Yesterday I cranked up the big Chevy Trailblazer and went to pick up a few students of Estomatology (DDS) to do a survey of needs up in the mountains south of Jarabacoa. This was Los Marranitos, the mountaintop area around the Alta Gracia coffee farm. Maine Girl and I had scouted the area, painted the school with her kids and faculty members, and I had identified a need for dental care that was horrifyingly obvious. We coordinated with Ria and later on with Amalia and on Saturday we looked at 44 persons in need of serious dental work.
Most had never been to a dentist, it is just not on their agendas..
Time will tell just how we can resolve this and other community needs...there is a deaf mute that might have some hearing, there is an old lady that has no teeth, there are young kids who have to have all of their baby teeth removed in order to avoid serious infections, and a year or two of no teeth before their adult teeth come in!!! Their mothers let them go to sleep with the baby bottle in their mouths and all that sweet milk just sitting there eating away at their teeth...
When we get the budget all worked out and the personnel together, sometime in late August or early September, we'll go back for a weekend of hard but rewarding work...
THEN we went to see Acira and her brood along with the Australian shepard(?) and her comparitively tiny litter.
The Malinois are doing great, noisy, and getting their eyes open...Mom and Dad are fine and the "grandparents" are just barely holding up.
Finally, we went over to the golf club and had a late lunch and some cold Presidente...
Long day, a lot of travel but worth every minute...
HB
Most had never been to a dentist, it is just not on their agendas..
Time will tell just how we can resolve this and other community needs...there is a deaf mute that might have some hearing, there is an old lady that has no teeth, there are young kids who have to have all of their baby teeth removed in order to avoid serious infections, and a year or two of no teeth before their adult teeth come in!!! Their mothers let them go to sleep with the baby bottle in their mouths and all that sweet milk just sitting there eating away at their teeth...
When we get the budget all worked out and the personnel together, sometime in late August or early September, we'll go back for a weekend of hard but rewarding work...
THEN we went to see Acira and her brood along with the Australian shepard(?) and her comparitively tiny litter.
The Malinois are doing great, noisy, and getting their eyes open...Mom and Dad are fine and the "grandparents" are just barely holding up.
Finally, we went over to the golf club and had a late lunch and some cold Presidente...
Long day, a lot of travel but worth every minute...
HB