The fantastic team from Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN is back in Trujillo conducting a large week-long medical and dental campaign in some areas where quality health care is needed the most and many times not received due to a lack of financial resources.
I truly love translating for this team. There are some amazing people who do some incredible work in the short amount of time they are here and many times make a huge difference for alot of really great Peruvians.
This year has been a little different translationally speaking (yes, I know that's not a word...just go with it ok?). In the past two years, I floated around more translating for triage, doctors, dentists, and filling in wherever. This year though I've been translating for one of the dentists, Dr. Paul
Gerhardt, all week at the clinic and learning much more than I ever hoped to, or ever thought was necessary about dentistry, in English and in Spanish.Translating has been good, but a definite brain work-out as I try to figure out what some obscure words might be in Spanish. Words like Amalgam, Glass Ionomer, Self Etching Acid, Two-pronged instrument, Burr (the little drillbits they use), and other fun words like those. Those and the occasional easy words that escape me, like "chin". Don't worry, I know it now. (Mentón)
The good thing is that I've managed to gain a whole new vocabulary/skill set, and it turns out that my recent wisdom tooth extraction helped me to gain a good base of dental terms. Who'd have thought? I will tell you this, though- As interesting as this week has been, I do not regret my decision to leave behind the former dream I had at age 4 to become a dentist. But you know, just in case you ever find yourself in a Spanish speaking country needing to the visit the dentist and not knowing what in the world he's saying, give me a call...I'll translate for you. Except the word for "chin"...you should know that one by now.
2 comments:
Paul Gerhardt is also perhaps the greatest Lutheran hymn writer. Perhaps dentistry was his secret skill as well?
...or maybe it pays the bills for all those composition notebooks pipe organ tune-ups.
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