We thank The Lord for his blessing. After a good night rest we were all enthusiastic and ready to tackle another busy day. Our third day at Trece Martires started off pretty much the same way as yesterday. After breakfast our bus driver picked us up at 7.30am for our 30 min bus ride to Southville and again we were greeted by a long line of people queuing up to register for treatment. Words about our mission must have reach every corner of the village, we were inundated with more patients than we can physically treat, with all of us working to our absolute capacity. This morning, we were informed that people started queuing up at 5am, after missing out on treatment the day before.
As usual our day started with a group prayer.
The weather today was hot and humid which added an extra challenge to our day. We were very appreciative of the regular cold refreshment provided by the volunteers to keep us hydrated. A total of 70 medical and 60 dental patients were treated with 163 teeth extracted today and 132 yesterday. Again a good outcome was achieved. Everyone coped really well under some trying conditions.
Highlight for the day:
1.Leo retrieved a large foreign body from the nostril of a 12 year old boy, surrounded by infection and pus, that has been lodged inside the nose for the last 6 years. Patient was really happy he could breathe his nose again.
- The kids here are so brave. Not only do they turn up for treatment without their parents, there was an 8 year old boy whose tooth was so infected that we were unable to achieve anaesthesia even after 4 lots of local anaesthetic. With silent tears rolling down his face and hanging onto Cheryl’s hand tightly he let me take 3 teeth, one of which were badly infected with no complaints! He was really happy afterwards as the pain had stopped.
After dinner tonight the kids and volunteers from Bukang Liwayway gave us an impromptu vocal concert, singing with joy and a number of kids and adults gave messages of thanks from the bottom of their hearts. As a treat, we arranged for ice cream as dessert, the joyous look on their faces said it all.