Working on shore as Dental Screen Volunteer

Mercy Ships does not work all its magic simply on board the ship. Essentially all of the dental work is done on shore through the "Hope Center" (http://www.mercyships.ca/hope/). I was fortunate enough to help with the screening process by simply going up to the long lines of potential patients and talking to them and making sure they felt comfortable. Some have traveled a great distance just to be seen by a dental health care professional. Some are chosen to be suitable applicants while others are told they will not be seen in the clinic this time around (however, screenings are held Monday and Thursday each day of the week). It was quite heartbreaking to see some parents thrusting their children towards me pointing to their child's mouth. Of course I have no expertise on the matter and had to tell them they had to wait for the dental professionals to make their way (I said this of course through a translator). I was able to ask basic French questions and use some of the Malagasy language to converse with the people which was nice!-- The crew that I work with on the ship is mostly local Malagasy people so they took it upon themselves to teach me key phrases and how to speak (very primitively) in Malagasy. After the screening process I was able to watch dental work being done and was actually given the opportunity to comfort a patient via holding her hand whilst she received "the long numbing needle!" in preparation for a tooth extraction. I find it rather remarkable that despite our language barrier, simply holding her hands communicated to hear a calmness that I could not do by mouth. All in all I would say this was a fantastic experience and something I am most definitely going to do again. Here are some photos from the experience.