Eretria Village Resort

Over the last few weeks, we have had the blessing of reconnecting—in person, even!—with friends whom we have not seen in over 5 years. These friends were traveling for business, and they had arranged their flights so they could stop in Athens to visit us. Even better, their overnight layover in Athens was only on their way out; on their way back to their home, they needed to stop for a week of work right here in Greece. Afterward, they intended to spend a couple of days relaxing at a resort just 90 minutes away from Athens, where they invited us to join them.

Accordingly, one Saturday morning, we made the trip from Athens to Eretria Village Resort, on Evia Island. The room was basic but comfortable. There was a queen (or maybe king) size bed, as well as a twin size daybed/sofa. There weren’t a whole lot of drawers in the vanity area, but there was a typical-for-Europe built-in closet that had more than enough storage space. The bathroom was clean, and although there were no drawers, there was plenty of counter space. All the floors were tile, and there was a patio on our ground-level unit; the ones upstairs had balconies.

After we unpacked, it was time to head to lunch, a buffet that included soup, salads, various meats, and vegetables. The whole time, Alexa begged to go back to the room, put on her swimsuit, and get in the pool. We told her she could do that later, but first we wanted to walk around the resort and see what was there.

Just outside the main building, which housed the dining room, a bar, several conference rooms, and a few guest rooms, the main pool sprawled. It definitely was the centerpiece of the resort. The pool was a rough rectangle, with a large island in the middle. There were two bridges to the island, as well as two “feet wet” wading walls, for lack of a better term. These short walls allowed maybe two inches of water to pass over them, and they separated a full-sized deep swimming pool from the much more shallow “playing” pool, which made up the other three sides of the rectangle. We loved the design, which was beautiful and practical. Alexa could stand and play in most of the pool without worry about accidentally stepping over into water that was too deep for her.

We had been told that there were two additional pools at the resort, so we decided to find them. One was beside the beach, so we headed that way first.

We walked down beautiful paths to a tunnel that took us under the highway and to the beach.

 

We walked out on a short pier, from which we could see a longer pier that we just as easily could have walked out on. We saw the mainland across the narrow channel ahead of us.

We turned around and saw the resort’s beach area behind us.

Then we walked back to shore for a closer look at the beach.

There was another beach area that was just as lovely.

Then we found the beach side pool

and a cool wall beside it.

Seriously, I don't know why I was so fascinated with this wall and its windows and door, but I was utterly enthralled.

We passed by the playground but didn’t stop—Alexa was begging to go back to “the first pool” to swim.

We walked back along the picturesque path,

found a sweet little chapel,

and caught a glimpse of the third pool (but didn't take a picture of it).

Then we gave in to Alexa’s oft-repeated desire to change into swimsuits. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the pretty little scene that greeted me every time I opened our door, though:

After changing, we (well, Jeff and Alexa) braved the cold waters of the huge, lovely pool outside the main building.

After some time in the pool, when we grownups couldn't stand the chill any longer, we went back to the room for hot showers and dry clothes. Then our friend invited us on a drive up the mountain to see the view. We happily accepted.

We stopped at a beautiful little church nestled near the top of the mountain.

The exterior door was secured against the wind, but unlocked. We took that as an invitation to go in and light a candle. Apparently casual visitors were not so welcome in the sanctuary, which was locked up tight.

We marveled at the cool patterns of the branches growing at the cliff's edge. These branches grew up for a little way, then quickly curved back down and extended below their roots.

After we left the church, we drove up a partially-paved road to an electrical tower at the mountain's peak. From there, we had a clear view of the resort-strewn waterfront area.

On our way down, we had a clear view of the less populated, uncommercialized, beautiful interior of the island.

We also found some goats that utterly enthralled Alexa.

Finally, we drove through the small town of Evia on our way back to the resort, which is located between the villages of Evia and Eretria. I loved the picturesque little dock area.

After our drive, we relaxed at the resort for a little while longer before dinner with our friends. We found a cute little sitting area,

and Alexa made friends with one of the resort's permanent residents.

 

Dinner was served on Greek time (in other words, late), so we went back to our room pretty much right after dinner. The next day was a full day of breakfast, swimming, lunch, and the drive back to Athens. We were joined for one last evening with our friends before they headed home Monday. 

Our time at the resort was a wonderful way to relax after a few weeks of settling in to Athens and before a hectic time of accepting delivery of and unpacking our shipment from Kosovo. Eretria Village Resort is classified as a 4-star resort (with one 3-star hotel on the premises as well). I think it falls a little short of the 4-star mark, but it's still a beautiful and relaxing weekend getaway. I expect that we'll visit again.

Our Homeschool Preschool

We are almost finished with our first year of homeschool, which I’m considering Alexa’s preschool year. We should finish up this academic year in three weeks—at least we’ll finish the most structured part of it, and we’ll carry the rest over to her PreK year. Before we started, I wrote a little about our plan for this first year of doing school at home. This post can be considered an update*, a statement of what we actually did, what we liked about it, and what we need to tweak for next year. I’m organizing this post in the way that Alexa and I currently talk about “doing school”—by type of school, or subject.

Bible and Phonics School

We started out the year using the Little Hands to Heaven curriculum published by Heart of Dakota. At first, I made an effort to do every recommended activity, though I skipped some art projects because I had not made it to the local art supply store yet. I honestly don’t recall how long I did every activity. I do recall that I started dropping activities when Alexa’s enthusiasm for school started wearing thin, and I recall the first regularly scheduled activity that I dropped: the creation of a counting book—which I dropped primarily because it required too much preparation on my part, due to our lack of magazine subscriptions (required for finding pictures to cut out). Then I started dropping other activities for which I did not see much point, or which seemed designed to work better with a small group of students rather than a singleton. At this point, we regularly read the Bible story and do the finger play, which reinforces the Bible stories and the letter we’re learning that week.  I regularly use the “Letter Hide and Seek” pages, in which the student searches through the enlarged text to find the letter of the week. I use some, but not all, of the letter familiarization exercises—she’s already so familiar with the shapes of the letters that she just doesn’t get much out of most of them.

I am glad that we purchased this curriculum. It has provided an excellent overview of the Bible for Alexa, mostly because of the wisely chosen New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and the clever finger plays—though I do admit to changing a few isolated motions and words here and there to make the rhythm work better. I also enjoyed most of the weekly devotionals. However, much of the luster of the rest of the program faded rather quickly. The math activities, art projects, and drama activities often seemed like a bit of a stretch to me; they sometimes seemed only peripherally related to either the Bible story or the subject they were meant to cover. I do believe that this curriculum would work better with younger children, but Alexa was right in the middle of the recommended age range. We will not be continuing with the next curriculum by this publisher after we finish Little Hands to Heaven three weeks from today.

Literature School (also includes Science)

The core of our literature school is Sonlight’s Preschool Full-Grade Package (formerly P3/4 Multisubject Package).  When we started with this program, I was enthralled with the stories. Unfortunately, Alexa was not so enthralled with most of them, at least not the ones scheduled for first trimester reading. As the year has progressed, though, her opinion seems to be changing. Gradually, she began to enjoy more of the stories. She began asking for me to re-read stories. Over the last week or so, she’s requested three or more Sonlight stories each day. I’m not certain if we finally got to the stories that match her interests, or if she’s maturing enough to be able to appreciate stories that she would not have appreciated a few months ago. Actually, I think it’s a combination of those factors—her ability to focus on longer stories with fewer pictures (which describes several of the stories she didn’t like earlier) has improved dramatically, but the stories we’ve been reading lately are stories that seem to have been written just for my little girl: Bedtime for Frances, The Story of Babar, The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree (all from The 20th Century Children’s Book Treasury).

We went through a couple of rough patches with this curriculum. Alexa was on the younger end of the recommended age range (3-4 years, according to the description of the program at the time of purchase, now simply labeled “preschool”). I think she was a little immature for most of the program at first, but she did grow with it. For example, the first time I read from The Usborne Flip-Flap Body Book, Alexa was decidedly uninterested. Two months later, I tried again, and she insisted I read the entire first section (about digestion) rather than just the first two pages I had intended to read that day. Likewise, we read each of the later two sections (senses and reproduction) in one day each, because she kept asking for more. Over the next few months, once we finish our first pass through this curriculum in a few weeks, I intend to re-read the stories that she did not enjoy the first time; I anticipate that she’ll enjoy them much more with a little more maturity. Overall, I’m very pleased with this curriculum.

Math and Critical Thinking

Sonlight's curriculum came with two games: Mighty Mind and Teddy Mix & Match.

Mighty Mind helps students develop spatial reasoning and problem solving skills. Alexa was interested at first, but quickly found the progressive tasks to be too difficult. We did not use this game much throughout most of the year, but recently she has developed a renewed interest in it, and her skills seem much better suited for it now. I would recommend this game for children who are around four years old and older; younger children who are advanced would enjoy it, but it's a little difficult for your average three-year-old.

Teddy Mix & Match can be played in a variety of ways, but primarily is a visual and working memory game. Alexa loved it from the start, and because it is such a flexible game, I was able to make it be always at her level. My biggest problem with this game was convincing Alexa that she was not allowed to sleep with these particular teddy bears. This is an excellent game for any child old enough to know not to chew on the cards.

I think it was just after Christmas that we ordered two workbooks published by The Critical Thinking Co.: Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1 and Building Thinking Skills Beginning. Our intent at that time simply was to have the workbooks available, since DPO mail service had become so slow with the combination of a new processing center and the holidays. However, we did not count on Alexa’s excitement as she watched us open the box. “Is that a new book for Lexa?” And then, after being told they were books for math school and critical thinking school, “Lexa wants to do math school and critical thinking school now!” (She had no idea what math or critical thinking was at the time; she just wanted to use her new books.) Even though it was almost bedtime, we obliged her excitement after noticing that the math book was labeled “Age 3” and the critical thinking book “Ages 3-4” (she was almost exactly 3 ½ at the time—apparently we were starting late!). She did several pages of each workbook, loving every moment of it. For the next several days, she constantly wanted to do math and critical thinking. Since that time, we’ve done as many pages of each as she wanted (or until I said “enough!”) each day.

Over the last couple of weeks, the critical thinking in particular has become a little more challenging for her. I have begun to hear her utter the dreaded words, "Lexa is not very good at this." I immediately encourage her, telling her that new things often are hard, but they get easier with practice, and she will become very good at this if she practices. Still, I do not want to overwhelm her, so I've started doing one or the other—but not both—of these subjects each day. We’re around three-quarters of the way through the math book, and halfway through the critical thinking book.

These two books are very similar. Both begin with colors and shapes. The math book introduces and works with the numbers 1-5. At first I feared that they were too easy for her. However, the ease with which she handled the first several pages—and with which she handles many later pages as well—built confidence that was needed when she hit her first unfamiliar skill. The books gradually build in difficulty, starting at a level that most 2-year-olds would be comfortable in, before moving to more advanced topics. They use a spiral approach, introducing concepts such as pattern recognition or subtraction, practicing just a little, then moving on to something else before coming back to reinforce the first topic. This approach does help avoid frustration, for both Alexa and me, when she doesn’t grasp a concept easily or quickly, though I think I prefer a mastery-based approach once she’s older. So far, the books have covered pattern recognition, addition concepts (using pictures, not numerical representations), subtraction concepts, measurement, shapes, logical elimination of options, and object comparison. I'm sure there are others as well, but these topics are representative.

My biggest complaint about these books is that there is very little script. That’s fine for pages where there are pictures of circles at the top with the text “These are circles,” then pictures of circles and squares at the bottom with the instructions “Point to the circles.” However, Alexa had a hard time realizing what I wanted her to do on the page with the circle-square-circle-square-circle-and now tell me what’s hiding behind the curtain? Her response was “a triangle?” I found myself at a loss for how to explain the concept of a repeating pattern in a way that she would understand. Some skills are so fundamental that it’s difficult to explain them at a three-year-old’s level, and I failed miserably in every attempt I made to explain simple pattern recognition and prediction … that task got relegated to Daddy after Mama’s frustration levels got a little too high. On the bright side, Daddy did fine without a script, so although it would have been nice, it was not, strictly speaking, necessary. Overall, though, these books are a gentle introduction to mathematical and logical concepts.  We will use the next books in each of these series—we already have them, hiding in our closet where she won’t see them. We may or may not continue with them after the primer levels (the next ones—Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 2 and Building Thinking Skills Primer). If we do, the math ones will be relegated to supplemental status as we choose a mastery-based curriculum for kindergarten and beyond.

Tracing School

Last summer, while we were in the United States for home leave, we picked up a cheap workbook at Wal-Mart: Fun to Trace. Alexa’s idea of tracing at the time, right around her third birthday, was to draw wild scribbles all over the page. We put the book away. Approximately four months later, her ideas about tracing had not changed much. The workbook again was put away. Then around two weeks ago, she suddenly announced that she wanted to do tracing school. So I pulled the workbook back out and lo and behold, suddenly she was willing to trace the lines and curves and loops in the workbook. After the first couple of pages, I showed her the correct way to hold the crayon. She still struggles with that, but she’s improving. The workbook went from straight lines to curved lines to loops to shapes to letters. Alexa finished off the letter pages today and will start the number pages next. She loves this little workbook—maybe because it’s “new,” maybe because she’s reached a developmental point where she’s ready for it. In any case, it was well worth the $2 or so we paid for it!

Special Study: Advent

We took approximately a month off from our two primary curricula in December. During that time, we used Truth in the Tinsel as a special Advent curriculum. This curriculum included a Bible passage to read, discussion points, and a craft—usually a Christmas ornament—for each day. I did very well in keeping up with it at first … and then daily “art projects” became too much for me, and I started skipping days. Of course, Alexa does not believe in too many art projects—she loved every project we did. However, the effort involved in buying (or substituting) supplies, getting them out, setting them up, explaining the project to Alexa, helping her, protecting the projects from our two cats, cleaning up the mess … this was a great little curriculum, but if we use it again next year, I will do some modification. I’m thinking coloring pages for most days, and full-fledged projects only once or twice a week.

Our Future Plans

Once we finish up this academic year, in three weeks, I’ll take one or two weeks off from school—or only do very light school activities if Alexa asks for them—while I finish up preparations for “next” year, then start on her PreK year immediately. I know that it isn’t much of a break, but our plan for this year is to school year round. We anticipate taking a couple of 3- or 4-week breaks during the year, and it’s important that we’re done with the academic year before the craziness of another international move hits next spring. Then we’ll take a longer break between PreK and kindergarten, as we’ll be in the States and then probably won’t be up to starting school immediately upon our arrival in Greece.

We decided to drop Heart of Dakota for Alexa’s PreK year. We’re continuing the math and thinking skills workbooks. The heart of our PreK curriculum, however, will be Sonlight’s Pre-Kindergarten Full-Grade Package. This package includes Bible instruction and memorization, literature, and science. One of the things I particularly love is that it includes stories from around the world—including at least one each from Egypt and Cambodia. I only wish there was a Kosovar story as well, but Kosovo is too new a country to have its own traditional stories.

We debated whether or not to get Sonlight’s kindergarten language arts (LA K) package, which is an option with the PreK curriculum, and eventually decided that we would. Sonlight takes a very slow approach to teaching students to read, and LA K is at the right pre-reading level for our girl who has known her letters and their sounds for a while now. We aren’t sure about the composition portions of the course; they may be too advanced, but I think they start out gently enough that she’ll be ok with it. If it turns out that those portions are too much for her, we’ll simply drop them until she’s ready. We also ordered the PreK curriculum for Handwriting Without Tears—the kindergarten program is recommended in conjunction with LA K, but we believed that Alexa needed a little more development of her fine motor skills. Of course, that was before her love affair with “tracing school,” so it’s possible that we’ll fly through the PreK handwriting program and order the kindergarten program early. (And, no, there’s no contradiction with doing LA K’s composition without requiring handwriting—parents are encouraged to scribe for their children in these very early years, so Alexa will compose orally, while I write it down for her.)

Finally, a friend gave me her copy of The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. Many parents on the Sonlight Forums say that Sonlight’s language arts packages do not have enough explicit instruction on how to teach a child to read; this book has a complete script to take a child from basic phonics to beginning readers to more complicated rules of reading. My intention is to look at the order in which letters are introduced in this book, in LA K, and in Handwriting Without Tears and, if they teach in different orders, figure out a way to re-work the schedules so that we focus on a single letter every week, giving preference to the order in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide, since that is the book with the script I intend to follow. (This rearranging of the instructor’s guides is what I will be doing during the week or two “off” from school after we finish our current curriculum.) LA K came with Sonlight’s exclusive beginning reader books, and we also ordered the first set of BOB Books. My hope is that Alexa will be reading these simple books fairly quickly and will enjoy the feeling of accomplishment enough to help motivate her to continue learning to read. We’ll order additional BOB Books as necessary if we like them.

*My thanks to Sheila at The Deliberate Reader for her recent post that reminded me that I never finished the similar update post I started back in January … she inspired me to try again to capture in words what we’ve been doing.

Phnom Tamao "Zoo"

Baby paleated gibbon at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre

On Saturday, we checked one item off our Cambodia bucket list—we visited Phnom Tamao Zoological Park and Wildlife Rescue Centre. Phnom Tamao is advertised in Phnom Penh as a zoo, but it’s much more than that—it’s one of the best wildlife rescue centers in Southeast Asia, where the goal is to treat the animals’ medical needs and release them back into the wild, not to display them to the public. The animal handlers that I saw wore Wildlife Alliance t-shirts, so I assume there’s a relationship between Phnom Tamao and Wildlife Alliance, though I’m not certain exactly that that relationship is.

Fast friends: Our tour guide's wife greeting Lucky the elephant

Rather than going on our own, which would have been entirely possible, we arranged to join a tour run by Betelnut Jeep Tours. Their website promises exclusive access to the animals and to not-open-to-the-general-public areas, as well as transportation and lunch. Overall, we were happy with their services and with our experience at Phnom Tamao, but I was disappointed that some aspects of the tour didn’t quite match up with the website’s promises or with the experiences that I know others have had with them—we weren’t able to go into the tiger house, nor did we have any up-close interactions with the animals that weren’t available to everyone (except for going “backstage” between the otters and the leopards, which did get us significantly closer to the leopard than we would have been out on the main path—but I’m not sure that counts as an “encounter” since it would be foolhardy at best to pet a leopard); of less importance, there was no traditional Khmer wine or betelnut chewing lesson after lunch. (To be fair, I was dehydrated enough that I would have turned down the wine, and I’d already decided to watch but not participate in the betelnut chewing. I mostly was interested in the photographic opportunities of the betelnut lesson.) Despite my awareness that parts of the experience were not as advertised, however, it was a good day, and I do believe that it’s worthwhile to visit Phnom Tamao for the first time with Betelnut. Subsequent trips, if you’re in the area long enough to have them, would be equally enjoyable on your own, once you’ve had the guided tour once.

Wild macaque

Our day started out at the Lazy Gecko Café & Guesthouse, which I believe is run by the same couple that does Betelnut Tours. We confirmed with Aram, the owner-operator and our tour guide, that we’d be able to interact with the elephants that day (we’d rescheduled twice due to elephant unavailability), paid our fees ($33/adult, with a discounted price for Alexa), and settled in alongside the 9 or so other tourists to wait for the Jeep to arrive. We were all hatted and sunscreened, expecting a full day in the sun, with transportation by open-top Jeep, so I was pleasantly surprised when Aram offered Alexa and me the covered passenger seat by the driver. We all settled in and enjoyed the just-over-an-hour drive, especially once Alexa settled down for an early nap.

Sambar deer--including the one that head butted me!

Once at Phnom Tamao, our first stop was a huge enclosure in which a herd of Sambar deer roamed freely. The deer came right up to us, accepted food from our hands, enjoyed some petting, and even head butted a few of us for neglecting the wrong deer. Fortunately, close attention is paid to the deer’s behavior, and the ones that are a little more assertive have had their horns cut. The ones that are aggressive are in separate enclosures within the larger one.

Siamese crocodile

 

Several other animals also are in smaller enclosures within the large Sambar deer one. We saw Siamese crocodiles, rox turtles, yellow tailed squirrels—according to our guide, the only two in captivity—and a couple of storks who were recovering from broken wings. We also met a few macaques—several wild ones that had wandered into the enclosure on their own, and one male gibbon who has to be kept in a separate, small enclosure because his cataracts have caused him to lose his sight almost completely. The blind gibbon had been raised as a pet, loves human attention, and never will be released into the wild. A charitable organization is trying to raise money for surgery on his eyes so that he can regain his sight and be placed in a larger enclosure, possibly even with a mate.

Green peafowl

 

After leaving the Sambar deer enclosure, we walked past several other enclosures of varying sizes—a relatively small one with a few more Siamese crocodiles; a huge one with some Sarus cranes, Eld’s deer, and beautiful Green peafowl; and another smaller one with an iguana that was confiscated while being imported illegally into Cambodia. We also saw a silver langur and some Cambodian jungle cats.

Pileated gibbons: mama and baby

 We also met a family of pileated gibbons, which included an adorable infant, the two parents (mated for life), and an older brother. This family lived in their own enclosure, which shared a wall with the enclosure for a widowed pileated gibbon—she never will mate again or be part of a family group, and family groups don’t share territories with other gibbons, but proximity to other gibbons is good for her. This particular widow tends to get a little angry and hold grudges: some tourists once gave her a can of beer, which she proceeded to enjoy until Aram took it away from her—beer is ok for them in small quantities, but a whole can is too much—and she proceeded to shun him for the rest of that visit and for his next one. When I stopped petting her a little too soon, she literally showed me her backside, another behavior that Aram said is typical.

Picnic platform

 

After a few more enclosures (myna birds, chickens, and bats), it was time for lunch. We ate on one of several raised platforms under a wood roof. While we had been meeting the animals, Aram’s wife had cooked a delicious Khmer meal for us: rice, loc lac, a noodle dish, sweet and sour vegetables, and a few meat-in-sauce dishes whose names I don’t know. I briefly considered taking a photograph, but we were all pretty hungry, and we just dug in instead. Water was included with the tour, but Jeff and I chose to purchase fresh coconuts (only fifty cents each) and drink the coconut water instead—it’s tastier, it replenishes lost electrolytes, and two coconuts was more than enough for all three of us. Fresh pineapple for dessert rounded out the meal and utterly delighted Alexa.

Lucky the Asian elephant takes a bow

 

After lunch, it was time to meet Lucky, one of the Asian elephants who live at Phnom Tamao. Lucky came out and did a little show—taking a bow, playing limbo before deciding to just break the post instead, lying down, and playing soccer with his handler—before coming to greet his fans and accept his payment: pets, pictures, and sugarcane. When Alexa got up the courage to try to feed him (she’d been a little iffy about petting or feeding all the animals, as she’s cautious by nature), Lucky didn’t seem to notice the sugarcane she held out toward him. Aram’s wife gave her a mango to try instead, and sure enough, it worked like a charm: Lucky not only took the mango from Lexa, but started accepting sugarcane only to throw it on the ground, holding out for more mango.

Burmese pythons

After Lucky’s show, we piled into the Jeep to head to a slightly more distant section of the rescue center. There we saw five Burmese pythons huddled together in their enclosure and learned that they each eat one live chicken a week—they only grow as large as their diet allows, and they don’t require much energy at all, so those kept as pets may eat as little as one mouse a month.

Otter

 

Then we went into a restricted area beside the enclosure that holds two otters, allowing us a closer look than we’d get from the public area. It’s a testament to Phnom Tamao’s status as a rescue center, not merely a zoo, that the otters have two rather large areas, connected by a small gate. One area has toys and a more “homey” feel—that one is their living habitat. But in the wild, otters do not hunt where they live, so the other habitat is designed to be their hunting habitat, preserving the separation that they prefer.

Leopard

After we’d finished looking at the otters, we turned around and prepared to follow Aram to the next enclosure. He cautioned us to stay to the otter side of the narrow (maybe one meter across) path, and then I saw why: a leopard was lying on his side of the chain link fence, mere inches from the path, watching us closely—and the fence actually had a little outward arc to it that suggested that the leopard was not content always just to lie there. It’s easy to see how he could have gotten a swipe at us had we not avoided that side of the path. We saw two leopards in that enclosure, though only one came close, and were told that another male was in the building; he and his brother aren’t getting along right now, so they have to take turns being outside.

Binturong

Then we headed across the street to the binturongs’ enclosure. These animals were the strangest ones we saw, without a doubt. They looked like a cross between a bear and a squirrel, smelled like popcorn, and giggled like little girls. Jeff was fascinated with these creatures; Alexa was trying to decide whether or not they were interesting enough to stay awake and watch; and I was frustrated that the darn things didn’t want to go anywhere that would allow me a good picture—they’re nocturnal and mostly were interested in lying around on platforms high off the ground.

Tiger

After checking in with a couple of solitary gibbons, we headed over to the tiger area. We saw all three of the tigers who live at Phnom Tamao—the father, the mother, and the now-adult son who was conceived and born at Phnom Tamao when mom’s birth control failed. They try not to breed any tigers at Phnom Tamao, because tigers born into captivity never can be released into the wild.

Asian elephant

We walked by the elephants’ enclosures but weren’t able to get close to them. Aram told us the histories of the animals there, including the one who lost his leg to a snare. He now has a prosthetic leg, which is replaced as necessary as he grows. Apparently he’s ok with his keepers now, but for a while after receiving his prosthesis, he would cower in a corner when they came near for fear they would take it away from him (they had to take it off periodically to check his stump, or for maintenance, or to fit a new one).

Asiatic black bear (or "moon bear")

Our last stop of the day was the area reserved for bears. This area is a project of Free the Bears and currently houses around 220 bears. Many of the bears were rescued from restaurants that illegally serve dishes such as bear paw soup—cutting the paw off the live bear in front of the customer to ensure its freshness. Others were rescued from traps, from smugglers, or from owners who mistreated them.

Daddy leopard

 

After the bears—and a few lions who wouldn’t come near enough the edge of their enclosure for me to get a decent picture—it was time to pack it up and go back to Phnom Penh. Since there wasn’t room for everyone in the Jeep (as we traveled around Phnom Tamao, a few were hanging off the sides, which was neither practical nor safe for the trip back to Phnom Penh), our family and another couple rode with Aram’s wife in her comfortably air conditioned car. Alexa quickly fell asleep, Jeff dozed a bit, and I just relaxed, content to be sitting down and cool after a good but hot and tiring day at “the zoo.”

Perfect Teeth

I have always had perfect teeth.

No, seriously, I am not kidding*. No cavities. No braces—although it isn’t unheard of for people to assume that I have had braces. They’ve gotten a little less white than they used to be, after I became a coffee addict several years ago, but that’s only noticeable if you’re really looking for it. So, yeah, perfect teeth.

And then.

Then, it was Sunday evening, and I was eating leftover pad thai. Suddenly it felt like my teeth … slipped … for lack of a better word. And then there was a chunk of peanut in my mouth that didn’t crush like the other peanut bits did, so I spit it out into my napkin. A little lighter colored than usual, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

After we’d finished eating, I noticed something strange. Apparently a bit of food had gotten stuck onto one of my molars—a slightly sharp bit of food. Very weird, maybe some crazy bit of peanut? That’s the only hard thing in pad thai, or maybe one of the tiny shrimp. But I couldn’t pry it off my tooth with my tongue … or with my fingernail … I started getting a little concerned. As soon as I got Alexa down for the night, I brushed my teeth, hoping like crazy that the rough spot would go away.

It didn’t.

Instead, as I was brushing my teeth, I noticed something even worse: a tiny gap between the something-sharp-on-it tooth and the tooth behind it. I probed the other side of my mouth with my tongue—no gap there. I’ve never noticed a gap on this side either … and suddenly I remembered that slightly too white piece of really hard peanut. Apparently it wasn’t peanut at all.

I started feeling a little queasy. Now what? At home, I’d know exactly what to do: first thing in the morning, call the dentist, make an appointment, and get it fixed. Expensive? Probably. But simple. Here? I didn’t even know which dentist was health unit-approved.  And to make matters worse, we were on the eve of Pchum Ben, a 3-day holiday in which the spirits of the dead are thought to return and therefore must be honored and fed—a very big deal to Buddhist Cambodia. The medical unit at the embassy had sent an email the previous week letting us know that pretty much all medical facilities in Phnom Penh would be closed for everything but emergencies.

Can I just say now that I am so incredibly grateful to God that this break in my tooth did not affect the root, that it was just the enamel? There was no pain, just some anxiety. I was anxious about what foods to eat. I was anxious about the treatment for a broken tooth. I became very anxious when I read on one website that breaks that start at the bottom and go up, as this one seemed to because the top of the tooth was still intact, usually require the removal of the tooth, and then I’d need an implant and … I do NOT want to think about having a tooth pulled, or about having a metal screw inserted into my jaw, or about six months of recovery time before going back in for the next step of getting an implant … yeah, no, not thinking about that possibility. I much preferred the website that said for minor breaks, it usually is possible to use some kind of filling to repair the damage.

So, back to the story, my first thought was “find a dentist.” I have a friend who’s recently had dental work done locally, so I emailed her and asked for contact information. I also knew that the embassy and its health unit would re-open on Wednesday, and if it was an emergency, I could call our doctor, or the U. S. embassy doctor in Bangkok, but I didn’t really count this as an emergency, since there was no pain. Local dental facilities most likely would not re-open until Thursday, and I’d be surprised if I could get a non-emergency appointment before Friday. I had some time to figure things out, and Jeff preferred that I get a recommendation from the health unit. So I also sent an email to the health unit explaining the situation and asking for a referral.

I heard back from my friend on Monday and checked out the website for that dentist. I was impressed—I think it’s probably a top-of-the-line clinic. But on Wednesday, I heard back from the health unit. They had a list of two that they recommended—one that active duty military are required to use (we’re not military) and another that others often choose to use. But there’s a new British dentist at the first, SOS International, and our doctor would like some feedback on that new dentist. After a quick consultation with Jeff, the decision was made: I’d go to SOS.

So on Wednesday, I called SOS International, not really expecting an answer—I knew they were still closed for Pchum Ben. But there was an answer, so I asked for an appointment. Once I said for the third time that I needed a dentist and not a general practitioner (SOS is an all-fields-of-medicine clinic), the receptionist said that the dentist was all booked up for Thursday, could I wait until after Thursday? I said that I could, but I really wanted the earliest appointment available, as my tooth had broken. “Oh, let me call the dentist and see if you can come tomorrow.” I provided my phone number for a call-back. I received one, but it was just confirming what I’d already told them, and I was promised another call-back. That one never came.

On Thursday, I called back. I’m not sure if it was the same receptionist, but I don’t think it was—this one had better English and seemed more professional. We made an appointment for Friday morning at 9:30, the perfect time for me, as my housekeeper arrives at 9 and could care for Alexa while I was there. He even volunteered the fee amount. And then I told him that I didn’t need just a general consultation, my tooth was broken, and how would that affect the amount of money I should bring? “Oh, you need a dentist, not a general physician? I’m sorry, I was confused, let me check on the times available for that … we have tomorrow morning at 8:30. Can you come then?” I asked if there was a later time, but there wasn’t. That was the only time all day. I made a quick decision and hoped it would work out—yes, I’ll come at 8:30. Then I immediately went to my housekeeper and asked if she could come in at 8 instead of 9 on Friday. Yes. Sigh of relief.

I arrived at SOS International around 8:15 and followed the signs to the upper floor for the dental clinic. The receptionist, who spoke excellent English, gave me some forms to fill out—forms that would have been perfectly at home in any dental office in the States. After I completed and returned them, I looked around the waiting area, which was not particularly similar to the relatively plush waiting rooms in many American medical offices. It reminded me of the waiting room in the old hospital, since completely renovated, in my small hometown: very spartan and utilitarian, with white walls and floors, light colored furniture, a single television mounted on the wall, and medical posters for decoration.

I was called to the examining room maybe 10 minutes after my scheduled appointment time. It turns out that the new dentist from the UK is the only dentist currently on staff, and although I don’t recall her last name, her first name was easy enough for me to remember: Deborah. Dr. Deborah was friendly and professional. She examined my teeth, confirmed the one break, identified another tiny one that I still can’t find for myself, and asked if I grind my teeth—apparently my canines have a bit more wear than normal. She did x-rays to determine if there was an underlying decay problem that caused my tooth to break, but it turned out that there wasn’t. It just broke. The bad news: No real insight as to why it just broke. The good news: It could be repaired with a simple filling and should be good as new, or at least as close to it as it’s possible to get.

Dr. Deborah introduced me to some dental tools with which I’d never had reason to become acquainted: a blue mat to keep the saliva away from the tooth on which she was working, a brace to contain and shape the filling before it hardened. She tested out the brace for fit, then removed it before installing both it and the mat. It didn’t feel quite the same with the mat as it had without it, but I didn’t think too much of it … and then I swallowed. The brace flew across the room. Apparently that one didn’t fit right. Let’s try a smaller one.

The smaller brace didn’t work either. Apparently my teeth are too close together for it to fit properly with the mat. So we did it the less ideal way: without the mat, using a round something or another instead of the brace, and with lots of suction to keep the filling material as dry as possible until it could be hardened with ultraviolet radiation. It wasn’t a particularly comfortable 10 minutes or so as the filling was inserted, shaped, and hardened, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could have been, either. After a little rinsing and polishing, I was good to go, with permission to eat and drink normally whenever I wanted.

As I waited at the receptionist’s desk to pay my $170 bill, I noticed something on Dr. Deborah’s biography. She had seemed particularly sensitive to cues that I was anxious, but I had attributed that to her personality or maybe her gender—she happens to be the first female dentist I’ve seen, and women stereotypically are more empathic than men. Her sensitivity to my anxiety may have had something to do with those things, but I’d be willing to bet it also had to do with her specialized training in treating phobic patients.

And on her own, without any prompting from me or any mention of my previous “perfect teeth” status, Dr. Deborah said: “And you can still say you have perfect teeth, since it wasn’t caused by decay.” I’m not sure I’d go that far … my teeth are no longer perfect, but they’re close enough for me.

*Well, there was that occasional sharp pain when biting down on something particularly difficult to chew. That happened so rarely and so briefly—the pain lasted about a nanosecond—that I never really paid attention to it. My later research told me that it was a symptom of a cracked tooth, and it should have motivated me to see a dentist as long ago as a year. My advice: If you ever experience pain in a tooth or in your jaw while chewing, see a dentist, and ask to have your teeth checked for cracks.