Christmas Day

Hello and Merry Christmas to all of our friends and families. We are thinking about you and hope you had a nice holiday.

Today we went back to the same school we were at yesterday. Jolene used up the rest of our fluoride varnish and treated about 25 more children. Mike, My, Randy and Jimmy began the day setting up for the ART. This technique is intended for use in developing nations where citizens have no access to dentistry. Because the materials can be mixed by hand, no electricity is required to fill the teeth. Thankfully we had the luxury of electricity and a trituator that was donated to our mission. The procedure involves removing the existing soft decay by hand with an enamel hatchet, prepping the tooth with an acid etch and then placing glass ionomer into the cavity preparation. The glass ionomer material is then pushed down into the prep and subsequently smeared toward the interproximal and facial and lingual surfaces with the operator's index finger. The material sets up in ~ 2 minutes, the occlusion is checked and a final layer of petroleum jelly is placed over the top of the filling. The material hardens very quickly and once the trituration is complete, you have about 30 seconds to get it into the cavity prep before it hardens and cannot be used. My, Randy and Jimmy did a fantastic job as operators and Mike and Jolene played the assistant (gopher) role. Together we filled 20 teeth; all posterior occlusals and/or buccal surfaces. There were so many teeth to fill but we just couldn't get to all of them in the time we had. We did feel like we accomplished a great deal and hope that, in a small way, we were able to help.

I can't finish this entry without talking about the children. They were so polite, helpful and enthusiastic. Today we really wanted to get a chance to communicate with them. We did our best with sign language back and forth and wrote down many questions for them to answer. They asked us many questions too. A popular one being, "How old are you?" (every school we have been to we have been asked the same thing). They also ask us if we are married, have children, where we are from, and what we like to eat. They cannot get enough pictures of us with them; it seems as if each one of them individually has to be in a picture with one or all of us (this has also happened at every school on our trip). We have smiled so much for cameras on this trip that our facial muscles ache. If you are doing something with one student, within minutes there will be a crowd around you. Most all of them want to shake our hands or hug us and many compete for our attention. Today they were particularly fond of Mike and his arm muscles and wished that Mike and I were married. They also asked if Jimmy was My's son :). Truthfully it was a bit overwhelming but the children are so sweet that you cannot help but try and accommodate them all. I know that my heart was truly touched by them; Randy complained that he had never been touched(literally) so much in his whole life, not even in a relationship!

With our generous pre-trip donations we were able to purchase two water filtration and purification systems and 7 thermoses for the campus. The filtration systems provide clean drinking water and both hot and cold running water. It was nice to see them up and running before we left today.

At the end of the day all of the students assembled out in the courtyard to thank us for visiting and taking care of them. We all formed a large circle and the students and faculty sang a Vietnamese song of friendship for us. It is something we will never forget.

Randy, Mike and I are off for a much needed vacation from our vacation tomorrow morning. We fly out at 5:00 am to Northern Vietnam; specifically Hanoi and Halong Bay. We will stay 3 nights and return to Bien Hoa on the 29th. We were able to set up a tour and look forward to seeing many interesting sights. My and Jimmy will spend the time with My's family and friends. They are also going to try and visit another school to provide oral hygiene instructions and distribute the remaining toothbrushes, etc.

It's an early day tomorrow so we will check in with you all later. Bye for now.