ensenada dental clinic
Last weekend, I headed down to Ensenada, Mexico with a group of people. Nope, not a vacation or anything...volunteering to help out with a dental clinic of sorts. My mom is part of the Irvine Spectrum Rotary Club, and a few years back, they paired up with a wonderful dentist by the name of Charles Tozzer. Tozzer regularly holds free clinics for those people (especially children) whose families can't afford dental care. He holds a clinic SEVERAL times a year, in different areas, including Ensenada. So, volunteers head down for the day to help out in any way possible. I did it once last year, and told my boyfriend that the next time I went, it would be a wonderful thing if he could join us. He did, and he was a TREASURE. when i went last year, we had only a couple of people in our group that spoke Spanish and were thus able to translate to the patients and their families. This time around, we had about 7 or 8 people, Tony included amongst them. And, he is WONDERFUL with kids, which was probably even more important. Here's a quick rundown of the weekend...
headed to our hotel in ensenada on friday night, so we'd already be there in the morning. (first off, wow...the hotel we were in was REALLY nice...felt sorta guilty about that.) in any case, we got up on saturday morning and headed out to the site. each time, a different elementary school in the area is chosen...notes are sent home with the children ahead of time, and it's basically first come, first serve for whoever shows up. 
We had three rooms in the school for our use. One was used for most of the dental work (as seen here). (On the last trip, we didn't have any real dentist chairs but instead used crude-styled chairs that had been fashioned out of wood. By this trip, the Rotary Club had donated the money to purchase these traveling dentist chairs.) Another room was used for eye exams (new this time around), and for sealants (if kids just needed this done instead of a lot of other work on their teeth). The last room was our break-room of sorts...not used much at all, let me tell you.
The dentists didn't bring their own dental assistants, so a few of us stepped in for those duties. I did this for awhile myself...started by taking notes on the child's chart, to track what work the child would need to have done (fillings, extractions, etc...). The dentist I was paired with did NOT have his own light, so I held a flashlight for him, trying to follow his little dentist mirror around in the patient's mouth, so he could see what he was doing (see the pic of me). I wasn't sitting for long, but had to bend over him in order to see better. Next thing I knew, he was also having me help him by using the suction tool and the tool that releases bursts of water and air. wow. i was SOOO nervous. Tony wandered the room, going from child to child and trying to get them to smile, explaining what was happening, and translating from dentist to child. As I said, he was amazing.
At the same time that this was happening, other people (including some of the kids from the school) were painting some of the buildings of the school. Kinda cool.
this little girl was SOOO adorable. fascinated with someone else's camera and kept posing for pictures, before grabbing the camera to take several pictures herself!!! but...notice the older woman in the background, holding the basketball...she wanted to know if she could get her teeth worked on, as well. Well, it was a CHILDREN's clinic, but Tozzer told her that if she could wait until after the children were seen, she could be seen after. cool, huh?
here was another cutie. part of the last family to be seen for the day.
another memorable moment...there was one guy who was there to help with the generator. he was talking to a few people, and in the course of a general conversation, he mentioned how his wife was currently sick, and the medicines cost nearly $150, and he didn't know how he was going to pay for them. well, the story spread, and by the time we all packed up for the day, a collection had been made and $150 was presented to him. how totally COOL is that???!!!
we were gone by 5, heading back to the hotel. the guy we were following was speeding and nearly lost us along the way! but we cleaned up and headed down the street to a N-I-C-E place for dinner, with a four course meal...and plenty to drink. it was very enjoyable, to say the least. one of the best moments at the restaurant was hearing the ocean...it was like nothin i'd ever heard. now mind you, i live not too far from the ocean, so it shouldn't be anything new...but the restaurant was situated RIGHT on the beach. and the beach didn't have sand, but small ROCKS instead. so as the waves went out, the rocks shifted around and the sound was not unlike a LOT of little firecrackers. it was neat-o. (by the way, this pic is a view we had from the hallway right outside of our room! our room's patio overlooked the pool, with the ocean in the distance...and the hotel room was pretty much larger than my whole apartment!!!)
headed back to the hotel, and a group of us hung out at the bar for a while. it was nice to see familiar faces that i've known for yeats, but it was neat to meet the newbies, too. i think i might have found a new friend, too! (she lives nearby.)
spent one more night at the hotel, and left for home in the morning. it was good to be home, but it was a wonderful weekend experience.
