People keep asking me what day we'll be in which place. I tell them that I work by dates. I can tell them where they'll be on the 25th but I have no idea what day it is.
Individuals in the group have told me they are very happy but exhausted. One lady said she'd never been away from her family for two weeks - I thought it was funny when she said her husband had. It has been her first time volunteering and she's found it very tiring. At times she left the group to stay in her room but she was always cheerful about it. She's got rheumatism in her back so that wouldn't help. There's another lady I don't fully understand. She's been on six earlier trips to other destinations so one would think she was a well rounded traveller but that's not the case. I hardly saw her eat anything. She can't stand the sight of eggs and doesn't even want to touch them. If anything has the slightest hint of spice she won't eat it. She also has sciatica in her back that won't be helping. In the beginning I asked if anyone had special food needs and nobody said anything. Later on I found out that we had five vegetarians and one with a nut allergy. In a way it was good I didn't know because I just created a menu as if they were all able to eat anything. One young lady, born in Iran, said religion didn't bother her and she had no idea what her parents' religion was.
Every group has a personality; this one is an eating group. I've never known anything like it. They have a meal, we get on the bus and later stop for a toilet break - they get back on the bus loaded with snacks (or "snakes" as the Cambodians tend to say). It's also very much a groupie group; they like to stay together. In other groups, in the evening, people leave the group and go off to do something on their own. Not this group; it's almost as if they are a bunch of primary children holding onto a rope. Maybe it's because some are elderly and new to volunteering. Some of them are related while others are old friends. I've thoroughly enjoyed this group and Hans, the young leader, has been an absolute dream to work with.
Anyway, what did we do on the 22nd? We worked in a pagoda nestled at the foot of a hill so the pathways and buildings go up and up to a lovely view of the surrounding countryside. We've been many times so it's lovely to be greeted by familiar faces - the monks in their saffron and nuns in white. Many years ago, when we first went there, we worked in a building with a huge Buddha statue. He's not allowed to be disturbed from his meditation so he was covered with a long cloth. The following year they decided we needed a different location so up the hill we went to a large open space that had a funny looking structure at the end of it. Nosey me wandered around the back of it and discovered it was an oven - it was the crematorium. Since then we've been in a lovely space with tiled floors, open sides and a large roof so there's lots of shade.
It gets to be a bit of a circus but it's fun. We foreigners were allowed to wear our shoes but none of the locals. I took mine off as I hate shoes anyway. After triage we have to seat people in areas for hygiene, extraction and restorative (i.e. fillings). I'd prepared all the bibs so my job was to be the runner, attaching the bib and taking the patient to a particular area. Easier said than done! I'd pin on the bib and march off, expecting them to follow, but often they had wandered off to sit with a friend in another section. Nuns can't sit near men and monks can't sit near women so it becomes a bit of a juggle moving people around. Everyone has a good laugh. They lie down on tables but aren't supposed to have feet pointing at another person so that affects how we set up our tables.
One lady was very particular about stopping seeing any patient by 2.30pm. Normally, we work until either it's 5pm or the light's too bad to see but she kept insisting. Today we had about 30 waiting for extractions and she went on about the time, not being away before 9pm etc. "We've already seen 101 people", she said. As if that was a criteria for stopping work.
The dentists went into a huddle to discuss things but one of them left and said, "There's too much talking. Set up four tables for me and we'll start extracting." She was amazing. She moved from table to table, freezing the patient, and then back up the line to start extracting. It's funny watching the different personalities. She was a down to earth lady (originally from Vietnam - she was surprised to discover a couple of monks from Vietnam) who used one or two tools. Others would stand and look at the tools, meditating on which ones to take.
Our new hygiene equipment finally broke down - it was nothing to do with the quality of the equipment but the fact that they were working constantly and the tartar on the teeth was so bad. Looking in the mouths of the older people I would have pulled them all out but they'd say, "Not that one!"
By chance we'd ended our programme at this location and it turned out to be a brilliant move. The group had to pack everything to return to Canada and they were happy that we had a clean and pleasant area to do this. If we'd ended our time at the dirty, dusty, rundown school it would have been a miserable time. The head monk and nun came and wanted a photo with us. Boroith and Thornin got down on their knees to prostrate themselves and the monk just stood there smiling. They show the nuns and monks a lot of respect but it's not a kow towing situation; they laugh and joke together.
Did I mention the bats in the earlier blog? My days are blending one into the other - teeth, food, organizing beds, booking buses. We actually saw the bats three times - once we sat and watched them coming out of the cave and on the other occasions we were in the bus as they flew overhead. I can understand how they leave the cave together, but which bat decides it's time to go? How do they all come back at the same time - that's the mystery. They fly out of the cave together but, down the road, they go off in different directions to enjoy themselves.
We had our usual dinner with Serey's family at her restaurant and said farewell to the four local translators who'd helped us. We gave them $125 each which is a nice gift for them, plus cleaned their teeth. Some of the Canadians wanted to go to a sky bar so we took them to a hotel. Some decided to walk up the stairs but they realised it was 10 floors and so, when the elevator stopped at a floor, there was always someone begging to get on. Battambang is a sleepy city so there were not lots of lights and activities to see from up there.
Tomorrow it's all hands on deck loading up a 45 seater bus for our trip to Siem Reap.
