The other day Ruth was complaining about a tooth ache and
Paul has a volunteer dentist in town so it seemed like an easy connection but
nothing is easy in Peru. I stopped by her house to pick her up and before I
knew it I was headed to the dentist with seven children, two of them babies.
Good thing Theo was with me.
When we arrived Joanne (the dentist) dove in evaluating the
little mouths. I was watching the process and listening to the chaos out in the
lobby as the anxious monsters ran around the lobby. One time I stepped out to
make sure they were not tearing anything up and found one of them taking a
shower in the bathroom. As Ruth jumped
up on the table, I looked up and saw five little faces plastered to the glass. Who knew that going to the dentist was a spectator sport?
Finally we decided there was plenty of work to do but we
would start with Maria, Ruth’s sister. Theo volunteered to take the trek back
to Belen with our little army, while Joanne worked on Maria. Ruth has some real
problems in her mouth but they are going to require an x-ray which will
probably be another trip to the hospital and another blog post.
Maria jumped up into the chair and was ready to go, all
smiles until the needle came out. I was really impressed though, she flinched
when the needle went into her little mouth but not a whimper or a cry during the
procedure.
We finished out the trip to the dentista with a tooth brush,
a stuffed animal, a popsicle and a beautiful little smile. I love these
kids.