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Puerta Vallarta Service Report

On Jan. 19th a dental team led by me(Gordon Croft) arrived in Puerta Vallarta The team members were: Dr. Richard White of Onterio,Ore., Dr. Randell Capener, Logan,Ut., Randell's sister Kristine Godfry,RDH, Randell's brother Reed Capener,who assisted him; Hailey White, Richard's daughter, who assisted him; and myself Dr. Gordon Croft and my wife Ann, who also worked as an assistant. We had tried to recruit four dentists for the team but Dr. Marco Galvez,Nampa,Id had to cancel because of his wife's medical condition and we were unable to replace him because of the shortness of time before our departure date. We had four Adec units for our use,ie. two of the Academy's, one checked out from the Academy's equipment chairman, Dr. David Dickerson in Pleasant Grove and my personal Adec unit. Doug Hymas also brought a personal Adec unit with him in the second team. Randell Capener took back the unit that was checked out from the Academy after we finished our week's work. Our team did dental work at the Refugio Infantil Santa Maria Esperanza and at the village of La Cruz, where we worked last year. Our equipment was set up at the Taco Restaurant like last year. These locations again proved very adequate for our needs. We examined and treated all the children at the Refugio that were four years of age and up. At La Cruz we were fortunate to have Dr.'s Darold and Linda Brown of Portland,Ore. do some prescreening of some 300 children at the school in La Cruz. Of these children that they screened, we saw and did treatments for 100-150 of them. The care we rendered for these children went quite well without many problems. The Mexican children that we saw were by and large very brave and co-operative. The Children's Shelter of Hope Foundation people that are involved with Refugio and the children at La Cruz have been key players in our success as they have helped greatly with organizing the care that we have been able to give.

Doug Hymas led the second team that arrived on Jan. 24th and returned on Feb. 4th. Our team returned on Jan. 28th. Doug's team also had two cancellations from the dentists at a late date that made it impossible for us to replace them. Doug's team was: Dr. Douglas Gray,Orofino,ID and Hillary Smith, RDH, Boise,Id. One lucky situation was that on our first day at the Refugio, a dentist from Alaska, named Guy Ingrim came by and offered to work with Doug's team the next week. We were more than happy to add him to Doug's team and Doug said he was very good to work with and will probably join us next year. He had a van and helped us transport equipment as well, which was a great help. Doug's team worked at Casa Hogar and also at the village of Quimixto. Their work went well there!!

As far as the equipment went- we used a manifold that I assembled to use one compressor for one dentist and a hygienist ( a splitter). This worked well and if anyone in the Academy wants info on it they can contact me. We decided to leave all our equipment at the home of Leland Bray, a friend of the people at the Foundation. Doug Hymas continues to work with his wood chairs and they seem to be pretty good. We also used the camp loungers with the pads that we had made and this has been good but not excellent. We continue to look for better chairs!! The compressors are still holding up and look like they will be good for some time in the future.

There continues to be a cloud of uncertainty about what is needed as far as visas or cover letters to do dental work in Mexico!! I thought I had the correct info when I contacted my Congressman and his staff contacted the Mexican Embassy early in 2006. They said that we needed a FM3 visa as the Mexican Consulate in SLC had said. As I went through Immigration in PV they looked at my FM3 visa and told me that I did not need it to do what I was doing and they took the visa and did not give it back. Rich White and Doug Hymas both went though without visas. The Mexican Consulate in Portland told Rich White that he didn't need a visa. Juan Carlos Garcia, who is the head of immigration for the state of Jalisco, and president of the Children's Shelter of Hope Foundation said as far as he is concerned we don't need a visa. We will probably go down next year with just invitation letters. If you have heard anything on this issue, let me know!