S***t just got real

Greetings all. Its been a while since I posted here and there is a reason for that. I've been exhausted! I'll make up for it now by assaulting you with a longer-than-usual blog. Its now more than three years since I shifted my life to Cambodia and it feels as though things are really shifting in terms of what our network is able to achieve around oral health and Early Childhood Caries. It feels as though there is a real, tangible, chance that we will make a dent... provided that the elections go OK in the next 12 months!

Of course there are still challenges, I remain vigilant in pushing the reactive-proactive paradigm towards the later and it is a constant challenge to allow people to solve their own problems. When you give them a chance, they really can! Obvious to some I know, but others like my self are slow learners on that one!

So to check off the updates, I thought I'd drop a few lines about the key things in my life; travel, research projects, people, and bikes. On the research front. SEAL Cambodia is all but finished, data are collected and to be analysed over the next 6-months. Healthy kids (the school project) is firming up and I'm hoping that we'll get an addition to our team to work on the social engineering part of the project to strengthen networks and increase community engagement. The Cambodia Smile pilot (the early childhood project) has been completed and data collected. My students were totally relentless and they did me proud in searching villages and rice patties until they got a 80% follow up rate. That S**t blows me away!

Data collection with my heroes!

An example of the paradox of life here comes from the Cambodia Smile project. One day I brought my PhD supervisor out to the field to see the data collection process. The day started with my students telling me about the previous day when they had gone to the home of one child to find that the child had passed away only months before. Five hours later we came to the home of one of our participants to find that there had been two marques and multiple A2 sized framed images of him set up for his second birthday. That s**t is real.

Nepal - The Himalayas, Karen and I in a sweet sari to celebrate the New Year, The Jevaia team,
 Keri and I in one of the health posts. 

In terms of travel, I've been to NZ, Australia, Nepal and the US since my last blog. I was convinced that I was trying to tone it down last year but I still ended up in 10 different countries! In Australia I went a whole week without riding a bike and in NZ I rode my bike so much that it took me a week or so back in Cambodia to recover! I do miss my mountain bike. In Nepal I had a lovely time with a team who are doing a great project in rural health posts creating a sustainable solution to realizing the right of every person to have access to care. It was this team that I chased down again in the US after the conferences in San Franscisco.  I snuck over to New York to oggle at the craziness of Manhattan and then barged my way into the lives of Laura and Keri in Connecticut so that we could talk strategy and (more dominantly) the realities of life whilst consuming Cambodian rum! I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Saoirse who is by dental-geek-sista-from-anutha-mista and Karen who is one of my favorite mentors (my favorite) that I met when I was in Ecuador in 2013. Who needs money when you have friends like that! That S**t is real.

Lady Liberty, Ladies Keri and Laura, and Lady Saoirse; New York, Connecticut, and San Francisco

Another thing that happened recently was that we found a tumor in my Fathers brain. It has been operated on, he is recovering well, and he'll start chemo/radio in a few weeks. That Sh*t got real because I really thought that guy was going to out live his father's 101 years and that I could leave them alone for a few more years. I guess we'll have to wait and see. In the mean time thoughts and prayers are deeply appreciated.

So now its that part in my blog to look towards future directions. First things first. I NEED A NEW BIKE. For these two reasons (1) the correct number of bikes for any given cyclist is n (being the number of bikes currently owned) plus ONE and (2) Because I am going to be doing 'Tour Aoteroa' during February/March next year and I'm riding with Sarah who is a machine and I don't think I'll be able to keep up with her on my current mountain bike! I don't want that S***t to get too real.

Other things going on over the next few years are a new longitudinal study partnering with UNICEF and The Burrows Foundation to examine the cause-effect relationship between severe dental caries and failure to thrive in preschool children. We are also looking to kick off a social enterprise (PRO Health Cambodia) which will initially import and distribute low-cost toothpaste in order to promote school tooth-brushing programs. Eventually we hope that we will be able to manufacture and we are exploring investment options with a group in NZ.

Cambodia life, the city under construction, day trips, bike trips, dental hygienists... business as usual

As to where I will live after then next 12 months, that remains open to discussion. Next year I'll be in Cambodia for at least 6 months out of the year and we'll see what happens after that. Regardless of where the majority of my bikes are stored, I'll be invested in the projects here in Cambodia for another 3-to 5-years.

That s**t is real.