Dental day 4- Andy in Los Piques y la escuela de Los Muermos

Before we begin let’s go back to last night. Thank you David Hughes for arranging to have a locale Chilean folklore group come and share with us. They came in full costume and danced and sang for us. They even got us up to dance with them.

What a great day! Today I loaded up the bus and headed out with Dr. Michael Pruett and Dr. Ben Lyons alongside our translator Christian and we headed out to Los Piques. We had a short day as we were all needing to be back to Los Muermos by 5:00 for a special presentation with the Mayor of Los Muermos and the director of the clinic alongside all our translators/dental students. We also had to say good-bye to Dr. Trotter this morning. He was flying home early so he needed to leave for the airport by 12:00. His chair had the potential for being one of the busiest so we decided that the Los Piques crew would head back to Los Muermos around lunch. Even so we were still able let Foundation intern Michelle Nance pull two teeth and I got two more as well. So, all told for the week for the assistance in order of numbers of teeth pulled 1^st: Rebecca Hughes, 5 2^nd; Andy Jones, 3 3^rd: Michelle Nance, 2. Pretty cool!

After we got back to town I was also able to walk to the school where Dr. Adrienne Wimbrow was assisted by Elizabeth. This completed my circuit and allowed me to visit all of the sites where we had dentists throughout the week. The mobile unit you see is stationed behind the school and Elizabeth sees the students there on a regular basis. This school is also in partnership with The Cliffs Preserve and the conservation foundation. They have installed healthy snack stations in several schools including the one in Los Muermos.

We had a great presentation with the Mayor of Los Muermos, Leo, the director of the consortorio in Los Muermos, and all of our translators. I was able to combine our pictures to show each of them the work that had been done throughout the week. The mayor expressed his words of thanks to us. Leo gave each of the dentists a beautiful piece of wall art made from a local tree here in Chile. Then, David shared a word of thanks to those two gentlemen for allowing us into their community this week. We were able to present to each of them one of the new drawings of our soon to be completed building with the invitation to come and be with us and the inclusion into our family.

After we finished the presentation we loaded up the vans and headed to The Cliffs Preserve. Our stay here is a gift from the foundation to us. And what a treat it is. Many in our group, including myself, are seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Even though the water is cold I will have to go and put my toes in while I am here. We have truly had a wonderful experience. I hope that we have made an impact on the community. Our prayers will be with Pastor Boris and the Iglesia Bautista in Puerta Varas as they continue to expand their reach of ministry into the Los Muermos region.