Day 18

I'm tired. I'm so tired that I want to lay down on the dirty concrete and take a nap. Today I went to Ccorao planning to teach some English classes. Instead I ended up translating for some Belgium dentists who are only here for a week. I watched a whole bunch of teeth get pulled out, and even more small parts of teeth get removed (like remnants that were left over from previous removals or from the tops falling out). There were three dentists and a million people to attend to. It reminded me how lucky I am to have health and dental care in the states. Not only that, but it's so nice that we have fluoride in our water. Otherwise we would be getting rotten teeth pulled at the age of 25 too. I saw so much blood today, it was ridiculous.

My project counterpart has offered to lend me out this week as a translator for the dental team. You know that there are serious problems when I'M translating. Still, it was pretty fun to feel useful and practice my language skills. My favorite patient was an 8-year-old girl who had to have two teeth removed. She was SO patient and didn't cry at all. She had anesthetic, but a lot of the kids still cried. Maybe they were scared of all the blood pouring out of their mouths. I felt like my first aid training really came in handy although I didn't do anything except wear latex gloves and hold gauze under their mouths. Also, teeth make a really scary cracking sound when they're pulled out. I would be terrified if I were awake and heard that. When I had my wisdom teeth pulled, I was definitely asleep.

I'm not going to be with the dentists all week but I think I will be with them two more days. I feel bad for them because the sun is so intense here and they're standing all day behind a school on a grassy knoll. Hopefully they'll wear more sunscreen tomorrow. It's a little known fact that t-shirts are only SPF 15 so you're at risk to burn through your clothes if you're not careful. Don't worry, I told them.

Oh, another interesting thing I saw was the machismo of the men. Women and children would be standing in line for a really long time and then the men would come and just cut in front of them. I wanted to tell them to wait their turn, but I doubt other women would step up for care before them anyway. Too bad.