The Weather Has taken a turn for the WORST!

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