Aliens with metal instruments

I hardly ever look in the mirror. In the matter of fact, I do not own a mirror. The strange thing is that if I had to recognize my face, legs, or hands in a line up, I would likely select wrongly. If I took a picture of your hand and placed it with pictures of ten other hands, would you be ale to recognize your own? What about recognizing your own nose, eyes, legs, or entire profile? I guess these are random thoughts. But the only thing to do on the two hour bus ride from Tegucigalpa to Moroceli is to gaze out the window, note the changes from large banks, Pizza Huts, and Burger Kings to slouching slums to pine forested hills to dry barren land...

Leaving the Grand supermarket after splurging on grapes, apples, and brocoli, I feel the weight of heavy eyes staring at me as I cross the street to go the bus station. I look around me-- they all have arms, legs, one head, knees and two feet like I do. I wonder why I am so interesting to stare at. I supose since I do not look in the mirror, I forget how different my apprearance is in comparison to them. I cant see the light color of my hair that rests on my head and bounces on my back.

One day, I am sitting in the park in front of the Catholic Church. A mini van followed by a pick up truck pull up randomly in front of the church. Ten white americans hop out talking English. As if aliens from Mars had arrived in a space ship, my jaw dropped and I stared and stared at them some more! The father of the church greeted them with a firm handshake, "Buenas Tardes, Bienvenidos." The aliens from mars were actually dentists from Oregon donating a week of their time to have a dental brigade for children. Timothy, Steve, and I were excited to have visitors and to help out with translating throughout the week. I never realized the depth and existance of my own United States culture until I had the opportunity to live outside of it. I have discovered that while I feel a great deal of respect and care from Hondurans it really takes time for a stronger friendship to form. Simply stated, there is a strong wall of cultural difference that has to be broken. Otherwise, they view me as "other," somebody outside of themselves almost too different to feel comfortable with. However, within minutes, there was a strong sense of trust and understanding between us and the dentists. We immediately felt comfortable together and helped them unpack all their toothpastes, anestesia, needles, tooth puller, toothbrushes, and flashlights.

The secretary in the mayor`s office had invited fifty school children from Moroceli to come on Monday. For Tuesday thru Friday, children from all the surrounding villages were invited. On Monday morning, an elementary school teacher came with twenty-five children. All twenty-five of them entered teh church yard and we started by giving a talk about the importance of tooth-brushing. It was a beautiful moment-- everybody brushing their teeth together and then spitting on the Lord`s land all at once!

The thing I hadnt yet realized was that for many of them, teeth-brushing was a rare and foreign event. The dentists inspections revealed mouths full of black rotten teeth and lots of bacterial mouth infections which resulted in lots of wailing as the doctor yanked out many teeth. I sat beside the nervous students and held hands, explaining the different tools. Just the sight of the tooth-picker and the other bright shiney tools brought many kids to tears. Imagine sitting in a dentist chair for the first time with a stranger foreigner leaning over you blabbering in an alien language poking inside your mouth with large metal instruments.
The teacher heard the whimpering of her scared students and entered to assist. She yelled in fast Spanish, "If you dont sit and behave for the dentist, you will not be allowed to return to school. I will get you with the belt!"

"What did the teacher say? Translate it for me, " the dentist asked. Just as I had stared at the dentists initial arrival, she stared back at me big eyed in disbelief at my truthful translation. Since then, I have made a point to lecture on positive communicacion techniques.

On Tuesday morning, children, youth, fathers, mothers, cousins, grandmothers, uncles, grandfathers, teachers and farmers bombarded the church courtyard. The word of the dental brigade had spread and turned into chaos. I translated to the crowd from English to Spanish the dentists regrets.

"We are sorry, but we are only attending children from the poorer surrounding villages."

"Teresa," somebody yelled from the crowd, "I just have a molar that hurts"
"I just want my teeth cleaned. "
"Can I have a free tooth-brush?"
"Are you giving out toys?"
"But I have a tooth that hurts."
"Teresa, you are my friend. Get me in."
Some students even skipped their high school clases to watch the dentists work from outside the window.

The dentists worked non-stop from eight a.m. to seven p.m. with only a quick break for lunch inbetween. We wanted to help everybody. We wish we could have.
I have realized that our job in this world is not to change it. One cant change the world. One can only change his own corner, his own piece of the puzzle. But if we all do our part and touch just a few people, everyone is touched in some way and the puzzle pieces put together create a beautiful picture.