The final day

                What a day.  Early in the morning we finished treating the last of the 53 Agape Promises children – each child was examined, had their teeth cleaned and all restorative procedure totally complete – a first for the dental team.  For the remainder of the day we examined, cleaned, and performed as much restorative dentistry as time permitted on each of the sixteen Post-6^th Grade students from La Montanita.   

  

               The total number of procedures performed on the 76 students and adults were: 132 cavities filled, 11 tooth extractions, and naturally 76 cleanings. Eleven AP students had NO cavities (5 were repeaters from last year).  At 6:15 p.m. we closed the clinic, made inventory of which trunk had what supplies and equipment packed in it, cleaned the hospital rooms we occupied, and moved our “stuff” to the “ranch” for storage till next year.  

                Our two faithful care takers (Gloria and Sandra) had prepared an old fashion bar-b-que for dinner – what a treat!  After dinner, we packed our suitcases or trunks, relaxed with some great fellowship, and went to bed with much anticipation of our return home in the morning.  

 

…And the rest of day 2 of the dental clinic

          We do hope that you read this afternoon’s earlier posting.  This post will highlight the dental clinic and our ever expanding presence.  Thanks to Dr. Tino and Dr. Elsa we now have two rooms to use.  With three dentists traveling with us and a new portable dental chair, we initially set up a triage and tooth extraction position in a corner of two hallways a few steps away from our usual dental room.  Today we moved, thanks to Dr. Tino and Dr. Elsa, the triage and tooth extraction position into a very large room – with air conditioning.  The expectation is that next year’s team will consolidate all three positions into this large room – there is more than sufficient space.  This will make for a much better environment and more efficiency.  In the first two days of operation the dental clinic saw and treated about 52 AP children along with several of the hospital staff.  Many of the children required restorative work which was accomplished.  In fact ALL of the required work on ALL but two of the children was completed – this is a first for the dental team of not leaving with needed restoration left undone.  There were two children treated today who will return tomorrow to finish up their dental needs.  Tomorrow we also will be treating some 15 children from La Montanita.

Because of inclement weather Allen and Gail had to quickly improvise ways to engage with the children waiting to be triaged, teeth cleaned, and then restoration (read cavities filled / teeth extracted).  The age of the internet was our savior.  With permission from the hospital staff, Allen and Gail were able to interact more successfully using their iPads and the iTranslate program.  Long conversations with the children and some of the mothers were enjoyed.   

 The dental team only worked twelve and half hours today.  We returned to the ranch for home made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with bananas available. We told our faithful Gloria and Sandra to leave early as we would return late again. However, we did celebrate our dedicated and hard working translator Daniel’s 42nd birthday at lunch.  The team purchased him a gift and a pineapple upside-down cake, his favorite, for dessert.

This made us all cry

This morning an 8 year old, first time AF student, returned to the clinic for his second session of restoration.  ALL of his teath required fillings or removal.  He sat in the chair yesterday and again this morrning without any fussing.  When he arrived this morning he brought us a letter which Allen B translated.  Everyone of us had a tear or two in their eye when it was read.  THIS IS WHAT MAKES TRAVEL TO HONDURAS.

Dear sponsors,

  I am very glad that you came to do this collaboration for the benefit of all the children.  I'm very grateful to you and God that He allows you all to be here.  Thanks to God and to you for having taken out the molars.  Thank you for everything you do for Honduras and I hope that you will continue to remember this country and that God brought you to me.  Many blessings on you, and may God help you with everything you want to do.  May He care for the health of your families and give many years more of life to protect them in all the places they go to.  God bless you and keep you and thank you for all that you do.

 Many blessings.

Dental Clinic Opens!

          Yes, the dental clinic opened the door about 8:15 a.m.; with a 45 minute break for lunch (about 3:00 p.m.) we locked the door and went to dinner at 9:30 p.m. Yes, it was a long day, and this will be a short blog.  The pictures will be uploaded tomorrow. And yes, we were busy.   

          We treated 27 AP children plus 7 others.  Many extractions were made and lots of cavities were filled.  The Agape Promises No Cavity Club poster was hung in the dental clinic with the pictures of the 17 children from last year who were cavity free.  Five children, the first day, had gold stars added to their pictures for being free of cavities for two years in a row.  We sincerely hope that more stars will be added in the next two days.

Moving and housekeeping and the full team assembles

                Wednesday morning was spent moving all the supplies and equipment in storage from Maynor’s office, the “ranch”, and Sam’s storage building to the hospital.  We also had to move some of the hospital equipment out of the clinic room, carrying the two dental chairs from their hospital storage location.  Do you care to guess the weight of a dentist chair?  The answer is VERY HEAVY.  

                 All the surfaces were disinfected with wipes.  After Randy, Charlie, Karen, and Erin arrived and had lunch and returned to the hospital to set out all the supplies and made ready for the first of our patients Thursday morning.   It may have appeared to be mass chaos but Karen, Erin, Charlie, and Randy—with some able assistance from Patty—made the clinic just about ready for operation with the exception of the mobile dental unit.   

                 We interrupted our work to visit the Wednesday feeding at Tejeras.  Our traveling dental team always enjoys assisting in the feeding.  Once again, some Aiken friends sent a large duffel bag of clothing for distribution to the children.

                After returning to the ranch to clean up, Charlie and Randy went back to the dental clinic to finish preparing the “MASH” unit.  Allen and Gail returned from Santa Clara after attending a meeting of the Advisory Board of the White Dove multi-language school.

                The entire “clan” gathered for dinner and fellowship. 

   

              Once again, the uploading of pictures to the blog was not sucessful; however a full file of all unedited photos is available at: https://plus.google.com/photos/100849174068312221158/albums/5988427143032353169