Final pictures, thoughts and post

Well, the reason we returned to Kenya after two years is we just enjoyed it so much then; we wanted to experience it a second time.  Really, little has changed.  The clinic continues to be well maintained and staffed.  The patients are the same, most in need of a tooth to be pulled.  With, literally tens of thousands of Maasai within walking or motorcycle distance, and with patients typically wanting only one tooth pulled per visit.  There is work to be done to ‘infinity and beyond’.

The frosting on the cake, though, is the weekend game drives.  We took a big chance this time coming here in May.  Normally, this is the rainy season with rain every day, the grass of the bush waste high and the roads impassable.  Well, (think California until this year), Kenya is in a multi-year drought.  We actually saw more rain when we were last here in August, in the dry season, then this time.

The grass is short, the animals are hungry and the roads, although still terrible, are at least passable for us on weekends, and for the Maasai during the week to visit us for dental care.  The most unusual thing?  Well, eating at the Siena Springs Resort as the only guests!  We have never had an entire resort to ourselves before.  Staff to guest ratio was about 10 to 1.  We felt pampered.  

We will miss our dear clinic friends, William, Eunice, Agnes, Grace, Dennis, Lucy and Massoi.

Almost forgot, while I was dealing with online correspondence and communication
Gloria was going puzzles.  She completed four!

THE TEAM!!

Day 14 9th and final clinic day

Final clinic day.  It started well with three patients, all need teeth extracted, all a good challenge as we wind down.  Indeed, I have included a picture of one of the teeth to show the luck/blessing that we experience here.  How did that tooth come out without breaking off the root tips??  (Sorry, a bit graphic)

My fourth patient was the partner of our balloon pilot from last Saturday.  He was dropping guests off at Siena Springs and wanted me to look at a tooth.  We did a filling, went to lunch…..and that was the end of the patients for the day!  So, another light day to relax a bit and pack for our drive to Nairobi tomorrow.

Oh, the numbers for the two weeks?  We saw 116 patients, extracted 115 teeth, did 18 fillings and Gloria did one ‘washing’, a prophy in our world.  Ironically, almost exactly half what we did two years ago when we were here for four weeks, not two.

Finally, a few more pictures of the clinic.  Below, in a separate building is the compressor and vacuum.  Very impressive, way bigger than a regular dental office.  Also, the bank of batteries to power us during the day when the Resort's generator isn't supplying power, and finally, the water tower to keep the water supply pressured.  First class.

Day 13 8th Clinic Day.. What a day!

 Next to the last clinic day, and the busiest of our two weeks.  It started when we returned from breakfast and didn’t let up until we closed at 4:30.  When we broke for lunch we had four people who were waiting for our return.  A total of 23 patients today, with 19 extractions and 4 fillings.

After a pretty exhausting day, William asked if we wanted to to go Monday Market at a local village, of course!  

This is a 'dry market', not a lot of food, mostly Kenyan Walmart stuff.  And, goats.

This is how you choose clothes.

Our big surprise of the day was dinner.  We went over at 7:30 as usual and found that our table had not been set for us.  Very unusual.  While gazing about, this tall man came up to us and introduced himself Sulu, as a member of the Board of Directors for Siena Springs Resort and dinner was going to be served poolside.

Sulu, Mimi a senior high school student from Nantucket, me, Gloria and Sarah,
 from Berkeley.

All the ladies got new names.  Mimi was named happiness, Sarah, blessed,
and Gloria was named riches........  The 'namer' was Samooi, our night watch-guard.
Quite a ritual, lots of dancing, singing and noise.  Quite memorable.

Long story short, he was at the resort because of a friend or ?? and he was hosting her and her niece.  We had met them earlier in the day. We all sat together for dinner, he bought the table a bottle of wine, and we proceeded to hear a bit more about Siena Springs and their plans for the future.

Quite a gentleman, he is Ugandan by heritage, but a world traveler.  They have great plans, we hope they succeed.  

 Most entertaining with the singing, hopping and dancing.

Day 12 Watching a zebra disappear before our eyes

An exciting start to the day.  While eating breakfast and watching the monkeys run around outside of the dining area, one took a mad dash and grabbed a piece of toast off of our table!  He sat 30 feet away and munched it down.  

As the staff came running over with their slingshots, he made another mad dash to the table to grab some toast off of Gloria's plate, he got right by Gloria, but her screaming scared him away!  

 Another 'routine' drive into the Game Park.  See below:

Shortly, as we were driving around, we saw in the distance a large group of Land Cruisers.  When we arrived we discovered that the Five Cheetah Brothers had just taken down a zebra, and they were going to town!  The photos below tell the story.

But, here is the amazing part, we went back two hours later to see this:

William said that the cheetahs left the zebra skeletonized, the fox will do his thing while fighting of the 30 vultures, the hyenas will show up soon, and before dark, the zebra will have disappeared!

Our lunch stop  We are safe, the cheetahs will sleep for two days.

Day 11 Seeing the Maasai Mara from a Hot Air Balloon

Sunrise on the Maasai Mara from the balloon.

Clinic day off.  William arranged for us a balloon ride!  It was kinda a done deal last Monday when he made reservations with the "Hot Air Balloon Company", catchy title.  We didn't know what we had committed to financially until we pulled out our credit card balloon-side this morining.

The day started with a pickup-up at 4;30 for the drive to the ascent location.  We stopped at another tented-resort to pick up a couple from Portugal.  15 of us were in the balloon and going up at 6:30.  13 guests, the pilot, David, and a worker who was 'ballast" since there was an odd number of guests.

First, the balloon is filled by two fans with ambient air, then they kick in the
burner for, maybe 10 seconds, and this monster starts to rise!

David, a great pilot, we went up, down, left, right and rotated.  Quite a pilot.

Topis

Our shadow and zebras

Ostrich 'herd/flock/

Another balloon in the distance, that's what we look like!

Amazing diversity!

The animals either don't care for the noise of the balloon's gas burner or our shadow!

Zebras by the thousands, rare for this time of year, they aren't sure where they all came from!

An amazing morning!

Days 9 and 10 6th and 7th clinic day

6th Clinic Day

Well, some days are busier than others.  Today happens to be not a busy day.  Four patients and I only treated two!  One young lady had an upper wisdom tooth decayed below the gun line, long root, no bone loss, thin tuberosity, you don't want to know the details......I told her I couldn't remove the tooth, because.....I couldn't.  That needs to see a specialist.....somewhere.

The other patient I turned away was around 10-12 years old. Note: If I haven't mentioned before, many, many people don't know their birthdate or their age.  No one ever told them.  So, we don't ask and just look at their teeth to get an idea.  We assumed his age based on the number of baby teeth he still had in his mouth.

His upper left lateral incisor and canine were crowded and he wanted me to take his canine out.  I said no, I would not,  but I would remove his lateral incisor to allow the canine to come into place.  (Maasai are notorious for not wanting crowded teeth).  We argued, through Grace speaking Maasai, and he refused.  If I wouldn't take out his canine, he was leaving.  And he did.  Oh, I asked if there was a parent outside, hah.  Remember the 3-year old that came on a motorcycle the other day.  These kids are independent!

So with not much happening in the clinic, here are a few pictures taken of the clinic.

This is the view from the front of the clinic to the gate.  When busy, people are
relaxing in the shade waiting to be called

The front door of the clinic, plenty of waiting space here as well.

Side view.  Our apartment is upstairs.

BONUS PHOTO BELOW.  DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND A PHOTO OF THE 'RIVER ANTS'.

7^th Clinic Day

Back to normal today.  15 patients, 3 fillings and 13 extractions.  One interesting case, hang in there with me…..As mentioned it is typical for the Maasai to have their two lower central incisors removed soon after they come in, say 6 or 7 years old.  This is done in the village by an elder or witch doctor. (no anesthesia).  It is a fashion statement, but it does help with crowding as the remaining teeth come in!

We had a 12-13-year-old girl come in today with both of her lower central incisors gone but both of her canines or eye-teeth were infected.  She and her older brother wanted me to remove them.  If so, she would be left with just two lower anterior teeth instead of six! 

I refused to remove them, instead, I recommended they go to Narok to have root canals done so she could keep them, (for the rest of her life).  She wasn’t happy, her brother wasn’t happy, he thought he would offer a compromise and suggested I take just one out. Nope.  I did put her on antibiotics due to the infection and wished them the best.

Otherwise, a routine day, some pictures of the monkeys and bushbucks

Mid-afternoon snack

Picking out the bugs

These poor bushbucks have to deal with flies all the time.

Day 8 5th Clinic Day Lunch in the Village

5th Clinic Day and lunch in the village

Another more relaxed day.  Only 10 patients, with 9 extractions and 1 filling.  The treat of the day was an invite from Grace, one of our assistants, to her new home for lunch!  A twenty-minute walk into her village.  No elephants, lions or baboons to join us, but lots of sheep and goats!  Her husband, Paul and their daughter, Faith, were waiting for us.  Paul is the pastor of their small church, Faith is their 3-year-old daughter.

Grace's new home, probably twice as big as the old.  She is very proud.

Two years ago we were hosted by Grace and family.  Then their house was a simple, small stick and cow dung arrangement with a dirt floor.  Now, their new home has a nice concrete floor, with corrugated metal siding and roof.  Decorated nicely on the inside with hanging cloth on ceiling and walls.  Still very small with the main area, a sleeping area for her and her husband and a kitchen, guest bed area.  Small, but much larger than their previous home.  Still no electricity or water at the house.  Solar lights for nighttime and a walk to the local well for water.

Grace's kitchen, simple but serviceable.  She usually cooks outside
on either charcoal or wood fire, a small propane burner inside if it is
raining.  Again, no water or electricity in the house.

She served us spaghetti and orange slices.  Very special.  She also presented us each with a Maasai blanket to wear on colder days.  Very Special as well.

Here is Grace, Paul, Faith and a cousin in their living/dining room.

Gloria, me and Faith.  Faith said she wanted to go home with Gloria, Grace said
that Faith really liked Gloria's 'white' skin!

Finally, today was wash day.  Sorta.  Lucy, the 'maid' does wash on Tuesdays and Thursday.  But, she doesn't do 'privates', (read underwear).  So, today was my underwear day.  Below our apartment on the outside of the building are the concrete washtubs.  Knowing the above, we brought hand-laundry soap, so I was scrubbing my underwear in the sink, ringing them out and putting them on the line to dry.  Timing is important on the line.  You have to be careful of the monkeys as they are roaming around.  They love to play on the clothesline!