One week away from the best two weeks of our lives….

By: Trisha Bhamra, Camosun College, winner of the BC Study Abroad: Stories from Abroad Scholarship

Study Abroad Destination: Mexico

One week away from the Mexico Field School and I am not even remotely prepared for this trip. Sigh! Today we have our pre-departure meeting before we leave for our trip. So the plan (between now and May 3) is as follows: Pre-departure meeting with our trip leader- Ada; check instruments in clinic; sterilize and pack instruments that we need; pack everything we will need for the dental clinic in 8 suitcases; finish the pre-departure complete the course related to the field school and finish all my clinical requirements for the program before departure. Between midterms all this week and five finals exams next week, I have no idea how I am going to prepare in due time for this field school.

After much contemplation and rain checks and trying to pack all our equipment for the trip we finally found a day when everyone was available to help out. It was May 2- THE DAY BEFORE WE LEAVE!!! Talk about last minute…Jeez!!! But we came through and packed like crazy… between our final exams. ;)  Dream team right here!! It was a great opportunity to finally meet everyone going to the field school and come together as a team. We had a quick meeting regarding our trip and the schedule and activities we had planned. It looks like it will be a whirlwind of two weeks ahead with a lot of health promotion and prevention at primary and elementary schools followed by four days of clinic where we will see a diverse group of patients. Most of the people in San Pancho have never seen the dentist or gotten any hygiene treatment, so I am extremely excited to get out and make a difference – no matter how small it may be. I am going into this with an open heart and no expectations, just hoping to explore my self and the town of San Pancho as much as I can.