The much hoped for miracle happened today. We were able to treat every single child this week here at RSO! The dentists finished up with their last patients at around 3 p.m. today! Happy, happy day! That enabled them to go out to an amazing leprosy colony and pull some teeth on some wonderful people there. We pack our bags and head out tomorrow. It will be so hard to say goodbye to these children whom we have grown to love (which didn’t take long!). Our experiences here have been life-changing. For us AND for them.

You should see our dental clinic that we set up – it is awesome! It really turned out great. They cleared out a storage room for us and we set up in there. Luckily it has an air-conditioner so that is a huge plus (although the electricity here can be sporadic). We feel (and look) like a MASH unit. Our triturator broke on day 2 so it’s been a bit of a challenge to mix the Fuji (filling material). We have to shake it by hand which can be quite a task, but we’ve discovered if you hit it against the wall really hard it several times it does the trick

I can’t tell you how lovable these children are. They call us “Auntie” and “Uncle.” I will be walking down the path and hear, “Auntie! Auntie!” I’ll turn around and see a beautiful child smiling from ear to ear. These children are melting my heart and I want to bring each one of them home with me. They show us so much love, as we do them.

Members of our group (there are 11 of us) take turns each day doing different assignments. Of course the dentists are in the clinic along with 3 of us for assisting. The rest of us are either in the mango grove tutoring the children or out in the Leprosy colonies assisting those suffering from Leprosy. I, along with 4 others, just returned from AS Nagar Leprosy colony. We washed the feet of several leprosy patients. Again, no words to describe what an amazing experience. What beautiful people! They were so kind and friendly and appreciative of us. It will be something I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life.

The conditions here are so much more bearable than I expected. I really expected it to be the worst of the worst. It’s amazing though that when you are serving others how you are sustained so that you can do the work. It is very hot and very humid. There are 5-6 of us in a concrete room with bunk beds. The toilets here are called “squaters” and that’s exactly what you do to use them! Just a hole in the ground so you must squat. But watch out for the frogs that are in them, they may jump up and hit you in the bum!

We bathe with a bucket of water that comes from an open well. We do have fresh drinking water and are served dinner each night by RSO. We eat on the roof and instead of plates we use banana leaves! We have rice and some sort of curry dish along with fresh mango and banana which are grown here on the property. Also fresh local pineapple.

As far as the dental work goes, the children have been so brave. Of course there have been tears but nothing we couldn’t calm. They love holding their little “squishy tooth” (which Wendy, provided). They squeeze them so hard in one hand while we hold their other hand. Oh, and have I mentioned how precious these kids are?! I think I have but I can’t say it enough )

We have seen some dental issues that we have never seen before. We are doing a lot of fillings and extractions, LOTS of cleanings (every child), and last I checked my husband was doing a root canal on a young girl about 12-years-old. It took us a couple of days to get the bleach for that but it arrived last night so that was happy news! Well, I could fill volumes with our experiences here but I need to get back to work. So far I have taken about 600 photos but have had no time to upload them to my blog. I hope to before we leave, but again, it may have to wait until after we get home. Again my blog address is http://rsoindia2009.blogspot.com/ Keep checking back, I’ll eventually get stuff up.

~Maryanne

Photos: The entire dental group (minus Dr. McGavin's son)
showing off their "Angels for a Cause" wristbands prior to
leaving for India. The team made a "star" with their fingers
to represent Rising Star! Maryanne can be see wearing the orange
and white tie-dyed shirt.