San Bartolo, clinic day 1

     Day 1 is in the books! The clinic today was in San Bartolo, which is about 20-30 minutes farther up the mountain from the Sizemore's mission compound. We started the day with a wonderful blueberry pancake breakfast. Then, we loaded the bus to head up the mountain. After we arrived and Scott Wingard got the lay of the land we began unloading the equipment and setting up the clinic per his instructions. We had five interpreters with us today plus two of the mother's of some children in the Mission on the Move program and our driver for the week Gustavo (Tavo is the on the far right of the morning group shot below).

.

    I didn't get many shots of the set up as it was an all hands on deck affair.  I will intentionally so better as the week goes on. But, here are some shots of the station set up that I took once the dental chairs were set up. 

    Our process began with Erin Willingham and Marvin Goodin handling the registration outside.

The patients were then escorted to a triage chair to determine if they needed fillings, extraction(s), or just a simple cleaning. I am so glad for Ruth Crews, a hygienist, to be on the trip with us so we CAN do simple cleanings! Randy Arnold with assistant Ryan Galey and Kim Willingham with assistant Mia Williams focused mainly on the restorative elements of the day which again is much needed.  It is especially gratifying to know that we can fill the cavity of a 12 year old rather than have to pull the tooth out. 

     On and on the day went. I believe we saw over forty patients today! We learned some things and we will tweak for tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow is another day and the set up will be a little bit different. Since we are going to five different communities over the course of our five days in country the set up will always vary a bit from day to day.

      Naturally, we have to have a little fun along the way. While we did not have any novice teeth pullers today Bill Trotter did pull the longest canine tooth he could remember. I don't think that guy will ever have sinus problems again!

And here we are at the end of the day before we loaded the bus to come back to Honduyate. Thank you church for the privilege of serving alongside you unto the uttermost parts of the world.  Thank you Ernie and Allison for following God's call to the people of Honduras!