Dentists ahhhhh Dentists

The Group A.Y.U.D.A. with its 60 dentists has come and gone. All in all I would call the trip a success. We did have a couple of speed bumps to get around but that is to be expected in a third world country. In the end we helped 421 people with free dental care. All of these people are from the poorest part of the country and therefore have never received any type of dental care in the past.

The dentists were interesting to watch. At first they came off really abrasive and hyper active but then it hit me “Americans like to get work done and do things fast”. I guess I am adjusting to the Panamanian culture finally and learning a bit of patience. I found myself several times talking with dentists who were saying “ we need to go”, “ we need to get there”, “where are the cabs” and telling them “this is how Panama works” and that if they wanted to stay sane and get more work done that they would have to realize that and adjust to the culture. Again this realization came forward when we arrived on the first day and there were not many patients waiting to be seen. Of course! This is Panama they are all going to wait until the last minute to show up. This turned out to be half true and the number of patients grew steadily throughout the four days. The second part of the culture that the dentists and I had to realize was that because the people had never been to the dentist before they had some trepidation to show up in those first days. Especially when some of the smaller children were seen with blood flowing from their mouth after having a couple of dead teeth pulled. With the education and continued explanation of what we were doing the people slowly came to realize that we were helping and would continue to do so.

With the group was my Dad. My older brother was the only one who had seen my town and I was excited to get to show someone else the way I was living. Especially because now I have my own house and it is all built to my liking. I had a great time with my Dad and he was obviously amazed at the way I was living. I could tell that he was proud of the work I was doing and it gave me great satisfaction to hear him compliment me on the trip and how well it had run. I know that he enjoyed himself and he got to relax from his busy life a little while when we explored the beautiful Carribbean.

The dental project was also a success for me because I was able to get some publicity for the Peace Corps. I worked with ANAM (Panamanian EPA) to get some of the tables and chairs that the dentists used throughout the four days. Little did I know that they were going to bring the local news out on the second day. I was lucky enough to be interviewed for a TV spot that spread the word of the dental group and the good that the Peace Corps was doing in the country. The second day ANAM had also arranged for me to have a spot on a radio station. Once again I was able to inform more people of the work we were doing and how they could receive help as well if they would only show up. The experience was really fun. My fellow volunteers told me I did a good job and that the office would be really happy with what I was doing.
At the end of the trip many of the dentists said that this was the most rural of locations and that they really enjoyed the experience. I was really happy to receive compliments from several of the students that had been on trips to other countries with the group. Part of the job of the Peace Corps is to spread culture, I am sure that many of these dentists have learned and experienced something that never would have been possible without this trip. I am very satisfied to have been able to host all of them and enjoyed showing them my life.