Sweatin' it in Swaziland

2009-11-12T00:40:00.001-07:00

Made it back to Arizona safely!

2009-11-12T00:33:00.001-07:00

Hello Hello Everyone,

I first want to apologize for not being in contact sooner with you all, I’m not 100% yet.

I have had different people SMS, email, voicemail etc.. asking me if I’m back home yet? So yes, I made it back safely and I am now finally all unpacked and still going through 2 months of mail. I have turned the electricity back on, internet, phone, exterminator, and all the necessary house stuff and I keep wondering how will I ever get through all the mail. I’m still adjusting with the time and have been waking up at 3:00 am dreaming that I am still in Africa until I glance around my room and realize I’m not. I haven’t been eating but once a day because I don’t have an appetite, but hopefully that will change soon.

I need to say a huge THANK YOU to all my faithful and loyal patients who have waited patiently for me to come back and work on their beautiful smiles. I missed taking care of your mouths so much (sounds weird I know). It’s been nice coming back and seeing some of you already and catching up!! I have had some changes to my work schedule at one of my offices that I thought could be a disaster, but it has all worked out for the best in the long run. Just apologizing now for the office having to call and reschedule some of your appointments with me. You know I will never forget the day I told my father I was going to Africa by myself to volunteer on orphan children...well lets just say he was not that keen on the idea. But he did come around quickly once he heard my voice over there and knew I was safe. But I will never forget the 2 questions that immediately came out of his mouth when I told him; 1. What about your patients and 2. What about your dog Trotter? “Is that really fair to any of them to be gone that long Melissa?” Wow my father knows me well and knew just how to get to me. I confidently told him don’t worry I have arranged a friend of mine to substitute for me and Trotter will LOVE the California weather by the beach. So with that said I just want you all to know I appreciate you patiently waiting upon my return for your dental services, it really means a lot to me!

Sometimes you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. I now understand that life is what you make it, and it’s all about your attitude, commitment, and determination on how you want it to be. You know I once heard from two wise and knowledgeable people (my mom and dad) that good things come to those who wait!!

So I have immediately hit the mountains and started hiking/running the mountains and it feels so good. My heart started fluttering as I laced up my shoes and had proper exercise clothes on and headed up the mountain because it has been awhile. This time I decided to not put my IPOD in my ears but to just listen to the nature and enjoy being in the outdoors. Change...I have decided that change from the norm or routine of life is good and sometimes necessary! It was a nice change to listen to all the birds and possible rattle snake noises (joking). I can’t believe how BEAUTIFUL the weather has been and I was in shorts and a tank top just soaking up the sun as I was running. I decided after my first mountain run that I wasn’t in too bad of shape after 2 months that I signed up for a 10K race in 2 weeks. Call me crazy, but I love my running!! The weather was even so nice this past weekend that I went swimming in my pool on Sunday and Monday morning I sat outside on my patio watching the sun rise over the mountains. WOW someone has a funny sense of humor with the weather right now, but I love the sun so I’m not complaining. I guess my skiing/winter sports days are going to be limited this winter.

I know I told you all that I would let you know a date that I would be speaking and doing a “show & tell” of Africa. I am still arranging the details of that and will keep you all posted, I promise. I think it will be easier for me to do one in Scottsdale and another one possibly in Buckeye and then people don’t have to drive as far. I’m thinking it may be an evening the week before Thanksgiving, I will let you know.

I am leaving this weekend for Chicago and will return EARLY (4:30 am flight) Monday morning in time for work. Partners In Action and Bulembu Ministries have asked me to fly out to Chicago and speak on behalf of Bulembu Ministries Orphanage at a job fair at Trinity Christian University to try and recruit volunteers to go over to Bulembu.

So I hope everyone is staying healthy and hopefully I will see you soon!

God Bless,

Melissa

P.S. I posted some pictures of the finished Bulembu Bakery that I spoke of in the last blog!! And just a few pictures of some of the beautiful animals I saw on the safari!!

2009-11-12T00:23:00.001-07:00

You can give without loving. But you cannot Love without giving!!

2009-10-24T07:15:00.001-07:00

Well I think I wont write a weather update anymore, because every time I get excited about the sun and beautiful days the next thing you know the clouds roll in and it rains the next couple of days! Yes, I did have to wear my long john’s again and sleep with a hot water bottle. The only advantage of the cold weather is that I don’t have to do my hair on those days and I just wear a “beanie” to work. I wonder if I can get away with that in the states??

Things are definitely in fast forward here with my time coming to an end and it’s actually been super crazy this week. I have had 3 random adults in the village come to the house, knock on the door and ask for me. I have no idea or clue who they are, but they seem to know me. They have all asked me to clean their teeth and have said they will even pay me. I really wish I could but I’m already seeing extra people at the end of my scheduled day to those that I have already promised. I kind of had a feeling that once I saw one adult it would probably lead to many others asking. I can’t describe the feeling of sorrow and shame that I feel when I have to turn people away. I have been working some nights until 6:00pm I did see an 80 yr. old man the other day that lives in a village an hour away one way and I could not turn him away. He was in tooth pain and I extracted 2 huge teeth from his mouth that day. (picture attached) He was so sweet and precious and told the hospital staff that he showered and got ready just to come visit the “lady doctor”.

I have attached some pictures of me holding and feeding “Sibusiso”. He is just so little and they said that the reason they named him “Blessing” is because the hospital where he was born doesn’t have equipment and technology to handle pre-mature babies especially 2 months early only weighing 3lbs. I spent about 4 hours on Saturday just holding him and taking care of him and he is so precious. The ABC House is very special and dear to my heart that I am going to help contribute toward their cause from now on. I think I told you last week they currently have 23 babies and that’s maximum capacity for them. The ABC House is run and operated solely by a husband and wife (Gerry and Robyn) and is not a government funded orphanage at all. I was there last weekend during feeding time and you can not believe the amount of milk they go through for all those babies. They use cloth diapers for all the babies because it would be far too expensive to buy and use plastic like we do back in the states. This is the couples personal home that they live out of and have converted all the bedrooms into 4 different nurseries. They have some pretty amazing stories that I will tell you all when I get home! If any of you are interested in learning more about the ABC House you can go to www.abcministry.org.za

I wanted to show you a picture of the little boy playing with his toy truck. The kids all have these toy trucks that they have made out of wire and are pretty cool. They don’t have yellow plastic Tonka trucks, they have these wire ones that they have made themselves! I’m telling you, life is simple here and I think I may have a hard time adjusting to the busyness and fast pace life that I once had before I came here.

I thought I would also include a picture of the orphan homes and what Bulembu looks like. The picture of the different colored homes are some of the BMS (Bulembu Ministry) orphan homes and some of the village workers homes that BMS has provided for the people. Something exciting that has happened this week is they finally got the bakery built. They had an individual donation come in for all the bakery equipment and just needed to get the building built. It’s been a neat project to watch over 2 months because I walk past it everyday back and forth to the clinic and home. I have some before photos of the building and now the final bakery up and going. That was a huge need that the town was very much looking forward to because one of the main staples that Bulembu feeds all the children are Peanut Butter sandwiches. They order bread 3 times a week from town that gets delivered here and now they can make it here locally and provide bread for all the children. They are also going to sell the bread for anyone in the town to buy. We got to try one of the first loaves that came out and it was still steaming. The butter quickly melted into the soft bread and the loaf quickly disappeared between all the roommates.

I also included pictures of the bike race from last week and a picture of the children with the horses doing their therapy.

I had my going away surprise party and they really got me on that one. I was with Nicole and we were doing some last minute things around the village and delivering spinach some lady hand picked for the children's homes and I came home to a house full of people. It was so nice to see everyone for dinner and desert and it was also sad saying goodbye. Everyone just keeps asking me when is my return trip????

This will probably be my last Saturday blog for you all but if you are interested in more pictures and stories I believe I have had 2 people offer up their home for me to come and do a type of slide show “show and tell” of the trip and I will get that organized when I return home and will email you all the details of where and when.

Thank You again for all your love, support, advice, encouraging words, prayer, and wisdom that I have received from many of you! You have all made this experience even more special for being in my life and encouraging me to be here. I hate to admit this, but now that I’m here and I absolutely LOVE it here, it’s going to be hard going back now for many different reasons.

Last week I spoke of life lessons that I have encountered and learned while being here, well one that I forgot to mention is that I have learned to Love. To Love in a way that I have never felt I have loved before. Agape Love is what I have experienced!! You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving!

So goodbye for now until I return to the states and you all can email me on my normal cottongirl7@yahoo.com account when I return because I wont use the africa gmail when I return.

I also want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cousin Cenna, and Stacey and Happy late Birthday to my bro-in-law Bryan!! Sorry I missed your Birthdays but hopefully you all got your cards I sent!!

God Bless,

Melissa

Exodus 9:16 NIV

2009-10-23T02:19:00.004-07:00

2009-10-22T05:02:00.005-07:00

2009-10-17T00:03:00.004-07:00

A Life Changing Weekend!!!

2009-10-16T23:44:00.003-07:00

How do I describe or put into words this weekend...well I will attempt it; It all started on a wonderful weekend camping trip to Bilene, Mozambique. As we were driving in Swaziland still, off to the left we saw a huge elephant just walking slowly, and that was pretty amazing! Then I first had to get a temporary visa at the border and that all went just fine with no problems. As we were getting ready to actually cross the border about 13 guys ran up to the window quoting different exchange rates for their currency. At this point good thing I wasn’t in charge of changing the money over because it was all pretty confusing to me, and David almost got ripped off until he told the guy he owed us more money. We arrived at the destination and you could hear the water/waves rolling in and it was quite beautiful. They had to deflate their tires on all the vehicles first before driving into camp because the camp accommodations were literally right on the beach! We played all sorts of games on the white soft sand beach all day like cricket, soccer, etc... and went jet skiing as well. Oh and one of the many highlights of the weekend was catching a huge sail fish in the deep ocean off of a jet ski. Yes, a jet ski and NOT a legitimate deep sea fishing boat. We went out to sea on the jet ski to troll for some fish, possibly Tuna and also to see if we could spot some Whales. Sure enough we dropped our lines and about 30 min later I noticed we had a bite. So I picked up the rod and started to reel it in but the fish was too large and I couldn’t fight it so Barry took over. I was nervous about falling into the ocean and then 45 min. later Barry finally reeled it in. He took one good look at it and said we need to release him because he is just too beautiful! Oh and if that’s not cool enough I forgot to mention that we saw 6 Whales jumping, making noises, and blowing all around us. On the last day we drove into Maputo and stopped at a Yacht Club Restaurant and I had prawn curry and prawn cakes that were delightful. The price of seafood is crazy cheap and only cost $12.00

Camping in a tent on the beach and catching Sail fish off a jet ski-”PRICELESS”!!

We made it back across the border to Swaziland and we were now on the Bulembu dirt road back home and the 3 of us were the first ones on to the scene of a rollover accident. It was a Bulembu marked bakkie=truck with large 40 gallon water bottles dispersed all over the road and two bodies laying on the side of the road as well. One guy was holding his chest and coughing a lot and the other guy was bloody all over and not moving. So I immediately got on my cell phone and rang for the ambulance and nurse that I work with everyday at the Bulembu clinic and my phone wouldn’t connect. Then I grabbed the mans cell phone and made the phone call out. All I could do was think I just need to talk to someone, then I finally got it together and realized we were the only ones on the road and I needed to help this bloody man. So I quickly ran back to the car and grabbed a towel out of my bag and rubber gloves and tied the towel around his arm to stop some of the bleeding. His index finger was totally torn off and a ligament was hanging and the other fingers were badly mangled. Blood was coming out of his ear and head and many other places. I had the guy lay down because now he was confused and his body was starting to shake hard because he was going into shock. As he laid there on the road he kept looking up at me saying please don’t let me die, I know I’m dying now. He said can you please help me get out of pain. Then he asked me about 20 times what my name was and said please don’t let me die. I felt so inadequate and helpless and all I could do was say positive words and tell him he wasn’t going to die. I then asked the man if I could pray with him and he said yes and that was good. Then we waited about 30 min until the ambulance got there and it felt like the longest 30 min. of my life. I started to step away when the paramedics got there but he yelled out and said, “No please don’t go, don’t leave me I know you will save my life” So I just placed my hand on his shoulder and told him I would help place him in the ambulance but that it would all be OK. My other 2 friends kept their distance because they couldn’t handle the sight of blood they said and did a great job of picking up all the heavy water jugs to clear a path for the ambulance. The one gentlemen was released from the hospital the next day with minor injuries and the other guy was released on Thursday and suffered a concussion, lacerations of the skull, and his other fingers survived.

I am doing well, learning a lot, and keeping an open mind. Had a GREAT week of weather with sunshine and blue sky’s, it was divine! Great work week as well and I just love seeing the children smile.

The ABC infant orphanage just got a new baby in on Wednesday that is only 2 weeks old and tiny tiny because he was born 2 months early. His mom was a rape victim and she was only 13yrs old. His name is Sibusiso which means “Blessing”. He is so cute and just sleeps all the time.

Thursday evening the Swaziland Frontier Bike race came through Bulembu and that was the ending point for that leg of the 3 day bike race and my roommates and I were volunteered to help serve beverages to the racers. I tell you, never a dull moment here and constant activities. They host this race once a year and it’s an intense mountain bike race going up all those steep steep hills for a total of 3 days. Watching them Friday morning go up the hill past the Hospital inspired me to get back into my cycling when I get home and can’t wait to hit the gym hard!!

I can not believe how fast the time is going and I can say that I have learned many life lessons. I have seen things and met people I will NEVER forget and have learned the true meaning of THANKFULNESS through my time here. It’s really weighing heavy on my heart this week of leaving and it seems as though I have just developed some awesome relationships, learned the language more to better speak it, and have settled into the kids lives more. I will be completely sad to say goodbye! I’m excited that I was able to serve, share, and just being flexible to whatever, has been a good feeling. Flexibility is a must in Africa because things don’t always go as planned and they even have a saying over here that I hear used at least 3 times a

day. It’s called T.I.A which means "This Is Africa".

This is the wish I always wish,

The prayer I always pray:

Lord, may my life help others

It touches on the way.

Matthew 5:16

Hope everyone is doing well,

Melissa

2009-10-07T23:06:00.002-07:00

"Blessed to Bless"

2009-10-07T22:37:00.002-07:00

Hello-

I had a great weekend with lots of things to see, do, and fun times!! It started out with a ride into town (Mbabane) with rain, fog,and slippery muddy dirt roads. You know your in a third world country when your dodging cows, goats, and chickens when driving down the road, as if the thick fog wasn’t enough of a distraction. I went to spend the weekend with a friend of mine Chris from USA, his Aunt Carlie, Uncle Jim, and cousin David (who is tall, good looking, and very funny not to mention). They live about 30 min outside of Mbabane on a sugar cane farm called Malkerns. It was so peaceful and beautiful being on the farm just overlooking all the rolling hills of agriculture and beautiful mountains in the distance (picture included). There are Pineapple fields all around the sugar cane farm and I saw them picking the Pineapples as well which I thought was neat. We went to the candle factory where they hand carve candles, and it was quite impressive. Spoke to a gentleman there who has been carving for 22 years and also teaches the newer guys his stellar technique. Quite impressive to watch them quickly manipulate and carve the animals out of wax. Then we went to another shop and I learned how they make a picture on cloth material with wax called a “Batik”. It’s really neat to watch and understand the process of the final picture. Many intricate steps are involved. The lady is drawing the picture on the fabric with hot wax. (In my picture posted)

Went on a couple of great walks, went on my first Big Game type safari which David took me, and he did a good job explaining the different animals, he especially had an eye for the crocodiles!! Went to a Braai that evening and watched the Rugby game. Oh and I also watched some Cricket for the first time in my life, and after a while I was catching on to the concept. The family I stayed with was very delightful and very accommodating that I really didn’t want to leave so soon. (Thanks again Chris for the arrangement!!) Jim made a delicious breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs etc... and we sat outside on the patio and had a wonderful meal with a beautiful view. It was a very nice weekend and enjoyed seeing so much more of Swaziland and many other beautiful places!

Work has been good and hard this week with a bit more of a challenge because I am working on mainly older children more. I have seen over 200 children now and have extracted 21 teeth to date. This was a big week for extractions, abscess’s, infections, and emergency tooth ache exams. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I didn’t leave the clinic till around 6:00pm still working on kids. I even had a little 8yr old girl knock on the house door Tuesday morning at 6:40 am and I answered in my pajamas because I am the only one up at that time in my house. I have never seen this girl in the clinic yet and who knows how far she walked to come find me. She said, Auntie Melissa can you please help me I have a bad tooth that hurts. Of course I had medical gloves inside the house so I invited her in and took a look at her mouth on the couch. She had a huge cavity and so I told her to come to the clinic that day so I could take it out and make her feel better. I also cleaned her teeth that day but come to find out she had 10 teeth with cavities. I had worked on a 16yr old boy for 1 hour 40 min just on his top teeth removing hard calculus/tartar and told him he had to come back another day to finish the bottom. He then said to me, “I didn’t know I was growing rocks under my gums” Very good description I thought. Then the next day I had a 17yr old boy that I spent 2hrs 10 min on and he now has a clean mouth. I actually took before and after photos of his gums to just document how bad it was to now how good his gums are already healing. He had periodontal disease, gingival hyperplasia, mobility, and major halitosis. So I decided to spare you all the before and after photos but for all my dental professional people reading/following this blog I can’t wait to share with you the photos and the gum tissue healing. On Wednesday I had an 8yr old boy ask me if I was trying to take his tooth out because I was scraping so hard and had to apply a lot of pressure to just remove the calculus/tartar. So I am telling myself that I really need a “Holiday” aka vacation to rest my hands and my mind.

Went horse back riding on Wednesday after work with Talitha who owns the horses here. They have horses for the orphans to ride as a type of therapy. It was fun taking them through the forest and it felt like something out of a movie. We saw many monkeys of course and the horses don’t like them so much. The weather has been about the same with about 2 days of sunshine half of the day. I have had more and more people show up to the clinic with tooth aches and wanting to be seen, that I think they know my time here is nearing and they are just desperate to be seen. It’s so sad because there is SUCH a need and I truly wish I had more time here!! I continue to think of you all back home and hope all is well with you and your families! Thank You all for all your prayers!

Blessings,

Melissa

1 Thessalonians 5:18

2009-10-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

2009-10-01T03:27:00.003-07:00

My roommates are GREAT!

2009-10-01T02:43:00.000-07:00

OK well we had a great weekend last weekend and all was safe and sound! In these pictures you will see some native Swaziland people doing some native tribal dancing and they picked my roommate Leigh and I out of the crowd to help learn and dance with them. I’m definitely getting my dancing in over here and might be taking home some new moves! We went to the candle factory where they hand blow and carve beautiful glass sculptures and also had a chance to see some beautiful wildlife while we were out, that was neat! We saw some really cool animals, it was awesome! I had a chicken quesadilla for lunch that day and it reminded me a little bit of home since that’s the first type of Mexican food I have had in over a month now. (Oh how I miss LaPlacita)!!!

Speaking of food, I have had some family members and friends ask about the food situation here...I have to pack a lunch to eat at the Hospital because it’s too long of a walk to go home. I mostly eat cereal, yogurt, or eggs for breakfast, tuna and a piece of fruit like an apple or orange for lunch, and then a communal dinner that the roommates and I take turns making in the evenings. I have noticed that for every dinner meal there is ALWAYS some type of pasta, rice, or carbohydrate and I’m really starting to try and break away from the carbs because my body is going into shock eating all those carbs every night!! I’m going to start making baked chicken dishes and the other night I made a chicken dish without all the pasta and the girls liked it! Oh and I eat a lot of peanut butter. I had one of the village teenage girls over to the house to show me how to make this fresh spinach and peanut butter dish, and it was amazing! I buy fresh lettuce, spinach, and cauliflower from someone’s garden here in the village. The grocery store that is 2 hours away is small with about 6 isles and you can get just about anything generic that is basic. Most people back home think of Africa as a starving country and hardly a food source, but it’s really not like that here. There are places to buy food but where the starving part comes in, is that the people don’t have the money to buy the food therefore that’s why they are hungry. For example a man who has a job and works makes about R35 (rand) a day and that is equivalent to about $4.00 a day. So it’s not that Africa doesn’t have a food source, it’s more the lack of means for the people to buy it.The fresh fruit selection is not a wide variety like I was expecting and I went to buy a small can of green chilies so I could make my famous sour cream chicken enchiladas, and there are not green chilies to buy. But oddly enough they have all american type cereals and we buy a lot of frozen chicken breasts and ground beef to cook for dinners. We have a gas stove that I have to help light for the girls because they are afraid it will blow up on them when lighting the gas. We can do laundry ourselves or pay a lady named “Togo” to do it for us, and it all hangs outside to dry. So when we have rainy days it takes a little longer to get your clothes back.

I went over to a friends house on Sunday after church to learn how to make a traditional South African desert called Milk Tart. It’s so delicious, I’m bringing the recipe home. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you all that I was asked by the lady who took us on the Sat. bike ride if I could babysit her two children from 9:30am till 6:00pm on Sunday and I said yes. What is it with me and babysitting? I guess all those years of me nannying in college wasn’t enough. HaHa Yes, this is the second time I have babysat for this family and I thought for sure the first go around I would be fired and she would NEVER ask me again because they were filthy dirty from head to toe! (Pictures to show how filthy dirty from head to toe they were). Mom and Dad both said it was great because then that meant they had a good time since they were so dirty.

This week has been so much better, and I really can’t say enough THANK YOU’s for everyone who helped get me the much needed LONG JOHN PANTS and more dental supplies! The new instruments and sharping stone have made all the difference in the world and has helped me to carry on with all the cleanings. I have seen 154 children to date and have now extracted 12 teeth. It’s still raining here and carrying on with freezing cold weather. But boy I can’t tell you enough how much of a difference the long johns make, and I am much warmer now! They feel like little heaters on my legs and I’m soooo much happier having them. SO THANK YOU THANK YOU (Darla/Talisha)!!

My family all sent me a bunch of letters already signed and sealed that they packed in my bags that tell me to open on certain days, weeks, months, hard day, etc... and I can’t tell you enough how much reading those letters have made my days special. It’s kind of weird because they say the right thing at the right moment and I have gotten many laughs along with HUGE smiles. Yes, Bryan I am eating way too much rice and I would love to watch that movie and eat Pizukie when I return home with you and T!!

So now I will tell you about my roommates because quite a few of you have been wondering. First is Ruth (35) who is from Redding England and that is about an hour from London. She is the head person in charge of volunteers for Bulembu and works in the Ministry office of Bulembu. She has been here going on 3 years now and the only one with a car in our house. Then there is Natalie (22) from Manchester England and she got here a week before me but will be serving in Bulembu for 7 months. She works at the school as a teacher and mainly teaches Math and Biology. Then Sophie (18) who shares a room with me is from Redding England. She has been here already 2 months and just left this Tuesday to go back home before she starts college in England. She worked in the ABC House with all the baby baby orphans. She had many stories that she would share with me daily about the new babies they just got in, or even how her day was with 28 small babies all under 2yrs old. Then Leigh (21) from Vancouver Canada got here 2 weeks after me and is here for 3 months and going home right before Christmas. She has a very cool job in my opinion, because she was sent here by the Canadian group that mainly owns and helps finance Bulembu to do their website, and communications through journalism pieces. She gets to interview different people and go to different job sites taking photos, and video and then piece it all together. She is very talented and very funny! She along with Natalie and Ruth can really get me laughing! I have to say that I REALLY REALLY enjoy living with these 4 ladies and it’s been fun getting to know them and hang out with them. It’s even more surprising to say that we only have one bathroom for the 5 of us and we make it work just fine!! It’s sad to see Sophie go and it made me realize how very different it is to actually share a room and personal space with someone. After all these years of being by myself it’s kind of hard to come home to people or someone and discuss my day with them. Living with the girls has made me realize that I can’t just come home and unwind from my day by myself. Depending on the day I have to come home and start dinner, or help the other girls start dinner by chopping veggies or setting the table, and they even like to just talk about how your day went. It’s quite different and quite a change for me. Something about my job many people don’t understand is that not only is it taxing physically on the body and hands, but also mentally. Having to be in constant communication all day and make sure your not hurting people because they hate going to the dentist already is very tiring, not to mention the amount of tartar/calculus I’m removing isn’t pleasant for the patient or me. So it’s good coming home to my roommates, but much different then me going straight to the gym after work to unwind and then home to the LOVE of my life “Trotter Boy” Yes, my dog, I miss him terribly! It’s also different in a way because we don’t have appliances to make life easy so we have to take turns washing dishes by hand and cleaning up after others. It’s made me become more of a group person instead of just doing everything by myself. I know this may sound strange but it’s actually harder to adjust to living with people when your use to being by yourself and doing your own routine. So in closing I just want to say I hope everyone is doing great back home and all is well here!

Talk to you next weekend,

Melissa

Turning My Trials To Gold...

2009-09-25T08:17:00.002-07:00

Hello Again!!!

Well it’s becoming a pattern now to report back to you how my weekend went since they are now becoming exciting and a story to tell!! I told that we were headed into town to go grocery shopping last weekend and that it’s 2 hours one way...well I will quickly explain how that day ended but whoever passes this on to my dad please tell him that I am safe! We had a wonderful lunch at the Guava Cafe and I tried a Mango milkshake and it was simply delightful. Did a little shopping, got groceries, got gas, and started our journey home. We were on the road just getting ready to pass over Maguga Dam and we had about 40 minutes of sunlight left and all of a sudden we came to a “road block”. Now when I say road block, it is a red plastic gas container with a little rock on top of it sitting in the middle of the road, but up ahead is a bus turned sideways blocking both sides of the 2 lane road. (I do have a picture to go with this story!!) So Ruth stops the car and all 4 of us girls are surveying the situation and deciding what to do at this point. There are cars coming from the other direction that are barely squeezing by, one by one to get around the bus. People are getting out of their cars and then getting back into the car when they make it pass the bus. We couldn’t figure out why people would get out then run over and get in,(they were afraid the car would turn over into the ditch) until it was our turn to try and squeeze by. Oh by the way let me mention that a car full of 4 girls is not an ideal situation when it is NOTHING but all men standing around the bus and slow moving vehicles. Oh and to make the story more exciting, the broken down bus was a Correctional Facility Bus of men that had it written on the side of the bus. So it’s now our turn to go by and there is barely enough room on both sides to squeeze by because on the left Ruth could have scratched up her mirror on the bus or on the right is a ditch that we could have flipped the car into. Well since I am here to give you this update, you know how the story turned out-safe and sound. So as we made it through safely with our doors locked, my roommate Leigh says that was a situation right out of a movie girls. Seriously 4 girls in a car driving upon a road block of about 25 men that are in a Correctional bus and then the girls disappear from their afternoon of grocery shopping. The good news is that it all turned out OK but we were very nervous to say the least!

Lets see, this week has been a hard week and the most challenging week for me so far. It’s been raining for the last 3 days and the cold weather seems to be getting colder. I came home from work on Tuesday and had a really hard day of patients with TONS of tartar, my instruments are getting dull so therefore it’s taking longer to remove the tartar and now my hands are starting to ache. All I really wanted to do was get warm and just unwind from the day. So I asked Ruth if we could make a fire in the fireplace and she said no, because we didn’t have enough wood for a fire. Since it has been raining she said we can’t go gather wood either because it will all be wet. So I said how about the little pile that’s in the garage, and she said no, because it hasn’t been split and wont fit in the little fire place. So being completely tired, cold, and worn out I decided I would take the sharp ax and go chop the wood. Well I hope you are all getting a mental picture of this one, because living in Arizona my WHOLE life I have never swung an ax before and have never chopped wood before. So away I go and I asked my roommate Sophie from England to come help me because it was the other girls turn to cook dinner that night. After about a million hacks at the wood taking turns back and forth Sophie and I managed to collect a pile of wood that burned out in 30 minutes. I thought to myself that night, gosh I think I’m on a reality TV show of some type of Survivor. I thought I was a very domesticated women before I came to Africa knowing how to cook, clean, mow my grass, hunt/fish, take care of a house, dog, etc.. but now I’ve taken it to the next level-chopping wood! Ha-Ha

No really I’m serious, one weekend Ruth went out of town to go to a friends wedding and asked the 3 of us if we would hang curtains to give our windows some privacy and so we hung curtains that weekend, went picking the avocado trees for fresh avocado’s, and collected fire wood from the forest. These curtains are NOT what I’m use to in the USA. It wasn’t just a pole then you attach the plastic loops and then plug it in, this was legitimately counting the material and placing some eye hooks and then tying off the rope and pulling the rope through to give it the squished curtain effect. Ok enough of the detail on how I’m more domesticated, even though it would have been nice to just come home and turn on the heater or flip a switch to your fake fireplace that runs on gas! I have learned that this is all part of the living and learning experience and I’m THANKFUL to be here! In the grand scheme of things I am just so HAPPY to be able to see the children’s faces smiling at me and saying a huge Thank-You with a big hug accompanying the gratitude after their teeth are cleaned or extracted! Now I have also realized that you have to work a lot harder living under these conditions and let me tell you, there isn’t anything “easy” here!

Our scheduled day of no electricity was on Wednesday but this time the word never traveled to my house so Ruth and I had no clue that I wasn’t going to be able to work on patients. So I went to work at the Bulembu Hospital Clinic and saw one patient and then I had my next patient in the chair and the electricity went out. I thought oh give it a little time it shall come back on because the village people said that happens often when its raining and the electricity will shut off for a little while. Nope, never came back on and I could not see her teeth in the dark so I had to reschedule my day. It was my night to cook dinner that night and I made beef tacos (yummy) and squash. I know you were thinking beans but I couldn’t find refried beans at the last 2 grocery stores I had been to.

On a fun note I did go to a Braai (we call it a Bar-B-Q-) and danced the night away! I learned a South African dance called Sokkie it’s equivalent to ball room dancing with some spins and turns in it. It was a going away party for one of the volunteers named A.J. and the South African men were teaching my roommate Leigh and I the new moves! It was sooooo much fun and now I think I will take up ball room dancing!

Going to a candle and glass factory early Saturday morning and then to the cultural village of Swaziland to see the natives dancing, eat some native food, and some other sight seeing adventures!

Oh and the number of teeth extracted now is up to 9 teeth! And I must say 9 happy children that did not even cry or shed a tear!!! I also want to say a Happy Belated Birthday to my dear friends Kristina and Kendra, sorry I missed it-Pizzokie and Pita Jungle when I get home! Congrats Krysten on the twins finally!! Can’t wait to see pictures of my new cousins! And a huge CONGRATS to Stacey on her big Wedding Day SATURDAY!!

Bye until next Saturday!

2009-09-25T04:11:00.002-07:00

Sweatin it in the dental clinic but freezing outside!!

2009-09-19T02:55:00.005-07:00

Well I just want to give you all a very vivid mental picture of how hard it is for me to even get to the one and only place for internet here in this village...first I must walk about 18-20min up 2 hills and down one to get to the office where you can email. When I mean hills, I mean like heart pounding heavy breathing hills. Your all probably thinking well that’s no big deal for someone who works out a ton and is in shape, well they are significant hills I must say. At least I am still getting my daily exercise and it’s in the outdoors (where I love) and not at the gym.

Which now leads me to telling you about last Saturdays “bike ride” HAHAHA I’m still laughing with my roommates about that day!! Bike ride would be a complete understatement as to what we accomplished. We actually went Mountain Biking for 1hour and 45min on dirt, bumpy, potholed roads. We were climbing mountains so steep that I had to get off my bike and push it up the mountain a couple of times because I simply couldn’t make the gears turn anymore. My roommates and I joined a nice lady who lives here and mountain bikes all the time and her husband drove and met us at the valley we ended up at. We had to cross 2 borders and actually we biked to South Africa for the day. Completely strange to think your going for a bike ride but you have to carry your passport with you to get it stamped along the way. So after a long bike journey (the hardest workout I have done since my tri-athalon) NO JOKE, her husband brought food and we had a Bar-B-Q down in this beautiful valley. I know I mentioned the scenery here as looking like Flagstaff, but now I’m changing the visual for you all and it actually looks more like Scotland! You know the movie Braveheart well that’s exactly what Swaziland looks like! So the border closes at 4:00pm and all of a sudden we threw the bikes in the husbands truck and started booking it back to make it across the border in time. I was starring at the clock as the minute flipped from 3:57 to 3:58 and we were still driving and had 2 borders to get stamped and make it across. (First time I have looked at the time since I arrived in Swaziland) Well we made it to the first border in time and made it to the second at 4:04 and they still let us pass. I can’t even tell you how many thoughts were racing through my mind! Needless to say, it was great to get out a little and see the country. I am also going to be getting a little time soon to do some more sight seeing and we are going somewhere for a weekend.

So I have extracted 4 teeth total now and cleaned up one little girls bloody nose, and have scaled/cleaned enough tartar/calculus to last me a LIFETIME! If I didn’t have carpal tunnel before I left, I think there is a chance I may be returning home with it!! I think if you wear scrubs and have any medical background, that automatically qualifies you as a doctor/fix all kind of person.

On Monday I went into the teachers lounge at the school to have lunch with my roommate Natalie, who is from England and a teacher came up to me asking for help. I had just started eating, and this teacher said, Miss I found this little boy in the bathroom trying to pull his tooth out and I stopped him, can you please help him out.” I instantly hopped up and said yes, looked at the tooth and it was infected so I took it out for him. He got out of the chair and gave me a HUGE hug and said Thank-You. Not the normal reaction you would get back home that’s for sure.

Then on Wednesday, I saw a 6yr old little boy that had white medical tape around both his thumbs and I asked the house mom what happened to his fingers. She said, “Oh that’s because he sucks his thumbs and we are breaking him of that”. Strange, never saw that technique before. But in all actuality I haven’t seen a lot of things before until I got here.

Well I also wanted to share with you that here, instead of rolling blackouts we have scheduled days of no electricity. Now in order to find out what day that is, it’s pretty much just by word of mouth. So I found out that Thursday we would have no electricity, which in turn means no internet, which also means how do you clean teeth with no overhead light? Glad you all asked, I actually tried putting a head light on, one that people use for camping or reading, on Wednesday to test it out and it was a no go. So instead, I went around to all the classrooms and finished going over education and proper dental hygiene care with all the children and then counted my stock of inventory to see if I needed more! There is a team of about 8 guys coming from CCV in Phoenix that may be able to pack some more dental supplies for me and bring it over in the beginning of October, if I can get in touch with them. After doing inventory, I realized I am getting a little low on toothpaste, 2x2 gauze, toothbrushes, floss and I am in desperate NEED of a sharpening stone for all my instruments! Girls, I brought my old Carbon Steel instruments from college and I would gladly be able to use some more instruments to help remove all this tartar if you could find yours and get it to a gentleman named Mike Buckles in Scottsdale. Universal’s and sickles are all I would need, or actually anything you could get your hands on would help. If you can help me at all with any of these supplies just email me and I will give you his contact info. MUCH APPRECIATED! There is nothing more difficult than trying to remove calculus with dull instruments and I’m getting close. My hand has been working over time!!! Thank You Darla soooo very much for heading this up for me and getting me the supplies, I really appreciate it and YOU so very much!!

So I also want to say that I have made friends with many people here, but one very important person in the administration office named Simon who completely helped me post pictures to the blog. So a huge THANK YOU to Simon for making it possible for all of you to see at least some pictures to the stories I have already told.

It did warm up here for about 3 days, but the cold weather and rain are back again! Who would have thought to actually pack “long johns” to go to Africa?? Well obviously not me. I am going to try and buy some today when we go into town to go grocery shopping, hopefully they have some and it’s the right season here to buy “long johns”. I really can’t believe how cold I am here!

I really do not have much “down time” where I just sit and get to read a book or do nothing, there are plenty of activities during the week nights and even on the weekends. The people here love to stay up late, and it’s not polite to head off to bed early and not mingle,talk, hang out etc. So yes you guessed it, no more 9:00pm bed time for me, and believe it or not, I actually enjoy the later evenings. But I am still up at the crack of dawn and the first one up in the house!!

I heard Patrick Swazy died, my sister told me-that’s sad. No, we don't have TV here or a newspaper so I have no clue as to what is happening back home. I do want to say a Happy Belated Birthday to Talisha and Carolyn and a soon to be Happy Birthday to my nephews Alec and Stephen coming up this week. Congrats to Stacey on her upcoming Wedding, I’m sure you will look BEAUTIFUL. Krysten, thanks for the family prayers and good luck with the twins, they should be coming any day!! Robin, thank you for following the blog and keeping me in prayer, Mr. and Mrs. Brown Thank-You so very much for your kind words and scripture and thanks Kendra for sharing it with them. Carrie Tink congrats on your move to NYC, can’t wait to visit you in the “Big Apple”! Kathy/Brian/Girls-Miss you and thank you for your encouraging words. Raquel-The kids just LOVE the stickers and it’s a big hit here. I also brought balloons and they are loving the balloons as well. A huge THANK YOU to you all who have been an inspiration in my life in all that you do and continue to do!

Blessings,

Melissa

So I will leave you with some Siswati words that I speak on a daily basis now:

Sawubona-Hello

Yebo-Yes

Unjani-How are you?

Ngiyabonga-Thank You!

2009-09-18T06:50:00.007-07:00

The Weather Has taken a turn for the WORST!

2009-09-11T23:22:00.002-07:00

So just wanted to update everyone on how things are going in Swaziland now! The weather has taken a turn for the worst, and is quite FREEZING, with rain, cloud coverage all day, and no sun! I’m not exaggerating either, it’s been in the 60’s the last 3 days! I truly do miss the AZ sun and heat!! I have been going to bed at night with a hot water bottle to just try and take the edge off. There is no heating or air conditioning here. But with all that said, I’m doing quite well and I even went to work with a Beanie on my head and that helped to keep me warm.

My days are VERY busy seeing about 12 children a day and getting a LUNCH break :-) One hard challenge I have been having to deal with is telling all the adults I can’t possibly see them till all the children have been seen first. I have teachers from the school, mothers, helpers,volunteers, etc. that keep coming up to me asking me if I can see them for dental cleanings and exams. It makes me sad to think that they are all in such need and just begging to be seen.

The head gentleman here of Bulembu asked if I would like to just continue my work here and not leave! He’s very nice and has a funny personality! Like I said in my previous update the people here have ALL given me a warm welcome and I’m very safe here.

So I have to apologize for a second because I’m going to use some dental terminology to help explain to all my dental friends what exactly I’m seeing over here and how very HARD my work is cut out for me!

Ok so I’m really at a loss for where I should begin explaining...I just can’t believe the amount of tartar/calculus these children have!! I have been seeing 8 yr olds that have tartar equivalent to a 40yr old adult!!! Now when I say tartar I mean subgingival calculus under the gums way deep and VERY tenacious!! I can’t begin to tell you what my hand feels like at the end of the day. I am cranking so hard to get this stuff off and the poor children’s eyes are just starring up at me like what in the world is this lady doing to me. Then I started showing the kids what I’m pulling off and letting them feel the hard calculus with their fingers so they can associate what I’m cleaning and how they can make a difference with their toothbrush and floss. Oh and just for the record, not only have some of these kids NEVER used a toothbrush before but No one even the staff and helpers are NOT familiar with floss at all. So I’m doing a lot of education all day long individually to the kids and they have also been having me go into classrooms, community center, etc. just educating EVERYONE on proper dental hygiene care. Ok so back to the amount of calculus I’m cleaning everyday, I keep talking about it because I’m so overwhelmed with how young these kids are with the heaping amount of subgingival tartar present. Ok, to all my dental friends and Dr.B, and Dr.Manov this is an absolute GOLD mine for qualifying board patients. In fact I was even thinking this week in my head that some of the Hygiene schools should partner up with Bulembu and new graduates so they could start here and get their feet wet before going straight into private practice (good idea). Or when someone is truly desperate for a board patient, just fly here and they could have board patients for the whole graduating class-no joke!!

So my work has not been a quick 40 minutes get them in and out and however much I can get done. Of course not, that’s NOT my personality. So I started mentally to worry about making the next patient wait because they had a scheduled appointments to see me at that time, and I wasn’t even close to being done with the previous child yet. But my mind quickly went into another direction and I though it’s not like that here in Swaziland, these people are just so HAPPY to be seen they would even wait for days. So I continued to clean the 10 yr old boy completely and remove all his tartar and I felt OK about running half an hour behind. WOW, I know shocker for me...but that’s the reality here and I’m very pleased I could get him finished to completion! I have another shocking statement to confess to, I don’t even wear a watch here and I just figure when I get them done, I get them done. Yes, I am truly being stretched in more ways than one! I even had to extract a 6 yr old girls primary tooth this morning and she got off the chair with the BIGGEST smile on her face and actually Thanked me for removing her tooth. That was with anesthesia administered of course. Well word spreads quickly here of course and I had about 6 adults ask me today when they could make an appointment with me and one lady even asked me how much I charge. She said I saw that little girl smile with no pain when you took her tooth out, can you do the same for me, I’ll even pay you. My heart just breaks and I really do wish I had more time to take care of everyone, but I know I can’t and then it wouldn’t be fair to all of you, who are waiting for me to take care of your mouths!

We might get some free time in two weekends to go do some fun stuff and sight see they said, so I’m very much looking forward to that!

This morning (Saturday) my 2 other roommates and I are going for a bike ride to some waterfalls that are not far from Bulembu and is quite safe we have been told. We don’t get much “down” time because it gets dark around 6:00 pm and then after work we have to come home and take turns cooking for the house, and keeping up with the house chores, etc.. It’s strange for me to have a roommate after all these years of living the single life, but it’s actually nice and I really enjoy talking with her.

My work schedule has changed this whole week and I have been seeing kids in the morning at the school in a nurses room with a hospital bed and a floor light plugged in to the wall so I can see the children’s teeth and then going to the clinic in the afternoon and seeing kids in my normal dental chair environment in the afternoon. This is because the clinic and school are some of a walking distance and the principal didn’t want the children out of the school that long. It’s very hard on my back having to stand and bend over all morning so I will be only working that split schedule for one more week and then going back to full time schedule at the clinic. It’s actually been nice for me to be at the school in the morning’s because one of my roommates is a teacher there and she is having a bit of a time adjusting to everyone and told me on Tuesday that I was the highlight of her day, to eat lunch with her in the teachers lounge. So I’m pleased that has helped her out and the seeing the children there as well has helped the principal out.

Well that’s about it from here, and I hope all is well with everyone else!

Blessings,

Melissa

Doing Well and Staying Very Busy!!!

2009-09-08T07:40:00.002-07:00

Just to give you a quick update and overview...the country Swaziland is run by a King and it's really pretty. The actual village of Bulembu is up in the mountains and it looks very much like Flagstaff, AZ. I'm not sharing a mud hut, I'm now actually staying in a volunteer house with three other lady volunteers that are all from England. One from London, Redding, and Manchaster. It's been difficult for me to even follow conversation in the house because of their accents and English language. They say so many words that are totally different, I may actually come home speaking Swazati with an English flare! We have electricity and running water, but the water situation is very interesting...you have to let the brown/orange mud run out first before using and the faucets are seperate so the temperature doesn't mix. You either get scolding HOT water or FREEZING cold water, that's it no in between and no such thing as warm or luke warm. My roomates are very sweet and the people here have been very nice and I had a warm welcome!

Overall the feeling of this place is good and I am safe. God has been really breaking me down in many ways and I'm excited to see what He teaches me.

Thank You all for your generous donations that have gotten me to Bulembu, along with all your thoughtfulness, and prayers for my safety.

Sorry I can not post pictures at all due to the internet "band" they told me does not hold for pictures or Skyping.

Bye For Now!!

Not sure what my body should do right now??

2009-08-29T11:01:00.002-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Wow that was an extremely long long journey in the air...well after 24 hours of flying I just wanted to let you all know I made it here safely and all the dental supplies through customs made it as well with no problems!

I tried to walk around on the plane after 8 hours of sleep and I got a bit dizzy standing, then I pulled out reading material to read for the next 9 hours of the flight and my eyes quickly started to close again. Well I do have to say the 2 microwave meals were not bad and everyone has been super helpful and nice here!

I will have to keep you posted when I make it to Bulembu, Swaziland! The weather here is nice in the 80's so far.

Hope everyone is well and I will talk to you soon.

Blessings,

Melissa