Dental Clinics – Part Three

The next three clinics involved a road trip into the neighboring district of Idukki. The first clinic was set up by Sindhu Indane, the woman who owns this gas company above the church where we held the clinic that first day. The red banner is advertising our IEM dental clinic…

This was one of the most memorable clinics! They were very organized and even gave out numbers to each of the patients! At the program, we were all welcomed and presented with flower garlands. A couple of people came over 100km by bus just to have dental work done! Not only did we see a whopping 65 patients (Rick said 40 was his limit) but we also had our first fainter. The guy just went down. But he quickly popped back up and was ready to finish the job. Our driver for the trip, Emmanuval, was a fantastic help at the clinic! He did everything from sterilizing to interpreting to pulling teeth! We also had a very brave Muslim girl. Her tooth just did not want to give up and had to be hammered and chiseled out! She hardly even flinched, even when she had to brace her chin under her hand! I held a few hands that day, too…

There was enough space to have a full six patient chairs, a separate room for sterilizing, and a fully view-free waiting area.

Some people just had to peek over the barricade ;o)

The next clinic was in a very large rented building across the street from the guest house where we stayed. Many local dignitaries came to the opening program. There were 200 people signed up to see the dentist! After not sleeping the night before, God was gracious to the doctor and it ended up being a small clinic with only 15 patients. Most left when they found out there wouldn’t be any cleanings or fillings. Only the truly desperate stay for “pluckings”! There was another fainter at this clinic, a young woman. She lay on the floor for a long while before she got up and was quite nauseous. My woman’s intuition thinks that she was probably pregnant…

We reused our flowers from the day before… :o)

  

All the windows were so nice when the power went out!

The final clinic of the trip was in a tiny church in a small village. I woke up so sick that morning but by the time the clinic started, God had answered our prayers and I felt much better! We had also prayed that we wouldn’t run out of our dwindling supplies. God answered that prayer as well and we only had 12 patients.

There was no power and no water, but we did have a large kerosene lantern. There were also some lovely drawings of Bible stories done by the church’s pastors. We saw a few kids, had quite an audience through the window, and met some pastors who came 60km to see GV and the doctor! (they didn’t have any work done) One Muslim family even expressed an interest in coming to the church after talking to GV while they waited. PTL!

Emmanuval got to pull another one!

  

Just when we thought we were finished with dental clinics, the Bible College students showed up at the house to have the dentist take a look. We ended up having an impromptu clinic right in Dr Rick’s bedroom! It was actually the hottest and most miserable one we had. LOL

The girls, in keeping with stereotypes, came in a group for moral support. I think GV thought they were silly.  Turned out it was a good thing! One of the poor girls was crying before we even got started…

Her friends all gathered around to hold her hands, cover her eyes and laugh. I held her hand, too. You can never have too much moral support. The poor thing didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh with her friends. But in the end she survived…

   

The boys were much braver and didn’t need anyone to hold their hands… LOL

It was a very good thing because these four took FOREVER! Lots of resting in between attempts… Well, for everyone but Dr Rick!

After nine clinics, Rick was DONE!!! He did a lot of great work  and helped many people in Jesus’ name!