A while ago, I flew a team to visit two villages in Madagascar for three days. After a 45-minute flight, we reached Ampatakana in the rain forest. Most of the rice supply for the whole island is grown in this area.
Setra, who is a dentist, treated lots of people with dental problems. He had to extract lots of rotten teeth. Meanwhile, Luc took care of the many children with an attractive program of singing and games. A visit like this is special, and no one wants to miss it.
For the visit to the second village we flew close to the east coast where we could also help a lot of patients. Unfortunately, many people had rotten or broken teeth which needed to be extracted. It is hard to believe what pain some people have had to endure in some cases. Toothache can cause pain to radiate to all parts of the body, often for years. Some people had to have up to eight teeth extracted!
In addition, valuable talks were held with the village elders and people were taught and encouraged. Full of gratitude we returned to the capital after three “successful” days.
Nick, pilot
