Katie had a birthday!

I love birthdays.  Is it your birthday?  Your half-birthday?  Let's celebrate!  I'll bring the cake! 

I have had a [small...okay, huge] obsession with birthdays as long as I can remember.  Growing up, my parents made a really big deal about our birthday.  Not the present, but the day itself.  Your birthday was your day, the day that was all about celebrating how special you were!  This is something that has stuck with me as I've gotten older; each of my friends' birthdays is a day that, more than any other day, I try to let them know how much they mean to me, how blessed I am to have them as a friend, and how special I think they are!  I sincerely hope that they know I am thankful for them everyday, but know that I am guilty of not expressing that enough. 

Thus, the birthday extravaganza. 

I know, I know, call me obsessed, overzealous, and out-of-control, but come your birthday, there will be a party, and I will be making you a cake.  And telling you happy birthday.  Starting about a week in advance ...

My sweet friend Katie had a birthday Saturday.  She was out of town last weekend, so we opted to hold off on her big celebration until Wednesday (our first test was Tuesday).  She chose Bosco's for her belated birthday dinner.  Her request for cake was vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting; they were her request last year and were the hands-down favorites from all of our celebrations. 

me, the beautiful birthday girl Katie, and her pretty pink cupcakes

(if you have ever met Katie, you know that pink frosting with sprinkles was RIGHT up her alley!)

We had a wonderful time laughing, catching up, and eating lots of delicious food.  We laughed about clinic stories, the joys of [finally!] being D4s, stresses, and professors.  Then a department chair stuck his head in our little room and waved.  Oops.  (Good thing we didn't say anything about him! Lesson - your momma was right, you NEVER know who is listening!)

Leslie, Ashley, me, Katie, and Nishel

(as you can see, we cleaned our plates!)

Katie and Nina

(Poor girls, they were doing lab work until after six.  Are you jealous?  I'm not!)

Jeni and Clair

After we ate, we enjoyed our cupcakes and Katie opened her gift:

Yep, those are cat potholders and a "blond" scrubbrush!  Katie just moved into her own apartment last year and has been having fun stocking her kitchen!  Jeni did a great job finding things that screamed "Katie".

To mix things up a little from last year, I made this year's cupcakes vanilla with a strawberry filling and buttercream frosting.  This picture is so ugly since the filling smeared, but I was wanting to dig in and didn't want to pause to take another one!

Oooh, the deliciousness.  One day I will be super-saavy and take pictures of my baking like my friend Kendall.  Until then, I'll just direct you to the recipes.  The cupcake batter was  "Ultimate Vanilla Cake" from last year's March issue of Southern Living.  Both the filling and buttercream came from Nick Malgieri's book Perfect Cakes.  (I wasn't able to find those recipes online, but I believe the book is about $25 and has a lot of delicious recipes - a good investment if you want to start baking from scratch.)

Ashley was so excited that she wanted a picture with hers.

Oh, so much fun!  I am already looking forward to our next celebration.

Happy birthday, dear Katie!

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).

w

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!