By Sr. Juana Maria OSB

‘Irma Wama’ is a strange name for a Filipino; it is the pet name which is the people of  Luanda, Angola, Africa, give Sister Juana Maria, a Benedictine Sister working among them as a missionary these past three years. Sr. Juana Maria is a dentist and, in her missionary works, uses her skills as a dentist as her way of bringing God’s love to the people. Of course, thing are not easy in Angola at the moment because, for the past 30 years or more, a war has been raging. But in the midst of this, as missionary like Sr. Juana Maria must struggle, on doing what she can.

Read on:

No Water/ No Antibiotics
One Friday, I was reluctant to give dental service in one of the remote villages, where the only source of water was a dirty lagoon eight kilometers away. I could afford to use only a little water for eight persons waiting for dental extraction. However, in spite of the fact that I had no antibiotics, no analgesics, all worked out well. I came to realized: “The Lord has a special eye for the poor.

No Suturing Needle
On another occasion, after multiple extractions, I realized that I did not have a suturing needle and thread, and so from among the people I procured ordinary sewing needles and was able to suture the wounds. On many occasions one has to use one’s creativity and resourcefulness.

No Dowel
Another amusing incident was when a missionary priest came one day to the house. By the way, it takes fully two hundred and two steps to reach our tenth- floor apartment without elevator. He wanted to have his “jacket thrown” (or porcelain cap) cemented, not realizing that it needs a dowel (a screw proper for teeth) to attach the crown firmly to the   roots. I was looking around, and since my dental room is also our sewing room and labanderia, I found some paper clips among the buttons, and those served as purpose admirably. They never told us this in dental school.

Century -Old Foot Drill
Everything is improvised: an ordinary chair, a pail for cuspidor and a century- foot drill. I’ve been amused at myself because I have managed to do many things which I never did before, just to respond to the dental needs of the patients.

Duco Cement
Even missionaries here learn how to help themselves, like the missionary sisters who presented her tooth to me cemented with Patex, which is the Angolan equivalent of duco cement!
A Pair of Sandals
Everything is free here. You know how they express their gratitude? In kind: vegetables, eggs, a slice of meat, a bottle of wine, a pair of sandals. How’s that? Enjoyable? These things give me a sensed of joy in receiving and giving and, most of all, I am repaid by their wonderful smile.

Of course Sr. Juana Maria does more than dentistry. She says, In the health ministry I have come to realize that it is not solely the medicines that I prescribe that heal many of my patient’s complaints but the greater part of healing comes from listening with sympathy to their problems, their pains, and suffering because of this civil war still going on, crying with them, feasting with them and touching with warmth and letting them feel my love and kindness.
Thanks to my experience of being a rural missionary before in Mindanao and of being a doctor of Dental Medicine. I am able to combine my knowledge of traditional, oriental and western ways of responding to health needs. So I use herbal cures or acupuncture, or acupressure, or core-energy and lately I have been learning pranic healing. These poor simple people, still in their mud houses, have strengthened my faith.”

A smile
That says
Minto Obrigada
Senhor!

A smile
That transcends
the back pain
from carrying all
the paraphernalia
up and down the
202 steps of our
building;

A smile
That erases
The tiredness
Of the whole job,
Cleaning all the mess
With a little amount
Of colored water;

A smile that understands
The words that come
From silence
From a woman who
Just points to where
 the pain is;
A smile
that forgets the stomach
that says it’s already 3:00 p.m.;

A smile
That teaches patience
And kindness;

A smile
That goes with the clapping of hands,
Kissing you upon
Arrival and departure;

A smile
Of joy, of love