2018 Peru - Day 4

Yesterday almost killed me. I started out working with Tony getting the sterilization station all set up, and then Tony asked if I could assist in “Exo” for the time being. “Exo” is short for “extraction” – meaning pulling teeth. I did a lot of this in Guatemala, where dental health was generally horrible and extractions plentiful. Back then it was actually emotionally exhausting for me, with my day spent physically restraining the heads of terrified children so the dentists could inject anaesthetic or holding down kids legs, arms and bodies while their teeth were pulled. Most kids in Guatemala required multiple extractions. We are only able to use local anaesthetics.

Here there have been fewer multiple extractions, and a slightly older demographic. My time in Exo today was mostly holding a flashlight so the dentists could see what they were doing. I was working with Malcolm and Stephen, two dental students from Alberta. The “operating tables” are two plastic cafe tables taped together, which are about waist height. This means that all the work has to be done while bending over. The floor is concrete. The temperature is around 30º-32º C. The first patient has a molar that needs extracted. The roots are spread, and the tooth needs a lot of coaxing. My back is killing me from bending over (I strained it installing a new toilet at home a couple of weeks ago). I can feel rivulets of sweat running down my lower back, under my belt, and soaking into my underwear. My knees hurt. My feet hurt. I used to play lacrosse – nine years playing one of the toughest, roughest sports in North America. Provincial champions. Now I hurt my back installing toilets.

By the end of the day I am exhausted. I think they call it “middle age”.

Anyways, I tell you all this because every member of the clinical team is here as a volunteer, and they are spending four days working under pretty physically demanding conditions. The hygienists either work standing, bending down to work on patients laying on benches, or they work sitting on benches. They all have sore back, sore necks, and tender tushes. The dentists in “Restoration” (fillings, etc.) work standing, as does virtually everyone. Bent at the waist. For hour after hour.

Today is busy. It is a normal working day, and it is “summer vacation” for the local students. The folk who weren’t able to be seen yesterday were given numbers, and are back this morning at the front of the line. When we arrive there are a lot of people.

By the end of the working day we have treated about 250 patients.

This is our last day here in Chulucanas, so we have to pack up everything in prep for moving to another location (La Encantada) tomorrow. I’m not sure how long it took to pack everything up, but we were all sufficiently exhausted by the end. We left everything stacked neatly at one end of the stadium, and tomorrow morning will stop here on the way to La Encantada to load everything on the bus.

We walk back to the hotel, shower, change, hang out for a while in “the office” (what we have affectionately coined the lounge), enjoy a cold beer, and then walk to a restaurant called “Manuel” for dinner. We have a choice chicken, ceviche, and breaded fish served with rice and lentils. The chicken was great!

There was a cute little boy who must have belonged to the owner, who was speaking to me. I didn’t understand much of what he was saying – my Spanish is not very good. But he came walking by with a box of sidewalk chalk, and art is my language, so the two of us went outside to the street and drew pictures together.