Pulling Teeth

These last two weeks in Jarabacoa I have worked through Students International in the Dentistry site. The site consisted of me, Vanesa Nolasco, our site leader, and Zachary Shepard. Zach and I worked at the site as assistants; basically nurses of dentistry. We would set up the chairs for the patients before they entered, sanitize them afterward, bring Vanesa any instruments she needed during the procedure, and even, near the end of the trip, floss the patients’ teeth after a cleaning. It was an amazing experience. We got to work in the dentistry office as actual workers. I learned so much about dentistry. Vanesa encouraged questions. We would ask about anything from root canals to fillings and she would happily tell us.

The most amazing thing to see and learn from though was how Vanesa treated her patients. She would greet them as they came in, speaking Spanish much to rapidly for me to comprehend, ask them how they were, what their life was like. She knew every patient, and their stories. She would explain to us what their lives were like. How one man was in a motorcycle accident and now needed major reconstructive surgery but all he could afford was to have Vanesa do what she could. Another girl came from a shelter for younger girls she had come from a broken past that Vanesa didn’t even know the whole of. She treated every one and asked us to pray for each patient as their teeth were being worked on. It was an amazing reminder. That even if we couldn’t effectively communicate because of the language barrier, we could still pray for them, and God would still work in their lives.

The dentistry site was simple, yet professional. It consisted of a small room with a desk, two chairs separated by curtains, and a small rolling dresser of equipment, with a doorway in the back led to an area for cleaning our equipment and storing extra supplies. We would receive patients in an outer waiting room shared with the medical site that was located in the same building. One amazing blessing that came from our time working at the medical site was how we helped Vanesa’s normal nurse, Fanny. Fanny’s daughter got sick after our third day working at the site. Normally this would put a lot of strain on the site as Vanesa tried to work around Fanny being gone for several hours a day extra. However, because of Zachary and I, Fanny was able to leave to take her daughter to the Hospital, where she stayed for several days. Our time, through God’s grace, was able to bless Fanny in many ways, and to make Vanesa’s site more effective.

Pray for us as we finish our last day in the Dominican with sessions of debriefing and a baptismal service for seven of our students.  Tomorrow we travel home. Pray that we will not forget what we learned here and that we will not forget the people we have met. This time here has been an amazing blessing for all of us. Praise be to our God.

Blessings of Peace,

Ronald P. Duttweiler Jr.

LIFT 34


This is our last blog entry for this semester's mission trip.  Thanks for your support and thanks for reading.  We will post pictures of the baptism on our facebook page later today.


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