Day 2 at Sarorn’s village was another busy day, with us
seeing easily over 400 people!
It is such a lovely drive out to Sarorn’s village, with
rolling rice fields of bright vivid green against a blue sky. For a nice change
at Sarorn’s village, our clinic was at a community centre that had many open
sides that allowed the breeze to flow through, keeping us relatively cool,
which was fantastic!
We saw a mix of things from the common cold, to ear
infections that had pus running out of the ear, to chest infections, to using
wound glue to close a laceration on a woman’s hand. She was amazed how so
quickly all of a sudden her wound was closed, and so was I! It was my first
time using it, and I am now converted! In the time it took Caz to go to the
toilet, I had the wound cleaned and glued together! Terrific!
Bad teeth and toothaches were another sadly common sight to
see. So many young children and teenagers have very rotten and broken teeth,
right down to the gum due to poor diet and access to drinking water. To think
that these kids will be missing many teeth as adults is such a sad thought. For
this reason, donations of toothbrushes and toothpaste is so important to us, so
we can provide dental hygiene education to prevent the loss of teeth for the
young generation who are soon to be adults. Our toothbrush supply is never
quite enough, but we did however manage to give a toothbrush to every child we
saw!
Once we grouped all the kids together, we were able to
educate the children on how to brush their teeth. Caz did a great job at
demonstrating the correct way to brush, while Sarorn translated. Everyone had a
bit of a giggle at the facial expressions Caz pulled while brushing her teeth!!
Another interesting but heartbreaking case was a young lady,
26 years old, who explained that during or after the birth of her first child
she had some sort of complication with her heart. The women explained that the
doctors had since warned her not to have anymore children. She came to us to
ask why and wanted more answers. The women explained that doctors had urged
her to have further tests done through clinics, however, she explained that she
just could not afford to have these tests done. This was a very sensitive and
difficult case as in Cambodia it is normal to have many children, and family is
very important. I spent a lot of time with her and gave her a lot of TLC but
couldn’t help but feeling so heart broken for her.
For lunch we headed back to Sarorns dads house. Another
fabulous meal provided by his beautiful family. There was chicken, rice,
omelette and a delicious soup of fish, shrimp and bamboo shoots. After lunch
while we were all gently slipping into a food coma, we were spoilt with some
incredible sweet steamed puddings with coconut flakes and some jelly slice. We
all thoroughly enjoyed them.
To finish our time at Sarorns village, we handed out 75
packs to village ladys. The ladys were absolutely thrilled to have even the
simplest things like a face washer. Was so beautiful watching them.
We ended the day with a lovely dinner at Mekong View Skyhigh
Restaurant, with Sarorn, our translators, and van drivers. We watched the sun
set, while enjoying delicious food, which was the perfect end to two very busy
days.