Hello all! Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve updated a
little. Work has been catching up with me! My newest project has been giving
dental health presentations to the whole elementary school and I really love
it! Honestly, I don’t think I ever pictured myself talking to children about
the importance of having good dental hygiene but it’s funny how things work
out! The topic of dental hygiene itself is so neglected that as a first time
volunteer (the town has never had a Health Volunteer to talk about this topic),
it’s difficult to not focus on it. To put it into perspective, most of the
children here have NEVER seen a doctor, let alone a toothbrush and toothpaste.
Dental problems are just as common as the flu.
With that in mind, I decided to start preventative dental
care presentations as my first project in the school. I just started last week
and I will have a series of about 4-5 weeks. All grades PE (preschool)-6 will
be reached. In total it’s about 145 kids, half in the morning and the other
half after lunch. I’m really glad I finally started with these since it took so
long for me to prepare because I was so worried about having engaging material
and exciting activities that would change the everyday Paraguayan school day. For
example, I had checked out the big teeth from the Peace Corps office. They are
these big plastic teeth and brush that volunteers use to have an up close view
of how to take care of your teeth. I know this may not be the coolest or newest
thing we in the States have heard up but let’s be real, anything different from
having to copy what’s written on the board is new and exciting to them.
It’s really crazy how held back kids are here. From what I’ve
seen, it’s a behavioral result of the Paraguayan culture. Their way of being suffocates
individuality to the point where children are afraid to speak in class for fear
of standing out in the quiet crowd. It could be a result of the long Strossner
dictatorship in which he demanded complete compliance and solidarity; or maybe
just a lack of demanding educational requirements. For any reason, creativity
and discourse are cruelly punished in this sense. In school, teachers write on
the board and students copy. One of the only golden eggs received from school
is the gift to someday have good handwriting. It seems like nothing else is
really a priority. There are little if any use of didactic materials and
definitely no classroom discussion between teachers and students, unless it’s
to silence a student. In my case, and that of every volunteer, it’s really hard
to calculate behavioral change, which is pertinent to displaying or recording
our work progress here. When I enter a classroom here, I desperately fight the
awkward, long, and silent response to any of my attempts to engage discourse. Basically,
what I’m trying to say is that they loved the big plastic teeth and all the
activities we got to do during my presentations on dental health. At the end of each charla (presentation) we go outside to brush our teeth. Currently,
the director of the school has found the funds to buy toothpaste for each class
but I’m still trying to find a way for all kids to get toothbrushes free of
charge. I’m thinking about involving the parent’s commission but I haven’t met
them yet. Hopefully, the dental goodie bags sent from a local Medfordian
dentist will arrive soon! Thanks by the way! J
More on that later…
