Bush Dentist.

Today's dental treatment was bearable enough. The cleaning out of the excavated root was pretty painful but I just concentrated on remembering how magnificently dreadful the pain was when I used to have dental treatment on the living room table when I was growing up 500 miles and more from a qualified dentist in Africa.

We had to make do with a man who "did a wee bit of dentistry" in his spare time as well as veterinary work, plumbing and preaching. He lived 350 miles from us and called every few months for one reason or another.

The big problem was that we had no electricity so he hitched his drill up to my mother's treadle sewing machine which my father then operated while the "dentist" did his thing in my mouth.

You'll do anything if the pain is severe enough.

The picture is of garlic freshly lifted from the ground, not a tooth recently pulled from my jaw.