Weds: We visited a denture camp/outreach clinic – – an amazing day!

 We had an amazing day. We met Travis for breakfast at the DLR restaurant and then made our way to school. At school we met up with Dr. Smriti and joined her team that was heading to a remote site denture camp/outreach clinic, about an hour and a half away. 

This is the team squeezed into an SUV. From left to right: we had a driver, Leslie, me, Prativa (an oral surgery resident), two dental assistants -- in the way back, Denesh (Community Dentistry Department dentist/faculty, and Smriti (Prosthodontist). We were squeezed in like sardines. It was not comfortable.

Smriti has been doing these clinics for nine years now. Today we were heading to a new location that had never been utilized before. The way this works is a municipality sponsors and pays for these camps and all of the dentures. So our first stop was at the municipality City Hall. There we had two administrators of some sort join our team. They rode ahead on a motorbike and showed us the way.

But first, because Nepal is so civilized, we stopped along the way for breakfast and tea. Smriti had told Leslie and me that food would not be available, that is why we had already breakfasted with Travis. The breakfast included roti bread and a legume stew along with this plate of raw onions and peppers. I just drank milk tea, which was really quite good (sweet).

Our total drive was about 1.5 hours, but it was an unbelievably brutal drive. I have driven hundreds of miles on bad logging roads in Montana -- but these roads are far worse -- and I am referring to the main highways! The last 30 minutes of our trip was off the highway on a dusty and super steep dirt road -- soo bumpy!

Then we arrived at our site. The site was 3/4 the way up a huge mountainside. The mountains are so tall and the valleys are so deep -- and the hillsides are unbelievably steep. This terrain compares to nowhere in the U.S. 

I've seen some poor spots in Nepal, but this is a whole new low. On the other hand, these people were so welcoming. We set up our clinic on the second floor of a school building. The assistants quickly readied our "clinic" and the work began. Exams and extractions were done inside a classroom and the denture impressions were made on a balcony/hallway.  Because my Fulbright award prohibits me from having any patient contact, I was sidelined to being an observer/ photographer. Leslie was prepared to do impressions, but soon realized that without Nepali language skills, her dental skills were of little use. We watched the team efficiently diagnose, extract and impress these patients. More than 70 teeth were extracted and 19 patients received impressions for dentures. These are some photos from the area and the clinic operations.

Denesh is evaluating a patient.

Denesh and Prativa are extracting a tooth.

They have primitive instrument sterilization.

Smriti is taking an impression while Leslie watches. Smriti is an incredibly gifted prosthodontist.

Some schoolgirls were watching from below.

Schoolboys would sneak upstairs to watch.

The assistants were great alginate and stone mixers -- and poured up bubble-free models with no vibrator.

This building is made with mud mortar.

We took a lunch break across the road. The kitchen was in a small brick shed. Smriti had suggested that Leslie and I bring our own lunches -- so we had some of our own snacks and declined this meal.

We saw this woman shucking corn by hand.

And this girl was walking home from school and passing a water buffalo.

Later after we completed all of the work and had loaded up the SUV, this woman made us tea. It was really good.

This is the outdoor washroom of this family. Notice the bucket on the wall with toothbrushes and razors.

On the drive back to Dhulikhel, I saw the sunset.