First week of clinics!

Well, we had our first week of clinics! It was sooooo exhausting!  I literally fell asleep when my head hit the pillow!  I pulled my first teeth this week! At first it was really scary, because I was afraid of hurting people, but as the week went on I got more confident at it.  We had a clinic everyday this week and there were six surgeries!  The doctor is so amazing. The surgeries, however, are not sterile in any way shape or form. lol. But he does so many things and he sees up to 200 patients in one day!  This week has been so fun, and so exhausting at the same time.  I caught a cold this week so I've been under the weather a little bit.  We made cinnamon rolls for Sabbath breakfast! We are becoming quite the cooks!  I had a little girl ask me for a bible this week and fortunately I had brought a little spanish bible with me, so I gave it to her.  We're starting a week of prayer this week at  my church and I'm preaching on Thursday! Please pray for me! I'm not a sure that I can be a preacher!

A Day Without Electricity

Yesterday at about 3am the electricity from KM 38 to Pucallpa was out until about midnight last night.  We
don´t use electricity a lot so that wasn´t an issue, but we do need electricity so that we can pump water to drink and to cook with. For about half of the day yesterday we were without water.  We made the best of it. We actually had a lot of fun! When night came we lit candles and us girls sat around the table and told stories about friends or things we used to do as kids and we read books we each had brought. Rachel and I also made some super delicious oatmeal and peanut butter cookies! It worked because we have a gas stove and you don´t need water to make them. They were so good!  Also, since the spot lots were out at the base we were all outside and took these really cool pictures with our headlamps! Hanna set her camera so that the shutter would stay open for  
20 seconds and we drew letters and pictures with our lights. I´ll have to post a picture on this blog when I get a chance.

Almost 2 weeks in...

The teeth we pulled

So, I've been here for two weeks starting Monday.  So far we're having a lot of fun! The team here has bonded so well! We get along great! Right now there are 7 of us and still 3 more to come.  The first week here was spent orientating ourselves to the area and to the base.  It was a difficult week because I really missed my family and Jacob.  This week we started working. In the past 2 weeks I've been making lesson plans for my classes, but this week we started learning dental.  On Sunday the dentist gave an overview of the basics of sterilization and anesthesia.  Monday we practice our new anesthetic knowledge on each other!  My mouth was numb for a few hours and eating lunch was a very interesting and difficult task. haha. Thursday we were brought a pig's head to practice pulling teeth on. Oh my!  Pigs have very tough teeth to pull!  They tell us though that human teeth are not nearly so hard to pull.  One of the teeth we pulled had a 3 inch root and another had 5 roots! I hope we're ready for our first clinic on monday!  I'm most definately going to be reviewing every video and piece of information I have! I'm so scared of hurting someone! Fortunately the dentist will be there to assist with next weeks clinic.

For the most part it is pretty hot here but we did get some rain that cooled it down for a few days. I'm definately very happy to have made some very good friends here. Cockroaches fill our kitchen. It is absolutely disgusting! But you get used to it and just make a lot of noise when you cook so that they stay away.  Our stove was having issues this last week but it got repaired which was nice. We all take turns cooking for each other, there's about 17 in total to cook for.
The most interesting adventures we've had of yet, besides the kitchen and giving each other anesthesia, usually involve the bathroom or the shower.  We have a huge frog that usually dwells in either place, he looks like he weighs four or five pounds. And also in the bathroom lives a bat. Each time we use the bathroom we have to stop around to make sure the bat is not going to fly up at us. lol.  This morning, early, I was headed to the bathroom and had a double whammy!  To start off, I didn't grab my glasses in my half-asleep state so I was pretty much blind. When I got to the bathroom, I could tell there was something on the floor, but had no clue what it was. I got closer and it was that frog!  So, I put a bucket on top of him and tried to move him but he wouldn't budge so I put the sack of sawdust on top of the bucket so that he wouldn't jump on me as I was going about my business.  As I was preparing to escape from the monster frog, a black object swooped in and flew into the hole below! Safe to say as soon as my blurry vision figured out what that was, I started screaming!  It was not an experience that you want at 4 or 5 in the morning, especially without your glasses!  I quickly to the bag and bucket off of the frog and slowly backed out of the bathroom hoping that the frog who was staring me down wouldn't jump. I ran back to the house.

Well, this details my adventures for the week. God has definately been working on my character and gives me strength and comfort daily! Pictures to come....Internet is to slow to upload them now.

God bless you and keep you safe!