I left Memphis early Tuesday afternoon, June 8. Candice, Leslie, and I flew on the same flight from Memphis to Miami.
In Miami we met up with Michelle, Burton, Zach, and RJ, and we didn't connect with Megan until Lima.
Wednesday, June 9
We got to Coprodeli's HQ around 1:00am, so we all took it easy Wednesday morning and had an orientation session and tour of CoprodeliPeru before hitting the ground running. At lunch, we had our first taste of Peruvian food, anticuchos, which is grilled beef heart.
We got to Coprodeli's HQ around 1:00am, so we all took it easy Wednesday morning and had an orientation session and tour of CoprodeliPeru before hitting the ground running. At lunch, we had our first taste of Peruvian food, anticuchos, which is grilled beef heart.
Leslie and a nice bite of anticuchos
Wednesday afternoon we worked in the San Juan de Díos Clinic in Gambetta, a neighborhood of Callao (the largest port city of Peru). The Gambetta clinic was a true clinic with two dental chairs, and we saw both children/teens and adults.
This young lady was AWESOME! She and her "mejor amiga" (best friend, who Candice fixed up) came near the end of the day and were the last two patients. After I had done two fillings, I asked her if she was up for two more. She said, "YES!" really enthusiastically, so we did four fillings - all she needed. We weren't able to do that many on most people, but it was great to know she is set! She was a star patient!
(really, though, the girls kept talking about how cute our boys were ... oh, the benefits of understanding the language. :) 16-yr-old girls are 16-yr-old girls no matter what country you are in.)
We were able to do restorative work (fillings) in the dental chairs and extractions in plastic lawn chairs. This became our routine throughout the entire trip - use the chair near the handpiece for fillings and apply fluoride, give injections, and do extractions in other chairs. Time with the handpiece was precious, precious time not to be wasted!
Thursday, June 10 - Friday, June 11
Thursday and Friday we were in Pachacutec, the large shantytown on the coast. If you have never seen a shantytown in person it's a little hard to grasp the depravity of such a place. Even pictures don't do it justice. There was a shantytown near UNA (my university) in Costa Rica that I saw every day, so I was somewhat mentally prepared, but I was certainly NOT ready for the massiveness and expanse of Pachacutec. Thursday it was cloudy and smoggy, so we couldn't see the entire area, but we got a better view on Friday. You get the feeling that the shacks never end. I still am not sure that they do.
This isn't the greatest picture because it is from the top of the mountain (the school, church, clinic) rather than the bottom. Hopefully someone else has a better one that I can post later. You can barely make out the ocean in the back right.
In the mornings we split into two groups of four so we could go to two schools (known as Sectors "C" and "E"). In the afternoons we all went to the larger school, which I think was "E". I was at this school the entire time, mornings and afternoons; we decided it was best for the kids to keep things consistent so they could see the same faces. We had the opportunity to tour the entire site Thursday morning and visit several classes. Most of the classes had prepared a song or some other greeting for us. It was amazing! I was so impressed with the students, teachers, and school as a whole. Some classes wanted to ask us questions, usually things like, "where are you from?" and "how old are you?", which made me smile - I remember when I thought the mid-twenties was so old. I certainly do not feel as old or mature as their faces gave us credit for!
After our tour we set to work! The teachers brought in their classes one by one, beginning with the primary classes (equivalent to US pre-K or K and elementary-ish) and working up to secondary over our two days there. Our basic strategy could best be described as triage, I guess. We quickly realized that the clinic at Pachacutec (a very small room with one chair) was not going to be able to accomplish seeing all of the kids if we only used one chair! Instead, we started using as many chairs as we could find to separated the kids into two main groups: One group of kids simply had problems too great for us to help ... they had never owned a toothbrush, so 3, 4, sometimes 5 teeth were not salvagable. Since they were minors, we could not pull any teeth unless mom happened to be volunteering that day (parents must volunteer a certain number of hours each month). In these cases, we gave the kids a toothbrush, talked to them about oral hygiene, and applied "flor" - fluoride.
Luckily, most kids fell into the second category: having a couple of teeth that needed to be filled (usually their 1st and 2nd permanent molars, or the ones you get when you are about 6 years old and 12 years old) and possibly needing one or two baby teeth extracted. We directed our attention to their adult teeth, since they will have them [hopefully] forever! Our goal was to do one or two fillings on every child that needed them, give them a toothbrush and oral hygiene instructions and apply fluoride.
Thursday we worked until the end of the school day (4:30-ish) and then went back to Callao to visit the girls' home. We had a GREAT time! It was so much fun visiting with the girls, who despite their circumstances are amazing young ladies. They especially loved Zach, who they nicknamed "Shaggy" from ScoobyDoo.
Leslie's I'm-not-quite-sure face
We had so much fun loving on these girls and getting to know them! They were amazing young ladies.
Friday we worked in Pachacutec again. We finished seeing the school kids in the morning and spent Friday afternoon seeing patients from the community, whether that be adults or kids. There were a lot of extractions in that group! In fact, we worked so late that our van and driver had to leave to go pick someone up at the airport, and we had to take the bus home. The bus ride took about 2 hours and 15 minutes rather than 45 minutes, and they kept telling us to be inconspicuous. Unfortunately, the eight very white Americans in matching clothes kind of stood out. :) We made it back safely, though. I think this is the first time Dra. Jenny and Alycia saw that we meant business - we were not packing up at the threat of being left when there was a job to do!
Friday night we went to the boys' home. Unfortunately, we got there quite late because of our lengthy trip home, so we didn't get to spend much time there. This is also when I started feeling under the weather, so I didn't take many pictures. The boys were just as much fun as the girls, though! Joey, a Coprodeli intern from Notre Dame, had just taught them how to play poker (maybe not the greatest idea), so they were trying to be little swindlers while I was there. Oh, bless their house mother!
Whew! We accomplished a lot in three days. I think that is more than enough for one post, so I will stop there for now.
Happy Tuesday!
(really, though, the girls kept talking about how cute our boys were ... oh, the benefits of understanding the language. :) 16-yr-old girls are 16-yr-old girls no matter what country you are in.)
We were able to do restorative work (fillings) in the dental chairs and extractions in plastic lawn chairs. This became our routine throughout the entire trip - use the chair near the handpiece for fillings and apply fluoride, give injections, and do extractions in other chairs. Time with the handpiece was precious, precious time not to be wasted!
Thursday, June 10 - Friday, June 11
Thursday and Friday we were in Pachacutec, the large shantytown on the coast. If you have never seen a shantytown in person it's a little hard to grasp the depravity of such a place. Even pictures don't do it justice. There was a shantytown near UNA (my university) in Costa Rica that I saw every day, so I was somewhat mentally prepared, but I was certainly NOT ready for the massiveness and expanse of Pachacutec. Thursday it was cloudy and smoggy, so we couldn't see the entire area, but we got a better view on Friday. You get the feeling that the shacks never end. I still am not sure that they do.
In the mornings we split into two groups of four so we could go to two schools (known as Sectors "C" and "E"). In the afternoons we all went to the larger school, which I think was "E". I was at this school the entire time, mornings and afternoons; we decided it was best for the kids to keep things consistent so they could see the same faces. We had the opportunity to tour the entire site Thursday morning and visit several classes. Most of the classes had prepared a song or some other greeting for us. It was amazing! I was so impressed with the students, teachers, and school as a whole. Some classes wanted to ask us questions, usually things like, "where are you from?" and "how old are you?", which made me smile - I remember when I thought the mid-twenties was so old. I certainly do not feel as old or mature as their faces gave us credit for!
After our tour we set to work! The teachers brought in their classes one by one, beginning with the primary classes (equivalent to US pre-K or K and elementary-ish) and working up to secondary over our two days there. Our basic strategy could best be described as triage, I guess. We quickly realized that the clinic at Pachacutec (a very small room with one chair) was not going to be able to accomplish seeing all of the kids if we only used one chair! Instead, we started using as many chairs as we could find to separated the kids into two main groups: One group of kids simply had problems too great for us to help ... they had never owned a toothbrush, so 3, 4, sometimes 5 teeth were not salvagable. Since they were minors, we could not pull any teeth unless mom happened to be volunteering that day (parents must volunteer a certain number of hours each month). In these cases, we gave the kids a toothbrush, talked to them about oral hygiene, and applied "flor" - fluoride.
Luckily, most kids fell into the second category: having a couple of teeth that needed to be filled (usually their 1st and 2nd permanent molars, or the ones you get when you are about 6 years old and 12 years old) and possibly needing one or two baby teeth extracted. We directed our attention to their adult teeth, since they will have them [hopefully] forever! Our goal was to do one or two fillings on every child that needed them, give them a toothbrush and oral hygiene instructions and apply fluoride.
Thursday we worked until the end of the school day (4:30-ish) and then went back to Callao to visit the girls' home. We had a GREAT time! It was so much fun visiting with the girls, who despite their circumstances are amazing young ladies. They especially loved Zach, who they nicknamed "Shaggy" from ScoobyDoo.
these beauties love taking pictures AND attacking Shaggy!
Friday we worked in Pachacutec again. We finished seeing the school kids in the morning and spent Friday afternoon seeing patients from the community, whether that be adults or kids. There were a lot of extractions in that group! In fact, we worked so late that our van and driver had to leave to go pick someone up at the airport, and we had to take the bus home. The bus ride took about 2 hours and 15 minutes rather than 45 minutes, and they kept telling us to be inconspicuous. Unfortunately, the eight very white Americans in matching clothes kind of stood out. :) We made it back safely, though. I think this is the first time Dra. Jenny and Alycia saw that we meant business - we were not packing up at the threat of being left when there was a job to do!
Friday night we went to the boys' home. Unfortunately, we got there quite late because of our lengthy trip home, so we didn't get to spend much time there. This is also when I started feeling under the weather, so I didn't take many pictures. The boys were just as much fun as the girls, though! Joey, a Coprodeli intern from Notre Dame, had just taught them how to play poker (maybe not the greatest idea), so they were trying to be little swindlers while I was there. Oh, bless their house mother!
Whew! We accomplished a lot in three days. I think that is more than enough for one post, so I will stop there for now.
Happy Tuesday!
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