Last Updated on Friday, 26 December 2008 19:06

On October 21, a team of three dentists and three assistants came from Alaska and Arizona to offer their services to ATEK. They were joined by a local dentist here in Cusco, a nurse, one of our Wycliffe teammates, and two members of ATEK. 

Marty had the privilege of driving them out to Ccapacmarca and Cajapucara – two distant villages about six hours from Cusco. In less than four days, the dentists saw 126 patients and pulled 298 teeth.

Marty gained a new appreciation for the Quechuas and how much pain they endure in their daily lives by getting a look inside their mouths. One of the most rewarding things of the trip was being allowed to give tooth brushing demonstrations in the grade-schools and give out toothbrushes to the students.

While the dentists were working on teeth, Nurse Yoni was in the classrooms talking about intestinal parasites and administering doses of anti-parasite medicines. At the same time, Luis Alberto was showing a video about intestinal parasites that he had recently dubbed in Quechua.

The most impressive thing about the whole trip was watching the Executive Director of ATEK give all the credit to the local churches. When people of the community would ask him who was behind the dental and medical effort, he would respond “the local church.” Once lady commented that she had never heard of the church doing anything like this before!