Driving: Today is our last full day in South America. We got ready and packed up and cleaned up. We got back in the bus and had to say our goodbyes to people like Molly. We were on our way to Georgetown. We stopped at Andy and Kathleen's real house on the way to take some pictures. Then we stopped at the church where they had clinic last year.
I've enjoyed riding in the bus with the breeze. It's so hot, but we've adjusted. The first few days were the worst. I'm getting sleepy too because not only do we get a lack of sleep from short hours, but the next door neighbors have a noisy, coarse-sounding rooster. The other neighbor is a Muslim who does a noisy prayer daily that sounds like a dying cow.
I like looking out the window. Right now we're driving past the ocean. We're below sea level, so there's a tall seawall. We've driven past cemeteries. The coffins are cement and are above ground. I'm guessing it's like this in case of a flood.
A lot of houses have a bunch of flags sticking up like flowers-the flagpoles start together at the bottom. A Hindu lives there because the different flags represent the different gods.
Georgetown: Today was pretty much our free day and we spent it in the big capital city, Georgetown. Our first stop was the dental school, which was awesome because it's the first (and only) dental school in Guyana. The very first class is graduating next year, so this could have a big impact on Guyana's oral health and our future mission trips. It's great that we made this connection to help each other. Earlier in the week, their students came to observe our clinic and do some hands-on activities.
At first we toured their school, which was three stories. We saw a room under construction, which I think was for the new dental units. We saw their current clinic, which had about seven dental units, a PAN x-ray machine, and a sterilizing room. They also had a children's section. This looked very similar to a dental office because it had a hallway with about ten dental rooms. The units looked old-fashioned, but they were donated for free from England. One thing I thought was helpful was that when you lifted up the suction, it automatically turned on instead of having to lift a bar or press a button. There was anther sterilization room at the end of this hallway. They were actually working on a patient when we were there. We saw their small lecture room and library. They had a fun learning clinic that had about 30 DXTTR-like heads attached to chairs. At the end of our dental visit, we went to Dr. Jean's office. I can't remember his official title, but he has done a lot for the advancement of dentistry in Guyana. He might have been the Minister of Health. I couldn't understand him that well, so Ashley was my translator. We were sitting next to a bookshelf that had a few of our dental hygiene books, like Wilkins, Darby, path, RAD, and medical emergencies.
After the dental school, we went to the fancy hotel called the Pegasus where we had a lunch buffet. Overall the food was pretty good, except we were surprised by what we thought was homemade mac and cheese. Amy P. called it mac and mustard because it tasted nothing like cheese, but everything like mustard.
After the buffet, we went to St. George's Cathedral, which I believe is the largest wooden cathedral in the world. It was breathtaking! Kari and I went to the bathrooms downstairs, and there were funny instructional posters on how girls and boys should use the restroom.
Here is a video of the cathedral:
After the cathedral, we went to the market to go shopping. The market was about a block long and it had a bunch of little huts with souvenirs. We knew we didn't have much time, so I felt rushed. There were a lot of really neat things- jewelry, wooden sculptures, paintings, purple heartwood bowls, hammocks, pipes, clothes, figurines, perfumes, shoes, mugs, keychains, etc. There was so much to take in with so little time. At the first shop I bought one large purple heartwood bowl and five regular sized ones. I also got three bracelets and a little purse. She liked me and Ashley a lot, so she gave us small discounts, an extra small purple heartwood bowl, a small Guyanese flag, and a Guyanese $100 bill, which is equivalent to our $.50. Later she even gave Kathleen 22 small purple heartwood bowls for everyone, which Kathleen said is very unusual. At the next few stores I got a hammock, donkey figurine made of the gum of a tree, turtle figurine, pen with wooden figurines surrounding it, a green shirt, a carved coconut, and shoes. I really really really wish I would have bought some fun earrings for Mom and myself, but I just ran out of time. When I saw the jewelry too, I kept thinking it was easy to make, so I searched for ones that were really original, but I couldn't find the perfect one. I should have just bought a bunch. That's my only regret of the trip.
After market we went to King's Jewelry World, which was a fancy jewelry store. We heard that we were going to go there before the trip, so I knew I wanted a ring. It was a really fancy store and it was expensive. It had two stories. The main floor had only silver jewelry with diamonds. Upstairs had gold jewelry with different colored gems. I ended up buying a ring. After the jewelry store we stopped at a hammock store, then we were ready for our hotel/resort for the night.
The sign in front said Jubilee Amusement Park and it was in the middle of the rainforest. Too bad it was dark, so we couldn't see anything. It didn't look like the hotels in the US, and we had the place all to ourselves for the night. The entire place consisted of a two story building with about eight rooms, a bathhouse/restaurant, and a pool with two twisty waterslides. The first thing we did when we got there was change into our suits and went swimming. The water was a decent temperature- probably about 75 degrees. There were other people in the pool, which was unusual because we thought we had the place to ourselves. They were kicked out later. We went down the slides by ourselves a few times, which was actually a lot of fun! It's so fast. Then we got creative and went down in pairs and eventually had a long train of about 6 of us. Kari's camera is waterproof, so we had a lot of fun going down the slides and taking videos and pictures. Afterwards we showered and got ready for our evening meal and meeting.
It was an almost perfect evening except for the big bugs flying around, and I was surprisingly chilly. We were all sitting outside in the roofed patio area sitting at pushed-together restaurant tables in a big rectangle. For dinner we had chicken with yummy seasoning, mixed vegetables like carrots and cabbage, and mac and cheese loaf. Then they surprised us with individual ice creams with wooden flat spoons and I got orange flavored.
Then we started our debriefing meeting talking about why we went on the trip or what the trip meant to us. We each had to share one thing. It was very personal and there were a lot of tears and laughs. What each person said had so much truth to it. We were all severely impacted in more than one way. I know I have many fond memories and feelings from it. While patients were waiting in line, they were able to talk to people from the church about God. There were 16 new believers because of these talks. I liked that we were able to bring people to the church to not only get their teeth cleaned and restored, but also to introduce them to other Christians and God. Andy and Kathleen continued to talk to us and gave us each an envelope. Inside the envelope was a hand-painted bookmark and a letter of gratitude and encouragement. They also passed around Guyanese coins. Maybe I'll make earrings out of them.
It was a beautiful night , especially the stars and conversation, but it was so late and we had to be up extra early. Jeanna and I went to our bunkbeds and talked for a bit. Jeanna, Ashley, Andrea, Amy J., and I shared a room. Then Ashley showed up and we talked more. We fell asleep around 1 or 2 am and woke up at 3:15 am to be at the airport by 4 am.
