Team Odontoblast, part 4

Here it is, the end of our trip! Since I've been over all of the logistical stuff by this point, this will be mainly pictures!

(Oh, and got a hold of Burton's jump drive today with all of his fabulous pictures ... it is like a photo diary of our trip!)

Monday, June 14

Monday morning and afternoon we worked at the school in Chincha.  We were set up in a room right next to our little sleeping quarters and had an abundance of fun kids to treat!

our treatment room

Megan and her a-mazing prophylaxis skills!  Everyone got a little oral hygiene instruction and a toothbrush.

Then they practiced using them!

Dr. B giving RJ some pointers on his IA injection technique

pulling a tooth ...

success!

This little guy was more concerned about what was going on with the camera than my hand and syringe in his mouth ... those are the all-star patients!

The real deal amalgam - the mercury and alloy are separate and you use a well to combine the phases.  No triturator required!

We are convinced that this little girl is going to be a model.  She loooooved Dr. B!  She even came back to see him later in the week.

At this point in the trip, we had convinced Alycia to look in the mouth.  Now it was time to pull a tooth!  I got the patient numb and am pointing things out to her ...

Success!

She was very concerned ... much moreso than the patient ... and had to talk to him afterwards to make sure she had not hurt him.  (She hadn't.)

Tuesday, June 15

Tuesday we spent the day in Pisco.  Pisco has a school, but no community center/medical center yet, so we set up in the library.  The medical team also went out on "campaign" with us, which means we had to take two vans.  Hmmm ... this created a little problem because none of the Peruvian medical staff could drive the van (license not necessary in Peru, folks!) 

What to do, what to do ...

See that little car overtaking our little van?

Oh, that's because there is an American boy behind the wheel!

He was not yet driving like a Peruvian.

In Pisco we set up in the library.  Poor kids; they will not want to read books for a while!

Our extraction station and supply station

Central Sterilization - Peru style!

Michelle rocked the mobile handpiece

Zach let this little girl "examine" him with his headlamp on.  Unfortunately, this did not calm her fears too much; she still cried about 3 minutes later when it was her turn!

RJ, Candice, Dr. B, and me talking strategy

Burton can make any petite girl look tall with his great photography skills!

The chapel on the Pisco square

We went into town for lunch to a really great restaurant.  Dr. B took us next door to the pharmacy (yep, pharmacy) to buy us ice cream after lunch, and when we left a homeless man begged for money.  This would not have bothered me, but when we told him no, he followed us to our van, shouting, and Dra. Jenny almost had to run over him to get out of the parking spot!  Oh, the experiences!

Wednesday, July 16

Wednesday morning we went on "campaign" with the medical team again, but this time to Ica.  Ica does not yet have a school or a clinic, but they have a church.  Right now the church is being used as the school so that the kids can get an education!

The church (aka school) with our little van in front.

All of the girls!  Megan, Candice, Leslie, Michelle, and me

Me with some of the girls from Ica.  The whole environment was so different in Ica - chaotic, wild, and the kids were [mostly] little swindlers!  They would go from person to person asking for a toothbrush or toothpaste (multiples) so that they could go sell them later.  We tried to corral them, but it is just the way they have been raised.  Sweet kids nonetheless!

 Tomas, the PICA child, who ate about 1/3 of the toothbrush handle by the time we left.  I say this to stress the total depravity of the situation in Ica; it is causing such emotional stress that it is causing psychological issues in the children.  So sad.  (Everyone kept telling me not to be dramatic, but I'm telling you, this is the definition of PICA!)

Alycia went out to check on the process of the new earthquake-resistant housing and school while we were working.  This is her real job ... writing grants to make sure these projects are funded.

Clean teeth, happy kids!

Around 1:30 we finished in Ica and went back to Chincha.  We did not see the oldest students on Monday afternoon when we were there, so we decided to forego sandboarding so they could be seen.  We knew they would be there waiting on us when we got back.  First, though, we were greeted by Nellie, our cook while we were in Chincha.  She was also our patient on Monday.  We were happy to be able to share our gifts with her since she shared her gift with us all week!

After lunch it was back to work.

Candice offered Burton some encouragement while he worked.

Wednesday night we had some fun with Dr. B.  Have you ever seen the iPhone app or website yearbook yourself? Leslie and I were yearbooking ourselves at dinner, and when we yearbooked Dr. B he explained that when he had hair it looked like Megan's, only not quite so long.  An idea was born ...

pretty realistic!

Thursday, June 17

Our last day!  We packed up early to head to our last site, Canete.  We were going to head back to Lima from there.  Little did we know the kids had something else in store for us!

Taking pictures before we left.  Notice that box?  We didn't think a thing about it ...

They are chocotejas!  Traditional chocolate candies aka deliciousness in a little wrapper.  The filling is like a cross between a caramel and nougat.  I know that sounds weird, but that's what it is like!  Our box was three flavors:  prune, pecan, and fruit.  I never could decide which was my favorite.  Dra. Jenny snuck out on Wednesday and got them for us.  It was such a thoughtful gift and we were overwhelmed by their generosity.  Of course, where did we find Dra. Jenny when we went to tell her thanks?

Already in the van, ready to head to Canete!

Our last site of the trip - the school in Canete.  There is also a tomato farm there - Coprodeli is trying to begin growing some of their own food.

After we finished our work Thursday we drove back to Lima.  Thursday night we went to downtown Lima for a last group dinner.  By the time I made it back to the Coprodeli house, I slept about 1.5 hours before leaving early, early for the airport and the 34 hour trip home.  Gotta love airport delays.

What a wonderful trip.  Such wonderful people and wonderful memories.

We are already talking about going back.

When you see faces like this, how could you stay away?

World's Worst Blogger ... aka ... Team Odontoblast, part 3

Whew, I have taken quite a lengthy break!!  We are now back in the swing of school, so my trusty old computer has been dusted off, and I am back to blogging!

Saturday, June 12

On Saturday we did a little sightseeing around Lima.  After sleeping in, we headed into the city to the Museo del Ejercito Real Felipe - the King Phillip Military Museum.  The tour was all in Spanish, so Alycia had the fun job of translating for us.  The whole event was, shall we say, interesting.  Our guide was ALL business.  We (or most of us, anyway) were sickly.  Around halfway through the tour, an hour and a half in, we asked (okay, begged) Alycia to leave.  She obliged.  Sorry, Peru, your military museum was not overly interesting.

oooh, except for one thing ...

iel pirata!

He's making Candice a pirate.  He loooooved us Americans ... and loved making fun of us in Spanish, thinking we couldn't understand.

our group: "bob", Burton, RJ, Candice, Michelle, me, el pirata, Megan, Zach, Leslie

He had to take our picture before he would take a picture with anyone else.  Like I said, he loved us.  He even gave Candice his card.  I hope he's not disappointed that she did not call.

After we fled from the boring-beyond-boring tour, (oh, let me defend myself, the tour guide was speaking like this:  "this ... is a male cadet uniform. [stop for translation] this ... is a female's. [stop for translation]"  And she spoke like she was talking to 3-yr-olds.  Even with my choppy Spanish I didn't miss a word.  yikes.) Anywho, after we fled, we went to a restaurant for a late ceviche lunch.  Ceviche is a dish where the fish is cooked (um, the proteins are coagulated to be technical) in citrus juice, usually lime.  You want your fish to be right-out-of the ocean, so Alycia told us that the joke in Peru is that if someone tries to feed you ceviche for dinner they are going to rob you.  We had three big plates family-style:  ceviche, a fried plate, and one that was like jambalaya.  Oh, delicious. 

Sunday, June 13

Sunday we headed south to Chincha in the earthquake zone.  On our way, we stopped at the Pachacamac Ruins (not to be confused with Pachacutec - the shantytown - the two P's were twin brothers back in the day, apparently).

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Welcome, Dr. B!
Dr. Bernstein arrived on Saturday night, so our group was now (back): Burton, RJ, Candice, Leslie, Dr. B and (front):  Zach, me, Michelle, Megan

After driving the rest of the way to Chincha, we settled in at the school and then headed to the Paracas Natural Reserve, or so we thought!  Paracas is on the coast, and you can take boats out to islands where there are penguins, sea lions and other wonderful animals.  I think this was the tourist-y thing I was most excited about.  Every time someone mentioned it, I got all giddy like a little kid and said, "penguins!"  (I know, pathetic.  I am easily amused.)  When we got there, though, they told us they take no boats out after 2:00pm.  What?!?  Thinking it was a lie they tell to dumb Americans, we took our business elsewhere.  Nope, it's a rule.  No joke.  No one would take us!  Seeing that we were assertive enough to walk away, the first boating company offered to take us out on the water (just not to the reserve) and show us the ritzy houses (lots of rich Peruvians have places there) and the two 5-star resorts (need a vacation spot?).  

Soooo pretty.
  

Really.  Incredibly beautiful.  Burton took this picture while we were on the boat.

 
Waiting for Alycia to cut a deal - are they going to take us to see the penguins?  Yes?  Maybe?  Please?

big dog on the roof of the house
I wish this was uncommon, but animals on the roof were quite common - we even coined the term "roofster" back in Lima. (that's a rooster that lives on a roof ... who wakes you up at all hours ... because obviously a rooster in a city on a roof will be quite confused)

Ahh, it feels good to finish another post, even if it is a month late!  Slowly and surely getting back in the swing of things.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Team OdontoBLAST, part 2

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.

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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.

these beauties love taking pictures AND attacking Shaggy!

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!

Team OdontoBLAST, part 1

Hey everyone!

After a very tiring but very rewarding two weeks, I am back from Peru! 

But first:

What, you are asking, is an odontoBLAST?  To keep it short (and hopefully not-too-nerdy), it's one of the cells that makes teeth, specifically dentin.  Of course, we had to capitalize BLAST because we knew we were going to have a great time!  Many thanks to Candice and Leslie for coming up with this awesome name for our team.

I have been wondering since I got home Saturday afternoon how I was going to fit an almost two-week trip into a somewhat cohesive set of blog posts.  I think the best way to start is to describe a little bit about Coprodeli, the organization we worked with while in Peru.

The Coprodeli Foundation, a not-for-profit international organization was created by Padre Miguel Ranera, a Spanish missionary priest in 1989.  Padre Miguel designed the organization to assist the poorest families of Peru.  His work began in Callao, Peru's largest port just outside of Lima, where between 80-90% of the population live in extreme poverty. Coprodeli began work in Pachacutec, a shantytown sector formed during extreme political corruption, in 2000.  The organization then began intervention in the Ica region (more south and more agriculturally based) in 2006.  After the massive earthquake that hit Peru in 2007 (it was about an 8.0 - the same magnitude as the Haiti earthquake), work in the south was expanded to not only Ica, but also Chincha, Pisco, and Canete.

 the school at Pachacutec

church in background

Sites built by Coprodeli attempt to effectively use shared resources to promote education, health, nutrition, etc. by putting a school, health care center, and outreach center all in one location.  This way, when mom drops her kids off at school and has an upper respiratory infection, she can be encouraged to see the physician, and the kids have a place to be (that is safe) while she works when school is over.  In the south, the plans also include a church, earthquake-resistant housing, and in some places, what is called a "business incubator" - essentially somewhere for microbusinesses to develop and grow. 

Each site is more or less at a various stage of development.  The older sites (Callao and Pachacutec) have nine (I think?) schools between them, and admission is very competitive!  One site we went to in the south, Pisco, I think, was so new that only the church has been funded at this time, so the school is temporarily set up in the church so the kids can learn -- it was just easier to get money for the church than the school. 

what will be the school at Pisco - see how different it is from the one above!

Coprodeli also has a girls' home and a boys' home in Callao for children from badly broken homes - parents on drugs, absolutely cannot afford to feed them, etc.  We visited both while we were in Callao.

Whew!  There is a very, very brief and unofficial (but hopefully pretty accurate) description of Coprodeli.  I will be posting more about our day-to-day doings in my next post! 

Until then, here's a picture of our whole group so you know who's who:

back:  Zach, Dr. B (Mickey Bernstein DDS from Germantown), RJ, Burton, Candice, Leslie, Alycia (CoprodeliUSA)

front:  Megan, Michelle, me, and Doctora Jenny (Coprodeli in Peru)

South America Bound!

Tomorrow afternoon I leave Memphis for Peru!  It has been 3 years since I've left the country ... waaaay too long for my pack to be stored away!

A group of 8 students -- four D4s and four D3s -- and a dentist from the Memphis area will be spending the next week and a half travelling and serving in Peru, specifically Lima and to the south in the Ica area.  This weekend we will have the opportunity to sightsee in Lima a little and next Wednesday we are planning on going sandboarding (think snowboarding, but on sanddunes.  Sounds fun, right?!?)

I am hoping that we will have Internet access once or twice so that I can give some updates throughout our trip.  If not, I will have one mighty-long post when I get home on the 18th.

Please pray for our group as we travel and serve the people in Peru. I know I will have lots of stories and pictures when I get home!