Isla Mababoy: Dental Health Education

I am so excited to publish this blog entry because it is the very essence of my blog where I want to tie my adventures together with outreach.

You see, all throughout college, I craved for my someday. That someday consists of a long list of adventures I would go on, that someday I would be able to do everything I love and just live in that love.

But I'm not stopping without getting my happy ending, and I'm about to tell you one now.

My S O M E D A Y is finally here!

I got to backpack around Masbate and Sorsogon with 2 of my closest friends and fate made me stumble upon information that we could do an outreach in Isla Mababoy in Masbate. The owner of Donsol Eco Tour (http://www.donsolecotour.com/) whom I was coordinating with arranged the outreach with the Barangay Captain of Isla Mababoy and then included Isla Mababoy as part of our Ticao Island hopping tour (hence, no transpo hassle).

The first thing that came into my mind was to do a simple dental health education where we would be giving out toothbrushes and toothpastes to the kids. And what better way to educate than with an interactive storytelling (inspired by my Miss Chinatown days when we had a Storytelling Caravan).

The story goes like this:

May isang batang nangangalang Pepito. Marami siyang kaibigan at magaling siya mag aral kaya sumasama siya sa iba't-ibang paligsahan. Tuwing nananalo siya sa mga paligsahan, binibigyan siya ng magulang niya ng pera bilang kanyang premyo.

At saan ginagamit ni Pepito ang premyo niya? Bumibili siya ng mga kendi.

Hindi naman masamang kumain ng kaunting kendi, ngunit si Pepito ay hindi nag sisipilyo! Hangga't sa isang araw, mayroong monster na nanirahan sa kanyang ngipin. Noong una, isa lang yung monster. Hangga't sa dumami ito ng dumami at nasira ang kanyang mga ngipin!

Dahil marami and kudyo (this means cavities in their language) sa kanyang ngipin, nagkaroon siya ng napaka mabahong hininga. Tuloy, ayaw lumapit sa kanya ng mga kaibigan. At dahil nahihiya rin siyang makita ang kanyang sira-sirang ngipin, hindi na siya ngumingiti kaya akala ng mga kahit na nananalo siya sa mga paligsahan.

Hindi na ni Pepito napapakita ang kanyang kaligayahan.

Kaya isang araw, ginamit ni Pepito ang kanyang natirang premyo para bumili ng toothbrush at toothpaste at nagsimula na siyang mag sipilyo. Paunti-unting gumanda ang kanyang mga ngipin at paunti-unti rin siyang nakakangiti. Patuloy pa siyang nagsisipilyo ng tatlong beses sa isang araw. At imbis na kendi ang kanyang kinakain, mga prutas tulad ng dalandan at mansanas na ang kinakain niya hanggang sa tuluyan nang gumanda ang kanyang ngipin!

And then, we demonstrated how to properly brush their teeth, as per the advice of my dentist friend (in circular motions, everyone!).

And then gave out travel toothbrush paired with toothpastes so they could take it with them anywhere!

And showed our best smile for the photos and hope to keep it that way!

I chose to do a dental mission because smiling was my biggest insecurity when I was a kid. I had really bad teeth and I was so happy when I got to wore braces for 3 years 'cause that means one less thing to not like about me. I also looked forward to trips to the dentist because I'll have one less problem to worry about.

I remember when I was a lot younger and I was in a mall and there were these two guys who were going to approach me but when my lips parted to talk to someone and they saw a brief flash of my teeth, they went the opposite direction as they snickered and whispered to each other.

I remember not forgetting to not smile too much.

And that's what I do not want these kids to remember. If we could play a part in their dental health care, maybe they would never have to hold back a smile.