COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Health & Education
WRITTEN BY: Emma Winen
Our time in Cambodia so far has been amazing. The group has witnessed a live birth, discovered our competence in the kitchen and learnt about the ancient practice of betel chewing.
Over the past two weeks we have worked in a number of different villages and clinics, providing health education to local people.
Our aim has been to teach them about first aid, basic hygiene, pregnancy, alcohol and the importance of clean water and nutrition. Interestingly, there is an obvious and consistent lack of knowledge concerning oral hygiene. When we first arrived, we asked the villagers if they brushed their teeth. They all said yes but looking around, I begged to differ. A young boy for example, was complaining of toothaches and when I looked inside his mouth I could see why -his teeth had decayed so much they were only half formed. We therefore decided to supply the local clinic with children’s toothpaste and toothbrushes.
In another village we noticed that many of the local people were missing teeth. Later we learnt that they brush their teeth with their finger using salt! This village was particularly poor - they didn't have access to filtered water and rarely ate fish or vegetables. This was also where we first saw women chewing betel. They were sitting together on a wooden table with some leaves and an odd white paste. We watched one lady as she put the paste onto a leaf, rolled it into a ball and put it in her mouth. We noticed that all of their mouths were very red inside.
After doing some research I found out that this betel chewing is actually quite lethal. It entails a seed being ground and mixed into a paste with lime and some other spices, sometimes tobacco too. But even without tobacco this "treat" is very dangerous. It is a human carcinogen and increases the risk of all types of cancer. It can cause other diseases too such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and many more. It decreases the lifespan of a regular chewer by approximately six years. It also has the same negative effects on one’s psychological state as drugs and alcohol. The only problem is, they love it and it has been used across Asia since ancient times. Across Asian cultures it is representative of many different things such as love and prosperity.
At times, the clinics have been quiet so we decided to run a number of lessons about injury prevention and nutrition with the help of our translator Dimong. Of course the poverty and availability of foods in these areas restricts what they can eat, however if we explain to them how the body absorbs and processes nutrients then perhaps they will try and look after those most in need e.g. pregnant or breast feeding women and children. We also spent some time at a school and when the teachers didn’t turn up we decided to improvise and teach them about different body parts. By the end of the day we were playing hokey pokey – I think we were having a better time than the kids!
We’ve also been having a great time outside of work. We’ve had some fabulous meals – at Soria Moria we had $1 tapas. The yakitori chicken skewers and green mango salad were my favourite. We also had a delicious lunch at Bodhisattva Tree – a little café run by two Australian girls.
On Saturday morning we woke up at 4:30am and rode our bikes to the Angkor Wat Temple in time to watch the sunrise. It was definitely worth the trip! We spent some time exploring the temple before riding to Elephant Terrace and Ta Prohm (where tomb raider was filmed).
Sunday was spent on a tour of some local markets and taking a cooking class! We made banana flower salad, fish amok and sweet potato, coconut, sago pudding and they all tasted amazing!
It’s been a very successful experience so far and we look forward to the few weeks ahead!
Emma xoxo
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