It has been four years since Terry and I worked in our dental clinic in Milot, Haiti. A trip with our youth group from St. James, heart surgery (mine), and revolution (theirs) kind of put a damper on our dental missionary work. We had been scheduled to return in November but were canceled by the sisters in Milot due to the upcoming presidential election. Well, as soon as they cancelled us, they cancelled the elections; it was too late to go. We rescheduled for January 28 through February 5. Wouldn’t you know it; the elections were set to happen February 7.

As I sit in our dorm room writing this, various raucous “rah-rah” bands are parading up and down the streets touting their choices from among the 34 candidates vying for the presidency. Some candidates are escorted by United Nations’ amphibious tanks, with 50-caliber machine guns at the ready and some of the biggest body guards imaginable. Lesser candidates just stroll down the dusty main street with a pickup truck and beleaguered cop car following behind. Nevertheless, when a presidential candidate drops by, everyone in the clinic and all the hospital patients and staff stop what they are doing and rush to the roadside to see. This hardly ever happens in my hometown of Aitkin, Minnesota.

There is no shortage of drama down here. Our old friend, Jim S., the well driller from Minnesota, was thrown into a Haitian prison on sham murder charges trumped up by the local bogus “Saint”. Poor Jim spent a month in a 16-foot by 16-foot cell with 17 other guys with only a black plastic bag for a toilet, and that had holes in it. Our team members who preceded us had been able to visit him twice. I can’t imagine the horrors he had been through. As a result of a lot of prayer and hard work and payoffs, he was finally released on our second day here. I hope he makes a break back to the U.S. or even Afghanistan, where he had been working before he chanced a return to Haiti to visit his son.

The country continues to be a wreck, and so was our dental office. It took a day and a half to clean out, throw out, and bring everything back to life. There may have been tanks in the street and helicopters buzzing overhead, but finally we had things humming in the old dental clinic.

Dr. Gina now has a dental intern working with her. He is a recent graduate of the Port-au-Prince dental school, and has been running the clinic since Gina broke her foot in a “Tap-tap” (public transportation) accident. The intern’s last name is Doktor. Yes, I have been in a military zone working with “Doctor Doktor”, kind of like “Major Major” in Catch 22. Very appropriate.The day we arrived we walked up to the 203-year-old Catholic church next to the ruins of Emperor Christoph’s palace. I stopped at my old friend Maurice’s house. Maurice speaks pretty fair English. He looks like a starving Morgan Freeman. He is the hospital’s guide for tours up to the mountain fortress, “The Citadel”. Unfortunately Maurice wasn’t home, but I did get a chance to greet his wife. I finally saw Maurice on the road today. He gave me a big hug, and in a charming tangle of language said, “I saw you the other day but I wasn’t there.”

Tuesday morning I had to extract the upper central incisor of a sweet 11-year-old girl. She had fallen more than a year ago and split the tooth down the middle. The gum tissue had grown through the broken halves. The young lady and her mother were distraught at the loss of the tooth. I assured them we could make it better.

Terry and I prayed and anguished over whether our young lady would return on Friday and how we could restore her. She had a big diastema, and the occlusion was fairly tight. Not to worry. Our prayers were answered, and by using the Belvedere bridge technique and veneering the central and lateral abutment, we had a great result. Everyone’s prayers were answered. It was then that I realized that it was “Give Kids a Smile Day”!

I was happy to be able to contribute to this noble effort. GKAS is a nationwide success. I thought of all of you back home, donating your time and talents to better the dental health of our nation’s poor and underserved kids. Thank you all for the wonderful work you do. In the words of Maurice, “I saw you the other day but I wasn’t there.”