Team Tabasamu 2006 Trip Report

Team Tabasamu has just returned from their 12 day dental mission project in Kitale, Kenya – exhausted and exhilarated from the experience, and enthusiastic about its future. The 12-member team included six members of Trinity (Kaylyn Koberna, Otho Kerr, Kyle Evans, Jerry Harbaugh, Megg King and Trey Wilson), three people from New York City (Dr Gary Rabinowitz, Rev. Cari Jackson and Lisa Green) and three people from Bucks County (Dr. Paul Leventhal, Dental Hygienist Tonia Richard and Evelyn Pantuso). Each person brought an array of gifts and talents that allowed our group to function as a team with only 12 hours of training time together. It was a truly awesome thing to see how the cosmic puzzle of personalities and abilities fit together and how things just got done.

Our mission was to provide free dental care and education for underserved communities in the Anglican Diocese of Kitale in western Kenya. In addition, our mission is to provide opportunities for cross-cultural exchange between the two communities. We established some very specific goals in advance of our trip. Here’s the breakdown of our goals and our experiences: (and yes, our equipment arrived on time and in place in advance of our arrival!) We hoped to provide actual treatment (fillings and cleanings) to at least 150 people, and our team of four dental professionals did just that!! We hoped to support local professional treatment for at least another 300 people (dental extractions). We actually examined and treated more than 500 people with the help of about 16 Kenyan volunteers!! We hoped to educate another 450 people on good oral hygiene and preventative techniques. Our “Tooth Tour” team actually made presentations to more than 5000 students at 14 academies and at the two clinics we operated!! Otho Kerr did a phenomenal job heading up the Tooth Tour (“Safari ya Meno” in Kiswahili). Our vans not only visited 14 schools but also some very small parishes in more remote areas of the Diocese. Our programs offered a wonderfully crafted puppet show called “How Tooth Became Healthy” that helped young people understand prevention and the role of diet in a very amusing and musical narrative. The puppet show was conceived by Doylestown’s Evelyn Pantuso (her husband has won four Emmys for his work on “Sesame Street” but she conceived the idea herself!) There were also visual aids and a panel discussion that enabled older children to learn about improving oral health.

The average Kenyan suffers from EXTREMELY poor oral health, which adversely affects them in a myriad of ways. Dental hygiene and dietary awareness are topics that get very little attention in Kenya. In addition, there is only one dentist for every 300,000 individuals. Knowledge of available dental resources is very poor and dental services most often accessed are emergent (e.g. treating infections and tooth extractions). It is a drain on an individual’s budget to have a tooth pulled ($1.30 US) and so many people live in a chronic state of pain and infection. Painkillers and antibiotics are also not readily available. Our goal is to help our dental community be aware of alternative treatments like fillings, dental cleanings and fluoride treatments and to offer those individuals that choice if the situation is not too serious. We also encouraged students at the academies to consider dentistry as a career and were met with a great deal of interest. We were encouraged by the curiosity and enthusiasm of the students and will maintain contact with interested students to support their potential career choice in dentistry. Kenya needs quality, affordable dental care and between the two clinics we opened for the week and the Tooth Tours, Tabasamu provided a service that the population clearly needs and values.

Some of the highlights of cross-cultural experience were: our first annual “Tabasamu Night.” We invited 40 people from the Diocese to a beautifully decorated banquet to say “Welcome,” “Thank-you,” and “Here we are.” Each table of four told a particular tooth story, some based on local folklore and others based on experience. Otho led the entertainment with a solo rendition, a capella, of his brand new now famous Broadway-bound rendition of Tabasamu sang to the melody of “Every Man has a Daydream.” We brought to the group’s attention that Tabasamu was not exclusively a Christian Mission and that we had all just finished experiencing the holy day of Yom Kippur with our Jewish friends on the team. They were very appreciative of this to say the least. As a symbol of the friendship, our two communities exchanged a friendship tile from the Moravian Tileworks in Doylestown and toothbrushes were given to every guest. Every day held endless opportunities to go outside of oneself and experience life through the eyes, ears and steps of Kenyans. Whether it was from the local dishes we ate, the music we heard, the open markets we visited, and the smiling faces we encountered everywhere, Team Tabasamu came away with an appreciation for how God’s Love is celebrated and shared in a beautiful corner of Kenya.

Trey Wilson

Jambo!! Today is October 1st, but each of us will be taking turns writing
about what we experienced the day before. Kaylyn and I are sitting in the
Cyber Cafe in "downtown" Kitale, Kenya wanting you to know that Team
Tabasamu made it to Kitale after flying five hours to London, flying eight
hours to Nairobi and driving seven hours to Kitale. (Former
Vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was on our flight and said a
kind "hello.") Despite a little rain on the drive to Kitale, we enjoyed
witnessing the splendor and vastness of the Great Rift Valley, where
civilization began. We got chills as we crossed the Equator, and we saw
enough monkeys and zebras to temporarily satisfy our thirst to see some
African wildlife. We lost only one bag along the way (during the flight,
that is). We were greeted at the Bishop Muge Conference Center, where we
are staying, by Rev. and Dorcas Chemengich who have made this trip possible.
There isn't much to say about this first day except that the entire gang
is excited to be in Kenya and to do what we came here to do. We
anticipate a lot of living, laughing and loving over the course of our stay.
(Please be sure to scroll down the entire blog to find out more about what
happened prior to this trip.) Amani, Otho

MONDAY
2nd October, 2006
Clinics: Kapenguria District Hospital and Mt. Elgon Hospital, Kitale
Safari ya meno (Tooth Tour):
- Kitale Academy Secondary (9.30AM) and Primary (11.30AM)
- St. Mark’s Cherangany Girls (2PM) Boys (4PM)

TUESDAY
3rd October, 2006
Clinics: Kapenguria District Hospital and Mt. Elgon Hospital, Kitale
Safari ya meno (Tooth Tour):
-St. John’s, Chepareria A.C.K (10AM)
- Chepareria Primary and Chepareria Girls H.S.

WEDNESDAY
4th October, 2006
Clinics: Kapenguria District Hospital and Mt. Elgon Hospital, Kitale
Safari ya meno (Tooth Tour):

- Nasokol Girls’ School 3.30PM; (Morning)
- St. Francis School for the Blind School (12Noon)
- Shimolatewa (Morning hrs)
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EVENING (6:00 PM): Party BMCC
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THURSDAY
5th October, 2006
Clinics: Kapenguria District Hospital and Mt. Elgon Hospital, Kitale
Safari ya meno (Tooth Tour):
-Kapsokwony A.C.K /Kaptama (Morning)
-Kapsokwony H.S (Afternoon)


FRIDAY
6th October, 2006
Clinics: Kapenguria District Hospital and Mt. Elgon Hospital, Kitale
Safari ya meno (Tooth Tour):
- Osorongai H.S.
- Bishop Muge H.S.
- St. Patrick’s, H.S.

SATURDAY
7th October, 2006
Clinics: Kapenguria District Hospital and Mt. Elgon Hospital, Kitale
Safari ya meno (Tooth Tour):
- Safari ya meno Team divide to join dental doctors at Kapenguria and Kitale

SUNDAY
8th October, 2006
TEAM DEPARTS

Today, Rev. Marshall Shelly commissioned Team Tabasamu to go forth on its mission to Kenya. Team Tabasamu leaves in just four days!

The team is over the moon with enthusiasm. In the last week, Trey has conducted two four hour training sessions, preparing Team Tabasamu to enter the world of dental care in Kenya. Evelyn unveiled her incredible children's puppet show on taking care of teeth , which will have its world debut on the Tooth Tour. Otho introduced a new song into the Tabasamu songbook. The Kobernas and J&J are sending us with 1,000 toothbrushes. Lisa presented each team member with a team shirt. And everybody else has joined in to secure the final details. But the highlight of the week was our receiving an incredibly generous donation of much-needed medicines from our annual supporter, Dr. Roger Emert. Thanks Roger!

Well, say your prayers. We are ready to go. If all goes as planned, we will be sending updates on this blog beginning next Monday at the latest!! Stay tuned... OK

Kaylyn (sixteen years old) has been with Tabasamu from the start!

While Tabasamu is a dental mission, it has served as a wonderful catalyst for other projects that can help underprivileged communities in western Kenya. In the past several days, Tabasamu has received incredibly generous donations of fabric from several sources. Mary Kerr, Julia Kerr, Linda Sue Blue, Otho Kerr Jr. and Audrie Lavine sent separate shipments of fabric that will be used in technical schools that currently rely on paper (as shown) to teach young people how to sew. Currently, these schools can't afford to use real fabric, even for year-end projects. We hope that the provision of fabric will not only give the children a more realistic learning experience, but will also give them a chance to create marketable products, the sale of which may fund future purchases of fabric, creating a self-sustaining operation.

Dr. Trey Wilson at work in the Kitale District Hospital.

One of the highlights of this year's adventure will be Safari ya Meno (The Tooth Tour). Safari ya Meno is our effort to bring dental education and service to rural Kenyan communities. Every day, two Safari ya Meno vans will carry three Tabasamu volunteers one to three hours away from Kitale, Kenya and work with people in one of the diocesan parishes. Evelyn Pantuso has developed a wonderful puppet skit that will seek to teach young people about proper dental care. And a piece of the tour will target the education of adults as well.

This is the first posting of the new Tabasamu blog. Team Tabasamu 2006 will depart for Kitale, Kenya on Sept 28th! We are excited to announce that Team Tabasamu 2006 includes 12 extraordinary, globally-minded volunteers: Dr. Trey Wilson, Kyle Evans, Lisa Green, Jerry Harbaugh, Rev. Cari Jackson, Otho Kerr, Kaylyn Koberna, Megg King, Dr. Paul Leventhal, Evelyn Pantuso, Dr. Gary Rabinowitz, and Tonia Richard.