Day 5

I keep thinking that I am going to get used to this heat and humidity and each day that passes proves me wrong. I am currently laying on my bed with my feet propped up on a suitcase because I have cankles from the combination of the heat, being on our feet and probably some water retention. I could be worse though because two girls have been feeling sick and stayed in their rooms for part of the day.

Today, we started our morning off with a tour of the Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm and Bayon Temples where Tomb Raider was filmed. They also had elephant rides which a bunch of people wanted to do but I didn't after I found out that it really hurts their back and they are trained with a metal prod and taken from their parents as a baby. So sad! We also saw monkeys with their babies which was the cutest thing ever!!!

We then visited the Angkor Children's Hospital and Dental Clinic which was awesome! It's a beautiful facility that treats about 500 children a day. It is part of Friends Without Boarders. They have all different departments including and ER and ICU! They treat children from newborn to age 16. It's also a training facility and we had the chance to talk with some pediatric residents training there. I wish we could have seen more but they are very in line with HIPAA which is great.

We had a really nice lunch and I tried duck for the first time in a soup that also had lotus nuts. It was actually good! I am surprised to discover how popular pumpkin is here. We've had pumpkin soup and a pumpkin puree. I don't care too much for it.

We then arrived at our long awaited visit to the school which also houses a dental clinic. We got to check out the dental clinic first and see the dentist and assistants working on the children. They are all so brave even when they have to get extractions! We then went into the classrooms and spent some time reading and writing a little bit with the children that were in 7th grade. They seem to memorize the words but don't really understand them. They are going to be revamping the literacy program. Then it was recess and we played outside with the kids. We had some balls and tossed them around which they liked but they LOVED playing monkey in the middle, especially when we were the monkeys. We will be returning to the schools tomorrow to really work. The dental students will be in the dental clinic, the nursing students will be doing head-to-toe assessments and vitals, and the pre-med and psych students will be doing heights, weights, lice and scabies checks as well as teaching hand washing and teeth brushing. We will also be going back to the clinics from yesterday.

We had pizza for dinner on the roof of the hotel then returned to the night market for more shopping! My ankles are so swollen and so are many of other people's. Two girls were feeling sick today (fever, diarrhea, etc.) but both are feeling better.

Love to you all!