Beginning of the End

Beginning of the End

Monday was the beginning of the last week of our time in Merida. I can't believe how fast time has flown, it is honestly insane! Anyways, I had the great opportunity to start working alongside a dentist this week. Her name is Aline Rojas and she works at the Maternal Hospital, which is where four other students already were so it's fun taking the bus with them in the morning. Also, there was a lady named Mildred with the dentist; she is a dental health promoter and was in the hospital for only three weeks. Aline and Mildred had me do lots of observing and learning the first day so that I would be able to help the rest of the week. Since it is a maternal hospital, all the patients are pregnant women, typically already in their third trimester. In the afternoon, I went with Kim, Maria and Jake to work with the social workers in the little communities and teach Days for Girls lessons. We were able to give out about 20 kits that day! 

Tuesday I started a little earlier than usual so that I could spend more time in the dentist office. Mildred had to help with the paper work she is usually in charge of, which is filling out a little chart of the teeth and taking notes of which teach are healthy and which ones have cavities. Aline then allowed to help a little bit with some of the cleaning and cavity filling. I basically just help the little vacuum tool in place and help the blue light to seal the fillings. It was still great though! I have never seen so many swollen and bleeding gums before in my life. Oral hygiene is not a very big priority in Mexico. Some of the women were seeing a dentist for only the first or second time in their lives. If was a bit sad but I am glad that the hospital there provides free treatment so the women during the pregnancy. I did not work in the afternoon so Jake and I went and got out last haircuts before heading home. In the evening, we went out for sushi at a place that does discounts on Tuesdays. It was delicious as usual and very fun as almost the whole group went! It was also very sweet because they informed the staff I was about to have a birthday so they brought me some ice cream with sweet sushi!... A big bummer later than evening as Jake left early! He had been feeling sick for about a week so he and his family decided it was best for him to just leave a week early.

Wednesday was another early day with the dentist. Everything was going great until we reached her last patient and halfway through the check up, the compressor broke, leaving us without any electronic tools. Luckily we were able to finish the check up but we had to turn away a patient because we didn't have the ability to fill her cavity. From the hospital, I went to a lunch with instructors from the community center I was working at the previous two weeks. They made some pretty good food then they were kind enough to also have a cake for me! The sang a birthday song then mashed my face into the cake (one of my favorite Mexican birthday traditions) hahaha! But there were two cakes so everyone was still able to eat some.

Los del centro de desarrollo eran muy amables y también animados para poder celebrar mi cumpleañps conmigo. La verdad son muy buenos ellos. Luego, fue muy padre tener la oportunidad de trabajar con una dentista y ver como hacen las cosas en Mexico. No es grande las diferencias pero si es un poco diferente. 

 Hospital Materno Infantil

 Working with Doctor Aline

 Birthday celebration, sushi style

La mordida!