Naranja and Earthquake

So today we went to Naranja, a city outside of San Jose to go to a Baptist church. We arrived and had about 20 people waiting to see us. We triaged the patients and then I went to see my first patient of the day. He was a policeman who needed his mandiublar wisdom teeth removed. I gave him the injections, and then Daniel took them out easily with the 301. We were all sweating profusely; especially the police officer. It was very hot with no ventilation. Luckily, we got a fan later in the day. Then I went and triaged a few more patients, told parents not to let their kids drink lots of juice, coke, etc. and to brush their teeth. I gave away a couple of beanie babies, then I went to see another patient. This patient needed #11 and 12 root tips removed (canine and 1^st premolar). Nathan gave the injections and started on the extraction and finished them up. We had to flap the canine to get enough tissue released to be able to remove it with the 301 elevator. I placed two sutures and we sent her on her way. I triaged a few more patients and then we had our sandwiches, chips and pear juice for lunch. We ate outside and it was beautiful. I love this warm weather, especially compared to the weather we have had in B’ham recently. We went back from lunch early and saw a few more patients. My next patient was a 10 year old boy who told me he was “muy valiente” (very brave) and I told him if he behaved well and cooperated we would give him a toy. He assured me in a very mature way that he was ready to begin and he wanted me to take out his permanent first molars on the left side. It was sad to see them so “bombed out” and broken down but I knew he was in pain. Norm said that hopefully his second molars would come in to the space where the 1^st molars were. He tolerated the shots well and then I started elevating. I had to wait a little while to get an elevator, but once I did it moved a lot better. Josue was very interested in seeing the instruments and he would ask, “what’s that one, what’s this one” and I would tell him “es mi amigo” (this instrument is my friend). He didn’t cry or complain once. He was my first pedo patient. Then after him, I treated one more child, also named Josué. He had a bombed out mandibular second primary molar. I numbed him up quickly, and rolled the tooth out. His friends were watching and I sent them away because he was having a hard time and started crying. In the afternoon, I went with Jan to the Evangelism station and helped interpret for her for two groups. There were about 10 people in each group and we talked to them for about 20 minutes. We had a great time with them and they were listening very closely. We gave them several Bibles and explained to them the importance of reading their Bible like “comida para el alma” (food for the soul). We went to an heladeria (ice cream shop) and got some nice cookies ‘n cream ice cream (after I realized that what I thought was cookie dough was actually fig ice cream!). Then we went to a souvenir shop and had a 2 hour bus ride home. We had “comida typica” for dinner of rice and beans and some beef stew. After dinner we sang worship songs and hung out. After hanging out for awhile, we had a “tremor” not an actual earthquake according to the person in charge of the SCORE house, but it was real enough for us. It was a very strange sensation, the floor was moving and we didn’t really know what was happening. I ran for the door, but it stopped after about 5 seconds. We looked up on Wikipedia and apparently a 4.0 is when you can tell the ground is shaking and a 3.0 is barely noticeable. A 5.0 causes things to fall of the wall, so I think we had a 4.0ish earthquake. Then we made a campfire, many played spaids, and we went to bed.