One Less Tooth for Maria

We have been back in the Domincan for just over a week now and our trip home seems like a very distant memory. It’s weird how you count down to things and wait for certain moments in your life to happen, then they happen, and they are done. (I know, mind blowing idea, haha).  How do I get more out of my life and more out of the things I do so they matter more? So when they pass they have had an impact on someone or something so it’s more lasting than a day?  Now maybe that’s a little more mind blowing.

This past Saturday we took Maria to a free dental clinic.  It’s a place called “Monkey Jungle”. When our siblings were here we went zip lining and fed the monkeys at the same place. We have recently found out they run the zip lining to make profits in order to offer their free medical and dentistry clinics to those in the Dominican Republic that could never afford a doctor or dentist visit otherwise; a very cool and smart idea. On their website there is a clip from a show on CBS called “Around the World For Free”. Monkey Jungle was the feature of that particular episode and the owner of the business offered to fly the girl to her next destination for free on his private jet.  So, I am assuming Monkey Jungle does very well in the money department. When I called them to find out when they run the free clinic (since Maria desperately needed to see a dentist) I could not get through any of the numbers provided but I did some extra digging and found the number for their American office in Dallas, Texas. A man picked up who sounded very similar to the voice I heard on the T.V show clip I had just watched.  I asked him if he knew the clinic days and hours and he said, “Is it for you to access?” I told him, “No, we are bringing our sponsor girl to the dentist.” He then replied with, “OH! I thought you sounded like the wrong colour. We only serve the poor.”  I was really taken back by that statement and was unsure how to respond to it.  I shared what he had said with Chris, Phil and Donna who also thought it was a strange thing to say. Regardless, we took Maria up to the clinic at 9am where there was already a line to see the doctor and the dentist.  They had some great equipment and they are really filling a need of the people and providing a great service.  We watched a couple people go in and could watch the work being done in the dentist chair.  No one seemed in pain and it seemed very quick and professional.  We were very impressed. There were a lot of individual people ahead of us as well as a large family of 10 or so but we were not sure if they were waiting for the dentist or the doctor.  I over heard one of the staff ask another staff member to tell all of us to have a seat because we would probably be here for most of the day.  As we waited I saw the man I had seen on T.V and, I’m  assuming, the man I talked to on the phone.  He came over and greeted us and said, “You must have been the lady I talked to on the phone.”  I said, “yes”.  He told us he had just flown back to the Domincan yesterday.  He asked if we had been waiting long and if we knew how much longer.  I said I didn’t know.  He then went and talked with some staff and organized some things, and helped out with some cleaning up.  Then a staff member came over and said that we were next. I didn’t think much of it. As she said Maria went in next. While she was in the chair I thought about it more. It really seemed weird that we were next.  As I looked around I noticed the others who were waiting get more annoyed.  Then we heard a visibly upset women say something in Spanish to the effect of, “porque ellos Blanco” (because they are white).  We don’t know for sure but from what we can gather it seems like the man bumped us up the line.  It was such an awkward moment when we realized what had happened and Maria was already done.  We got one of her teeth removed and we were told to come back next week for her to have one more removed.

What a mixture of emotions we had.  To be honest, it was nice to have been able to get in quick so that we could get on with our day and not have to wait any longer but it felt very wrong to get special treatment because of  (possibly) our skin colour.  Chris described it as a kind of “reverse racism”. Either way we feel faced with an ethical dilemma.  We left and the man said his goodbyes and we talked about it all the way home.

We will be going back on Saturday and we will see what happens then. Maybe it was all in our heads. Maybe we just misunderstood how things are run or who was actually there for the dentist that day. Or maybe we were right. Let’s hope not. They are doing great work.