Friday, March 9, 2012

Dentists and lessons learned

We had a clinic of 4 dentists from the city here this week.  Wonderful volunteers from the community and hundreds of opeople who needed help to relieve pain.  The dentists helped 240 people.  It was amazing!  Lesson learned, if you never brush your teethe - they will fall out.  Some people only had the roots of their teethe still on many teethe and needed them pulled still.  One girl of 13 needed all 4 of her front teethe pulled,  One elderly gentleman had never used a toothebrush.  Hopefully we can help educate people and stop some of this pain in the future.  It was very hard for me to see the pain and suffering that goes on, and to know that this was just the tip of the iceburg for people who have the same sort of problems here.   The members made QaQiq (spelling)  a turkey soup that is served only at weddings, graudations and large celebrations, to serve to the Dentists on the last day as a wonderful surprise, and one sister brought them in a Tres Leches Cake to show the gratitude of the people.  Such a giving loving people we work with here.  The funny things though that happen - One young brother called me on Monday night wanting to know if he needed to bring in his 40 day old baby to see the dentist, because it has 2 teethes and that just isnt normal.  I told him it was fine, just make sure he keeps those two teethe clean.  
We hiked up on the mountain behind the house last Friday and stopped in a sweet home - shy little boy who completely came alive when he found out he was going to get his picture taken.  The mother asked if we could, she had seen the camera.  When I said yes, everyon e went running to get dressed up for the picture taking!   Afterwards they walked partway back down the hill to make sure we didnt get lost on the paths!  They also gave us bananas from the tree in their yard.  We felt so loved!  We are heading back up to deliver the picture to them, and really looking forward to it. 
The other lesson learned, again, this past week is one I have to make sure I always remember, We can never judge where someone else is, or what they are going through,   we are all here as servants and that, thankfully is the only job we have to fulfill.