Dental Tribune UK Edition, October 25-3, 2010, No.26 Vol.4

M y name is Michael Oliver, from Oliv- er’s Dental Studio, Sunderland. I had heard about the Moroc- can people’s struggles through a friend who went there for three days and was stunned by the sheer beauty of the unspoilt land- scape and the friendly people. But on further inspection; he no- ticed their teeth were in a state of bad decay and they desperately needed help. So with this insight I was duty-bound to finance my own charitable journey and treat the Berber people with a newly formed charitable group; Dental Mavericks. On route we would meet the following adventurers; Abdul high up in the Rif mountains who served up real bee’s honey combs for breakfast, a Belgian counsel who spoke like Rene from Alo Alo, a female Moroccan Profes- sor of dentistry, and a handsome maverick Moroccan missionary doctor… all of them had one pur- pose - to make a dental difference for 50 Berber children. Never had this been under- taken by a UK dentist and so I set off with seven dynamic dental colleagues on a charity expedi- tion I will never forget. It was a hot sunny afternoon in El Jebah, Morocco and I was treating 50 Berber kids in a re- mote fishing village nestled in the hard to reach Rif Mountains. Make no mistake this was the most overwhelming experience of my dental career! Duty Calling Day 1 Flying to Malaga we spent a night in Alora, Spain, where we visited Spain’s second oldest church. It was locked, but our flamboyant expedition guide Domien asked a few local gypsies who held the key and voila, we gained entry to a magnificent church! Duty Calling Day 2 We got up eager and early next morning and headed onto Alge- ciras to jump aboard the fastest ferry in the world to Tangier. Ac- cording to history, the Moorish people were kicked out of Spain in 1609 as part of the Spanish In- quisition. Little did we know that many settled in a town in North East Morocco called Chechaouen (pronounced Chef Chowan): It’s nick named the ‘Blue City’ in the hills. En route we stopped at a very traditional Moroccan restaurant where we were treated to meat balls; it was there that I avoided the first hole in the ground toi- let. On arriving in Chechaouen we were treated to a guided tour around the ancient city’s small Medina; I was most surprised to see that in this day and age Ber- ber women still washed clothes in the river. To finish off our sec- ond day we scoffed a traditional Moroccan tagine of meat and vegetables. Duty Calling Day 3 Five times a day the Muslim lo- Maverick dentists making a difference Dentsist Michael Oliver details his experiences in North East Monocco Oral health instruction - Maverick style! October 25-31 201010 Feature United Kingdom Edition