Zimbabwe Absurdity

Zimbabwe’s dentists are a mixed bunch; lots of Eastern Europeans from the days when from the perspective of Yugoslavia Zimbabwe seemed like paradise. They may be regretting that now. Some are locals but my current one is a Ghanaian who met and married a Zimbabwean whilst training in the UK. He’s a pleasant and competent fellow and takes the time to explain exactly what he is going to do and why and, very importantly, how much it will cost. So I like him.

Today started inauspiciously. The usual injection and then he started moving furniture around to get to a plug for a device that wasn’t working. He doesn’t have many electrical devices. He asked me to look at the fuse but I couldn’t see anything wrong.  The device (an amalgam mixer) still would not  function though he had another that was for something else but could be adapted. It was just as well that the power had just come back on. I took the advantage to have a closer look around his surgery.  It’s all covered in old but clean linoleum –  no tiles here! Various dentistry things are stored on the counter in cardboard boxes and nothing appears new. Only one light tube in the ceiling is working and he got a bit short with the dental nurse for not turning on the compressor in the bathroom. Erm, I guess one could call it functional dentisty. Still, it all went without a hitch and the filling that had fallen out after some 30 years was quickly replaced.