Thank You for Loving Us! (Sunday)

We all got a great night sleep at the friary on Saturday; the boys were woken up by children letting them know it was “TIME TO GO TO CHURCH!” for the friars and Katie got an earlier wake-up call from the compounds German Shepard.  We were told the dog barks when it sees snakes or intruders, so you can imagine the things going through her head J.  After some amazing showers (the showers here are incredible compared to our Kampala showers), we got together to separate out our supplies and come up with a game plan. Our unpacking was accompanied by some local music a few of the school’s children played for us while they hung out outside the door, eager to meet all of us.  We were able to play for a little bit and get some pictures before we had to eat breakfast and get set up for the day!

Posing with our new friends, they wanted to "Greet the Lady"

Dan & Katie doing a composite fllling


We saw a total of 17 patients over the course of the afternoon – and it was definitely a learning experience.  With an amazing amount of help from all of the friars and people from the village who acted as translators, we all got the chance to do some work.  Marc, Katie and Dan all jumped right in and were all able to get the concept of extractions down, make sure that we had some of the basic language (yasama is open your mouth, bunira is close your mouth), place some fluoride releasing restorations, make sure that our oral hygiene presentations were up to par and most importantly – get some people out of pain and educate them to be able to care for themselves in the future.  For many of the children and even adults we met today, we were their first experience with a dentist.  Everyone was incredibly grateful for our presence and even for the small amount of help we were able to offer them - a common phrase used here is “thank you for loving us.” 

Dan & Dr. Farmer doing a filling

Tomorrow we will head out into “the bush” as Marian calls it, and go to our first village outreach.  We are all bracing ourselves for a long day – as Dan, Marc, and Katie felt like they got hit by a bus after just 17 patients today – but are incredibly excited to meet everyone and be able to make some small impact on their lives and are hopeful that with growth of the project we will be able to make a lasting change.  We are so thankful to Dr. Farmer for coming along with us and teaching us and again – thanks so much to everyone who donated supplies, this could NOT have happened without you!