Brazil may be a dangerous country, but then so is London and more teenagers killed each other in London this year than in any city in Brazil over the same period.
In other entries I have mentioned that I was staying with a friend while I was in Spain, but I didn't mention that her mother was a well respected scientist in her field and that her boss is one of the worlds leading experts.
Neither did I mention that she works alongside people stationed in one of the three largest antenna arrays in the whole of the world, being the one in her home country of Peru and of which she is supremely proud.
Well I may have only been in Brazil for two nights, but already I have met up with a guy that owns three of the apartments in the hotel block and he is equally as interesting and educated.
If I understood him correct he was Spanish by birth but married a Brazilian when he was young and spent his life in Spain as a leading Dental technician, until he moved to the UK about four years ago and set up his own practice that he has only just sold due to retiring at an early age of his mid fifties.
I won't bore you with all the details, but he is an extremely clever, sociable and enthusiastic chap that just loves the UK for it's organisation and openness and the second he learned that I was from the UK he could not do enough for me, helping me with the language barrier and also suggesting some great places for me to stay and to visit.
Like my Colombian friends back home feel about their home country, he is a little upset that Brazil has such a bad reputation, but says that that will all change and that Brazil is on the verge of being the next big place for European tourist to visit as a) the current government is pushing a massive drive of money and education for all, education which includes teaching English and b) because a lot of the other ills can be resolved through money, which he intends to pay through trade of the recent discovery of an untapped oil field that is larger than the UK right in the middle of one of their rivers.
He is also very enthusiastic about his dentistry, saying that he was one of only three technicians working in the UK using a new technology and approach to dental implants that made the old technique seem both barbaric and very prone to error.
In a nutshell, using a cat scan to form a model of the jaw they can now also design and create a guide for the dentist to drill that will give the least chance of hitting a nerve and the best possible location to place a implant for maximum strength and stability.
So no more opening flaps of skin and hit or miss hoping that there is enough bone to fit the implant, anyone no matter how little bone they have can have an implant to replace lost teeth, including advanced knowledge of if the other teeth will need reshaping, cutting back or if and how the gum will need padding to fit in with the rest of the face.
Not really about travel this entry I admit, but when the fact that my travels have introduced me to two very sociable, helpful and intelligent people then I would say that travel has at the least broadened my network of friends if nothing else.
So my advice again is, to travel, to be prepared to spend a little time talking to people and you never know who you might meet or what you might learn next.
No comments:
Post a Comment