Mexico- International Service Learning 2009

I am a bit behind, but I wanted to blog about my wonderful experience in Mexico in March of 2009. IU School of Dentistry organizes trips to underserved areas in Latinamerica where dental students go to provide dental work to kids. We went to the state of Hidalgo about 5.5 hours North of Mexico City in the mountains. We were just outside the rain forest, so everything was lush and beautiful.


I am going to show in pictures what a typical day was like there on our trip.
A typical day consited of getting up, getting breakfast, and then piling all of our equipment into a trailer and hopping in a police pickup or van to travel to the surrounding villages in the mountains.
Fresh air was nice on the windy roads.
There were so many people lined up for us when we got there, and unfortunately we could only address each child's biggest problem.
All of our gear was portable so we were equipped to do fillings, take teeth out, do sealants, and apply fluoride. We had a dentist with us who did triaging and then they got sent to each station for their work.
Here I am doing a resin filling.
Most of the kids were very cooperative and pleasant to work with.
At the end of the day we were all pretty pooped and we'd climb back into the convoy and head home. We typically had about an hour and a half before dinner was served, so we took advantage of it and went down to the local indoor soccer field.


The kids there were great. They let us play pickup games and even tournaments with other teams there. It was a blast. I wish you could just go somewhere here in the US and play soccer whenever you wanted!
We'd go eat delicious dinner prepared by an Abuelita who was an amazing cook! Each night it was different and delicious.

Then we couldn't pass up the taco carts for fourth meal. These tacos were the bomb!!!
Then we'd head back, replenish our supplies, and make a plan for the next day, and went to sleep.


On the way back to Mexico City we stopped by the pyramids of Teotihuacan. They were so massive, I couldn't believe it. The whole city was pretty impressive.
Tradition holds that if you go to the pyramids during the Spring equinox, you can "charge up your energy" for the year. I don't believe in that, but it drew quite the crowd. We were there the day before the equinox, and it was pretty crowded.
Here I am on the top of the moon pyramid. This was actually great timing because they only open the top of it for hiking for a few days a year, and we were there when it was open. Here I am charging up my energy. I hope it worked:)


In Mexico City we went out to a fancy gourmet Mexican Restaurant and had an exquisite meal.

You can tell by the look on my face, I'm loving the food right about now.

It was a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to many other similar experiences in the future.