Pan Dulce, Blue Herons and Strawberry Flavored Topical Anisthetic...

June 15th AM entry

***click on the hyperlinks to see pictures***
Today started out very slowly. Still exhausted from yesterday I managed to actually pull my sorry butt out of bed by 5:30 am to have devotions and pray-and fell asleep promptly in the middle-but did manage to wake back up and have some productive time.

Breakfast at Don Eduardo's again-this is the high point of the day as far as eating goes for me.

Rode again with Ron out to the village. Stopped off in another village to spend some time with the neighboring pastors and invite them to come. We drank some great coffee and ate sweet bread with a pastor and his family, talked about all sort of different things-just passed an hour in pleasant conversation. Alot of missionary work, at least in Mexico is spent drinking coffee, and making friends. I have read in books about doing in business in Mexico that "Relationships are the social oil that makes everything work smoothly", and that is even more true for missionary work also. Ron explained that before any clinics or crusades can take place there is so much legwork that needs to be done, and you have to sell people in the village on the idea, and then remind them and promote it to other churches. Nothing happens overnight or haphazardly when it comes to setting up these kind of events.

When we arrived at the clinic, things were already set up and just beginning. I set up registration and trained one of the ladies from Texas on how to do it-Her name is Vicky. Then I assisted the dentists. Since everything is mobile, you have to hold a flashlight into the patient's mouth so the dentist can see what they are doing. Then get the dentist gauze, or water, or hold up the spit bucket so the patient can rinse out their mouth. Because so few of them have brushed very often, there is a lot of blood in the spit, it was not a pretty site.

I watched extractions, cleanings and fillings, I watched María inject people with Novacane. When I got tired I would sit down and one of the other people would take over. Laura was trained in doing teeth cleanings and by the end of the day was a pro at it. She was very impressive. She said that sometimes the teeth were completely covered with plaque.***Click here to see her cleaning teeth***. The cleaning apparatus had a suction device that also filled with bloody waste water too that had to be emptied. By the end of the day, I became the one to empty all of the "Bio Hazard" liquid waste into the proper receptacle-at least I did not throw up.

At one point in the day, I took a break and Ron drove me down to the part of the village that is connected to a salt water tributary on the gulf. There was a salty cool breeze that chilled my sweaty body. I saw blue herons everywhere and could see the fish swimming in the water.

Two of the main industries in this village is producing sea salt by letting in the water to a flood plain and then letting it evaporate and collecting the sea salt and there is also a fishery where they collect a lot of shrimp.The flood plain is on the left and the building on the right is the fishery in the picture.


We went to lunch in two shifts. It was not as wonderful today as the first day, but I was hungry and ate it. We had ground beef and potatoes, rice, and napolitos(heart of cactus-very good-like tangy green beans) and some of the wonderful chilled and washed mexican plums that tasted like mangos.

After lunch I was trained on preparing trays for the dentists to use on each patient. You had to be sterile, and be very clean. You had to put a bib, a mirror, a probe, tweezers, 2 vials of novacaine and a sterile needle, a syringe, gauze and a bottle of Strawberry Flavored Topical Antisthetic-that was the kid's favorite flavor-we had mint-but not used as much.