Ear Cheese and Exploding Fallopian Tubes!

Sounds fun doesn’t it!?! Well it was! Getting a mock root canal without Novocain-lets start this adventure form the beginning.

Previously I would have said thank you mom and dad for the cavity prone teeth! It turns out that I don’t actually have cavity prone teeth- the American health care/dental industry has been making money off of me for years. Rather than giving me a night guard to prevent me from grinding my teeth, dentists have let me grind away to the point where I create shallow cavities and then they profit a financial gain when I come in for assistance.

About 3 months ago my teeth started to hurt, I went to the dentist here in Rwanda, a nice woman from the Philippines, professional and licensed. She informed me I had four cavities, two on the right side and two on the left, this was not surprise to me. Following the first visit I went back where the first two cavities on my right side were filled. Everything went impeccably. I left on cloud 9, a painless visit to the dentist. As I was sitting waiting for the bus (read previous blog to learn more about transport), and the tremendous amount of Novocain injected into me began to wear off, I started to feel the excruciating and agonizing pain, an unbearable feeling. However, Brian was coming in 48 hours, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with dental issue while he was in Rwanda.

Following Brains departure I returned back to the dentist to get the other cavities filled and put in a complaint about the piercing pain I have been in. She proceeds to tell me that it is no problem, she can fix me, she just needs to do the work without Novocain so she call tell where I am in the most pain. The drills begin and I lay still while the hygienist holds my hands as the tears roll down my face, the dentist goes further and further into my tooth, touching the nerve and determining where I am in the most pain. Assertive behavior clicked in at this point, I promptly asked her to call my Peace Corps doctor and confirm this procedure before she continued any further. After a phone call with the irate Peace Corps doctor work stopped instantly, a car picked me up immediately, and my records were sent to Washington DC. Before I knew it I was on a plane to South Africa, a mini American with state of the art equipment.

It was in Pretoria, one of the capitals of South Africa, where I was staying that I met a cast of characters, volunteers from all over Africa-Kenya, Cameroon, Zambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Ghana, even some from the developing parts of South Africa. All were all ‘med evaced’ for a variety of issues, an appendix removal, a fallopian tube that had exploded, ACL surgery, holes in ear drums resulting in revolting stories of ‘ear cheese’, mystery kidney issues, the list continues. We all had different stories to tell, anecdotes of our injury, legends from the country we are serving in, and narratives of our service and our experience. The cornucopia of volunteers was what made it such an amazing experience.

South Africa was just like America- on security steroids. All homes had electric fences, except for the guesthouse we were put up in, which was fortunate for us the night we were locked out and had to hop the gate and knock on windows to be let back in. I spent the majority of my time in malls, eating, and drinking.
After attempting to save my nerves and only hollow out my teeth and fill them with dentist ‘goo’ it was deemed too much damage was done. The dentist in Rwanda had hit my nerves when she was filling my cavities, thus I needed root canals and crowns, or were they caps, this is why I am not in the medical profession.

Overall I deem the entire trip a success. I met great people and ate amazing food, sushi twice, although they were always out of tuna, forcing me the settle on salmon. Although it was wonderful, after a week I was ready to get back to the bush and live my village life. I came to the realization and conclusion that if I wanted to be in American I would be in actual America- right now I am just a simple girl living in Rwanda…