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Service Learning in Fiji - School of Dentistry students volunteer at Buca Bay 2001

The Buca Bay clinic is on the grounds of Vatuvonu Adventist School in Fiji. Here, students warmly welcome the School of Dentistry team.

In June, dental and dental hygiene students traveled to Vatuvonu Adventist School where they would provide dental care to the people of Buca (pronounced "butha") Bay, Fiji.

The group flew nearly 12 hours via Air New Zealand, then had a five-and-a-half hour layover in the middle of the night in Fiji. For the remainder of the trip, the group flew in a small, 10-seater plane for nearly two hours more; then rode another two hours over unpaved, bumpy dirt roads to Vatuvonu Adventist School.

This group was one of 14 that spread out around the world in 2001 providing dental care to more than 2,000 patients. Service learning is an integral part of the process of becoming a Christian professional.

There were no phones, hotels, stores, or restaurants in Buca Bay. The school has a coed dorm (concrete floors) and outdoor showers. The beds were metal cots with mosquito netting. Power is run by generators, which meant lights out at 9:30 p.m.

Vatuvonu Adventist School and the clinic on its grounds are a special project of the Dream Machine Foundation, founded by Steve Arrington, former lead diver with Jacques Cousteau.

Fourth-year dental student Shea Bess (right), who rallied his classmates to join the mission trip, works with Steve Wernick.

The group that made the trip in June, 2001, included fourth-year dental students Jason Ballou, Shea Bess, Byron Diehl, Michael Giddings, Todd Schroeder, and Steve Wernick, and third-year dental student Nathan Carlson.

The three dental hygiene students who joined the group were Stephanie Sobieski, Emily Springsted, and Joann Grosso.

A generator runs electricity for the clinic, and the only time work halted was when the generator stopped working.

The week of June 11 to 15, Larry Dunford, DDS, National Association of Seventh-day Adventist Dentists president, supervised the clinic. His wife, Terri, and her friend, Norma Lyons, volunteered in the sterilization room where they cleaned, sorted, and readied hundreds of dental instruments.

Dr. Dunford met with the students and clinic volunteers each evening to go over the day's events and to discuss how to make the clinic more efficient. The group often worked into the evening in order to see as many patients as possible.

The Buca Bay clinic is open only when health-care volunteers are able to staff it. After learning that the LLU group was coming, patients traveled to the clinic for treatment by foot, bus, and boat.

Dr. Kalbermatter's daughter, Devin, who had just graduated from the eighth grade (pictured with a clinic worker), spent many hours working in the clinic sterilization room.

The waiting area was in the open air in front of the clinic. Patients signed in from local villages, including Tukavesi, Mereoni, and Suina.

Henk Goorhuis, MD (left), consults with Marta Kalbermatter, DDS (right), about a patient with lesions in her mouth. Also pictured is Devin Kalbermatter (second from right), and a clinic staff member.

The Buca Bay clinic is open only when health-care volunteers are able to staff it, and the week before the LLU group arrived, town messengers spread the news by word of mouth that the clinic would be open.

Patients' charts listed their residences by village: Tukavesi, Mereoni, Suina, Natewa, Buca, Koroivonu, KanaKana, and Loa. Patients traveled by foot, boat, and bus.

"The student dentists provided a major service," remarks Mr. Arrington. "The average day's pay for working in a large resort is $9 Fijian (about $4.50 in U.S. dollars) and a bus ticket to the nearest dentist is $16 Fijian. So a mother taking her child to see a dentist would lose her income for the day, pay $32 Fijian bus fare for herself and her child, and then pay approximately $3 Fijian for dental care for the child."

In addition to dental care, an emergency room physician (and School of Medicine alumnus) from Maine, Henk Goorhuis, MD, saw patients.

Throughout the day the entire 10-foot counter was covered with overlapping patient charts, each representing a child, parent, or grandparent who desired medical care.

The second week Marta Kalbermatter, DDS, supervised the busy clinic. She had traveled to Fiji several years before but couldn't find representatives from the school at the airport as planned. A local policeman eventually came to her aid and helped her locate the school.

"They [school staff] went to the landing strip and saw Marta and her daughter, Devin," remembers Mr. Arrington, "but they didn't approach Dr. Kalbermatter because they didn't think she looked like a dentist!"

Dr. Kalbermatter grew up as a missionary child on the Amazon, and learned at an early age that missions are not luxurious; timetables and schedules are often sketchy; and commitment to missions also includes hard work.

In the clinic, she answered questions and worked side-by-side with the students. "Working in the clinic provided experiences the students would not get in an urban setting, and the students also gained experience which helped improve their self-confidence," she says. By the end of the second week, the students had extracted 358 teeth, completed 182 fillings, and performed cleanings on 58 patients.

"The students worked very well together," informs Dr. Kalbermatter, "and became like a family by the end of the trip."

Devin, Dr. Kalbermatter's daughter, had just completed the eighth grade and accompanied her mother to Fiji. She spent many hours working in the sterilization room.

"I would like people to know that opportunities are available for everyone who is interested in service" comments Mr. Arrington. "Devin made it possible for the dentists and hygienists to continue working without worrying about running out of clean instruments, and was a valuable asset to the team."

The students rated the trip highly and, according to dental student Byron Diehl, "It won't be hard to convince the next class to sign up for this mission trip." original article

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