The normal stuff

Today I took Jack and Jed to the dentist. We go to the International SOS clinic. It's a medical clinic for foreign passport holders. Tourists and residents can use it and they take our insurance. Yesterday I had our Ayi call one of the taxi drivers I know to arrange transport to and from the clinic. This makes a huge difference in the ease of the experience. Mr. Dong picked us up at noon and took us to the clinic about 30 minutes away, with no traffic. He left the meter running and waited for us. He speaks a little English and is eager to learn more, so we often teach one another a bit of English and Chinese. He's very nice and smiley and is kind to the boys.

The dentist is a Persian woman from Australia. She was excellent with the boys. She did the exam and cleaning herself and talked to them the whole time. This is key since Jed is terrified of the dentist. Neither Jack nor Jed has a cavity. I asked her opinion of fluoride use since the water isn't treated with fluoride. She highly recommends using it but cautions to be careful to use the correct dose. Jack has some white spots on his teeth which she says are from too much fluoride. She says this is caused by children swallowing toothpaste as toddlers. We lived in Hawaii where the water wasn't treated. So, Jack was little enough to swallow the toothpaste and we were giving him supplements as well. I wish I'd known. These are the problems of moving around from place to place. I now know to use unfluridated toothpaste while we supplement Huck.

Mr. Dong was waiting for us when we came out of the clinic. He told me he'd taken a nap while he waited. The meter had only moved about $3. The total for the taxi ride, to and from the clinic, plus tolls, was $22.50. During the ride, I asked him if he'd drive Tom and me around tomorrow so we can run some errands. He said "Mei Wenti." No problem. He'll pick us up at 9:30.