Lauren's Life in Guatemala: A week with my family and new friends

After 3 weeks of 10 days trips overlapping one another, the 4th and final week finally came. I was so excited for this trip, because my parents and sister were coming for 10 days to help with the Plastics and Dental team of 70 people. This was also a fun trip because my parents brought down 9 PUC students with them along with 24 bins of donations. Amazing work done by all of them to say the least. While my mom went to the hospital most days to help with cleft lip and palate surgeries (she is a retired OR nurse of 18 years), my dad and I went to the different villages where we held dental clinics. Though not a Dentist by profession, last year, my dad was awarded a Dental Diploma to practice Dentistry only in Guatemala by the 4 Dentists on the trip . My sister being an ER nurse, switched between clinics and the hospital, helping as a Translator, Recovery Nurse, Dental Assistant, or wherever else she may have been needed. Me, being as far from medically inclined as a person can be, typically stray away from blood and such. This trip, I was shocked at my daily progressions working in the mouths of our patients and assisting the Dentists anyway I could, from translating to shoving gauze in a bloody socket. My whole family was amazed at my progression through the week. The joke for the week was that I was going to go back to school for Dentistry. The thought was fun to entertain, however, this will never happen... I have bigger and better plans for my future! It was such a refreshing week to spend quality time with the people closest to me. For them to see where I was living and get a sample of my life here was awesome!

The whole group

My Dad, sister and I after we "cleaned" this man's teeth. We weren't actually offering teeth cleaning, but when he came in with a huge gun on one hip and 2 clips in the other, we decided we'd be happy to clean his teeth. He happens to be a bodyguard for a top drug dealer in the area. He was honestly an extremely nice man!