One of my friends, a teacher in my town, asked me if I could come to her house to give a training for a group of women from her church. JICA Volunteer, Minako Seki, and I collaborated on a nutrition class, demonstration, and oral hygiene lesson. This was followed by a cooking demonstration of three different healthy and balanced meals and a lesson on the structure of teeth and the importance of good oral hygiene. For the lesson on oral hygiene I did the egg in Coke demonstration. This is simple, easy, and I have replicated it in a number of classrooms. The quick version is that an egg is like a tooth in that the shell protects the yoke and egg whites the way our enamel protects our teeth. By leaving the egg in Coca Cola, not only will the egg become quickly discolored (like stained teeth), but after enough time in the liquid the egg will become soft because the soda ate away at the shell. I have found this to be an easy way to show why we need to care for and brush our teeth.
Try it out yourself!
As I mentioned before in my post about my
cooking class for mothers, Guatemala is a great place to do cooking lessons and to introduce new healthy recipes. It is considered rude in their culture to turn down food that is offered, making them great taste-tasters. Unfortunately this took place the last couple weeks of my service as I would have loved to continue working with this group of woman.
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| Brushing an egg with a toothbrush |
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| Can you find me? |
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| Utensils are rarely used |
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