Sweatin it in the dental clinic but freezing outside!!

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!