Enter German dentist…Exit rotten teeth….

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“Mis Mali….My head hurts, I can hardly sleep at night because my teeth hurt so bad.” an old lady tells me as she stuffs more cotton balls into her ears. “Show me mami,”I smile at her as she opens her mouth as wide as possible and quickly reaches in with her not-so-clean- fingers to point out to me the one that hurts. All I can see a row of black stumps. I sigh…”If only I was a dentist “but I am not. So I grab my pen and quickly jot down and anti-inflammatory drug and tell her that I’m sorry but that’s as much as I can do.
 This story is repeated many times over in a week. Some have large rotting abscesses, some can hardly chew their food, some have stumps that are ready to fall out.
  Rho had a patient that desperately needed a good dentist. Whitney has a pregnant lady that has a tooth abscess, Kindra has an old grandpa that has so many rotten teeth that we wonder how he can even chew anything. There has got to be someone who would help us out. I scratch my head trying to pull up a kind-hearted dentist. “Oh yah, that’s the one.” A German dentist that I met while I lived in S.A. I run home and talk to Donavan and Thea about him. Thus begin the long process of realizing one of my dreams.
  We( staff&Haitians) rejoiced when Ewald (the dentist) agreed to come down and work for 10 days. He sent down a wonderful dentist chair ( made in Germany):) to you Germans I congratulate your smarts when it comes to manufacturing portable dental chairs.:) I

Thankyou so much Ewald for buying this amazing dental equipment and to your church for praying and helping.
Ewald Martens and his daughter Debbie arrived on the 27th of March. All the way from clean, precise, Germany to the reckless, filthy, beautiful, scenic, hurting, land of Ayiti.
The Haitians were extremely happy to have a dentist. The lines waited, holding their cheeks and stuffing cotton swabs in their ears.(Don’t ask why they put cotton swabs in their ears. Ewald was mystified by it and asked every one of them why they did and each one had a different answer.;)Hans assisted him in the morning and also David. I was amazed at how everyone pulled together to make this dream come true. A big thankyou to everyone involved. There was sterilizing every night, Kindra kindly did it for me as I came home from work at 10:30 pm and was too tired to stand. Janell who brought some yummy sandwiches down for Ewald and I. Julian who kept the power on and even assisted the dentist for a short time! Kara and Eugene for being patient and keeping the food warm on the stove for us. Whitney for releasing me to work in the afternoons. David for the coffee and chocolates:) Ellamae for helping the other nurses when I was too busy to leave the dentist. Donny and Thea for your very timely words of encouragement. Mesi Bondye.
After some hard work…these rotten teeth came out!! The patient smiles widely and reaches out to hug the dentist. Ewald claims he has never been hugged by a patient before. To all of you who hate dental appointments..be thankful because w/o dentist you would be in the same shoes as these people!:)
After pulling out all the bad teeth..



Hans and Ewald at work!
Degage…Ewald learnt the meaning of this word in one day!! 
A work of art. A well made filling. A happy patient.

tools of the trade…these tools I’m sure felt
loved and needed like never before!
Ewald and I taking a 5 minute lunch break before calling in the next patient.
Estandy’s beautiful smile after having filled
the black cavities that glared out between
his front teeth.

 

We were so excited when Hans pulled up on a motto
in PAP and had the dental unit all the way from
China.

Doc. Ewald and the patients that were waiting for dental care. But it was 7:30 and
we needed to get our luggage packed. They were not too pleased but understood when they saw how
shaky his arm was getting from pulling too many teeth and at how tired I looked.
God has been incredibly good to us. A lot of Haitian’s can now sleep well at night. The needs are great but we cant focus on that. As long as we keep helping the ones that we are able too.
“I will not change the world, Jesus will do that.
But,I can change the world for one person .
So I will keep loving that one person at a time.”-Katie Davis
-Mis Mali

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