Midwestern University Visit

This is the back corner of the Liahona Campus. The photo looks kind of industrial, but it really isn’t.  The water tower is to create pressure for the system on campus.  All of the houses for Senior Missionaries, and teachers at the high school have cisterns that collect rainwater. We also have filtered water that we use for drinking. Seniors have furniture in their homes, and stoves in the kitchen, but Tongans just sit on the floor, and cook outside.

This is the entrance to the clinic. When we arrive in the morning, the Tongans are all waiting outside the (locked) doors of the clinic. We invite them all to come in and sit down in the reception area. It is air conditioned inside and is generally a lot cooler than it is outside, even early in the morning. The temperature doesn’t change much from day to night. Some of the Tongans feel uncomfortably cool inside, because they aren’t used to air conditioning. We leave the temperature about 18 – 21 degrees Celsius. (In our house, too). Without the air conditioning, black mold forms very quickly.

Mom asked yesterday about getting a computer for the reception area to keep better track of patients, and the Church approved it! We have no idea when we will actually receive it – it could be a while, but at least it’s in the system. We really will need it, especially when we have another dentist working in the clinic, and volunteers coming, that will increase our patient flow.

This is the reception desk, and behind it to the left, we have a small lab where stone-work is done. When Midwestern comes, they bring with them equipment to do flipper partials and a few full dentures.  For the past couple of weeks, we have been doing a lot of screenings, and deferring treatment – as it turns out, I was reminded yesterday that I have asked a few dozen patients “Come in on Monday, November 13!” We are going to be slammed on Monday, but there are 16 students and 9 faculty members who will be there to attend to the needs of the patients.

You can see our x-ray unit on the wall, on the right side of the photo. It is in the doorway between the reception area and the main clinic. Patients sit on a little bench when we take x-rays. It makes walking between the two clinic rooms a little awkward. I don’t think it would be up to code in the U.S.

This is our main clinic area with 4 chairs and units that were donated by Midwestern. Behind each chair and unit, I straightened out and zip tied up all of the hoses up out of the way. It was a Gordian Knot that made it a major challenge just to find the rheostat (foot pedal) so we could use the units when treating patients.

I also added new shelving behind the units and organized it with labels to make it more convenient to find supplies when treating patients.

This is the second clinic room that we have been using while we were working on the vacuum pump in the other clinic. That process was a week of frustration spent trouble shooting without making much progress. We finally figured out that the pump had been wired for 110 and not 240, and the amperage to the motor was causing it to overheat and shut-down,  so everything is working well now, just in the nick of time for Midwestern, who will descend on the clinic in two days. There will be 2 students at each of the 7 chairs, and 2 in the sterilization area. The instructors will circulate around, and I will basically keep out of their way, and let them do their own thing. They have been coming twice a year for 7 years, have donated tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and supplies and have it figured out. I tend to reinvent the wheel when I am thrust into new situations, and this time, I will try to have the wisdom to leave it well enough alone.

This clinic with three chairs will be primarily for Endo. It has its own vacuum pump. I have been talking about basic infrastructure in the clinics that we take for granted will work, but here even a minor breakdown can be a major catastrophe. We can’t call Patterson Dental or Sullivan Schein and have a dental equipment technician on the site in an hour. We have used the technician who works at the hospital in Nuku ‘alofa, and have been very lucky to have him. He brought in a colleague yesterday, who is an electrician as well, and they figured things out, just as we were about to have a new vacuum motoer air-freighted overnight from South Dakota. It was a miracle.

It all comes down to this. We are here to serve the people, and when we get side-tracked by the perceived short-comings of the delivery system, we are jolted back to reality by people who come to see us who have real human needs that can be heart-breaking. We tend to take for granted so many conveniences that are, in reality, heaven-sent blessings, and we are reminded over and over again about our stewardship responsibilities. This is going to be physically exhausting, but emotionally and spiritually rewarding.