Burundi bound dental equipment

One of the people who has been instrumental in our interest in Burundi is Norm Carlson, a retired periodontist from Wenatchee, Washington.  The way we met Dr Norm is really neat.  Early this past Spring on a whim I emailed an American medical doctor I'd heard about who was serving in Burundi.  This was at a point when we were exploring the options of how and when to visit Burundi.  He emailed back and said, "You should talk to Dr Norm since he's already been in touch with Hope Africa University and has already sent a dental chair.  It's sitting here in Bujumbura in a crate."  As it turns out Dr Norm lives a mere 4 hour drive from us and he came to visit us on a Saturday morning in May.  He was thrilled to hear of our interest in Burundi--he'd been asked by Friends of HAU to coordinate sending dental equipment for the start-up dental school.  Norm has lots of experience with short term dental missions and he knows who to contact to get dental manufacturers and suppliers to donate equipment.  He'd been praying and waiting for people like us to be on the receiving and utilizing end of it!

Since that visit in May we met again in Spokane with Dr Norm, his wife Sue, and their daughter (a dental hygiene student) along with Dr Frank Ogden and his wife Carol.  Dr Ogden spent many many years teaching surgery in Burundi, and the medical school there bears his namesake.

Dr Norm has been busy procuring a host of dental equipment to go on a shipping container bound for Burundi.  Just last month he went down to Oklahoma to the headquarters of World Dental Relief to get the equipment and drive it on a Ryder truck to Indiana where it would load on the shipping container.  World Dental Relief is a charitable supplier of dental supplies and equipment to 3rd world missions.  Dr Norm came away with 5 dental chairs, lights, stools, other small equipment, and a load of small supplies such as gloves, gauze, scalpels, sutures, etc.

Here are a few pictures of the process (Dr Norm in plaid, Dr Ron Lamb, owner of WDR, in white shirt). Pray that all of this valuable equipment makes it safely to it's destination and that customs officials in Burundi will allow it to pass through quickly and without high tariffs.