Nias, Indonesia February 26 - March 13, 2005

We visited Nias a few months after the tsunami hit. This island is inhabited by about 700,00o people and they have about 20 physicians. I am not sure how many dentist they have, but there are none on the island that do any fillings - only extractions. This was not a dental case. The doctors sent him to me because they thought he has an abcessed tooth, but his problem was that he had a small piece of metal that had been in his face for about 18 months. He had been on antibiotics for months. I removed the piece of metal and five days later he looked much better.
This was the most difficult trip of my career. The weather was extremely hot, there was no place to get cool or to get a cold drink. There was electricity for only a few hours a day, so at night you were very uncomfortable. The crowds were so large that we were forced to close down the clinic one day until we could get local law enforement officers to keep the people from hurting themselves. We conducted clinics in romote villages as well as at the Lukas Hospital.
I was able to visit local churches and was impressed by their faithfulness during some very trying times. You will see in a later report just how much improvement was made in eight months. I will attempt to post a few pictures to help you get a better understanding of what I mean.