This past month I had an opportunity to travel to Yap on a Dental/Medical mission trip through Canvasback Missions. It was such an amazing experience. Here are a few pictures to give you a little taste of what I saw and did while I was there.
We stayed at the Manta Ray Bay Resort and Yap Divers, not quite the "mission" conditions I was thinking it would be. It was a very nice hotel, with very friendly staff that made it a point to know your name even by the 2nd day.
When I first met up with the group in Guam, I found out that the rest of the Dental Team's flight was cancelled out of LA and they (and all our supplies) wouldn't arrive until Wednesday and it was Sunday. Once we arrived in Yap I found out one of the Dentist's on our team did actually make it. So it was just him and me for the first three days and they had already scheduled 50 patients a day.
After the first couple cleanings, with not quit up to par equipment, the dentist thought that the need for extractions outweighed cleaning off Betel nut stain. He then helped/thought me how to extract a tooth. Once he saw I did it fine, he canceled my cleanings and I was given most of the extractions to do while he did the fillings-- I took out at least 20 teeth those first few days--fun.
Before:
After time in my chair
One of my many extractions
I fell in love with this little girl, Liliana. She was almost five and needed tons of work done. Every tooth in here mouth needed something done, mostly extractions. On the day we saw her we extracted five teeth and did one filling. Though through the whole thing she just smiled, even when I was giving her the injections, not even a whimper.
The Yapese Dentist who was trained in Fiji. We thought the clinic many procedures and techniques while we were there, we just hope they put them to practice.
My turn to give Betel nut a try. Look what it does after only a couple minutes of chewing.
Men on the island still wear loin cloths and women will go around bare breasted, though there were some in regular street clothes also, it was about half and half.
I got to go Diving on the little time we had off. We fit in one night dive and three dives on Sunday. I will post some of the amazing things I got to see once I get the pics from the Dr. who had the camera. It had been a few years since I dove last, but now that I did it again I can't wait for another opportunity to go to a place like Yap again. I also tried my had at spear fishing with a spear gun. The student missionaries from the Adventist school over there took us out one evening-- I caught 4, one which was the biggest of whole group that evening.
We were given lays all the time while on the Island, they were absolutely beautiful.
We had an opportunity to see some cultural dancing, even the small children participated
Typical scenery around the Island
Some of the hospital staff took us to see the Japanese Zero's that had crashed during WWII. It was very interesting. They were just hidden in the trees and bushes.
This is stone money, it is everywhere around the Island. It used to be the currency, it still holds a large value, but USD currency is used for everyday things.
Before:
After time in my chair
One of my many extractions
