Billagonna (noun): (Navajo) A white person. Probably derogatory.

Interesting story. Today I performed an alveoloplasty on an elderly gentleman. (For those unfamiliar with alveoloplasty it is smoothing sharp or knotty bone down usually so a denture will fit better later). He did not speak any English and the assistants (who are all Navajo) asked him questions for me and translated during the procedure. The procedure went very well and the sutures looked good. He did not complain at all during the procedure.
I had reviewed the health history prior to starting and the only thing of note was a statement in big red letters saying, "NO BILLAGONNA." Being a medically minded person I assumed it was some type of medication that I had not heard of and made a note not to prescribe Billagonna for post-op pain.
When Dr. Bulloch asked me about his health history before we wrote his prescription I showed her the note and said that he must be allergic to Billagonna or something. She laughed and said, "that's what they call white people." She said she was impressed that he made it through the procedure without causing a fuss. So, Anna and I are officially Billagonnas, which we suspected we were all along. :-)

Finally...more Grand Canyon Pictures

I have been trying everyday for a couple of weeks to upload more Grand Canyon pictures. I was only able to upload 3 this time, but I'll try another posting.

Point Imperial at sunset

A view from Point Imperial

A view from Bright Angel Point on the North Rim showing many layers of rock carved out by the Colorado River.

A view of Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ

WIHCC

Welcome to the clinic here in Winslow. This is the sign leading into the Health Care Center complex. The dental clinic is to the right of this sign.

The gang's all here...

Here are all the doctors and us. From left to right (back row): Dr. Spritzer, Dr. Min, Dr. Barnes, me, Anna, Dr. Po (pedodontist), Dr. Markel, Travis

(Front row): Dr. Bulloch and Dr. Burton. We are in front of the new dental bus. Anna and I have our eyes closed because we are staring directly at the sun.

Here is the clinic from the outside. There are four operatories and a "quiet room" which is a regular operatory with sedation equipment. There are two satellite clinics: Dilkon and Leupp. These three clinics, with 8 doctors between them, serve ~20,000 Navajos!
The Health Center complex also has a physical therapy dept., an optometry dept. and a small hospital.

Another view of the clinic. This is the door we go in for work each morning. To the right is a mobile dental bus, which is an RV made into a two operatory dental clinic. They had the tribal blessing ceremony to bless the bus the second day we were here. The bus will travel to remote areas to help more people.

We work with four doctors mainly: Dr. Barnes (chief of dental), Dr. Bulloch, Dr. Burton and Dr. Turpin (AEGD resident). It has been a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of work.

(Left to Right) Dr. Angela Bulloch and Dr. Candice Turpin. Dr. Bulloch and Dr. Barnes (not pictured) are our main supervisors at the clinic. Candice is the AEGD resident here.

Anna working hard in the clinic. I actually do dentistry as well, but we've been too busy to take more pictures.

Dr. Thomas Barnes, Chief of Dental here in Winslow

Three of the assistants here. From left to right: Julie, Neshi and Cloetta

Emma, another assistant here at the clinic

Candace, Travis (intern from Arizona Dental School) and Anna in our staff room

Star (office manager) and Dr. Barnes

Amy (hygienist) and Josephine, one of the assistants

Candice, Anna and me

Me, Dr. Paul Burton and Anna

Dr. Bulloch and Dr. Po

No

Autographs

...please

This weekend I went to California to visit Mandy. We went to Beverly Hills on Saturday. We shopped on Rodeo Drive for 6 hours but we didn't buy anything. I mean, sure $14,000 for a Valentino coat or $400 for a Louis Vuitton sweatshirt is a good deal I just didn't see anything I was interested in.

Me in front of the Versace Palace which was unfortunately under construction.

Apparently we looked like we belonged there because we were treated very well by most of the sales people. For instance, in Dolce & Gabbana we were asked by a salesperson if we were "finding everything okay." I said to myself, "I'm finding everything very expensive." They asked if we needed a size or anything, like we could actually afford even a $50 t-shirt, much less the $795 jeans. In Louis Vuitton we were actually asked by a salesperson, "you all didn't buy anything?" Poor Louis...they have to ask poor people to buy their stuff. :-)

A couple of stores treated us like Vivian in Pretty Woman. Those stores were Roberto Cavalli and Armani. Spread the word. One of the very distinguished saleswomen in Armani followed us upstairs then said, "We have some beautiful things, don't we?" Her tone and deameanor led me to believe that this statement translated as, "Get out of our store and away from our pretty dresses you poor people."
It was still a cool experience and I'm glad we went.

A picture of part of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, 90210

On Sunday we went to church at Mandy's church, then to Newport Beach.