a day with the dental team

i suppose that i owe every one a blog post, for all of you who are so wonderful to be faithful readers of this little web log. so i have settled down with a lovely cup of darjeeling tea, and i will faithfully record the events of the past few days, and get you updated. :)

the weekend passed uneventfully enough. it rained all day saturday, spoiling plans for a trip to the beach, which i was used to after a few weekends in sierra leone. it was such a blessing, though, to spend the day with power and the light and air conditioning that come with it. yet how quickly thankfulness turns to complaining, as there really was no where on board where i could get warm, and suddenly the blessed ac became a burden as i shivered through the day. last night, at the crew sunday service, the speaker, rob cairncross, spoke on just that.

it's pretty neat. this trip which i thought would be all about my study, and seeing different things and just experiencing the ship and ship-life again, really has become a spiritual retreat of sorts. i've had so much time to just sit and think and read, and it's amazing what little thoughts bubble up to the surface when you give them a moment. i've been reading a lot about prayer, and that has been so incredibly enriching to my day-to-day life. i love waking up the morning to see what the day will bring.

today brought a trip with the dental team. they have established a clinic in one of the areas of a local government hospital, and we set out early in the rain, all very much resigned to the fact that it's the rainy season, and you're just going to get wet. :)

the day seemed as though it was going to be slow, because of the rain, but in the end, it was a fairly full day with everyone just showing up late, delayed by the downpour. i worked mostly on the admin side, pairing up with the woman in charge of admissions paperwork. i sat and watched and then later helped taking medical histories. the pidgin english here is no less fun than krio.

Have you had rhuematic fever?.....Whe' yu small, yu get fevah dat put red spots on yu skeen?
Have you had hepatitis?.....Yu get yellow jaundice or livah diseese?

fun times. :)

there was actually a man that came in who was sierra leonean. he only moved to liberia on 28 June, so he only spoke krio and mende. i don't speak any mende, but we managed to communicate a bit through my broken krio. the poor guy was in an extraordinary amount of pain with some pretty severe swelling near his jaw. he seemed much happier when he left and even gave me a little corner of a smile.

another memorable patient was one of the little children that came through. his name was simeon, and he was from a local orphanage which was taking advantage of having a pediatric dentist on the team. i didn't get to spend much time with him, but his adorable smile warmed my heart in the middle of the morning when i was wondering why i had come. it's the interesting part of mercy ships, or any missions work, really, we all get so used to being understaffed that when you are there to volunteer or help out, no one can really sort out what you could possibly do, although you know there is heaps of work to be done.

but i really can't blame them, because i know that i will be gone tomorrow, and they'll have to shift back to being chronically understaffed...