Cun Pheo: 8,000 littleTeeth

Former Army nurse Jennifer Hazard preps a school girl prior to her tooth-flouride treatment.

Wilson,
On August 27, 400 children started having their 8,000 baby teeth flourided by the Global Impact medical team from Seattle Colleges. (The team also saw 860 patients in clinics conducted over a two-day period.) Today we get a look at what was happening to those teeth--and a little bit about the donation of our remaining One World Futbols.

The clinics took place in Cun Pheo (Village)  Mai Chau (District) Hoa Binh (Province) Vietnam, in the mountainous region west of Hanoi. There are not only Vietnamese there -- there are also Hmong people and Thai families in Cun Pheo, which our group had reached on a 12-15 mile overland trek the day before. After that exhausting hike, we had good reason to sleep soundly, but we had to rise early the next day for the clinics and flouridation treatments we would conduct. Flouriding 400 little mouths can sound like a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun!

I was in the contingent that went to this rural school:

The principal's office was at the far right of this school building.

The children waited in the school yard as adults kept an eye on the weather. The monsoon rains which would have felt so damn good during our prior-days cross-country march in 95-degree heat under a mean cloudless sky, had finally returned, just when we didn't need them that much any more.

Hmong and Thai children queue up outside for their flouridation; the adults wonder, will it rain?

No flouriding for her. She's just somebody's little sister who was there for some reason.

This pre-schooler played with the props used to educate the kids on brushing their teeth.

The dental clinic involved teaching kids some basics -- how to wash your hands properly, how to properly brush your teeth (they each were given a tooth brush) and how to say "aahhhhhhh"  to facilitate the flouride treatment. Staff from Buffalo Tours, which provided our guides in Vietnam, served as translators.

Nurse Hazard, Gina Panattoni and translator Dau Thi Thu teach hand washing.

Make sure you wash the tips of your fingers, they explain, as the children follow along.

Following flouridation, each child was given a tooth brush.

Sometimes even simple things need to be taught -- like saying "aaaaaahhhhhhhh."

The kids crowded forward for the best view.

The flouride was applied with a brush from break-open packets like this one. Anyone can do it!

In Cun Pheo, the "dental chair" came  with a lap.

This youngster looked like he was really going to enjoy his flouridation.

Forget patient privacy. In Cun Pheo, everyone wants to watch.

Donating more One World Futbols

A couple days later, our work was done and our team was ready to head back to Hanoi. But I had one more task to accomplish. I rose early before our bus arrived, and walked down the hill from the home stay, crossed a river red with mud, and climbed the next hill, to donate some more one World Futbols that readers have sponsored.

At the school ground entrance, two youngsters crouched in wait for their classmates.

Kids waiting for school to start were amused by the foreigner with the "coolie" hat.

The principal

Now this is where things could have gotten interesting. I wasn't really sure whether I remembered the right route to the school. But there were some kids with umbrellas halfway up the trail, and I figured they were heading there, so I tagged along. Then when I got to the school, the question was how to get inside, but a custodian showed up and let me in, despite the language differences.

Then the principal showed up, and it could have gotten interesting then. But at the same time John Phillips, the head of our medical team showed up with two folks from Buffalo Tours, and they were able to translate for me as I explained the wonders of the One World Futbol.

In the principal's office, one youngster ate breakfast and the other made friends with Jean Baptiste.

One World Play Project had run short of blue balls, so I ended up with pink ones, which the principal noted, was a "girl's" color. But he said he would explain to the boys that women were important in the community. I think I conveyed to him that the project encourages girls and women to participate in sport, but somehow I lost that thread when we all lined up for the group photo. Off to my left, there was a young girl, one of only three -- perhaps -- who were in the group. What was I thinking? I should have had her holding one of the balls. Well, you can't remember everything . . .

The girl in the front row appears to be trying to figure out the tall guy in the coolie hat.

We headed back down the trail from the school, and stopped under the tree that greeted us on our arrival for one more Cun Pheo photo, with two of our guides from Buffalo Tours. Jean Baptiste was also there, peeking out from behind me in the photo below:

Recognize the one next to me? That's Scarlett, who gave me my very first Hanoi motorcycle ride.

I love that hat.  It came with a plastic rain cover. And it made it all the way back to Seattle intact. A good hat to have in a monsoon, or under a blistering sun, but people did kind of look at me funny . . .

 Love,

Robert, and Jean Baptiste

Tomorrow: The jewels of Ha Long Bay: karsts, caverns and cultured pearls