COMING TOGETHER IN COSTA RICA
On a wet, moonless night in the rain forests of Costa Rica, a group of USC students and faculty found themselves in a precarious situation. That afternoon, they made the challenging trek up a steep mountain slope to canopy in the forest treetops, high above the forest floor. Tying themselves to harnesses and in the pouring rain, they zipped along heavy cables that carried them from tree to tree. That was adventure enough. But now the sun had set, and the local tour guides were unprepared for a decent down the mountain face in total darkness. By day, the trail was muddy, craggy and in places ill-defined, USCSD faculty member Gary Harmatz recalls. But now it was pitch black. "You couldn't see anything. I noticed that the tour company didn't have flashlights otherwise they would be using them. I was really worried that people might get hurt."
Not surprisingly, the group—which had only arrived in Costa Rica two days prior —came together. They used the flashes from their cameras and the faint backlights from their watch faces to guide each other down the slope. Some would help one person down a particularly shaky stretch of trail then climb back up the hill to help the next. "It was a major feat to get everybody down and off of the mountain and out of the forest," third-year student John Jerome remembers. "We didn't want to risk our lives up there, but it kind of felt like it."
You couldn't have planned a better team-building exercise if you tried. After the experience, doctoral dental student Jessie Kim felt like part of a family. "The experience was so real and almost life-threatening. We hadn't been together as a group yet really. But even so, we all worked together to help each other out."
The 33 students and eight faculty who traveled last April to the small Central American country were part of an annual school pilgrimage through Ayuda, a secular nonprofit organization that provides health care services to underserved communities around the world. In pueblos tucked away within rugged Costa Rican backcountry, the group worked 10- to 12-hour days in makeshift clinics set up in school classrooms and church auditoriums. By week's end, they had treated more than 700 children and a number of the adults from the local communities.
Students rotated in teams working with faculty to diagnose and plan treatments, administer anesthesia and perform restorative dental work. This was also the first year that dental hygiene students were included in the experience. They developed a program distributing toothbrushes and other supplies and teaching the basics of good oral health care, like the proper way to brush.
First-year dental student Joseph Field says the one-on-one time with attending faculty made Ayuda a unique learning experience. One afternoon, he remembers assisting Charles Shuler on a restorative case. "He was doing a stainless steel crown on a young kid, probably the first one he's done in 20 years easily," Field recalls. "He was buzzing right through and doing great." As Field explained, Shuler popped the crown right into place with a resounding "Yes!" "To see the associate dean all excited about what he was doing and having a great time doing it really was inspiring to me."
Harmatz, who has participated in past Ayuda missions to Belize and Mexico City, is always surprised by what he learns from students. "You are constantly blown away by their abilities to give and their willingness to do that kind of hard labor," he says.
One experience played out time and again during the course of the project was the appreciation shown to students and faculty by the communities they are serving. "Putting a smile on a kid's face definitely makes it worth it," says Jerome, this year's student leader. Faculty member Frank Yorita agrees. "I'll never forget the grateful smiles of the hundreds of children we were able to treat," he says. "The Ayuda experience in Costa Rica was not only an opportunity for the students to sharpen their skills, but to be of service and make a positive difference in the lives of others."
One of Field's most memorable experiences was while assisting in the case of one little girl. "She was really timid, scared and frightened," he says. Her little sister came in with her and held her hand while Field and a third-year student completed her case. "After we were done she gave both of us a big hug. She was so happy, excited and all smiles after that point."
It wasn't all work for the group, who also had a chance to take in some local sights. In addition to the harrowing canopy tour, participants took a guided river ride down the Rio Frio, enjoyed the Costa Rican beaches of Tamarindo and unwound in the natural hot springs of Tabacon, near the base of an active
volcano.
Whether at Ayuda's local clinics in Southern California or abroad, participants usually come away with a health respect for the work that they do, and the ways
they can affect people's lives. "The U.S. is a whole different world compared to other countries. It's a real eye-opening experience," Kim says. "You really begin to see what a difference you can make."
|
