Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Dr. Gigi

In Indonesia the word for teeth is gigi--so a dentist is Dr. Gigi. We had our own Dr. Gigi on the recent team. He came from the place on the planet that has had a record snowfall and now he is in the remote islands of Indonesia pulling and filling teeth.

Dr. Paul (Dr. Gigi) was just been amazing as he patiently took a look at the dental needs of each person. He was also there to train the dental support staff. It was fascinating watching him instruct each one of them--they were each at a different skill level.

The bonus was his interpreter, Annie. She was born in Indonesia and moved to America as a young woman. She has family who live in Java. She flew up to the base and was a great help to Dr. Gigi as he instructed his staff. She just stood back until she was needed. She had a very good grip on the more technical part of the language.

He has children come to the dental room who did not want to get close to a dentist and others who just opened their mouths and came out smiling. I saw the first boy who came to see the dentist and his dental needs were major. There was another that needed the best part of three days to help his mouthful of cavities.

I could see the confidence of the dental staff increase as each day passed. Dr. Paul let them assist and even do some of the work under his tutelage. The staff is learning the practical experiences and upgrading their skills--step-by-step.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Extreme

I would confidently say that minus 50 or 60 degrees Fahrenheit is extreme cold. How about over 300 inches of snow accumulation and the winter isn’t even close to being finished? That is an extreme amount of snow. Alaska is beautiful by any measure and it is a place of many extremes. It gets dangerous to drive in these extremes. There are plenty of documentaries and reality shows about life in the Great North Land. The crab fisherman, gold miners and State Troopers show the rest of the world just how extreme this place is. If you are still not convinced, just take a walk near a salmon spawning stream when the brown bears are filling up before they hibernate. I guarantee you will feel very small and vulnerable.

I guess it might take some extreme adventurers to volunteer to go to the medical base in remote Indonesia. It might take people who see extremes almost every day to board a series of flights and fly 35-40 hours to serve the needs of the poorest-of-the-poor. I look forward to serving with six volunteers from Alaska. We will join together and put our energies into making a difference in the lives of the poor. I have a core belief—it doesn’t take much to make a difference. There will be two things for sure—there will be no piles of snow or minus temperatures on the islands of Indonesia.