African Adventures: Teaching Dental Care

Today we walked to AGC with the remainder of our dental supplies to teach the kids about dental care. We went to the little ABC class (Like Kindergarten) and pulled everything out of our bags. Meg and I started by asking why it is good to brush our teeth. They all stared blankly back. The teacher mumbled something to them and someone said, "So they can stay clean." We gave some more reasons as to why we brush our teeth and the benefits of it. Then we held up a tooth brush and asked them what it was. They all yelled, "Toofbruch" ....haha! Then we held up toothpaste and asked what that was. I don't think everyone knew so one kid replied once again, "Toofpaste". We demonstrated the motions of the best way to brush teeth, and how long to brush.

After reviewing everything with them, and making sure they understood us, we handed out 34 toothbrushes and toothpastes. They were so excited and especially loved the different colors of the toothbrush. Class was let out right as we were done; and when we stepped outside apparently news had traveled fast that the white people gave out toothbrushes. Lots of kids came up to us and held out their hands expectantly waiting for something. Unfortunately we had given all the toothbrushes away and only had a few toothpastes left. We knew there wouldn't be enough to go around so we told them all that we ran out. Upon hearing that all the older kids started grabbing for the younger kids dental supplies. We had to take a few from the older kids and give them back to the younger kids. We said goodbye to our friend Louise who was in her office, and left. Directly left of the school ground we walk by a little daycare. The little boys that were playing outside were so excited to see us that they came running out the gate and wrapped their arms around our legs. We had only met them once before, and their cute little antics made us laugh. The lady supervising them gave us big smiles and invited us to come inside the daycare. We decided to give them the remaining toothpaste with them and apologized for not having anymore toothbrushes.