23 May 2012 - The Dental Clinic received a request from Alcalde Arzu (Mayor of Guatemala) and his wife to include three new orphanages to our dental program. These children are not technically orphans- they are children of single parent where the care giver has to work and the children are left 'homeless' on the streets of Guatemala. Our first visit was to Municipalidad Los Patitos - girls ranging from 2 to 7 years old.
First grade classroom. They wear a uniform furnished by the city that consists of blue shorts with a lime green strip on the sides & white shirts.
Kindergarten Class room - 2-4 year olds. I stepped in to the room to observe and to say 'Hola' and they ran over to greet me. I knelt down to greet them and to my surprise below is what took place. Hugs from everyone - it was the most amazing feeling and hard to epress the love I felt from their sincere hugs. A tender moment for me; one I'll never forget.
Dr. Call interacting with the children to put them at ease. He jokes with them, they count their teeth, and he explains what is going to take place.
| Dr. Call, LeeAnn, Jacqueline, DDS, Doc Johnson and Anna Lee |
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| Each child was so cooperative and willing to open their mouth for a quick exam. |
Jacqueline, a new graduate from dental school that works in the clinic 2 days a week.
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| 25 May, 2012 - Municipalidad Las Rosas- children ages 7-14 - all girls escuela. |
Girls anxiously waiting their turn for the dental screening.
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| You've got to love this picture; these girls were assigned to organize their library. It looked like a hopeless job to us. They were to organzie and place all the books scattered on the floor to the respective shelf. Good luck girls. |
After the screenings (the screening room was sooooo small, I didn't get any pictures of us screening the girls) so here's a picture of us playing dodge ball. Oops! I lost my picture when posting.
31 May 2012 - Los Cedros - all boy Municipalidad Escuela ages 7-15.
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| This young boy was intriqued with looking at his teeth through the mirror. He stood there for the longest time watching the Doc and then decided to give it a try. |
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| Again a group of boys facinated with watching the screenings of their friends. |
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Enrique from Tio Juan/Mi Casa orphanage helping us with crowd control.
Drs. Jacqueline and Barbara making an assessment on this young man. Both of these young ladies work in our clinic a couple of days a week as Volunteers.
13 June 2012 - Our young children from Pititos at the Clinic for their first visit to a dentist office. They had no idea what was going to take place and neither did we.
Just like Noah, we brought them in by two's for each chair. What we didn't expect was when the little girl on Dr. Call's lap started crying that two or three others would start too. It was a wild morning. The Doc's had them help them count their teeth, raised the chair up and down, entertained them every way the could to put them at ease. Some were much better than others and by time we finished they all left smiling.
Jacqueling took our Monkey to demonstrate how to brush their teeth. Gloves were blown up for them to play with and a reward for being such good patients.
They are smiling now, but their next visit some will not be too happy. Lots of work to be done on such small children.
