The trip started out in with a full day of travel. I was traveling with 11 year old son, Eugene, and two another dentists, Dr. Wayne and Dr. Terry. First, we took a flight from NYC to Manaus, Brazil. Manaus is a city of two million people situation in the north-east of the country. From there we took a second plane to the city of Barcelos, Brazil. Barcelos is a city of around 25,000 to 30,000 people. Once we gathered our stuff off the plane, we met our guide to who took us two hours up river from Barcelos to Rio Negro Lodge. This was going to be our base of operations. We spent seven days fishing in the morning and seeing 20 to 30 patients at the Rio Negro Foundation clinic at night.

This is my third trip to Brazil. And, this time I knew to be well stocked with supplies from the office. We brought lots of gloves, masks and Novocaine. Each day a different village would travel to the clinic for dental work.

We did full cleanings and exams - including x-rays. Where necessary we did fillings and in some cases, extractions. A lot of it was education around basic detail hygiene. Most of patients we saw – about 80% - were children.

All in all, this was a really great trip. I was very happy to share the experience with my son. Helping out the local people and seeing all the smiling faces brought it all home. And, as an avid fisherman, we got to experience some world class fishing. I'm already planning my text trip.