San Francisco General Hospital

This is a familiar background for those who have been following the field school over the years.
This picture was taken in front of the hospital.

Siked!!! (inside joke)

The always gracious, Dr. Ortega. He was the first person to receive us at 8am  this morning.
The director is away on holidays.

Glades, our host coordinator is making sure that communication between the new and only Spanish-speaking dentists, Dr. Paulo and Dr. Christian and our group is not lost in translation.

Dr. Paulo, yes... he's a dentist (age 24) gave us a tour of the hospital.

We didn't quite get to the new wing of the  hospital as the doors were locked. ;-(

On our way to get ready for clinic, but stopped to get fresh squeezed orange juice first.

One of our patients today, Elmina and her 7 month old baby girl.

This entire family was our patient pool today...minus  the little baby, Azul (little girl in the center) and the dog. ;-)

Walking home and out of our scrubs, Shannon found 'jackfruit'  almost ready for pickin'.

Will be back here tomorrow night as we were invited to attend a celebration of life event for one of
the members of this community who died recently.

Tres dias en la clinica dental...

Third day of clinic. We are groovin' now. It dawned on me today how much quieter these last few clinics have been compared to the last two field schools. I had forgotten how noisy the vacuum cleaner (aka suction machine) was that we were using at that time. We are making do with the two portable suction machines while Shannon has been asking her clients to spit into a cup. The quieter times, however, bring forth a different kind of noise that we somehow managed to escape in previous years. Every now and again, the sound of shattering glass jars our senses. The Center is after all, a recycling area too. ;-)

Tomorrow @ 8am,  our host will take us to the hospital for our tour and to hopefully secure clinic dates in two weeks. Next week, we start our school visits.

Below are pictures from our clinic today. 

T'is early and the doors are closed.  Waiting....waiting....waiting....

Ahhh, here comes Shannon! Buenas dias....

Then there's Sam and Krista. Hola!

Coach at work....

Schedule for the week.

Can you say....nice posture? 

Kneeling....but a nice neutral position.

The patient  is obviously happy. Check out the "thumbs up!"

I took care of the drop-in kids. Sergio is 13.

Sam and Gilbert. CC

Shannon and  Tzipatzin.  

Albina and her children, Victor and Elmira. She has been receiving care from our clinic since 2007 and I would consider her one of our success stories.  She is so motivated and receptive to care and has made remarkable positive changes in her oral health. She has been passing this value on to her children and it is evident by their  good home care and low caries risk. 

Before she left, it was kisses and hugs to Krista (she was Krista's client) and to Sam , who worked on her daughter.

Off with the scrubs for the walk home...but first trying out a new food,  guamoche,
A gift from Tzipatzin, Shannon's patient.

Till next time....buenas noches!

Day 2 Clinic...

We worked out the kinks from Day 1 and the second day went a lot smoother. The students have the advantage of a 3-1 ratio. Nice for me too. ;-)  The improvement from yesterday to today's clinic was exponential. The students are committed and focused. This makes me happy.

Waiting for someone to open the door. They forgot that we started earlier than everyone at the Center and we waited for 30 minutes. Oh well....

Angel and his Mom, Maria.  Ada's patient for the day.

Bird's eye view of our little clinic.

Sam's patient for today. Her name is Alicia.

We decided to walk up the beach to get an early dinner and to debrief about the day's clinic. The conversation started with what courses have posted grades on Camlink, to questions on the National Board exam, and ended with grad festivities. Three hours later, we called it a day. 

A treat after a good day's work.

 Octopus and potatoes. Way to go, Sam.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this beautiful entry way.

7pm:  Walking back home. Students were anxious to do homework. For real.

Are we really here?

Leaving Victoria @ 655am. Taken in front of Westjet counter.

Aisle seat for Shannon. Yay!...but window seat for Sam? Not! The attendants moved them to a completely different row  to make sure Sam gets to see outside! ;-)

First night at San Pancho. Dinner @ La Perla's

Oops...this should have been on the next entry. We just finished with a clinic set-up here.

The following pictures are of the little tour that I took the ladies on, featuring the local park and Calle Asia)

Set-up Day

As we were organizing for our clinic, the students commented on how good it was to rely on their creativity and resourcefulness to set up a unit/clinic that will meet their needs for the time that we are in this building.

There was still plenty of sun left after we completed the clinic set-up. On the way home, we stopped at a local eatery called, Baja Tacos for an early dinner, then headed for an excursion to Sayulita, with our host Glades.