El Salvador II

To finish the last post I would like to offer the following.  Our group Smiles for Central America had a group of 126 people.  There were physicians, 7 oral surgeons, 4 endodontists, and 23 general dentists with 3 dental hygienists.  Others in the group worked long grueling hours in hot sterilization areas, they worked in labs, registration, radiology, surgery recovery, dental assisting and the humanitarian areas.  Everyone played an integral role in our brigada.  We saw 1051 patients.  We calculated the dentistry done in 5 days at $2.2 million dollars.

The great thing though is the benefit that will accrue to the Church, to El Salvador and to the world.  In the years to come there will be more Returned Missionaries there.  These missionaries will have had experiences that will bless their life and mature them.  They will be more desirous to have improved education, to have a better family life and to acquire meaningful employment.  That will benefit El Salvador and the world.  Their missionary efforts will also bless the lives of others in the countries they are called to.  Now, in Central America, missionaries are being sent outside that region where before they would serve in a neighboring country.  They are going to South America and other parts of the world, including Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

So to all those who supported this effort with their donations--THANK YOU SO MUCH.  It did a lot and went a long way.

Pinatas for the Orphanage

These guys kept us out of trouble and raced us through the traffic

 Good guys to know

This Sister is excited to serve a mission.  The Elders won't be able to sleep at night.

El Salvador

Joyce and I went with our friends from Smiles for Central America to El Salvador.  Principally it was to do dentistry and offer humanitarian service.  Over the years our focus has been on young people ages 16-24.  These are the young men and women who are desiring to serve missions for our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Over the past 4 years the number of native Central American missionaries has doubled, due to the efforts of our group and the desire of the young people to serve.

This is a report of our latest brigada.  It will include a lot of photos.  There were some families in my neighborhood who donated money at the last minute to help us get the supplies and material we needed to fulfill our humanitarian services in San Salvador.  This will be a grateful report to them also.

We arrived in San Salvador late 25 April.  We were glad to get to the hotel.  The next morning we arose early, had an orientation, and then proceeded to an LDS Stake Center that we had commandeered and turned into a medical-dental clinic.  The main dental clinic was in the Cultural Hall and the Oral Surgery clinic was in the Chapel.  The physicians and labs were in rooms located in other parts of the building.

Cultural Hall Clinic

Joyce in Oral Surgery

The Oral Surgery Clinic in the Chapel

Once the clinic was organized then young people were registered and started their journey through.  First stop, hair cuts for the young men, pictures and then all the medical stuff.  Then they proceeded to the dental clinic where digital x-rays were taken.  These x-rays could be accessed via wireless connection by anyone with a lap top or iPad.  As a point of pride, my son Ben wrote this software program on the airplane ride down to Central America a few years ago and they are still using it with great success.

Once the x-rays were done then the fun started.  A dentist was assigned a pre missionary, all fillings were done and if wisdom teeth needed to be extracted then they were then sent to the oral surgery clinic.  It could be a long day for someone with a lot of decay and the necessity of extractions.  After all was done, their missionary application was complete and it will be sent to the Stake Presidents and then the Area Presidency.

During the week everyone was given the chance to go on a humanitarian trip.  These included an orphanage, a cancer hospital and the houses of members of the Church who had special needs.  Our visit was to a family consisting of a man, his widowed mother, his sister and his daughter.  He was blind without work and they were existing from day to day.  He had a job for many years with IBM, but eye surgery left him blind and he lost his job.  We came to find out that for over twenty years they housed the missionaries in their small home and the widowed mother fed the missionaries.

We had a poignant meeting.  The leader of our humanitarian group is Cynthia.  She asked me to kind of conduct a little devotional meeting.  I immediately called on my wife Joyce to express her thoughts.  She was magnificent and a tremendous Spirit was there.  I translated her thoughts into Spanish so they were understood by the family.  After she was through this old, widowed woman, so humble yet incredibly strong pored out her feelings of gratitude with tears and emotion, proclaiming the great blessings she has had from God throughout her life.  It gave perspective.

Another part of our humanitarian effort took place on Sunday.  We were escorted by our police friends to a small, poor LDS Ward about an hour from San Salvador.  There we attended their Sacrament Meeting.  Afterwards we had gifts for them including beautiful blankets, toys, clothing and we took each family group and photographed them, framed the picture and presented it to them.  For many this is the one and only family picture they have ever possessed.  There were a lot of dress up clothes for the girls, capes for the boys, soccer balls.  White shirts, blouses and ties with a lot of food given to those in dire need were part of the whole humanitarian effort.

Joyce passing out blankets in the Blanket Room

Princesses in their new Dress Ups

Almost all of these items were carried down from the US in big black duffels.  United Airlines was incredible in their help, streamlining the checking of all these bags.  Here you can see them in the basement of the Church Building.

Later that afternoon we attended a Fireside of Perspective Missionaries that was transmitted throughout El Salvador.  More in the next post.