First semester of dental school winds down

At the start of November, the street in my neighborhood boasted vibrant fall colors....now the trees stand bare.

The sun sets into the Appomattox River as we await initiation into the dental service fraternity, Delta Sigma Delta.

November has flown by with several weeks of intermittent exams and clinical competencies and in anticipation for Thanksgiving break. At the start of the month, I enjoyed taking a weekend road trip with one of my classmates, her sister and their three dogs and cat to Leola/Lancaster, PA. During a dental class Thanksgiving potluck and at an initiation for the dental service fraternity, Delta Sigma Delta, I continued to get to know some of my classmates a bit better. All in all, I think I am feeling very much at home in Richmond and at the dental school...so much so that it felt funny to visit my parents during the holiday break. I don’t quite return ‘home’ when I visit them because they had recently moved into a new house; nonetheless, I can still recall my childhood norms when I am there. Adapting to different norms in Richmond, I’ve wondered if my experience is similar to that of the Israelites returning from exile in Babylon to ‘their forefathers’ land.’ The song below prompted these musings:

By the waters of Babylon

Where we sat down

And there we wept

When we remembered Zion

For the wicked carried us away, captivity

Required of us a song.

How can we sing our holy song

In a strange land?

So let the words our my mouth

And the meditations of my heart

Be acceptable unto you,

O God.

Text: Jamaican traditional

Music: Jamaican traditional

(Song cited from : Sing the Journey—Hymnal: a Worship Book Supplement 1. 2005)

After I had first heard the song and tried to repeat it mindlessly, I found myself replacing ‘meditations’ in the last stanza with ‘hesitations.’ Coincidence or not, it seems that both meditations and hesitations are a necessary part of exile, both of which should be held to a certain standard.

Beyond the bare corn fields faithfully stands the slope of Massanutten Mountain, a small part of the Shenandoah Valley.

It's a bit hard to visualize the mountains beyond all the infrastructure around my parents' neighborhood,  but the sunrise is spectacular, nonetheless.

As the whole world seems to have done during the past several weeks, I’ve begun to think about Christmas. In this activity, I encountered the below song and thought it related nicely to the above discussion about thoughts, hesitations and exile.

Firstborn of Mary, provocative preacher, itinerant teacher, outsider’s choice;

Jesus inspires and disarms and confuses whomever he chooses to hear his voice!

Text: John L. Bell

Music: John L. Bell

(Song cited from : Sing the Story—Hymnal: a Worship Book Supplement 2. 2007)

...Challenging, isn’t it? As I continue to explore my surroundings (location and people) and think about how they affect me, I hope to extend some hospitality both to those around me and myself:

Hospitality

I asked Love to help me
greet the stranger in myself.
I knew how to open my door to the world
and greet everyone out there as friend
but I didn’t have any kind of welcome
for the impoverished one within.
She was the weakness I couldn’t acknowledge.
She was the pain I didn’t allow.
She was the leper I’d tried to cast out the city,
the one who cried at night in lonely places.
I thought that if I let her in
she’d cause me no end of trouble, and I was afraid.

But Love helped me to prepare a feast.
We set the table, Love and I,
and then I did it,
I invited my stranger.
‘Answer the door,’ said Love.
‘You have nothing to fear.’

She came in slowly.

I put my arms around her
and embraced her in her rags
and we wept together for years of separation.
I sat my stranger at the head of the table,
gave her the best of food and wine
and, claiming her as my own,
began to introduce her to my friends.
‘But who shall I say she is?’
I whispered to Love.
‘I can’t call her a stranger now.’
Love smiled and said, ‘Don’t you know?
She is the Christ.’

Joy Cowley
Aotearoa New Zealand

We saw our first patient this month (for periodontal probings) and above was our last dental anatomy carving competency. The blue wax is my attempt to recreate a mandibular molar per the acrylic model.

As the remaining two weeks of the semester wind down, I look forward to revisiting San Luis, Mexico. I had gone with a church youth group two years ago to organize a Christmas program for children in the neighborhood. My childhood home church continues to sponsor the church-building and children’s activities in the area, but I hope to make an early trip (before the Christmas program) with some toothbrushes and paste : ) The local pastor and I will visit several churches in the area to hold oral health workshops for children and adolescents (though I hope parents will also tune in). I am excited to rejuvenate my Peruvian charla (lesson) on oral health and hope that I am able to explore possibilities for future oral health projects, perhaps partnering with local dentists.