This Saturday the Smiling World Foundation is coming to visit the Academy. They have very kindly agreed to come and treat the boys here at the Academy as well as the local school children. The plan I action is oral health seminars teaching the kids how to look after their teeth and providing free toothbrushes and then moving on to treating any tooth issues.
Organising this found me spending two and a half hours in the pouring rain walking round the schools of Tombo chatting to the headmasters and head mistresses organising their visit to the Academy with their kids.
It looks likely that over 300 children will be treated by the team of dentists in the morning with an adults session in the afternoon for the community of Tombo. For a community with no dental care available this is great news. Children in particular here love all things sweet. The fanta here is so full of the sugar syrup it’s a very dark orange in colour and the babies are given sugar syrup powder sachets mixed with water before they even have teeth!
My trio round Tombo also provided me with an opportunity to see parts of the village I haven’t yet got to see. The Oportos here (white men) do head down into Tombo pretty regularly to pick up sodas or snacks and they also take the academy boys down to the ‘cinema’ to watch the football sometimes too. What we dot normally get to see are the back alleys and the market that’s off the main high street. There’s a simple reason for this - Tombo is like a maze and you’d easily get lost walking round by yourself. Luckily I had Uncle Sammy with me who is one of the teachers at St Peters Primary school that I did a lot of work with in my last visit to Salone so I couldn’t get lost!
It was very interesting to see the residential side of Tombo. Although I was not surprised at some of the living conditions of the community it was still pretty heart wrenching to see first hand. The people were very surprised to see me walking through their back streets as well and said they had not had a white person walking through there before - bit sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing but everyone seemed very friendly.
The market place was crazy today. It’s technically undercover but the plastic on the roof leaks so in the torrential rain today the floor would be more accurately described as several fast flowing rivers converging into one large lagoon in the centre - thank god for my Crocs (and my sister who said they were a good idea!)
I was very surprised at the level of fresh produce available at the market place - especially seeing as there is a distinct lack of fresh veg at the academy! I’ve already re-vamped the menu once but having seen the type of veg you can get in Tombo I may be having another look at it!
