Dentistry 1/6/13

A man name Simeon lives in Burjumbura and sponsors my organization.  He's good friends with the head of the organization, and travels to Gitega about once a month.  He's very smart, dedicated to Burjumbi, and reminds me of my uncle.  Jen and I enjoyed talking with him over dinner last night, with two of his friends, Matt and Lucy, on holiday from England.  Simeon appears to speak Kirundi very well, and can do a better American Texas accent than I can.  One of the things Simeon said was that he's worked with some Dentists here.  Here, they have to pull a lot of teeth.  He talked about people having three rows of teeth in some cases, and working with new dentists from the US who total had only pulled a dozen teeth.  Pulling teeth he says is physically hard, and it's sometimes all that can be done here.  Some people he said grow up sucking on sugar cane, but sometimes it was hard to tell when he was joking, and when he wasn't.  I talked about some of the things I wanted to teach the kids, and told them I thought it was important kids knew what bacteria was, and that they see it and I was planning on growing bacteria for them to see.  Although not the most appropriate for dinner time conversation, we talked about different diseases and issues that have come up, and had fun.  I also enjoyed listening to Simeon and some of the basic thoughts he had on outreach, and how to tell where people were in their faith.  This morning, Simeon and Matt came and prayed for Jen and I, and Lucy came and bid us farewell.  Lucy and Matt will be visiting Kenya before returning home.  Simeon asked if I was keeping a journal.  I said I had a journal, and a blog, but we will see since I won't have much access to the internet.