2006 Day Four: Across the Mountain

The team headed up to El Hato one more time this morning to gather the equipment and move it to Vuelta Grande, a village on the other side of the mountain. The van was filled to the brim with plastic containers and the dentists went ahead to Vuelta Grande, where Leroy and Mike awaited them, while the rest of the team members stayed at El Hato.

Young men were playing a soccar scrimmage behind the school as other children milled about. Soon the now-familiar faces of the Aspuac family appeared. Ervin Aspuac is a teacher at the El Hato school who has been persuing further education through a scholarship provided by the Antigua Rotary Club; he has been instrumental in promoting the dental and medical clinics to the community through the children.

Auggie, Maureen, Julia, Alia, Andrea and Renee -- a woman Auggie and Maureen met in Antigua and invited along to help with the clinics for the day -- followed Aspuac's daughters up the dusty road to their home. There they proudly showed off the three tin shed buildings that make up the kitchen, master bedroom and children's room. The kitchen boasts a new stove that burns more efficiently than an open fire, but the Delmi, 9, and Evelin, 7, are more interested in demonstrating how they've learned to write their names.

Delmi and Evelin are left in charge of their two younger siblings while their parents work or attend to children. Today their parents are in Vuelta Grande, where Ervin will get a chance to visit the dentists.

Over at Vuelta Grande the dental clinic set up went smoothly, due in large part to the previous day's re-organization effort. Whereas the El Hato school formed a rectangle of buildings with a courtyard in the middle, the Vuelta Grande complex consists of two buildings about 50 yards apart. The school, a two-room structure with brightly painted murals of Guatemala on the walls, is where the medical team stretches out. Uphill lies the one-room "community center" building, or "situation room" according to a small hand-written sign posted on the wall. This is the space the dental clinic occupies. It's smaller than the room in El Hato, and the windows are open holes in the wall that children and adults alike peered over until curtains could be hung.

Ervin, whose children had so graciously opened their home to the Americans, was one of the first patients. He sat down for a cleaning and dental hygenist Julia spent two hours working on his gums and mouth.
"He had heavy tartar buildup under his gums which caused the gums to be severely inflammed and causes the bone supporting the teeth to dissolve," Julia said. Without the deep-scaling treatment she did, "he'd have lost his teeth eventually. They'd have fallen out."

After the cleaning Ervin moved to Dr. Allen to have two cavities filled.

Ervin was one of many men that streamed through the clinic today. By offering the clinic on Sunday the team hoped to be able to help more men who usually worked the rest of the week. This also changed how the treatments were provided.

"At (El Hato) we did exams and said, okay, today we do extractions, tomorrow fillings," said Maureen who has been working as a dental assistant. With only one day to concentrate on the men, the dentists sought to complete treatment on each patient that came before them at that time.

Down the hill at the school building the medical team was kept plenty busy. Women again lined up with children in tow, and even some men stopped in. Like in El Hato the team saw quite a few viruses amongst other problems.

"I found another little kid with a heart murmur," Dr. Jan noted.

After lunch a ten-year-old girl named Guendi (pronounced "Wendy") was brought in with a sinus infection. During the exam Dr. Jan noticed that her tongue was tied -- that the ligand under her tongue, something present in everyone, was abnormally long, extending almost to the tip of her tongue. This held her tongue to the base of her mouth; she couldn't open her mouth widely and touch her tongue to her upper lip. It also gave her a speech impediment.

"The mom elaborated on how it was affecting her life" after the doctor mentioned it, said John, who's been working as a medical assistant. "She couldn't go to school, kids were making fun of her." Guendi was eventually pulled out of school because the torment was too much.

But with the help of this team, that was going to change.

Tied tongues aren't all that uncommon and can be treated by cutting back the ligand. With a dental team and complete dental set-up just up the hill Dr. Jan had all she needed to make the repair: the chair, a light and surgical tools. An excited Dr. Jan ran up the hill to confer with the dental team about their supplies and Guendi's mouth, and found that Dr. Bob had actually performed this surgery once before.

When Auggie, the translator for the medical team, told Guendi that they would be able to fix her tongue, she received the news with a serious face as if concentrating on every word. She nodded her understanding, but it wasn't until Auggie turned away that a bright smile flashed across her face. Likewise Guendi's mother paid close attention to the instructions on Guendi's pre-surgical care -- she shouldn't eat anything in the morning -- and the description of the procedure.

As mother and daughter left the clinic their excitement was tangible despite their stoic nature. They were hardly out the door before the mother began telling the other women in line about their new hope for Guendi.

"It's just a miracle that we have everything coming together," Dr. Jan said, not trying to mask her own excitement. "It's just great."

That night over dinner Dr. Jan, Alia and John chattered hopefully about Wendy's story.

"They were just walking on a cloud," Dr. Jan said. "They just couldn't believe someone offered something to them."