Translating

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to work with a group of dentists from the United States who had come to Ecuador on a medical mission. They came through The Judith Lombeida Foundation and the Children's International Dentist Project and worked here in Ecuador in conjuction with the Ecuadorian Air Force. My friend Lydia Montes, who lives down south near Puyo, came up to be the other translator from the Peace Corps. We met the group on Thursday for lunch at the Air Force base and then headed to the first site, Santa Rita. Santa Rita is a small Kichwa community just outside of Archidona. After set-up, Lydia and I returned to Archidona and watched the SandLot, a movie that is frequently quoted here in Tena cluster but I couldn't remember watching in my childhood. Friday morning, the commander of the Air Force base here in Tena picked us up on my street corner in Archidona and we headed out for the first day of our two-day mission in Santa Rita. We saw about 85 patients - pulling teeth, filling cavities and teaching the kids and their parents about good hygiene. I worked mainly with a dentist from Colorado Springs and his wife. Because it is a Kichwa community, my little knowledge of Kichwa helped me out quite a bit. We returned to Tena after the long work day and had dinner with Tena cluster. Saturday morning we met the Air Force bus in Archidona and headed back to Santa Rita. Our second day went by faster and we broke down the rooms around 330 to head home after the closing program. The dentists we were working with treated us to dinner at The Marquis (steak!!) and then we went dancing with some of the dentists and Air Force men. Sunday we met the bus in Tena and headed out to San Pedro which is my friend John's site. We set up the equipment and got to work. It was a smaller school so we could see all the students in one day. All of our machines kept tripping the breakers so we had to work around it. John came out to show his support before losing his soccer game in the Sunday tournament, 9-0. We packed everything up around 3:00 and Lydia and I headed back to Archidona to get ready for the closing dinner and program at the Air Force base. We had dinner and watched a video of the past three days then headed out to receive certificates (from the foundations and the air force!) and see some indigenous dancing. It was an incredibly exhausting weekend but I felt really good about being able to help these dentists out with the translating. This week, it's back to work because here at the Foundation Runa tomorrow we have the inauguration of the new dryers where we dry the guayusa leaves. Busy busy! Take care.

SK