The Guatemala experience is a BOCA trip unlike any other. While most of the other BOCA trips are located on a coast, Patzun found us nestled outside of an active volcano that a few lucky members got the experience to see erupt. Among the mountains of Patzun lives a local village that is both alive with culture and welcoming to its guests. In this village is a woman referred to by the town's people as The Madre, and it is her home where we staged our 5 day clinic.

The Madre and her team of nuns not only make the best guacamole in town, but also know how to run a free clinic. They certainly have experience after hosting countless doctors and dentists for decades both on annual outreach trips and in the aftermaths of severe hurricanes that have left Patzun in need of medical attention time and time again.

In Patzun our small group of six students had the opportunity to follow the lead of two well known Buffalo dentists who have been volunteering there for years. Through them, we learned immense amounts of surgical and operative techniques, even more about the Guatemalan culture, and perhaps a few words of broken Spanish now and again. We had the opportunity to stay in a remote convent and get to know our classmates better over late night card games and early morning imported Starbucks. Most importantly, we provided the population with oral surgery, operative and preventative care to their most respected elders and the youngest children. While we provided countless dental services for these patients, it is what the people of Patzun gave to us that I remember the most.

Lindsey Keck, Class of 2007