Students and alumni participate in mission
to Fiji
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| The editor assists in the clinic. Experiences she had during the mission trip helped her overcome some of her fear of dental procedures. |
I was invited to accompany dental and dental hygiene students to Vatuvonu Adventist School where they would provide dental care to the people of Buca Bay, Fiji, less than a week before the group would leave.
In addition to traveling to Los Angeles to get an updated passport the day before leaving, I also purchased items—mosquito repellent, water purification tablets, detergent and a line to hang clothes to dry, and earplugs (the list we’d been given said ‘trust us on this item!”). I learned many of the students packed the night before leaving, after they finished their final exams.
We flew 11H hours via Air New Zealand (the flight attendants don’t care if you’re not buckled in or if you have carryons in your lap during takeoff or landing!); then a five-and-a-half hour layover in the middle of the night in Fiji; then we flew in a small, 10-seater plane for 1H hours more. Then, 2H hours over unpaved, bumpy dirt roads to Vatuvonu Adventist School. There were no phones, hotels, stores, or restaurants; we were told mosquitoes and rats in the area carry viruses.
Our beds were metal cots with mosquito netting that worked GREAT; the
school has a coed dorm (concrete floors) and outdoor showers. Power is
run by generators, which meant lights out at 9:30 p.m.
Our group was one of 14 groups which spread out around the world in 2001
providing dental care to more than 2,000 patients. Service learning at
LLUSD is an integral part of the process of becoming a Christian professional.
The school and the clinic on its grounds are a special project of the
Dream Machine Foundation, whose founder is Steve Arrington, former lead
diver with Jacques Cousteau.
The group that made the trip in June, 2001 included fourth-year dental
students Jason Ballou, Shea Bess, Byron Diehl, Michael Giddings, Todd
Schroeder, and Steve Wernick, and third-year dental student Nathan Carlson.
The three dental hygiene students who joined the group were: Stephanie
Sobieski, Emily Springsted, and Joann Grosso.
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| Dental students Byron Diehl (wearing hat), Steve Wernick (left), and Todd Schroeder meet Vatuvonu Adventist School children during a tour of the dormitory where they and a parent stay while the children attend school. |
Due to the time difference in Fiji (one day ahead and five hours behind
California time) the group was wide awake and ready to work at 2:30 a.m.!
After breakfast ended at about 8:00, the students made their way to the
clinic and began seeing patients.
The week of June 11 to 15 Larry Dunford, SD’82, supervised the clinic. His wife, Terri, and her friend, Norma Lyons, volunteered in the sterilization room where they cleaned, sorted, and readied hundreds of dental instruments.
Dr. Dunford met with the students each evening to go over the day’s events and to discuss how to make the clinic more efficient. The group often worked into the evening in order to see as many patients as possible.
The Buca Bay clinic is open only when volunteers are able to staff it,
and the week before the LLU group arrived town messengers (“community
men”) spread the news by word of mouth that the clinic would be open.
Patients’ charts listed their residences by village: Tukavesi, Mereoni,
Suina, Natewa, Buca, Koroivonu, KanaKana, and Loa. Some traveled by foot,
boat, and bus.
“The student dentists provided a critical service,” remarks
Mr. Arrington. “The average day’s pay for working in a large
resort is $9 Fijian (about $4.50 in U.S. dollars) and a bus ticket to
the nearest dentist is $16 Fijian. So a mother taking her child to see
a dentist would lose her income for the day, pay $32 Fijian bus fare for
herself and her child, and then pay approximately $3 Fijian for dental
care for the child.”
In addition to dental care, an emergency room physician from Maine, Henk
Goorhuis, was available to see patients. Throughout the day the entire
10-foot counter of the clinic entrance was covered with overlapping patient
charts, each representing a child, parent, or grandparent who desired
medical care.
The group traveled to Savu Savu for the weekend, and after the two-and-a-half
hour ride in the back of the school truck a bank worker looked at my passport
and then my face; the trip is like having a powerful fan blow dust on
you while you’re thrown around because of the rough road and you
can barely hear anything because of the noise, and he laughed! I had to
laugh, too; I only wish I had a picture of myself! What an adventure we
had...Businesses were closed Monday, June 18, for a national holiday,
and work resumed in the clinic on Tuesday.
The second week Marta Kalbermatter, SD’85, supervised the busy clinic.
She traveled to Fiji several years before but couldn’t find representatives
from the school at the airport as planned. A local policeman eventually
came to her aid and helped her locate the school.
“They [school staff] went to the landing strip and saw Marta and
her daughter, Devin,” remembers Mr. Arrington, “but they didn’t
approach Dr. Kalbermatter because they didn’t think she looked like
a dentist!”
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| Dr. Henk Goorhuis (left) consults with Dr. Marta Kalbermatter (right) about a patient with lesions in her mouth. It was likely that the patient had advanced squamous cell carcinoma. Also pictured is Devin, Dr. Kalbermatter’s daughter (second from right), and a clinic staff member. During their stay, the students extracted 358 teeth, completed 182 fillings, and performed cleanings on 58 patients. |
Dr. Kalbermatter grew up as a missionary child on the Amazon, and learned at an early age that missions are not luxurious; timetables and schedules are at times sketchy; equipment is not always shiny and new—and commitment to missions also includes hard work!
In the clinic she answered questions and worked side-by-side with the students. “Working in the clinic provided experiences the students would not get in an urban setting and the students also gained experience which helped improve their self- confidence,” she says.
By the end of the second week, the students had extracted 358 teeth, completed 182 fillings, and did cleanings on 58 patients.
“The students worked very well together,” says Dr. Kalbermatter,
“and became like a family by the end of the trip.”
Devin, Dr. Kalbermatter’s daughter, had just completed the eighth
grade and accompanied her mother to Fiji. She spent countless hours working
in the sterilization room.
“I would like people to know,” commented Mr. Arrington, “that
opportunities are available for everyone who is interested in service.
Devin made it possible for the dentists and hygienists to continue working
without worrying about running out of clean instruments, and was a valuable
asset to the team.”
The students rated the trip highly and, according to Byron Diehl, “It
won’t be hard to convince the next class to sign up for this mission
trip!” Dream Machine Foundation recruits health-care volunteers,
teachers and builders, to work with the students and local Fijians in
the school and clinic. For information, access <www.dreammachinefoundation.com>.
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All rights reserved. Revised February 14, 2001
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