Can we just talk about how grown up I am for this whole post? Okay awesome because I feel like I conquered the world (or a village) for the day. Maddy and I have been planning this Dental Camp up in Bunabuyoka for the past couple weeks and have been super excited about it. We started the morning teaching the community health workers about what to substitute for toothbrush, floss and toothpaste. Because their village is so remote, they can't afford or even obtain those items so we taught alternatives!
Maddy talked about the structure of the tooth and how to brush and all that good oral hygiene stuff
And the camp begins...
Entertained the little ones with a beach ball
Here is Maddy being adorable with this little one who had to get his tooth pulled out.
This was just before the chaos. We thought we were organized and had everything under control but as soon as the first child walked in, ohhh man it was out of control. Maddy wrote down the names and whether or not they were going to get a tooth pulled or not. I tied a yellow braclett on their wrist if they were going to get a tooth pulled and a blue bracelett of they got checked.
Maddy and I were so grateful Dr. Fred made the trip all the way up to this village. He volunteered his time to come and look at these children's teeth who have never seen a dentist before.
We were originally just suppossed to check the children but their was a miscommunication and literally this whole village showed up. It. was. crazy. We weren't able to check everyone which was the worst but we checked pretty much all of the kids and were able to check some youth and adults. This poor old woman was in so much pain and Maddy just comforted her and it was the most precious moment ever.
These beautiful ladies helped me get toothbrushes and toothpaste together to pass out to the kids that were checked. We also had to put medicine in a bag with a perscription. I literally said 15 prayers that what I wrote for the perscription made sense.
Maddy assisted Dr. Fred the whole time and was a champ when he started pulling out the children's teeth. Literally the kids were screaming, crying, and bleeding. Not the best. 
Community health workers being amazing and helping out.
This is the part where Maddy and I had no idea what the heck we were getting ourselves into. Dr. Fred was literally pulling out people's teeth. We had planned for it but it's one thing to talk about it and another thing to watch it happen.
Through all the madness, we somehow managed to keep a smile and stay calm. At one point we looked at each other with wide eyes both feeling super inadequete and unorganized and overwhelmed but we got through it. The prayers. I am convinced those 15 prayer got us through it.
At the end of the day, it was the best feeling to know that we helped the people that we could and taught them how to take better care of their teeth. Here are the community health workers and some children and other members of the village
Through all the craziness that happened it was all so worth it. On the taxi ride home I was sitting next to Dr. Fred and he looks at me and goes, are you happy? And I smile and say of course and we continued to talk about the camp and everything that was good bad and what we can do better next time.
After he asked me if I was happy I started thinking about that question. How could I not be happy? I am in Africa and completed the most successful day of my life so far. I have been here since May spending my summer doing service. I couldn't not be happier.
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