Imagine coming to your first day of school, but instead of having class you go to a clinic where you receive deworming medication and tooth extractions. Although this may not be our idea of a good first day, the children attending Santa Teresa school could not have been more excited!
Today we served 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in the morning, and then Kindergarten and 1st graders in the afternoon. All of them equally grateful for our care, and getting out of some school.
We were also escorted in small groups to several homes of school children. It was absolutely incredible to see the homes that some people went home to, and to climb the rocky and steep mountain to their homes. Some of the homes that we saw happened to be fairly nice. They were definitely the more luxurious homes on the mountain. We found that the Honduran kids were not even phased by the trip up the mountain, for when we dropped them at their homes they decided to walk all the way back to the school with us.
In the dentist office today screams could be heard all around. The children did not enjoy the numbing shots, but soon realized that the dentists were there to help. Dental assistant, Krystal, said that one little girl was screaming so loud and trying to stop the dentists that they were ready to let her go. They continued to work, and the girl left the room in tears. Only minutes later the little girl, her mom, and her sister came back to the office and hugged all of the dentists in thanks for their help. Also from the dentist office, Stacie, dental assistant, reported that she was meeting a lot of new little buddies. Estaban is a little boy whom she met today, and says is her new pal! Stacie also mentioned how she noticed the difference that just removing one tooth could make on a child. One patient had about 10 teeth that could have been removed, but they could only remove 2. Although they would have liked to extract the bad teeth, they knew that just removing the 2 would change the patients life.

Pictures attributed by:  Ashok Kewalramani