Tim and I have known Dr. Kai Chau since we were 17 years old, I began working for him before I had even graduated from dental assisting and when he had just graduated from dental school. He has always been a great guy; calm, patient, funny and generous to his staff and patients. Many years after I had gone back to school to become a dental hygienist, we reconnected and I have been working with him part-time ever since. When I talked to him in the spring of 2007 about our family moving to Uganda, it took him all of about 2 minutes to say “our family would love to come and help some day”. And the planning began….

 

Kai, his wife Jenny and their two teenagers Wesley and Caeden flew to Uganda this August a few days after Tim, our son Matt and I arrived. Joining them was Dr. Lun Hangfu, a lively, friendly dentist with a huge heart for the poor. We had only met Lun once prior to our trip to Uganda, he knew Kai and his family from a previous volunteer dental missions trip along the Amazon and wanted to join us when he heard about our trip. 

 

We set up the dental clinic in one of our Kindergarten classes. We were lucky to find some lounge chairs to use as patient chairs and had to prop them up on 50kg bags of posho (maize flour) to make them a little higher. We used our tiny classroom stools to sit on and the dentists had headbands with lights on them to serve as their overhead lights. Between Kai, Lun and myself, we brought almost everything from Canada to treat hundreds of people including anaesthetic, syringes and needles, gauze, gloves, masks, cotton rolls, suction tips, all the metal hand instruments and countless materials used for fillings, cleanings, root canals and extractions. Kai and Lun both invested in these amazing portable units that looked like metal suitcases. Inside, a motor allowed for highspeed (drilling) and slowspeed (cleaning and finishing white resin fillings) and a suction. We warned them that we would have very limited hydro there since when we last left the school, we only had power there a few times a week. Tim was prepared to use his generator. However, we had power every second of every day while we were there running the clinic, how amazing!!

 

Although Kai and Lun were just supposed to set up the first day and try to recover from the 8 hour time difference, they insisted on working on some patients so we began with all the staff and their children, about 40 people. They worked long hours each day, starting with our students, then their moms and siblings and others from the slum community that were having dental problems. They finished at the school in Mukono where they saw close to 100 kids and adults in one day and relied on the generator since there is no hydro there. In total, Lun and Kai treated about 350 patients and did hundreds and hundreds of fillings, extractions and cleanings. Some just needed some cleaning and toothbrushing instruction where others needed multiple fillings (the highest was 13 in one strudent’s mouth), extractions and even a root canal treatment.  Most of the kids handled it really well, but we did have a few screamers; some things are the same everywhere in the world! And once we learned the Lugandan words for “open” and “close”, things went much smoother.

 

Wesley, Caeden and Matt taught the kids about brushing by giving them demonstrations class by class. Everyone that saw the dentists received a toothbrush, which were donated by dental suppliers and also a toy or prize, many of which were donated by our friends, family, the dentists and their friends. A special thank you to all of you who took the time to knit so many little bears that we were able to give out, they were a big hit!

 

Many, many staff, students and mothers thanked us repeatedly for bringing the Chaus and Lun to Uganda. We actually didn’t bring them, they made it all happen themselves. Only a few of the people we treated had ever seen a dentist and only for an extraction in the case of a painful toothache. Non had ever had a tooth-saving filling, even our nurse was shocked by how we can save teeth by restoring them instead of just pulling them out. So many had been in pain for a very long time and this clinic was an answer to prayer for them.

 

Tim and I still smile whenever we think about or talk to others about how the Chau family and Dr. Hangfu left their busy dental practices, paid their own ways all the way to Uganda, set up shop with all the best equipment and materials at our school and cared for child after child and mother after mother without even wanting to take a lunch break. It was a miracle to us and a miracle to the staff, students and families in Uganda that they would go so far to love this poor community in this practical and generous way.

 

We are so blessed to be able to take care of these kids in so many ways and they have come so far in such a short time. They are finally healthy and fed, clothed, educated with lots of great resources, cared for by nurse Esther, kept safe and out of the slums for the school day, loved by the staff and by us and now by an awesome team of dentists. Please click on the youtube link to see video footage of the dental clinic and the picture page for some dental clinic pictures.