Some local dental students came to perform dental exams on all the kids today. I was in charge of documenting it and to say I was a little excited about it would be inaccurate---I was really excited about it. Dentistry is my comfort zone, and even though all that was being done was exams (no x-rays exams--simply looking in their mouths exams) it felt good to be around dentalness again. When I introduced myself to the dental staff I told them I had spent 10 years working as a dental assistant in American and told them it made me really happy to see so many dentists together. In one place. In India. They smiled and said "oh good" but I still don't know if they understood my level of happiness at having them here.
The littles awaiting their turn
Besides exams for the children, several oral health demonstrations were given as well. Some of the teachers and staff jumped in for exams too. It was one big happy oral cavity search party. As I was taking pics I was being a total nerd and kept spitting out random dental terms. Instead of saying 1-2-3 before taking the picture, I would say "Everybody say........molar!" And it was pretty much always followed by crickets, which of course only made it more amusing to me so of course I continued doing it. I finally got some laughs at the end when I said "Say caries!"--but really, I wasn't even going for laughs anymore at that point, I was just cracking myself up, using my dental lingo. Being easily amused makes life so much more enjoyable.
The littles awaiting their turn
The teacher on the right of this picture (the one in the teal and purple sari) is expecting. She was being so funny about me taking her picture. Afterwords she came up to me and said she didn't know if she would be allowed to be in the picture since she is pregnant. I looked at her confused, and asked if I needed to delete the picture, not knowing if it was socially taboo to take a picture of a pregnant lady in India. All lot of what I would consider as "different things" seemed to be done to prevent evil spirits from entering the house, baby, spirit, food, cow, supermarket, whatever. Either way, I didn't want to be responsible for invoking the evil spirits to anyone, especially a partially formed human tadpole. Imagine my surprise when she said it was fine in Tamil cultural, but she had heard that Americans are against taking pictures of pregnant ladies. I laughed and informed her that that wasn't the case, and that in fact, taking pictures while you are pregnant is quiet a big thing in America. The more I get to know these people the more I come to realize they have some pretty out there ideas about our culture and traditions (or what they think are our cultural and traditions) when really, foreigners often come in thinking the same things about them. But in the end, we are all pretty much the same. Some people just happen to like rice, vegetables and ridiculously spicy things a little more then others. Moral of the story is don't make assumptions or gossip about others traditions and cultures because chances are you will end up being more alike then you are different.
