Smiles Forever

I hadn't gone to the dentist for a few years now...I hate the dentist. Well, not the dentist per se, but I despise the smell, the sound of those scraper tools against your teeth and the feel of grit between your teeth. However, the opportunity to get my teeth cleaned kind of fell into my lap today and I'm really glad a took advantage of it!

Pennye's friend Sandy started a dental hygiene program in Cochabamba called Smiles Forever. It is a two year training program for woman residing in the Madre de Dios homeless shelter. Young women learn how to provide cleanings, assist with x-rays, teach patients cavity prevention, administer fluoride treatments and work in a one-on-one setting. The clinic in Cochabamba just opened up and I signed up to be one of their very first patients.

The dental hygienist that you see here is named Susana...(very close to my middle name!...Okay, I'll stop with the seemingly forced connections!) Susana was great...very patient and gentle ( I'll admit I was a bit of a baby about some of the scraping yelling "Dolor!"..(pain!) The whole thing lasted about 3 hours....hence I look a little worn out in this photo I think! It was by far the most thorough cleaning that I have ever received and even though I couldn't understand most of what was being said to me (ok, dental vocabulary isn't high up there on my priority list)...I felt in great hands the whole time. Unfortunately I need to go back to get a tiny filling...(I guess I can say my very first cavity was discovered here in Bolivia...sniff!) The girls were good to tell me..."You can come back! We have novocaine!"

After the tooth cleaning I went out to dinner at a local restaurant with the Thursday Night Dinner Crew! Everyone you see here in the photo below is taking classes with me at the Maryknoll Language Institute...the 6 of us have kind of gravitated toward one another as we all belong to the non religious life contingent of students, live pretty close to one another, enjoy trying out local restaurants and could talk for a really long time about anything from politics to Spanish language acquisition! (Back: Dan, Bernie, Pat Front: Me, Pennye, Olivia)