Day two in El Hato was as successful as the first, with the team arriving at the school to a line of community members waiting to be seen. In the morning, Santos, who works as the cook for the Transitions Foundation, and is from El Hato, took Auggie and myself on a tour of the community. After stopping to say hello to his mother-in-law and two young kids we made our way to the community’s water source, La Pila. We learned from Santos that often times women will go to La Pila for water to wash clothes and other things and find that there is no water to be had. Fortunately, there was a modest amount of water, at least enough for a handful of women to be washing their families clothes.
La Pila, El Hato’s main water source.
Today, with some translation help from Jorge, Dr. Mike Harper learned from a nine year old girl that it is typical in El Hato that some children are told, including this girl, that they don’t need to brush their teeth until they are around 15 years old because that is when all of their baby teeth have fallen out. As such, Dr. Harper showed the girl how to properly use a toothbrush and shared with her the importance of brushing her teeth twice a day.
Dr. Harper explains the importance of brushing twice a day.
At lunch time, Dr. Harper stated that the team was feeling optimistic about its work thus far, “Today has been great. We were able to get here early, at nine, and not have to worry about setting up any equipment because we already did that yesterday. We hit the ground running.”
In the early afternoon the director of the school, Glenda Tobias, arrived to thank the team for their partnership and hard work over the past 10 years. The lead professor in the school, Ervin Chan, also received recognition for leading the charge on much of the planning and work that goes into getting community members to come to the clinic.
Auggie presents Glenda and the school of El Hato with Spanish-English dictionaries.
By the end of the day the team had seen more than 55 patients, including 34 hygiene patients, and were ready for a relaxing evening. One of the last patients, seen by Dr. Katie Marsh and Dr. Harper, was awarded a soccer ball as a special prize for his outstanding behavior throughout the procedure.
Dr. Marsh, Dr. Harper and Alberto, who had three teeth extracted, pose for a picture after Alberto received his prize, a soccer ball, for being the best patient of the day.
Tomorrow is the final day of the clinic; the team will be in El Hato once again and will see members of the Transitions Foundation as well as other El Hato community members who were unable to be seen today.
Another Newberg Noon Rotary Club sponsored Guatemala Mission Project (2012) is under way! This is our 9th year of consecutive international service to the same two villages in the high mountains outside Antigua, Guatemala. Dental Clinics will be conducted from Sunday, February 26th thru Friday, March 2nd, 2012.
First, on behalf of the Newberg Noon Rotary Club, we extend our heartfelt appreciation, acknowledgment and gratitude to the volunteers participating on this Dental Team mission. You have stepped up to represent our Rotary Club to provide free dental services to those in need in another part of the world. In doing so, you assist our club in achieving its goal and more importantly you help make someone’s life better.
On Sunday, February 12, 2012 the team assembled to finalize the ongoing plans for this year’s project. Additionally, dental supplies and equipment were distributed to each team member for transportation to Guatemala. The team agreed to share responsibility of maintaining our blog. Laura Gonzales, blog administrator of past years, has agreed to assist us this year. Each team member will take a day to report on the Team’s activities and submit their report with related photos to Laura who will post on the blog so that we can share our experiences with you. We hope to provide you with an array of individual perspectives of our international services and experiences. Thank you for accompanying us on this Rotary trip via our blogsite.
This year there will only be a Dental Clinic. Due to increased concerns and fears regarding the rising drug violence and the instability of the incoming new president who claims to “rule with an iron fist” many believed it would not be safe to travel to Guatemala at this time. There’s a group of ten who believe otherwise and have focused their sights on providing an excellent Dental Clinic to those in need.
The Team consists of Rotarian Auggie Gonzales, Administrator of Newberg Urgent Care, who serves as the team’s Logistical Coordinator, Club Ambassador and Translator. Rotarian Orvin Erickson, retired banker and now real estate broker will assist with logistics and also serve as the Rotadent maintenance person. Dr. Michael Harper, dentist from Nyssa, Oregon serves as the Dental Team Leader. Dr. Benjamin Gonzales, Dr. Adam Polan, Dr. Katie Marsh and Dr. Charlie Hartman are dentists supporting these dental clinics. Three fourth-year dental students from OHSU will participate this year; they include Sarah Post (McMinnville), Brittany Fox and Willie Fugere. Several individuals from Guatemala will also participate in our Dental Clinics. At this time, Flor Caniz, Antigua Rotarian and liaison between the Newberg Noon Rotary Club and Antigua Rotary Club will serve as a Spanish-speaking intake/registration person. Jose Teixidor and his wife Millie will also serve in the same capacity. John Bell and Santos from Transitions will assist with dental sterilization. Several other Rotarians from the Antigua club will participate in various capacities as necessary. It is a team effort.
It's a team effort!
Auggie Gonzales and Orvin Erickson leave on Thursday, February 23rd and will begin performing pre-clinic arrangements once they arrive in Guatemala. Others team members will arrive on Friday and Saturday. Team members will inspect, clean and prepare equipment and supplies for Saturday when they will transported to Vuelta Grande, the furthest village where the first two day Dental Clinics will be conducted. Clinic is held on Sunday to allow men an opportunity to attend when they are not working in the fields; Clinic will continue thru Monday. Tuesday will be a free day to relax, to transport supplies and equipment to El Hato where the next Dental Clinic will be held and to address other logistical issues. The team will be in El Hato on Wednesday and Thursday serving the villagers. On Friday, employees and patients from Transitions, will be transported up to El Hato to receive free dental services. Any pending dental services from either village can also be completed at this time. Late Friday afternoon, the equipment will be cleaned and prepared for storage and supplies will be inventoried and packed for storage.
Although, we will return home with less items than what we brought, we will not return with empty suitcases. This year at a Newberg Noon Rotary Club meeting, the club impressively gathered $550.00 in contributions targeted for Guatemalan made products that can be combined with Auction items to increase their bid value. Funds raised at the Auction, to be held on April 14, 2012 at the Allison in Newberg, go to support local youth projects and services as well as a small portion for international services. In addition to these items for the Auction, we will bring back coffee for our club, used as a fundraiser for Transitions; a bag of Guatemalan coffee is presented to Guest Speakers at the Club’s weekly meetings. So, we will return with suitcases full of Guatemalan products and coffee and hearts full of wonderful memories of services provided to Guatemalan villagers.
Again, thanks to this year’s Team that makes possible this valuable Rotary international service! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a safe, productive and rewarding trip.
The final day for the Dental and Muscular-Skeletal Teams was treating all our friends from Transitions and some of their friends and family members. It had been prearranged to treat patients from San Filipe again this year. The ones that came were well remembered by the Dental Team as they suffer from cerebral palsy, which makes them especially challenging to work on as they have no control over their body movements, including the tongue and head. The Dental Team got straight to work and finished simple cleanings for some patients and complex fillings for others. Dr. Don Skei was in popular demand with the guys from Transitions that day. Many spend several hours a day in their wheel chairs and do not get enough extension in their backs and necks. He did several adjustments and the guys would roll out and exclaim to their friends how great it felt and how they were ready to play some basketball! PT Maureen Gonzales was also very busy giving massages and explaining some basic exercises for the guys to do to help alleviate their neck and back pain. After the day ended and everything was broken down we all stopped by the basketball courts in Antigua to watch the guys from Transitions play basketball. This last year they took the championships for Central America, these guys know how to play and they aren’t afraid to throw elbows or fall down! We were all impressed and it was a great end to a hard day of work.
One difficult case for the Dental TeamGo Team! Transitions members playing basketball.
16 year old Alex found himself in a bad situation. There were factions waring about some issue or issues, but there problems are not the focus here, Alex is. One faction thought Alex was supporting the other side. He had the barrel of a gun pressed against his forehead. He knew he would soon be dead if he didn’t do something. He turned and tryed to knock the gun away from his head. The gun fired and a bullet entered his right shoulder in a slight downward direction and hit something that made it exit his left shoulder. Leaving young Alex paralized from the chest down.
He spent 2 weeks in the hospital where he developed bad pressure sores. as a result of not being moved much.
He had to go back to the hospital, this time for a year. About this time, American John Bell walked into Alex’s life. John met Alex and left, call sometime later to see how Alex was doing.
Not well, the doctors wanted to cut off Alex’s legs. John contacted two nurses in Washington DC. The “Angels” as Alex calls them, helped him get into a hospital in their area. Alex received treatment and four surgeries during his year long stay there. He is still in the wheel chair but he has his legs.
When Alex was getting ready to leave the hospital, John asked him what he planned to do. Alex didn’t know. So they came up with the idea of Transitions. A program to help people with disabilities. But much more about that later. For now, you can check out there website at http://www.transitionsfoundation.org/
Guatemala Community Service Project 