Scott Fears - 3/14/12

On Wednesday we visited a school that was literally on the top of a very steep hill in Las Minas, Panama. The wind was relentless at the top of the hill, blowing a solid 20 mph and more all day long. Several of the children walked a mile or more in hilly terrain to get to school. Most were of modest means if not poor. The school lacked electricity, had an outhouse for a bathroom, and lacked any supply of fresh water. Because of the extreme wind, I kept thinking the school house was going to blow away and this made it easy for things inside the class room to get blown off the desks. The school was composed of three small rooms. The 25 kids that attended this school were divided by rough age approximations, with 10 year olds possibly being in class with 14 year olds. They were also divided into groups of boys and girls.

The very first thing that I noticed when meeting the children was how well mannered they were. The were quiet, never fought, and were obedient. They smiled when appropriate but rarely burst out in loud laughter. I found them all to be quite endearing. My teaching group was given the task of education the children about dental hygiene. We used several approaches to accomplish this goal including a short skit, ‘simon says’, demonstrations, and some play activity. I felt like by the end of the day the children had reinforced what they had already known about tooth care and might possibly make more of an effort to take care of their teeth thanks to our efforts. We did do a cursory inspection of all the childrens’ teeth. I would say on average each child had one to two cavities but a full set of teeth.