Ya mon!

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Treasure Beach, Jamaica as part of a dental missions team. The group consisted of about 21 people, including dental students of all levels from my school, as well as dentists, hygienists, and pre-dents. A few videos and pictures from the trip..

These are from the villa I stayed in. I loved it because it wasn't near anything touristy and the views were so beautiful. We also had Jamaican cooks come in to make us breakfast and dinner every day. I've never had such good Jamaican food! Honestly, I was fully prepared to rough it that week-I thought the living situation would be more like sleeping on the floor of a hut somewhere, with minimal showers and cramped spaces and other inconveniences, so this was a pleasant surprise.

             

So ok. I've only just finished my first year, and didn't expect to be able to do much that required real dental skills. Yet another surprise-the first day, the dentists leading the team assigned a 3rd year and myself to a chair to do extractions, and by the second day they gave me my own chair to pull teeth by myself! Never mind that I had barely seen an extraction done before..

But I also loved this-I learned so much in the span of four days that would have taken me forever in school due to all the red tape and scheduling. Not to say that rules aren't necessary, especially in sue-happy America, but I appreciated that the dentists treated me like a responsible dentist-in-training, trusting that I was capable enough to do what I could, and if the case was too difficult, trusting me to turn to them for assistance. But perhaps their trust was one of urgency-there was so much that we needed to do, and the days were so fast-paced, that all hands really needed to be on deck. In any case, by the end of the week, I was comfortable giving injections (I had done exactly one prior to this trip), and pulling out teeth like a champ. :)

On the last day we took a boat tour to do some sight-seeing. In addition to getting up close to scary crocodiles and happy dolphins, we sipped coconut water fresh from the trees as we took turns jumping off a rope swing into the water. We stopped by the Pelican Bar, which is a hut in the middle of the ocean, and lounged. A good ending to the trip.

 
A short tour of the clinic.

Every morning, the pastor would lead the patients and dental team in a hymn and prayer. Not pictured, but every morning we would also have our own devotion as a team.

This entry is getting long, and I could keep going, but ultimately, this is the first volunteer project I've participated in that I truly felt fulfilled. It aligned so well with my beliefs, my interests, and I felt like I was actually doing something to help others. With other volunteer projects, I wandered aimlessly (literally and figuratively), not making any true headway in offering aid due to my lack of needed skill at the time. I don't mean to say any of this out of pride, or to put other projects down, but just that there was a joy in serving in this capacity as it resonated with me personally. I want God to use me as a dentist, and to use my education as a way to love and serve others. I'm grateful for this experience.

Hipsters

Once in a while I'll run into someone I knew from way back when. Or rather, the person notices me as I obliviously go about my business.

X: "Teresa ______."

For some reason it's always my full name, and muttered apathetically.

Me: "Oh, hey! It's been a while! How are you?"

I'm pleasantly surprised; glad to see an old face in ironically retro, yet trendy clothes.

X: (paraphrased) "It's whatever, and I'm saying it in way that conveys I'm not the least bit excited to see you, so please get out of my face as if I wasn't the one who initiated this conversation."

And then I say some random pleasantry to end this weird interaction, to which the person shrugs off, and I move on, not exactly sure what just happened. My main question, after laughing off the absurdity, is why even bother getting my attention?

This has happened to me a few times now. As far as I'm concerned, they're acquaintances I used to know, incubating in their cocoons, until the 2010s rolled around and they emerged as full-on, too-cool-for-school hipsters. I'm sure living in this city probably exacerbated the whole life cycle.

Maybe part of the problem is that I am not fluent in hipster. What do I need to do in these events? Tone down the enthusiasm? Don't smile?

X: "Teresa ______."

Me: "Oh. Hey." Roll my eyes for good measure, through my Urban Outfitters-approved glasses, looking down at my arbitrary Apple product.

And then...

It'll probably proceed the same exact way. Mayyyybe I'll get invited to some hipster gathering, where I'll have to maintain absolute apathy while drinking PBR. I think I'm good.

So be my dorky, easily excitable self it is. :)

Matt Redman-I Will Offer Up My Life

You deserve my every breath
For you've paid the great cost
Giving up your life to death
Even death on a cross
You took all my shame away
There defeated my sin
Opened up the gates of heaven
And have beckoned me in

Jesus what can I give?
What can I bring?
To so faithful a friend, to so loving a king
Savior what can be said?
What can be sung
As a praise of your name, for the things you have done?

Oh my words could not tell
Not even in part
Of the debt of love that is owed by this thankful heart.

Random quote

"If you seek power before service, you'll neither get power, nor serve," he said. "If you seek to serve people more than to gain power, you will not only serve people, you will gain influence. That's very much the way Jesus did it." -quote by Tim Keller from 2006 NYT article

Homemade acupuncture

I had a gyro and fries today for lunch. As a side note, I live near a great Greek restaurant that has the best, most addicting, pungently garlic-y, perfectly creamy tzaziki sauce. It was so good though, that I unfortunately ate more than I should have, a lemon-seasoned fry and falafel too many.

Hence the indigestion I felt all day afterward.

It got really bad and nothing seemed to help--a walk, popping Pepto Bismol pills like candy, drinking water, elevating my feet (randomly found this online when looking for cures). Desperate, I remembered an old treatment that my mom used to administer: the mystical pricking of the thumb. I used to get stomachaches all the time as a kid, and this ALWAYS worked like a charm. Instantaneously, at that.

So, I sterilized a needle, cut off circulation to my left thumb, grit my teeth, and made a stab at the skin below my nail to cause bleeding.

Results? There was no sudden, definitive WOOSH of relief that I remembered accompanying this. I actually do feel a little better, but I can't tell if I'm just imagining this, because I definitely still feel some abdominal pressure, though not as bothersome.

Haha. Maybe I did this all wrong. Or maybe acupuncture is just one big placebo.

teresias05

In my many quests to procrastinate, I started thinking about AIM again. Yes, old school instant messenger. It used to be THE mode of communication back in the day--I suppose having someone's instant messenger name on your buddy list was the equivalent of being "friends" on facebook, in today's terms.

I've since moved on to gchat, though I don't use it much these days either. But out of curiosity, I signed on to my old instant messenger screen name account through meebo.com, which, incidentally, is shutting down in a week or so. I used to use that during my shifts when I worked at the library to avoid downloading the AIM program to the computers at the desk. Anyway, I was actually surprised that not a single person was online on my buddy list. Literally NO ONE uses the application anymore--for some reason I thought there would be one or two people still holding out, at the very least integrating AIM into gchat or something. Weird..

Also, going through the buddy lists were names that I no longer associate with people who are still my good friends (there were some silly names I'm dying to bring back lol), along with aliases that belong to people I truly can't remember anymore, and even more of people with whom I've lost touch.

There's definitely some cheesy metaphor for life in this, but rather than elaborating, I need to go study the kidney system.

Random pic of my communication of choice back in '05. Not associated with any of these screen names/people.