One dark night, Vicki and I went out on a quest in the woods to find a Yozhik.  She had heard they lived in the forests in Ukraine and she wanted to see one.  I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I was always game for an adventure.  A young Ukrainian man named Sergei accompanied us, presumably to keep us from getting lost in the woods or  else being eaten by wild yozhiks.  I asked Vicki again what it was we were looking for.  She told me the name of the animal and I practiced it a few times.  Then, just because I felt like being silly, I started calling it like I would call a kitty, “Here yozhik, yozhik, yozhik!” 
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Tags: Ukraine

In our Ukrainian dental clinic, we did countless fillings and extractions for the children, making friends with them along the way.  My new Grandpa, Anton became one of four lucky adult patients to get treatment, too.  He trusted me to remove six root tips that had been left for years.  He was so thoughtful, staying up past his bedtime so I could work on him after the children had gone to bed.  He didn’t want to take up a child’s opportunity to get treated.  I wished so badly that I could whisk Grandpa Anton back with me to Bakersfield to make him a set of dentures!  But he was the handsomest of men to me regardless, with or without teeth.
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Tags: Ukraine

I grew up speaking some Spanish.  I don’t really consider myself fluent unless I’m talking to a child who matches my grammatical level.  One of the hardest things for me to do is switch mental gears from English to Spanish without getting warmed up.  It’s like warming up the engine of an old car.  If you take it out of the garage too soon, it chokes and sputters and doesn’t accelerate no matter how much you push on the gas pedal.
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Tags: Ukraine

The days at our make-shift dental office in Ukraine were crazy, but what I remember most was how rewarding it was to make friends with the children.  Very little was actually communicated with my patients through the translators.  I discovered the best way to talk with a little kid was through sound effects.  I became a master at silly sounds.  Most of them didn’t know what to expect in a dental chair, so the frightening parts were the loud noises of the suction, air hose, and drill.  I would start by showing them the air nozzle and make a puffing noise.  Then I would use it to puff their arm and then blow around their hair.  That usually would get a shy smile.  Next I would make the guttural suction noise and stick the suction tube to their palm to feel the pull.  About the time they were looking comfortable with that, I would tickle their sides with it and make them giggle.  Next I would show them a dental drill (with nothing sharp in it), whistle for them, let them hear the real noise, and feel the air and the vibration with their fingers.  Any new instrument I would “test out” on their thumbnail first before trying it on their teeth so they got the idea that nothing hurts.  We would end up playing games for quite a while before actually getting started.  I felt all the effort was totally worth it if I was able to make a friend and get them to smile. Read More...

Tags: Ukraine

They lined up all the way down the hall... a sea of faces, enough to make the most courageous dentist feel faint.  Kids.  Lots of kids.  A multitude of kids.  And we were supposed to treat them all.

The Ukrainian health clinic, called a Sanatorium, had allowed our team to set up our mobile dental-clinic-in-a-box in their administrative building, where they could keep an eye on us.  In an attempt to feel like we were making progress, we struggled through the chaos of supplies and equipment well enough to start screening the first group of children for treatment.  
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Tags: Ukraine

When I think of “comfort food” certain places come to mind.  Carrow’s, for instance, has the best cream of broccoli soup on a rainy day.  I also love the omelettes at Lorene’s Downtown.  Comfort food has one important purpose in this life... to make you feel comfortable. Read More...

Tags: Ukraine

A week before leaving for Kiev, the mother of my classmate saw a TV program exposing the illegal trade of the Gun Runners of Ukraine.  Apparently, they were taking old Soviet weapons to the Middle East for profit.  It made for a wonderfully hair-raising news story.  It also made this poor mother a nervous wreck that I had talked her sweet, protected daughter into joining me on the trip. Read More...

Tags: Ukraine

Students tend to see the universe through a lens of idealism.  When we left California for Ukraine, we were four dental students and three hygiene students bent on radically changing the world.  Full of excitement, we each packed every personal item that could be crammed into our carry-on bags, using the large, check-in luggage for hauling gloves, masks, instruments, and supplies.  We also hauled four air compressors for our dental drills and several folding chairs tricked out with vacuums and air hoses for the patients.  Pushing the 70 lb limit for each box, we stuffed the extra spaces with necessities like toilet paper.  The remaining boxes were tamped down with Beanie Babies to give away to the kids we were going to meet at the orphanages.  A team of 14 people assembled at LAX, each with a carry-on and two 70 lb boxes, all labeled, itemized, and numbered. We were led by the amazing duo Dr. Richard Nelson and his wife Vicki.  We were ready for action!... well at least we would be after the 16 hour plane ride.  Read More...

Tags: Ukraine

Ukraine is a country with a long history of wars and occupation.  Within my grandparent’s lifetime, Stalin nearly wiped the country out by starvation and the Communist regime instilled fear and suspicion into the Ukraine's once-vibrant culture.  On top of that, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster still hangs over them like a shroud, haunting their every living moment.  Having been fascinated with post-Soviet Europe since my freshman year in high school, I jumped on an opportunity to see it for myself in the year 2000.  Three of my dental school classmates and I joined with our leaders from Washington State to give dental care to the under-served children in Ukrainian orphanages.  As students, we naively entered the country and experienced a huge culture shock, government red-tape, and an older generation suspicious of what we smiling Americans were up to. Read More...

Tags: Ukraine