April 5th 2008

The Angel Dentists came back to Third Island Friday.

Nora Harmsen DDS, and her very competent assistant, hygienist Jinky Agtarap RDH arrived Friday morning on their annual pro bono mission to give the children of third island some more of much needed dental work. They are always in good spirits but when I caught up with them in the humid sultry interior of the third island clinic, they were looking slightly frazzled and seriously hot with damp surgical wear and mask, face shields, magnifying scopes and the whole works, looking like Aliens from Outer Space, I imagine, to the naive chidren . The children were all over the place, in the doors, in the corners, peering into the windows with eyes sheilded, it was a comical but inspiring sight. Sam, a local resident had jumped right in to help with the suction machine and various other duties, Nora exclaiming what a quick study he was. Nathan from Ebeye clinic had accompanyed them up from Kwaj, was pulling teeth in another corner, before retiring to the breezy porch of the newly finished community center.
Nora had learned some lessons on the previous missions, so was even better prepared for the conditions or lack thereof of Third Island. She was packing a new 4000 dollar portable dental machine, It has a name but over my head. Floyd had lent a generator, and some gas finally arrived, seems that is always the biggest logistic nightmare, so the start of the first day was delayed as was normal. They worked through lunch, no breaks at all and jumped over chidren and equipment with agile grace, me not helping the situation at all, I went outside a couple of times to get rid of that claustaphobic feeling.
No power at the clinic, overhead lights were not on, Nora and Jinke had packed in new portable head gear lighting which was on pocket batteries, a lifesaver for them. The local generator was out of service; not surprised I was and the water situation was desparate too, the catchment system in disrepair, a lonely sink hanging on the wall was used as a catchall. The lent generator rumbled away hypnotizing me with its constant noise and further sending me into near coma with the corbon monoxide wafting thru. I had to take a walk to clear my head, and got some excellent shots of the Japanese ruins. Poor Nora and Jinke slaving away persistently whle I was gone, a new victim in the 'ironing board' chair about every 20 minutes or so, Jinke preping them in the corner and other needed duties. They tried to get their older machine running so Jinke could do some cleaning, but the generator couldn't handle both.
Nora and Jenke, suffering the flight the day before from Lanai Island in the Hawaiian chain through Majuro to Kwaj and then a same day flight to Roi were real troopers, and really are appreciated by all of us and especially the Marshalese of Third Island. The concept for this mission was the brainchild of Gen. David Bramlett, a retired General, who lived for a year in the Marshall Islands as a teacher in Gugeegue. He saw the dental decay in the children becoming worse and wanted to bring additional dental care to the Islands. “This little idea he shared with me became the start of a Rotary Club Dental mission in 2005” reports Nora. “His wife, Judi, became my guide and the dental assistant, despite her dislike of seeing abscesses close up". They returned again in 2006 and 2007 (when I first met them), and saw an even greater number of patients each time The word is getting out too as is the trust the locals are showing them.
The Angel Team (my coin) are going to Third Island, Carlos and Gugeegue . Get your little dears to Ebeye before they are gone. In future visits Nora hopes to get to other more remote places such as Ebedon and Majetto. "The Canvasbacks donate dental work to Ebeye, but don't get out to outer islands, so maybe we can just do outer islands next time" an almost verbatim quote from Nora. A note to the powers to be, possibly a helicopter ride could be negotiated next time to get then to the remote places like Ebedon or Majetto.

Thanks should be directed to Nora at lanaismiles-at-wave,hicv,net if you don’t see them in person and I for one hope they understand how much they are appreciated.

The first picture leads the the gallery from their tour last year.