Our thoughts . . . 10-15-09
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES…OR DOES IT?
(Please consider this a brief interruption in our series of transition-related articles. I will continue our discussion about location and practice characteristics in a couple of weeks.)
I have most certainly had a diverse set of opportunities within the last 7 days. On Thursday, October 9th, I had the privilege of speaking to the UMKC School of Dentistry Senior class about practice valuation methods and then on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday spoke to the CONESPEH School of Nursing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti about dental anatomy, disease and hygiene. While the subject matter was quite different, there were a number of similarities. For one thing, I spoke English to both classes as my Haitian Creole is no more advanced than "Good Day" and "Thank You" and I’ve found that a good interpreter can make you look smarter than you are. Most of all though, both groups were fun to speak with and seemed to appreciate our presentation.
A visit to Haiti is kind of a slap-on-the-side-of-your-head about the world we live in. It certainly appears to live up to its claim as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince is a place that most of us would not let our pets walk around in and yet hundreds of thousands of people live there. It is a filthy, infested environment in which you and I would not last more than a few days. I have worked in many dental projects in Central and South America in the last 20 years and it has always been obvious that we have way too much while others have way too little. I know many fellow dentists who have had similar experiences in places like Africa, Honduras, Venezuela, Mexico, Jamaica and Guatemala. I have seen grinding, crushing poverty and children with no food to eat. I have seen the effects of gang violence and the result of poor political decisions. I have seen unsanitary living conditions and the lack of any useful education. But wait! I’m back to how we’re more alike than different because I have seen all of these things in Kansas City. It is clear that there is work to be done everywhere. I am always proud of my dental colleagues and of the work that gets done just because it needs to be done. Whether it be in international missions, projects like the Kansas Mission of Mercy or in our own offices, the dollar value of donated services must be massive. Now more than ever is a time to give and dentists have always been generous. To paraphrase the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar,
"If you help enough people get what they need, you’ll always have everything you
need." Steve Wolff, DDS
UMKC Class of 1977