Saturday -- I saw lots of great stuff in Colombo, Sri Lanka

I enjoyed another delightful breakfast on the veranda of the Galle Face hotel.

Then we took a bus ride to visit one of the "children's' homes" that has provided  a number of girls to DCI. Dawn told me the story of one of those girls. She was found as an abandoned baby in a cardboard box at a railway station by a young boy who brought her home to his mother. His mother gave the baby to a neighbor woman who raised the girl as a domestic servant. At the age of puberty the girl, fully illiterate, then entered this children's' home. Age age 18, she was enrolled at DCI – – still illiterate and without any legal documents of any kind (no birth certificate, etc). Dawn told me that this girl graduated from DCI and has now been employed as a dental assistant for the past 6 years and most importantly, "She is happy." We were told that there are 30 girls at this home. The government pays them a small amount per girl, and the rest is subsidized by benefactors.

Seeing the girls at this home makes me think of my nieces, Anne and Alison, who were abandoned as babies and later adopted from an "orphanage" by my brother and his wife.

Here Dawn is chatting with the girls in one of the bedrooms.

The beds have mosquito netting because there are no window screens (and no air conditioning).

Lulu and Tweety pose with some girls.

This is the "laundry."

This is the dining room. The girls each have their own designated dinnerware.

This is the kitchen.

This is the auditorium/theater.

Here Dawn is playing volleyball with the girls.

Adjacent to the children's home is an "old persons' home, so we quickly visited there.

Outside these lentils and mustard seeds were drying in the sun.

This cat was sunning herself, and she let me pet her.

I saw this lime tree.

The mail was delivered to the home by this postman.

I saw this Bird of Paradise flower growing wild.

Next we visited a private dental office where three DCI graduates are employed. This is a very nice hi-tech practice that compares with the facilities of any US dental office.

I saw this setup for endodontics.

We really visited here to see the three DCI graduates. These girls are successful and happy.

This is Dr. Tweety with her sponsored student.

This is Dawn with one of her sponsored students.

And here is the third DCI graduate employed at this clinic.

This clinic also has a really great in-house 3-D printing capable lab.

The office hosted a "refreshment" for us. I don't know what the filling was inside these pastries. I was expecting a fruit filling, but this was spicy. Sri Lanka is known for producing cinnamon -- but this wasn't cinnamon flavor. After one bite, I was done.

In the center is Rosie, who is the new academic director for DCI. She is flanked by 2 DCI graduates.

This is our group.

Next we visited another nice dental office, where another DCI graduate is employed.

This photo shows the dentists in our group, along with the owner of this practice.

 

We got back to the hotel before noon and enjoyed another tasty lunch on the veranda before heading off to our next event: The graduation ceremony for the 10th "batch" of DCI students.

The event was very well attended.

Here are the women of our group in their new saris.

The ceremony included some great dancing.

Dawn gave a speech.

Here are the new graduates (in the blue saris), along with DCI faculty and Board members.

It was a lovely ceremony. It was quite moving to hear the stories of some more of the graduates. These are success stories. There was a reception afterwards with some interesting foods.

I should probably make a comment about how and why I am here in Sri Lanka (instead of being in Nepal). Firstly, I've known Dawn for close to five years now and I couldn't say no when she invited me to join this celebratory trip. The fact that I could travel the short distance from Nepal to here made it all the easier. I requested and was approved to have this trip supported by Fulbright as a "regional travel grant." To fulfill that aim, yesterday I reviewed the curriculum of the DCI program and made some suggestions. Today, I visited two dental offices in Colombo and I learned about some of the high-tech standards of care practiced here. Tomorrow I'll be one of the featured CE speakers at the DCI annual CE course. Be sure to check out tomorrow's blog to learn about that. Dawn and Anne (who are both pediatric dentists on this trip) will visit the Dhulikhel school in Nepal in mid-March. This is yet another example of fulfilling the Fulbright mission of creating inter-country educational connections.