Happy Birthday Gardose

Elder Stewart and Elder Gardose

Elder Gardose had a birthday and a dental appointment on the same day. He is serving in the
 Manila Mission and this is his p-day.

Good luck Elder Gardose!  Have a really great day for the rest of the day......

Starfish

I remember a story I was told a long time ago about a man who would come out in the morning to pick up starfish on the beach to save them from the birds and other predators and throw them back into the sea. A friend watched him one day and asked why he would go to so much work to save these starfish when there were thousands maybe hundreds of thousands he wouldn’t be able to save in this fruitless endeavor. Bending to pick up a starfish as he then threw it into the sea he replied, “It will matter to that one.”

Our clinic cannot see all the missionaries who arrive in the MTC and stay for 2 ½ weeks. On intake day, Dr. Stewart and his wife check the missionaries’ teeth and give them a rating from 1 to 4. 1 being the most critical and 4 is ok. Lots of the missionaries have never seen a dentist or have been to one only when their teeth need to be extracted. Sugar is put into most of the products and brushing, flossing isn’t a tradition. The water is not good for drinking. As missionaries we are cautioned not to drink water unless it has been distilled or purified. The condition of a lot of these very young men and women’s teeth can make me cry.

The ones are put on a list and seen as quickly as possible. Dr. Stewart will numb one side of the mouth and do as much work as he can in an hour. Fillings, root canals, pulp caps, and sometimes extractions are all done in the allotted hour. We then make an appointment for the other side of the mouth. Of course the MTC has many classes and learning they cram into their 2 weeks, so to get everything accomplished is difficult. The missionaries categorized as 2 and 3s have an X-ray so Dr. Stewart can determine if anyone is headed for bone loss or cancer. If their x-rays turn up problems then they are re-categorized to a 1. The goal is to see and treat all the ones. I have watched Sister Stewart agonize about scheduling all the critical young men and women.

A young missionary walked in with her companion and friends and told me she had a toothache. I had to tell her to schedule an appointment through the MTC nurse because Dr. Stewart’s day was already full. Triage is painful sometimes, I felt like I was stepping on the starfish instead of picking it up. I want everybody to be cared for.

Dr. Stewart makes jokes about investigating one mouth at a time and saving teeth one missionary at a time. I told him the energizer bunny has nothing on his endurance. He routinely gets to the office at 5:30 am and sees the last patient of the day out the door around 5 or 5:30 pm. The clinic works Monday through Saturday except one Saturday a month. Often Dr. Stewart works right through lunch especially in emergency situations. Any time the MTC cannot send missionaries I email the missions around the office and have their missionaries come.  He is unfailingly gentle, patient, and soft-spoken with a smile on his face. He has a way of singing, “Mabuti po” as he works away on each missionary’s teeth.

Only Dr. Stewart can work because there is no other dentist here. I pray for him during the day sometimes that he’ll have endurance and any heavenly help that he needs to accomplish his goals.

Starfish and missionaries – saving them one at a time.

Whose mission?

Sister Ashcroft -Temple missionary (now gone back to the temple), LA, Sister Stewart, Sister  Davenport - helps out in emergencies

When I left Utah I really thought this mission was for Jeffrey and that I was along for the ride. It has felt the reverse since the first day I stepped into the dental clinic.

I have been handed ways of being creative every day. At the dental clinic we have different projects to complete and I’ve googled for many answers to excel spreadsheets making formulas so my answers will pop up where I need them. I have earned imaginary “merit badges” for all the basics of keeping patients in the chair and having the office run smoothly. Sister Stewart has different types of projects to hand me after I learned the basics of records, charts, assisting and cleaning. Some days when the power goes out in certain places we have a very exciting time trying to keep the autoclave working and saving documents as the Internet goes in and out.*

Next week I have a 15-minute lesson at the Mabuhay House* I have been assigned to teach. I decided since I work at the dental clinic I’d demonstrate the need to take care of teeth. Traditionally the missionaries come to the house and sing songs that include everybody (Do as I’m doing etc.) and then teach a simple lesson and then leave crafts or papers to color etc. I’m told I can’t proselyte because “it isn’t that kind of place.” I asked what kind of place it was. An LDS doctor saw a need for care given to patients who come a long way to get cleft palates fixed and turned feet operated on, to stay – sometimes for months – while they go to doctor appointments etc.  Sometimes the whole family comes from great distances to stay. The Deseret Mabuhay House is a place that lets them stay, feeds them and on Wednesdays the missionaries couples from the Area entertain the children for an hour. I’m told there can be up to 30 children - but right now there are under 20 children and almost 30 adults. The adults come and sit while the children are being entertained. I’ll let you know how it all works out.

Jeffrey is enjoying his work though it is much different than being a shareholder in a firm where he gets to make the decisions. Luckily this week his boss has returned from his travels and Jeffrey has been given more to do. I am having a great time.

Regardless of the reason we decided to go and for whom it was meant, I know I am where I’m suppose to be and that I have a good purpose for being here.

* another post-

City Living

Jeffrey and I look out at Quezon City from an apartment window on the 6^th floor. There is an outdoor swimming pool on our floor. Quezon City is a very crowded and has many projects in various stages of construction with modern lines right next to falling down shacks and pinned together dwellings.

There are mansion subdivisions with walls around them and shanty subdivisions all with a beautiful greenness everywhere. The skies are unbelievably beautiful with many colors of clouds and blues. 

Right now we are located in a very large traffic circle with malls and apartments in the middle and malls, shops and apartment buildings on the outside. It is a little hard to describe - apartment high risers up to 35 or more floors flank a three-story mall. Little shops and restaurants are tucked away in doorways that angle off of the main lobby of the mall. Sometimes you go up stairs or an escalator at the entrance to get to a store. Sometimes you go through a store to get to a restaurant.

People are walking and crossing the streets in between the cars, jeepneys and motorcycles weaving in and out of each other. I don’t know if the traffic ever stops because whenever I look out there are lots and lots of vechicles on the roads. (Traffic warrants its own post). People walk, ride the bus, jeepnies, motorbikes (1 to 3 people on them) and I heard there was a train though I haven’t seen one yet. There are people bustling around all the time because many 24-hour call centers are in some of the high risers too. The apartment basements have 5 levels of parking. There is the ground floor and lobby and then floors 1 through 5 are more parking. The cement walls in the garage are all painted different colors at each level with birds, or butterflies, or flowers etc.

Our apartment is actually rented by an American dentist who hasn’t made it back  here after leaving to take care of his family. His daughter and son-in-law got killed in a tragic plane accident and have left children who are sudden orphans. It sounds like he won’t make it back until January. He has been a major component of having this MTC dental clinic and pushed hard to have it built. After a week of working in the newly completed clinic in July he flew home.

Everything is built on a small scale and it is really nice that it is just Jeffrey and I.  I am not sure how they raise children in such small apartments. I know I hear children in the outdoor swimming pool on our floor, and I’ve watched tiny busses come in the front turn around circle and pick up individual children for school. 

Christmas Lasts for Four Months

I just have to think Kelsi would approve of this custom here.

For Halloween they had a party in the lobby of our apartment building with all kinds of life size creatures (next to a Christmas tree). Evidently in September the Christmas decorations come out and Christmas music can be heard in the malls and stores. There are rows of Christmas trees in the store windows and a huge tree in the middle of the circle outside of the malls and apartments. Everything is lit up during the night in tiny lights. I don’t know if it is all the time or special for Christmas. Last night I saw fireworks going off behind some distant high risers. It was very beautiful though I have no idea what the celebration was for. The temperature is around 82 to 85 degrees and it has rained quite a bit in the last few days. I’m wrapping my brain around a warm tropical Christmas season.

Sister Ashcroft

Jonah, Sister Stewart, LA, Sister Ashcroft, Sister Hoems

Today we had a farewell party for one of the temple missionaries. The temple has been in renovation repairs for three months, so Sister Ashcroft has been helping out in the dental office. She has been training me in how to do the filing, scheduling, and end of the month paperwork along with Sister Hoems who came out about a week before I arrived. Sister Ashcroft laughs that it takes two missionaries to cover her place.

Some Missionaries from the MTC, MRC, Area, and Dental Office

I am excited to have the temple open next week so we can attend.