When we were still in Fiji, we heard from our friends on Nautilus about a boat called Mariposa, which has a dentist on board who does free dental work for the people of the islands. While in Abemama we saw “Mariposa” on AIS, gave them a call on VHF, and sure enough it was the same Mariposa we had heard about, the floating dental clinic.
Because of the service provided, Mariposa was able to obtain permission to stop at islands in Kiribati on his way up to Tarawa, prior to clearing in, and that’s how we came to cross paths in Abemama. He usually sets up a day long clinic where he sees as many patients as he can. He has equipped his boat with a dental chair, and he spends his own money on all of the tools and supplies that are needed (and this is certainly not cheap). He prioritizes his time and insists that he only sees patients with pain, nothing cosmetic. We were looking forward to playing dental assistants when he did the clinic in Abemama, but the weather kept delaying the effort, and soon enough we were off to Aranuka. (Spoiler alert: we will see each other again in Ailuk, RMI, and Brenden will get to learn how to pull a tooth.)
Gresham Family Exodus 