Guatemala Day 5- Sabbat

Another day, another thing to learn and see here in Coban, Guatemala. Romy and I chatted away while having a slow morning in the hygiene and optics room. Our job was to do vision tests on every patient and their caretaker that passed through. By doing this test we were able to see if they needed glasses and we tried our best to find them the right pair from the plentiful amount we brought with us. We also gave each person fluoride or “vitaminas por los dientes” unless they had teeth pulled by Dr. Christian.

This was the second part of my day that got extremely exciting… after lunch hit around 12pm the sun beat down on the small clinic and the heat rose to the small upstairs dentistry office. In full PPE; (personal protection equipment) smocks, mask, glasses and surgical head covers. It was the hottest I’ve ever been. Our first patient was our beautiful translator, Diana! She only needed teeth cleaning and Dr. Christian let me have hands on experience using some of the cleaning tools. It was overwhelming and interesting jumping right in to dentistry like this but I learned so much about the mechanics and anatomy of the head and neck after as he explained everything to me in depth. Our next patient was a young girl who had cavities so we did a filling. This was slightly more exciting and made my stomach queasy, as he stuck a very large needle into her gums with ease. She held my hand as I attempted to comfort her as Dr. Christian continued working his magic. Next we had another teenage boy who needed a cleaning and it was satisfying to watch all the caked up plaque get washed away. At this point I was sweating profusely head to toe and I was very light headed. I grabbed some water and headed downstairs to cool off and our next patient was with us shortly. This women had substantial tooth decay on her molars and I learned that in situations like these where we have limited time, you have to focus on the chief complaint, so we worked on the tooth that she said was bothering her. We again used the large needle for the local anesthetic and I helped suction and hold her mouth open with tools. As I watched I started seeing purple circles and hearing buzzing, meaning I was about to pass out. Lucky my friend Bella was in the room doing something else with the dentistry kits and I called her over to take my spot as I left. I sat down and cooled down for the next thirty minutes. Dr. Eric grabbed me meds and Katie (Bella’s twin) came in and grabbed me a cold water and a granola bar. Thankfully because of them I didn’t pass out or throw up.

Sabbat is a Jewish celebration that happens from Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown. It is a time of reflection, prayer, meditation and allows humans to just be... to not worry or stress about the small things in life, and is a time to connect with family in the most intimate way; through breaking bread and prayer together. And this is exactly what we did... This group were the "firsts" for many things on this trip and has thrown the medical team a run for their money on this trip; between the flight cancellations, popped tires, emotionally hard first day. This was a new addition to the interfaith practice and added a special piece of their hearts to this touching service. It was the first one ever to be done in English, Spanish and Hebrew. On top of that, it was the first Sabbat service to be held at Ciudad de Esperanza. We walked into the concert walled school cafeteria, inside were long tables with white table cloth that formed the shape of a "U",Dr. Richard, Dr. Deb and Ricky led us in prayer and translated into each language while sitting at the dip in the "U". The service was beautiful, we started with blessings over our health, the health of others, the wine and the bread. We then broke the traditionally made soft bread and drank a purple fruit juice instead of wine. There was a moment in the prayer that stood our to me where we all prayed over each other, our hands outstretched to the person's head on our right and left. We than ate a delicious chicken and potato meal with spicy chile verde salsa. After, Father Sergio gave us a beautiful speak about how much it meant to everyone at Ciudad de Esperanza that we were there and how we had now become part of this large familia. His thanks made me realize again how much we had done for these people and how both we and them were greatly impacted by each others presence.