Day 3: La Libertad, Amazon River

“Don’t leave food out, or the crocs will come and get it.”

Patients seen: 14
Active clinic time: 6.5 hrs

Doing about 90% extractions, and 10% fillings. There was a 7 year old covered in gnats. Struggling to be compassionate. Scared of him and how dirty he was. I feel like I should hug him, but scared to get near him, and not happy that his gnats are biting us. He is so poorly taken care of. Large dental infection with a fistula tract. Extracted the tooth and put him on antibiotics. This felt like it could have actually saved him from from something really awful.

Day 2: La Maloka Village, Amazon River

Patients seen: 9
Active clinic time: 3.5 hrs

Lots of panic moments in clinic. Is this tooth going to come out as it crumbles to pieces? So many rotted teeth with so little tooth for forceps to grab onto. Saw a terrified and crying six year old. Struggled for twenty minutes to extract his tooth, but it kept breaking apart. Asked the kid to come back after lunch. Got the tooth out fast.

Lesson of the day: when things get crazy, take a break. Walk away for a moment to think about the problem in another way. Then come back to it.

Night: slept 3 hours. Had to pee from midnight to 5:30am. But in a tent with 7 girls, pitch black outside, and mosquitos swarming. Held it. In the morn, did the longest squat of my life in the “toilet.” All while trying to pee faster because the mosquitos were biting my butt.

The medical and dental team, MMI Colombian Amazon 2013

Awesome smoothies after a long day of packing

Day 1: A lost pack and lots of packing

Okay, so I waited in Bogota an hour for my luggage, and it never came.  Sprinted to the other domestic flight terminal and made it to Leticia, hoping that maybe they just pushed my pack through.

That did not happen.

When I made it outside the airport in the evening, there was nobody from the organization to pick me up.  And it was raining (come on).  Ten policemen descended on me to figure out what was going on.  The police in Leticia are very nice and they enjoy watching American wrestling.

Touchdown Bogota, Colombia

I’m waiting for my hiking backpack to make it’s way back to me so I can board a connecting flight to Leticia.  

Sticking out like a sore thumb as the only Asian American around.  Whenever someone has asked me where I’m going and why, I’m met with the same response of, “Leticia… oh.  I’ve never been.  It is very, very poor, and they will need you.” 

Two feel good things so far: 

1. My sore throat is finally getting better and it won’t bother me while i’m trying to do good here.  Pushing through no matter what obstacles, be they mental, physical, or emotional. 

2. A boy collapsed on the shuttle from the plane to the airport, and about half the bus cried out to alert the driver.  This was such a strong show of collectivism.  I think I’ve forgotten what that feels like with the United State’s strong sense of individualism.  Group versus self.  How strange and amazing.    

Ciao for now :).

The Big (and small) things

In less than 20 hours, I’ll be on a plane to Bogota, Colombia for a two week dental outreach in the Amazon.

From Bogota, we will be flying to Leticia, and after a training session in Leticia, we’ll be heading down the Amazon River to serve the indigenous tribes of the Ticuna and Yagua in the Tres Fronteras area.  I will have the opportunity to impact a region that hasn’t seen a dentist in over two years.

Feels like big karma to me! 😀

A Clean Slate

I am not a sentimental person.

I don’t like things.  Everything that has meaning to me is kept in my head.

This is the third iteration of my personal blog.  I like working things out through writing.  This is my way of saying that the past is past, and it’s time to let go of emotional baggage.