Inconvenience

Showing off our lovely teeth earlier this summer.

As El Padre has been away, I've noticed even more the inconvenience of the Sahel mostly due to the fact that he isn't shouldering half the inconvenience. It may be common on missionary blogs to hear about how missionaries spend so much of their time doing basic life things and I have found that to be very true in the past few weeks.

I had to pay our electric bill by phone and for four days the phone company system wasn't able to 'find' the bill. With the current temperatures it is not the best time to have your electric cut off! I had finally figured out the place I would have to go in person and made a plan to go wait in line early in the morning when one last try on the phone system actually worked to pay the bill!

Last week I went to the dentist for a tooth that wasn't allowing me to eat as many things on that side. I went to the dentist at 8 am to 'get in line'. I was 7th in line. At 11:30 I was next to get into the chair. The person in front of me had just left and the power went out. So he couldn't see me that day. I asked if they would make me first tomorrow because I had waited 3.5 hours and was not seen because of the electricity. They said they would try. And they did let me go first, although the others in the waiting room were not happy! I had a small filling put in, but he didn't shape the filling in any way. There was no room between my teeth and it was very rough on my tongue...

Fast forward 4 days - I was trying to floss and the filling popped out. I saw the benefit of being at the office very early in the morning. So I decided to go to the dentist at 7:15 am and thought I might be first. Sadly not! They squeezed me in at 1:30 pm. The dentist said, "I will make this so you don't have any more pain or problems." He also said he was "going to make a hole that would hold the filling in place." As he drilled and drilled my tooth away, I realized that he was doing a root canal. I didn't have many options at that point. My small, simple cavity turned into 13 hours at the dentists office, $16 and a root canal. I found out that he had his training in Algeria. And he was so thrilled for me to show off this 'best' tooth when I go back to the United States.

Yes, we do spend so much time on what should be simple daily things. But this should be for us a good reminder for how many more daily hassles the average person in the Sahel has to deal with because of the lack of development or community ownership of the problems!

-- La Maestra