I serve with Mercy Ships. Everything here, however, is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Mercy Ships

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

From nothing to SOMETHING!

Monday the dental team started what felt like the never ending task of setting up the clinic. We were all excited because things were finally starting to move. We loaded up 4 trucks and 2 Landrovers and made our way to the clinic. When we arrived we had approx. 75 patients waiting there for us. After an hr or so of talking with people through a translator of course.... (I need to learn French) I finally got everyone settled down and told them to return on Thursday.

We spent all day Monday, Tuesday, and today getting things in order. We went from having NO power or water, no working generators, nothing set up or unpacked, no day volunteers to having water, power,working generators, 11 day volunteers, and all the instruments autoclaves and supplies accounted for and working.

We are ready to go. Tomorrow will be our first day of seeing patients. We are all so excited that we might not be able to sleep tonight.... Well I take that back, I don't think any of us will have trouble sleeping tonight. I have worked from 7am till 11:30 pm for the past three days. It has been another week of long hot hard days but tomorrow patients will be in our chairs and our clinic will be functioning. WOO HOO!.!

From this on Monday:

To this a Functioning Dental Clinic today:


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Way to go, Jessica! It looks like you are merely missing only one, critical item. The novelty-sized tooth in the waiting room :-) This looks awesome && I'm glad to hear that things are up && ready to roll! You all should be so proud -- especially after hearing about those long days!

Good luck! Have a great 'first day'.

Anonymous said...

WOW !!!!!! We are so happy for all the crew. Hope your first day is filled with lots of great fun. It sounds like the hard work might be behind you for at least awhile. Enjoy your time meeting the new patients and good luck catching up on your sleep.
Love you Mom and Dad
Ps Month one over 11 more to go (sorry but yes Iam counting miss you mom)

Mark said...

Hi Jess,

I have an 87 yr old cousin in Indianapolis that is home bound and she has your picture on her kitchen table. Erelene and her friend Jenneth pray for your every day.

Thanks for keeping us up to date! Glad you are getting started!

Mark Bledsoe, First Christian, Beardstown