Day 1 TWO all-night flights!

Another adventure to get halfway around the world.  Our flights weren’t bad.  Los Angeles to Heathrow, then Heathrow to Nairobi.  Except, they were both red-eye flights.  We left LAX at 10pm, flew all night to arrive in London-Heathrow at 3pm,.  Then we left LHR at 6pm to arrive in Nairobi at 5am.  We tried to limit our movie watching and focus on sleeping.  We tried.  

However, the 18 hours in the air was surrounded by driving, both to get to LAX and once we landed in Nairobi, traveling to the clinic on the Maasai Mara.  In total, from our front door at home to the front door of the clinic……38 hours.

This is our second rotation at Maasai Dental Clinic supported by the World Health Dental Organization.  This clinic was the vision of Dr. Ray Damazo to provide free dental care for the 100,000 Maasai villagers who are within walking distance.  It was opened in 2009 and to date, more than 100 volunteer dentists have treated over 10,000 patients.

Dentists from all over the world volunteer for a 2 or 4-week rotation.  In 2017 we were here for 4 weeks.  This year, 2 weeks.  We are following a dentist from Dubai.   We have two dental assistants, a 3-chair first world clinic and we are open for business for whoever drops in as they herd their cattle and goats.  Some villagers will have walked a couple of days for us to treat their pain.  Fillings, cleanings, and extractions are the typical treatments.  Clinic starts tomorrow, so we will unpack, get some sleep and head to work at 8am.