A Stone's Throw From Burma

Third Day Stats:

25 scalings (cleanings)

108 sealants on 21 patients

27 fillings on 10 patients 

2 extractions 

We started today earlier then normal.  A special tour had been arranged for us to the Burmese border.  We first went to a local village clinic where our volunteer health technician, Aek, worked.  Today this village was having  a sports field day.  All the schools in the area were in costume and participated in a parade to a field where the children had competitions.  The parade was wonderful with colorful costumes and marching bands.

Children from different schools performing at the Sports Day Parade 

From there we traveled into the back country.  We traveled over a mountain and down the other side in the back of a pick-up truck. We traveled through several small villages with the houses built on stilts on the sides of cliffs.  We arrived at the Y in the river that separates Thailand from Burma.  We took a boat ride up the river to a small beach area where we got some incredible pictures of the river canyon.  The people in the village were very friendly and some spoke rather good English.

Dentists skipping rocks on the Salween River

After a stop for lunch we headed back to the school for a few hours of Dentistry on the school children.  The kids here are incredibly polite and very good patients.  Working on them is not difficult at all.

We finished the day with another great dinner and then a drive to the top of a local mountain where we visited a beautiful Pagoda and launched two floating lanterns.(I don't know the real name for these)

An amazing day leaving me exhausted but incredibly fulfilled.

Written by dentist, Keith Schmidt, from Bel Air, Maryland.