Doctor Stuffing

She greeted us with big smiles and welcomed us inside.

Introductions were made as best as possible. She introduced herself to me, proud to put her English lessons into practice. I learned she and her family fled Syria years ago and bounced between countries until finally arriving in Dearborn, Michigan. Well, with all but her oldest daughter whom she hasn't seen in years. She's never met her two grandchildren. "Very hard," she said to me, shaking her head, "very hard."

Google translate became the central means of communication between everyone. She's an expressive lady and needs to say far more than her limited English will allow. She would press the button to speak and we would read the translation. Sometimes this worked great, sometimes not.

Despite language differences, we had a great visit. We filled the hours with smiles, laughter, savory lentil soup, thumbs-ups, and thank yous. We consumed lots of tea and roasted watermelon seeds.

Finally, the purpose of the visit surfaced. Her 19-year-old son needs his wisdom teeth removed but she had hit language difficulties, a limited understanding of the dental system, and insurance complications. She needed our help. She felt so frustrated and helpless. They had been to one dentist, but he tried to take advantage of them. "He is crazy," she said in English. She wanted to say more so she clicked the button on Google translate and we looked at the translation. It said Doctor Stuffing. We burst out laughing. Whatever she wanted to say didn't have a good translation in English.

Doctor Stuffing or not, we could help her. We googled dentists in the area and called as many as we could. Phone call after phone call. "No, we don't take that insurance." "No, we don't do wisdom teeth removal." At last, we found an oral surgeon who would accept her insurance and did wisdom teeth removal. We scheduled an appointment for him to examine the son.

As we drove away, I thought about how simple it was for me to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment. Yet this simple task is a massive hurdle for someone new to the US who isn't fluent in English and doesn't understand how things work. That visit gave me a lot to process and think about along with everything else from my weekend visit to the Detroit area.