The teaching continues

It was a very long day of teaching today.  We had a lot of running around to do, and in retrospect, I am very happy we hired a taxi for the day.

Laura, Nimira and I began this morning teaching at Moshono Secondary School, teaching first aid.  Last night, I had been out in Sister Sophina's garden (where we were staying), tearing leaves off of her banana trees.  It turns out that these make great ties for bandaging.  We demonstrated to the children R.I.C.E. and R.E.D. - the first aid acronyms for splinting injuries, and bandaging wounds respectively.  I was fortunate that one of the boys had been out cutting wood with an axe before classes, and had several good branches that I used to tie with the stalk from some leaves from banana trees and corn plants.  Several children from the elementary school who were outside had come to watch through the window (no glass included!)... that was great, because whenever I needed another tie, I just asked one to tear a piece off of the banana tree beside them!  I think it went very well, and one of the students who came up to demonstrate was Oscar, one of the five students that Medoutreach 2004 sponsored to attend highschool. 

This teaching session lasted until about 10:20, and then our driver (Patrick) drove us down to Dr. Tekle's SDA clinic.  Dr. Tekle is the dentist with whom I have been working in the city of Arusha.  Laura and Nimira gave them a 45 minute talk on infection control, demonstrating how to recap a needle properly and how to properly put on sterile gloves.  This particular talk has proved to be very important in many of the places where we have taught. 

We then returned to Moshono school for our second session of the day.  We gave the Form 2s (approximately 14yrs old) a talk on Substance Abuse.  This is an interesting topic, given that they do not have so much money.  They therefore face many problems that are similar to those we have at home in the northern part of the country - glue, paint and gasoline sniffing. 

They are also beginning to have problems with tobacco.  It is interesting here in Tanzania because there are very few people who smoke cigarettes.  From a social standpoint, it is completely unacceptable, so very few people can be caught smoking in public (except for our street friend Rasta-Bobi of course!).  Chewing tobacco is a different story however, and so we tried our best to reinforce that tobacco can become a major problem.

We then returned again with Patrick to SDA to teach CPR to Dr. Tekle's staff.  It was a little bit difficult given that they were still seeing patients, but even with some distraction, we were able to teach them this essential medical skill.  While we were there, we also managed to see a couple different aesthetic dental procedures on children.  Since the fluorine levels in the water are so high (approximately 8ppm compared to our approximately 0.5-1.5ppm at home), most people have very bad fluorosis here, and people are starting to worry about how it looks.  I have told many of them it is not a problem because many people have this condition - and because I simply don't have the time to treat people for this reason.  Dr. Tekle was attempting to do use a topically applied whitening gel on one child, and Dr. Adeytko was doing direct composite veneers on another.  The "denturist" was also in today (not certain what exactly his title is, but he has a lab in the city) and he was placing an all-acrylic partial denture on a patient.  I have some pictures I will upload later if I have a chance.  Tomorrow we are teaching again in both places, and then I will be making it to Bondeni to teach oral health to the medical staff.