In our Ukrainian dental clinic, we did countless fillings and extractions for the children, making friends with them along the way.  My new Grandpa, Anton became one of four lucky adult patients to get treatment, too.  He trusted me to remove six root tips that had been left for years.  He was so thoughtful, staying up past his bedtime so I could work on him after the children had gone to bed.  He didn’t want to take up a child’s opportunity to get treated.  I wished so badly that I could whisk Grandpa Anton back with me to Bakersfield to make him a set of dentures!  But he was the handsomest of men to me regardless, with or without teeth.

My dental team reached people more deeply than a filling.  We became steadfast friends with the kids.  After dinner we enjoyed playtime in the courtyard.  They invited us to come join them each evening before the sun went down.  The children were both amazed and delighted that “grown-ups” would join their games.  We played frisbee, basketball, water balloons, and other group games.  I jumped rope to the songs the little girls would sing.  I loved that the Ukrainian girls played the same way American girls do, although with a whole different set of songs and chants.  It was a connection and a distinction of cultures that was precious to experience.

Vicki Nelson, the leader and head hygienist of our team, was an accomplished roller-blader.  She had spent years keeping in shape on her skates.  In Kiev she found a sports shop that sold roller blades.  The two young clerks at the store immediately assumed she wanted them for her son.  When she started to strap them on, the boys snickered to each other, taking bets on how fast this “old lady” was going to fall on her fanny.  Their mouths dropped open then she took a lap around the small store and stopped with a double-twirl as cute as an ice-skater.

“Our Ukrainian mothers would never do that!”  In broken English they expressed their surprise and admiration for this “cool” American woman who was “young” enough to skate.
After a few days of blatant staring, the Ukrainians got used to seeing Vicki skating back and forth along the walkways of the Sanatorium.  The skates were a big hit among the kids.  During playtime, each would take their turn wobbling in the courtyard, hanging onto their friends for dear life and laughing their heads off.

The adults, who were distrustful at first, embraced us as friends when they saw how we loved to help their children.  A young mother expressed her gratitude at how the Americans were bringing smiles to their children who were otherwise sad in the health clinic.  For an hour each night, they would forget their illnesses and play with all the energy they could muster.  I think it was more therapeutic than all the odd medicines and treatments the children endured during the day.

We had won the hearts of the children and earned the hearts of the adults.  The administration and staff of the compound were still not so sure about us, but our greatest enemy still was yet to be discovered... in a close encounter with a fiercely wild animal of Ukraine.

Tags: Ukraine