Crown Council Humanitarian Blog

Day 2

Our first day out in the clinic turned out to be a great success. We set up shop at a school located in Northern Santo Domingo. The school was two floors high and Doctors were placed upstairs and Hygienists downstairs. We saw a total of 75 adults and children. There was quite a lot of decay in the mouths of the Dominicans we worked on which resulted in the Doctors doing mostly fillings. On passed trips we have done a lot more extractions. Today we were able to save a lot of teeth which is always a good thing. The first day is always a little bit chaotic since everything is so new. Setting up and cleaning up takes a lot longer and getting used to the new systems can be a bit confusing. Our group is so hard working and everyone caught on really quick and did a fabulous job. There was some extreme heat and humidity that was dealt with but we kept hydrated and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The school had a big enclosed courtyard where all the people waited to be seen. We were able to play basketball, jumprope, duck duck goose, and paint all the little girls nails. Each and every patient we treated received a beanie baby. Dawn, who is one of our hygienist's brought them from home. Her mother collected them while she was alive and when she passed away Dawn thought it would be a good idea to bring them to the Dominican and give them to each patient for comfort. It turned out wonderful and really helped some of the younger kids who were scared when they were getting their teeth worked on. After our long day we headed back to the hotel and went out for a fabulous dinner consisting of some of the best rotisserie chicken around. Below there are several pictures posted of the day. There were more I wanted to post of the building we worked in but unfortunately the internet is being finnicky and won't let me. Hope you enjoy what you see and can get a feel for our day. Until tomorrow......