We are home!

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Last night in Honduras... :(

Just wanted to clarify, there was electricity and water. However, there were times when it cut off with no warning or notice of when it would come back. --Noha

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"This is my first dental mission trip. Boy, have I been missing out! I was a bit apprehensive about going at first since Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world. However, the minute I landed, I felt like I was home. Not home as in LA, but home as in Sudan, where i'm originally from. It was all too familiar to me. Both are developing countries with poverty, no electricity, no water, and malaria. Clinic was a great learning experience. I did a lot of restorative, a lot of extractions and an Endo case (on a cop!). I even learnt how to extract teeth with a single instrument! The patients were so grateful for the work we were doing. I would love to go on trips like this again. Maybe take it back to Sudan or Egypt? This trip was a lot of work; physically exhausting but mentally rewarding. Time to finally relax in Roatan. :)" --Noha

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Day 6

Today was our last day in clinic, definitely bittersweet. Half of us packed up the clinic while the other half did extractions. We eventually finished packing and had 5 chairs doing extractions. Our first pedo  case was really scared, so Dr. Espinoza treated her and we learned some good patient management tricks from her. It was pretty hard to manage and soothe scared patients because of the language barrier. 

Hayley and I paired up and did pedo extractions. We learned that kids who are scared will cry regardless and we have to differentiate whether they feel pain or pressure. An easy test is to see if they are crying even if you don't have any instrument in their mouth. We saw a 4 year old boy with a large abscess and needed 3 extractions, which was really sad because be was so young.   

We gave out a lot if toothbrushes and toothpaste, which they were really happy to get. I took a break and talked to the little kids for a bit, as much as I could anyway with my limited Spanish. Almost all of them asked me if I was chino, to which I responded yes. Understandable considering they probably have never seen an Asian before haha. 

In total, we saw 26 patients and did 32 extractions. It was gratifying to be able to take so many patients out of pain. 

We had lunch at the hotel and rushed to take a van to Valley of Angels.  The road started out very smooth and Hayley mentioned that she was impressed that they must have paved the roads in the last two years. Well, she was wrong, cause we were woken up and tortured with the bumpiest road full of a million gazillion potholes :( Two hours later, we stopped at Cafe de Los Angeles for a bathroom break and souvenirs. We played with the really comfy hammocks and Dr. Espinoza and Dr. Rima ended up getting some to bring home. Dr. Rima said she has always wanted one so was really excited to get one. Michael and Sami reconnected with their inner boy side and were mesmerized with machetes in leather cases and using them to play swords. Boys will be boys, no matter how old they are. For example, the other day Papa Espinoza found a caterpillar in the bag of mamones (really sour fruit) and put one on the table and started playing with it and poked at it with a butter knife while saying "caminar." :) Sami ended up buying two machetes, which goes in line with his ballsy extraction skills that he learned from Dr. Espinoza. We called him Dexter shortly after. 

We did some shopping and got some goodies, like coasters, picture frames, key chains ;), and super awesome selfish one person umbrella hats :) One of my favorites was a shirt that Reemon bought that said "I survived a Honduran mission." So interesting huh?

On the way back we saw fire flies, which were so cute, as Dr. Espinoza describes them. You have to look carefully for them, because they only flash their light sporadically. Almost like don't blink status. Eugenio played music and put on I'm sexy and I know it. Mama Espinoza started rocking out to it and was super cute. Mama and Papa Espinoza are such a cute and goofy couple :) Mama also noticed the moon and told Dr. Rima she mooned her without even knowing what it meant. Like I said, goofy! :)

At dinner Dr. Espinoza surprised all of us with bead bracelets that she got at the Valley of the Angels, which was very sweet of her. We all made a pact to wear them forever and ever and never take them off :)

We ended the night with inclusive quotes that we want to remember about our wonderful Honduran mission experience:

"Rule of the game: Yoonah is mafia"

"Eugenio, why are you such a stud ?"

"Yoonah, are you sure you're not autistic?"

"Fried plantains, fried fish, fried bacon, fried chicken, fried fried fried Forest Gump"

"We're on a mission, nothing is ideal"

Leaving for Roatan tomorrow, the real vacation!!

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Day 5

Exhausted. 

It's definitely been a long week and it was hard to get up this morning. 

Today was pretty exciting though because Dr. Espinoza took Sami, Eugenio and Yoonah with her to the mountains to do extractions. They saw 25 patients and did 30 extractions. They shared their experience and said that the people who live there don't have running water. Yoonah also said that they don't have toilets, but instead have a hole in the ground covered by a toilet. Her story reminded me of what I've seen in Vietnam. They also said that many of them were really scared, more so than the ones we have seen at the clinic, probably because they have never been or even seen a dentist in their entire life. 

Clinic was super busy, we saw 38 patients and did 20+ fillings, prophies, the usual. It was the first day we finally had all four chairs operational at the same time. I was lucky enough to have two patients that came from the village who had never seen a dentist before. They were very scared, nervous and anxious. I used the counting technique, which worked very well. They were sisters and were so cute! It was really sad to see the younger girl's teeth, which were mostly, if not all, bombed out. She was already missing her four permanent maxillary anteriors and needed almost all of her lowers extracted. Seeing her teeth as well as others, some of who actually ask to have their teeth extracted, made me wonder if what we are doing will actually help them in the long run, considering their constant soda and poor oral hygiene habits. Well, we can only do so much and we tried our best to prevent caries from going deeper and taking them out of pain. I think the fact that we constantly come back is good though. The ideal thing would be to have dental care in Guaimaca be self-sustainable, of course. 

In the afternoon, I helped Yoonah with a class I composite. She was very good knew all the steps, which she learned from her awesome mentor Hayley. I also helped Eugenio with a composite restoration. He worked on a young boy and it was his first experience working on a posterior in a small mouth, which we all know can be difficult because the patient constantly keeps trying to close onto the hand piece.

We had dinner with Jenny's roommates Alisha and Helen, who are teachers at the girls' school that I previously mentioned. We had fun chatting with them about being in Honduras, bug bites, and playing mafia. In Honduras, it's not recommended for girls to walk alone after dark. So we walked them home and visited their house for a bit, which was very nice and home-y. They each have their own room and two bathrooms. They said they mostly stay at home on weekends watching tv, doing laundry, and cooking, because there is not much to do around Guaimaca. The house that they stay at is owned by the sisters, and they stay there for free because they work for the sisters. Jenny said her least favorite thing is doing laundry, because they have to wash it by hand, scrubbing it against stone, and she always gets soaked when doing it. They have the cutest and sweetest dog who was very excited to see us. 

 

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Our dental mission has come to an end. Our hearts were deeply touched and softened after seeing the great dental needs of children and adults in Guaimaca, Honduras.
I am so proud of this group of students. Aside from their impressive hand skills, their compassion and willing to serve is admirable! Their mutual support, and care towards each other is exceptional!
There is no doubt they will be great dentists, teachers, and mentors in the future.
I am proud and thankful to my talented group of students!
Our trip is not over yet. We are off to our well deserve rest/ vacation in beautiful Roatan. We will keep you all posted as to how our time there will keep bringing us togethere as a team.

Dr. Espinoza

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Michael, tired of trying to fix a chair to work on!

Laura hard at work!