A young dentist who has been practising general dentistry in his home country of Ireland for the past three years has recently joined the team at the Kamsack Dental Clinic.
Ahmed Zafar, who was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland’s capital city, now calls Kamsack “home.”
The eldest of three brothers, Zafar received his dentistry training at Trinity College in Dublin.
“I love being a dentist,” he said. “It makes me happy to relieve people’s pain and to make them happy with their smile again.”
Zafar arrived in Kamsack three weeks ago and plans to live here full time. Although he had visited Canada briefly in the past, he hasn’t had a sampling of a Canadian winter as of yet.
“I’m going to spend my first winter in Canada,” he said. “Dublin has a fairly mild climate, sometimes getting down to minus 2 degrees Celsius compared to what I’ve been hearing about Saskatchewan.”
Besides the weather, another big change for Zafar is the community. “Dublin is a large city of over a million and a half people compared to Kamsack,” he said with a smile as he indicated it will “take a bit of getting used to.”
The “abundant canola fields” in the area and the “wildlife that seems to be wandering around everywhere” has caught his attention. He’s used to seeing “animals at the zoo.”
As a new member of the community he has recently had the opportunity to try the sport of golf for the first time when he went to play at the Madge Lake Golf Resort in Duck Mountain Provincial Park. “It’s really beautiful out there, and for my first attempt at golfing I was actually pretty good,” he said.
While still in junior high school at age 15 in Dublin, Zafar participated in and won “Gaisce -The President’s Award which is a self-development programme that encourages you to find your passion, get active and make a difference in your community,” according to information found on the Internet. “Gaisce is a direct challenge from the President of Ireland to young people aged 15 to 25 to dream big and realise their potential. By taking part in Gaisce, you will take on exciting personal, physical and community challenges and develop new skills and new friendships.”
He enjoys going to movies, playing badminton, hiking, going for walks and travelling. “Although I enjoyed some time in Morocco, I would have to say Italy is my favorite destination because of the beautiful food and warm weather.”
“I am pleased to welcome Ahmed as the newest member of Kamsack Dental,” said Dr. Michael Mah, dentist and president of Kamsack Dental. “His arrival brings our staff complement to five dentists, and he is accepting new patients to his practice at the clinic which is open from Monday to Friday.
“Ahmed is a good fit for our clinic, just like a completion of a puzzle. As an office we have purchased a house in town that’s available for use by our team of doctors; it was important to us that we have made a solid commitment within the Kamsack community, and the investment within it proves that,” Mah concluded.
