"Part of their world"

This is a song written by one of the Dayton brigade members:
To Disney’s “Part of Your World”
21 July 2012, Dayton Ohio HS Brigade
Look at our lives; aren’t they neat?
 
(But) Somehow or other they’re not quite complete
Looking around here you’d say,
Sure, we’ve got everything
 
We’ve got muy cool hair gel a-plenty
And high tech track sneakers galore
Cavity-free teeth? More than twenty!
But who cares? No big deal… we want more
 
We wanna go where the people know
Know how to smile when they’ve got next to nothing
Loving their fútbol played barefoot
On hard-scrabble ground
 
We need to share what we have in life
Crayons, papers, pencils, puzzles…
(with) kids who walk 5 miles to school each day
on uphill ground
 
This is our chance
Chance to give back
Some of the things that we have that they lack
 
It only makes sense, Dad
We’re just not that dense, Dad
We’re part of their world
 
What would it take to give them a break
Just next to nothing
When push comes to shove, we get more love
Than we could ever hope to be given
 
Yes we’re knowin’
 
That we’re growin’
We understand
 
We’re part of their world

Dayton High School: Guachi (July 13-23)

Dayton high school had a great time on their very first brigade in Guachi. Even though they weren’t a traditional medical brigade, they had just as big of an impact working. They spent their mornings playing with the kids in both the grade school and the kindergarten and giving presentations about self-esteem and dental care. They brought down materials for arts and crafts and different teaching tools for the teachers. In the afternoon they worked hard painting both schools and playing soccer out front with kids from the community. By the end of the week they still had enough energy for a dinner with some of the local families and a talent show. Their energy shined through even on the rainiest of days as they all got together and had a makeshift mudslide in the lawn of the clinic. It was so great to see a young group of people so invested in the community and willing to try just about anything. We are looking forward to having them back again!

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Brigade painting the local grade school

VCU at Pinares from June 12 to 23, 2012

We had a successful two weeks. We had a large group of 35 people in total and we visited several communities around Pinares, held daily clinics in Pinares, did a CHI in each of the surrounding towns and also checked up on water filters and stoves, tested water quality of filters and then cleaned and replaced broken filter parts. We also had an overnight hike to Llano de Balas that about 15 people participated in. The translators from La Ceiba were great!
 

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Med students counted cavities and applied varnish to all kids in each town

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Water filter team taking a break