Update 10 Mar 07

Hello All,

 

I was faced with a dilemma this past week. I had a tooth that was really hurting and I knew I needed to see a dentist for it. Now, Yaoundé is not exactly on the cutting edge (no pun intended) of medical research and treatment so the thought of a going to a dentist worried me greatly. Most of the missionary community here go to Mbengo Hospital in the Nwest for medical treatment because the hospitals here are very unreliable. A student here hurt her knee in a volleyball game this past week and knowing the help they would get here in the city elected to wait until the next day to make the 5 hour drive up to the Nwest to see a doctor there. They ended up catching an SIL flight instead and it looks like she will make a full recovery. I hadn't heard a lot about dental work but I started asking around and I got the number of a new woman dentist in Quartier Tongolo which is up on the north end of the city. They said she only speaks French so I had another French speaking teacher make an appointment. I went there with such low expectations that I knew I would not be disappointed. The cab driver who swore he knew the place finally found it after driving around the neighborhood for a half hour. Good thing I left early. The streets here are seldomly named and there are no real addresses on buildings. Anyway, I found the office and was surprised to see that it at least had electricity. The doctor herself opened the door and greeted me in her best English. The whole office was about the size of an average bedroom including the waiting area. It was so cramped that she could have checked her email and drilled at the same time. Thankfully she did not. She was very nice and pleasant and her 2 dental assistants respected her immensely. There was none of the usual fill out 8 pages of forms and wait an hour before you start. She brought me straight over to the chair and asked if I had "eepertenniseeyon". I'm not sure if I'd admit to that either way but after hearing French accents for 8 months I understood her to ask if I had hypertension (high blood pressure). I nervously asked her if she meant right now or any other day. Seeing a frozen look on her face I simply repeated that I did not. The assistants put the bib on and started firing up all the stuff and laying out instruments. Before we left home last August I had a filling put in and it was the one giving me trouble so I anticipated some drilling and novocain. Not sure what the usual method of anesthetic is I prepared myself for the worst. She poked and looked and poked some more and then took a little spray bottle and squirted some awful stuff over the bed tooth and gums. I about choked on the flavor but the whole side of my face was numb in 15 seconds. She started drilling and shot me a little more with a needle but I felt nothing. 20 minutes later I was done pain-free. It turns out that my tooth was infected under the bad filling and I needed a root canal. I go back next Thursday to finish it off. The whole thing cost 88,000 cfa or about $160 including the office visits. Despite the obvious lack of conversation I would say she is the best dentist I have ever had. I know the average Cameroonian couldn't afford a dentist like her so I shudder to think what low-end care the average schmo gets here in the city. In the villages, there is probably nothing at all. One good thing about their health care system is that you can buy anything you want at a pharmacy. You just have to ask for it and you can buy it. The one by the Aeroport even gives SIL people a 10% discount (if you know how to ask for it in French).

Other than that, we are gearing up for a trip to Equatorial Guinea over break in 2 weeks. It should be fun and it's a lot shorter trip than the one over Christmas.

Anytime you have to brush the sawdust off of your shirt after teaching a class it is a good day. My Geog 9 class is studying Wind Processes so we (I) decided to build a windmill. But not just any windmill. Ours will actually do a practical task usable in a village somewhere. At least we presume it could be used, theoretically. The trouble with living on the equator is that it is seldom windy. We will sidestep that landmine by simulating wind with a desk fan. We built the platform Friday morning and it is about 4.5 feet tall and we started building the fan in the afternoon. Because of some scheduling changes my class meets twice on Fridays. The kids are very excited to see if we can pull it off but we (I) have to get a hold of some parts that the school does not have. There is a hardware (junk) store near the Mvan bakery that is always out of beigneys (fried bread with sugar for 50cfa or 10 cents a pop) that might have what we need. I might send DJ, a student who lives right near there, in to buy the stuff because he can get a better price than me.

That's it from here. Betsy says hey and God Bless.

Brian & Betsy