We had church this morning, so we were all in our church clothes. Most of the girls were wearing skirts. Church was amazing. It as outside at Fyrish Bible Church, which is where we're going to have our clinic. It's about five minutes from the hospitality house.
We sat in pews under a tent, but I was on the end so my arm and neck got sunburned. We started off the service singing songs like "How Great Thou Art," "Amazing Grace," and "Lord I Lift your Name on High." I was surprised that they sing many of the same songs we know. Instead of a piano or organ though, they used an electronic, calypso beat from the keyboard. It was fun. Andy introduced our clinic and invited them to come later. Then the pastor gave a sermon about dreams and that God isn't finished with us yet. He's still working with us if we're in a good or bad place. We sang some more songs, then they wanted everyone to mingle.
Here is a video of us singing "How Great Thou Art" at church:
It was nice shaking everyone's hands and hearing the different names, but my favorite part was meeting the group of little girls. Our group was fascinated by them and they were fascinated by us. We ended up taking a lot of pictures with them. They loved our digital cameras and they liked taking pictures of us. Some of their names were Sarah, Samantha, Fazi, Sadia, and Julianna. The dentists wanted the dental hygiene girls to go home to relax, so when we left the little girls gave us hugs and kisses goodbye. They even tried to sneak on the bus with us.
When we got back we sat around for a few minutes. Kathleen was going to send Molly and Reuben (the neighbor kids who help out) to the store. A group of us wanted to go with to see what it was like, so we went. We walked about three blocks and there was music blasting for the neighborhood to hear. We had to cross the main road, and when we got there it was less exciting than we thought it would be. The kids handed the cashier a piece of paper that had the grocery list, then it was time to leave. The cashier gets the stuff and delivers it later. The store was really little and had a few items advertised through a window on a cabinet. Then we walked home because it was almost time for lunch.
Lunch was so yummy. Kathleen made shepherd's pie, Parmesan bread, and watermelon. We ate outside on picnic tables on the patio. Then it was time for our first day of clinic, so we went upstairs to change into our scrubs. I was already way too hot in a T-Shirt, skirt, and flip flops, so it was difficult to wear scrubs, socks, and shoes.
We all loaded back into the us to ride the few minutes to the church. Clinic wasn't entirely set up yet, so we spent about an hour finishing. We prayed for our clinic and how wonderful it was that we can bring people to the church through our dental work. Since some of our luggage still hadn't arrived, we only had three dental hygiene units. Hanah, Ashley, and Kari had the first patients. The other girls either assisted or prepared the instruments. I helped prepare the instruments. Amy J. sorted the different instruments into different piles and I made the "cassettes." I made a "cassette" out of a mirror, explorer, two posteriors, and two anteriors and then tied to together using those hairties with two large beads. If the working people needed a supply, we would get it for them. When the supplies table was complete, there were a lot of us standing around. I like this because we were able to take pictures, videos, and watch the dental procedure, such as fillings or extractions.
It was finally my time to have a patient! Patient' #4 was next on the list, so I found him in line. His name was Joshua and he was 18 years old. I brought him to the dental chair, which was a reclining beach chair. I sat next to him on my operator chair, which was a 5-gallon bucket with a pillow on top. There were two lights that I shined in his mouth- one from a little light on a pole and the other was a headlamp attached to my safety glasses. I didn't have to do any paperwork, which I liked. I first had to screen for the dentist to look for suspicious areas and Jeanna wrote it down. I only found one spot, but later the dentist didn't do anything to it because it wasn't very serious. Then I began scaling his teeth. Overall he had a little bit of calculus on his teeth, but it was soft and very easy to get off. He bled a lot, but the biggest challenge was that it was difficult to sit at 11:00 because the head rest was too rectangular and bulky. I handscaled the entire mouth because I couldn't figure out the sonic. After debriding, I polished and used fluoride. I clean up his unit after I dismissed him.
There was more down time after this, so I was able to observe more. Andrea was doing an extraction. Molly, the neighbor, was sitting near, so I visited with her for a bit. They wanted the first group of students to get back for showers, so I went because I wasn't working. So I worked for about 6 hours today.
When I got back, I showered and was able to relax. We waited fore everyone else to get back to eat, which was OK because I wasn't very hungry. When everyone got back, we had leftovers from last night- sandwiches, potato chips, and coconut cake.
When everyone was done eating, Andy, Kathleen, and Dr. Scott talked to us about what could be improved throughout the day. Then we watched a NOOMA devotional video about doing what God wants you to do and not what the public wants.
Now we're just sitting around the living room talking about dreams and magic tricks.
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