Day 4: Circles, Circles!

Today we spent the morning packing up our supplies to leave at the friary for next year’s trip and then ventured out to the orphanage’s school to teach some oral hygiene and give out the rest of the toothbrushes we had left.  We gave instructions to about 500 kids in groups of about 150 – leaving Kakooge today we can say that we are a relatively sure that we taught half of the children in Uganda how to brush their teeth, and also how to say “circles…circles” and “up and down, up and down” with our hygiene talk. The kids loved it – and so did we.  We are hoping to be more active in the school next year, treating even more of the children who need help and making sure that all 931 of the students have toothbrushes and toothpaste, and know how to use it.  The goal would be to teach the staff at the school to give hygeine instructions and possibly simple procedures like cleanings and sealants and to replenish their toothpaste and toothbrushes as needed!

Dr. Farmer teaching some of the children at the school.

Marc teaching the kids our version of their "bonga" - HIGH FIVES!

Dan doing some hygeine instruction with the nursery class.

Katie teaching the kids to brush their front teeth in CIRCLES, CIRCLES, CIRCLES!

After the school, we toured the local hospital – which is really far from the villages that we travelled to, but close to the town.  The hospital is a Franciscan Hospital built by the friars and staffed by nuns and it is a really nice hospital compared to what we have seen in Kampala.  It is also much less crowded due to location and the fact that services are not free.  We visited the dental unit and met the dentist who pleaded with us to find her an amalgamator – she actually has a really nice set up in the clinic!  After the tour we headed home to provide some dental care to the people who helped us so much this week. 

We gave cleanings to Robert, Ronald, Marian (all three friars), and Sandy (the driver) and then with Dr. Farmer, performed fillings or extractions and made sure that everyone in the house had toothbrushes.  We really could not have done the work we did this week without them.  Overall, we are incredibly satisfied with how our first outreach trip went!  Not only did we gather really helpful information to be able to tweak our program and get Ugandan’s the maximum benefit from it, but we were able to provide treatment to over 300 patients, education to countless more and really learn some valuable skills.  Now we are headed back to Kampala to rest for a few days and head out on a safari on Sunday!

A last picture of the team before heading back to Kampala!