic, you see the shack dwellers going about their day with various activities.  They harvest from the plants just outside of this window for food.  The Khmer people are a people with a depth of disposition I have never seen.  They are a strong blend of genuine and long-suffering strength.  There is no middle class here due to genocide.  As you travel through Cambodia, you see a huge chasm between the elite and poor, making it truly "foreign" culture.

Fourteen: Hours Ahead & Hours Doing Dental

  Fourteen is the number, folks!  Not only are we 14 hours ahead, which makes sharing our journey feel far away, but we also put in a 14 hour clinical day on Wednesday!  This was the longest clinical day I've had in my career thus far, and boy are we all exhausted.  We had 44 folks waiting when we arrived, with 100+ waiting by midday for dental care, including the orphans that came for us to finish up from Monday and Tuesday.  

When we came, we planned for chaos, and we've received chaos times ten!  Equipment breaks down every other patient, but somehow it gets fixed and off we go!  From broken LED doctor headlamps (our only light source as we're working) to broken suction lines (no replacement available) to mosquitos everywhere, we're experiencing it all!  Hey, and when I say mosquitos everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE…in equipment, bags, scrubs, food…  But, at the end of the day, there is better health and well being here in Cambodia.  

We've really fallen in love with the Khmer (Ka-mi) people.  Cambodia is a web of people, customs, politics, religion, and tragedy.  You can see it in the people's eyes.  They are the most patient, long-suffering people I've ever experienced.  They are also all so appreciative with their hands at heart center and sandals off to greet us.  

Oh, and don't forget about the blooms!  Still catching blooms way over here in Cambodia!

First Clinic Day Is In The Book!

Our first clinic day (Monday) was  huge success!  The Word was passed around the neighborhood, which you can see right outside our window.  We then saw140 patients (about 14 an hour) total today and they all were very genuine and appreciative.  There were many initial equipment challenges today (remember we brought most of the gear with us).  Needless to say, this clinic looks very different from the equipment we have back in Colorado!  

Cambodia Up Close

A few sights from our travels in Cambodia!  We even hit a traffic jam in the city.

Honored Guests @ Cambodian Orphanage

Whew!  We are all set up!  The Phnom Penh Dental Clinic is ready to see patients Monday morning!  We got to visit some of our patients for tomorrow:  the children at CICFO (Cambodian & International Childrens & Friends Organization).  These orphans were super sweet and even sang for us.  They will be our first patients Monday morning!  Here's to more smiles in Cambodia!

Off To Cambodia In Less Than 48 Hours!

Whoo hoo!  I'm off on my journey to Cambodia in less than 48 hours!  It has been a busy week gathering all my gear and dental supplies ready for our trip.  Once we get to the region we're serving, we'll spend the first day and a half "building" our clinic.  We're all bringing supplies and tools and will have to set up a make-shift clinic as there isn't a permanent dental care facility there.  We start seeing patients on Monday!

You can stay connected through my blog and my social media sites with pictures and info from the trip over the next few weeks:

My photography social media:
Instagram: cary_lacouture
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cary-LaCouture-Photography/124837501276

Cambodia Fast Facts:

• Cambodian Religious Breakdown:  Buddhist (official) 96.9%, Muslim 1.9%, Christian 0.4%, other 0.8% (2008 est.)
• The Cambodian flag is the only national flag that has an image of a building – the Angkor Wat.
• Traditionally, birthdays are not celebrated in Cambodia. Older people might not even know their birthdays.
• Cambodia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. Between the years 1990 and 2005, the country has lost 25,000 square kilometers of forest.
• It’s considered disrespectful to let your feet or soles to point at people or things, so the feet must be tucked in when sitting.

Skipping A Day On Our Way To Cambodia

With just a few days left before I leave for Cambodia, I want to thank all of your for reaching out!  I'm so thankful for you all and I can't wait to share this trip with you.

I leave Thursday and fly to California first.  Our team meets up in San Francisco late on Thursday and we fly from there to Cambodia.  Because of the time difference, we'll "skip" Friday and land in Cambodia Saturday afternoon.  Wild!  I'll be 14 hours ahead of Colorado's time zone,  and will be posting pictures as much as I can in the little down time that we'll have.  So excited!

Smiles,
Cary

Cambodia Fast Facts:

• Football (soccer) is one of the most popular sports, although professional organized sports are not as prevalent in Cambodia as in western countries because of the economic conditions. 
• The 2008 Cambodian census estimated that 77.6% of the population was literate (85.1% of men and 70.9% of women).
• Agriculture is the traditional mainstay of the Cambodian economy. Rice is the principle commodity.

Cambodia Bound…Join Me On My Journey

Friends,

I'd like to invite you to join me on my journey over the next few weeks.  I have the opportunity to go to Cambodia to serve with Ayuda Humanitarian for 14 days.  Our group of 9 dentists, from all over the United States, are traveling to remote regions in Cambodia that have little-to-no access to dental care.   

Our team will mainly be serving by performing restorative dental and surgical cases.  However, there will naturally be a lot of general dental hygiene procedures performed in the course of our time there.  We're incredibly blessed to have a local dentist and some of his team serving alongside us.  Even with the local resources, there are many unknowns as to the conditions we will have and the cases we will see.  

Another fun aspect to this trip is that they have asked me to be the photographer for the trip.  Let's face it….I'd be pulling out my camera at any opportunity anyway!  I'm really excited to document this experience through the lens of my camera.  


This week, I am preparing and packing up dental and camera supplies to take on my trip.  I would love your prayers as I prepare to leave next week and I look forward to sharing this journey with you through my love of photography.      

Smiles,
Cary

Cambodia Fast Facts:

• With a population of over 15 million, Cambodia is the 69th most populous country in the world. 
• One of the largest challenges facing Cambodia is still the fact that the older population often lacks education, particularly in the countryside, which suffers from a lack of basic infrastructure. Fear of renewed political instability and corruption within the government discourage foreign investment and delay foreign aid.
• Cambodia was once one of the most landmined countries in the world. According to some estimates, unexploded land mines have been responsible for over 60,000 civilian deaths and thousands more maimed or injured since 1970.
• Cambodian life expectancy is 72 years in 2014, a major improvement since 1999 when the average life expectancy was 49.8 and 46.8.