This morning, Cina asked me to go to the dentist with her, her mother and the three boys. This place is totally different to the UK where it's not always easy to find a dentist; here there are often one or two clinics in the same street or even across the road from each other. It's a different story in the countryside where there are none at all.
All I had to do was sit and wait. They all went into various rooms and came out one by one as the treatment was finished. Cina and her mother left, presumably to shop or return to the travel office. I was there for nearly two hours, twiddling my thumbs. The owner of the business kept trying to encourage me to have my teeth cleaned but I thought I might as well wait until January when the Canadian hygienist comes. In Canada hygienists almost always insist on having two one hour sessions with a client whereas here the cleaning job is over and done with in less than half an hour. It's also a heck of a lot cheaper here. The total bill for four cleaning jobs and about 10 small fillings was $120.
Later in the morning Luc came for a visit. He's a retired Canadian nurse who is married to a Thai. She decided they should move back to her home town in Thailand after he retired. Their home is 10 minutes from the border so he travels there by bus and then walks home. He helps Son Soubert with the children at the Peaceful Children's Home. Border crossings seem to be getting more complicated; the land crossings here have always been problematical, because of bribery, but now the paper work is taking over. Nowadays, he has to go into a back office and fill in a form that asks for information about the money in his pocket and even his bank account details.
Life is tough in Cambodia for those taking care of disadvantaged children. In their infinite wisdom the government has decided that all these children should be returned to their home. In many cases they don't have a family so it means finding a family to accept them. They end up in situations where there is poor education, little food and not many opportunities. At Peaceful Children's Home there are two mentally handicapped children and Luc has found a French NGO that would take care of them during the day time but not at night time. They also want $100 a month to care for them. It's a shame that charities can't do something for nothing.
I'm having problems with next year's dental programme. For some strange reason the dates, given by the powers that be in the NGO, allow for one less day in Cambodia. I normally have the group working seven days during their two week visit but this year it's down to six. I'm loath to allow them to travel so far to do only six days of work so I'm trying to find ways of getting them to change their flights. Some are staying longer in the area whilst others are returning and have booked their flights. Some will have to pay a penalty. The head of the NGO said I should reduce the tourism I do with the group but there'll be a riot if I did that. I can get them to start working a day earlier, and reduce the beginning bit of tourism, but I think they'd be exhausted after such a long flight from Canada. So now I'm in a "wait and see" mode as they try to figure out the best option. I'd like to start doing the logistics but it'll have to wait until they make up their minds.
It poured with rain during his visit so we had to find extra things to talk about. We avoid politics as it's a pointless exercise; we can't do anything about it and it's depressing. The rain came down so heavily it flooded both my balconies and lots of muck came down the spouts. I didn't mind as it gave me something to do when Luc left.
