Haiti experience Part 5 - Sharing is Caring

I've been back from Haiti for over 3 weeks now, I have to say, I miss it terribly. I can honestly say I miss the people there, especially the kids. The Haitians have taught me so much, they taught me the importance of community, they taught me how to care for others, but most of all, they taught me what it means to share.

Growing up, each one of us is taught to share. Our parents taught us to share our food or our toys with other kids, our teachers taught us to share our supplies with others, even at work, we are taught to share resources with each other. I think most of us do okay. I mean, we tithe at church, give to the poor, donate things we don't need... and if someone we know needs food or clothing, most of us would chip in. If there is a catastrophe happening somewhere in the world, we open our wallet and give. For us, it is easy to share because we have abundance. It is easy to give others food when our pantry is overstocked with supplies, or to give others clothes when our closet is overflowing with clothing, but what happens when we live with limited resources? Would any of us be so willing to give then?

I wanted to share with you a beautiful story one of my team mate shared with me. On her last trip, she had given out all her lollipop and she had only one left. So she gave this lollipop to one of the kids on the street. The little boy's eyes lit up when he received the lollipop. For kids in our country, we probably won't get the same reaction when they receive a lollipop. But in a country where you barely get enough food to eat, a lollipop to a little kid is such a treat. Anyways, this little boy, instead of putting the candy in his pocket and hiding it from his friends, he brought the lollipop back to his group. Then he opened the wrapper, took one lick, passed it on to his friend beside him. Then his friend took a lick and gave it to the boy beside him. In between about 20 boys, this tiny lollipop went around and around until it disappeared. Now from a nursing perspective, it is not very hygienic, but from a humane perspective, isn't it just the most beautiful story? While these little boys shared this lollipop, they stood together laughing and talking. The little boy who shared his treat, he had the biggest smile on his face. No one forced this little boy to share his only treat, but he did it out of his heart. It says in 2 Corinthians,

"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7)

What's a better illustration of this verse than this story?

One of my favorite stories from the bible is the story of the widow's offering. When Jesus was outside the church one day, he saw rich people putting money in the treasury. Then He saw a poor widow putting in two very small copper coins. Then Jesus said:

" 'I tell you the truth,' he said, 'this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people give their gifts out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.' " (Luke 21:3-4)  

I know Jesus was talking about giving to the treasury in this particular case, but isn't that what sharing is about? It's not about giving out of abundance, it's about giving despite of scarcity.

The other story I wanted to share with you is an event I witnessed myself in the recovery room. A man in the recovery room needed to go back to surgery, so he was not allowed to eat or drink that day in order to avoid complications in the OR. Anyways, so he laid on the bed moaning to himself. He kept saying, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Now in the bed beside him is a woman who recently had a mastectomy. It was obvious that she is not well off, her shirt had holes in it and her hair was messy. She didn't have a lot of family visiting her, so she stored a small pot of Haitian rice under the bed for herself to eat while she is recovering from surgery. But when she heard the man next to her saying that he is hungry, she took out the container of Haitian rice and tried to feed him. I mean that was her week worth of food, yet here she was trying to give all that she had to a man she didn't even know. When we tried to stop her, she looked at me and said, "but he is hungry". To me, that was amazing. I kept thinking that if I was in that situation, what I would do. Would I be so willing to share my small amount of food with a man I didn't know when there is barely enough to eat for me? I'm ashamed to say, but I'm not so sure I would. I hope one day I can confidently say yes to this question. For now, I am learning from the people who have taught me what it means to share their all.

Puffed Rice Snacks

My friend bought me a bag of puffed rice the other day, I didn't really know what to do with it. I remember when I was a kid I used to eat these puffed rice balls, so I thought I give it a try. It was quite easy to make, but a bit time consuming. You have to slow cook the honey until it's in a thick and stringy texture, this takes about 20 minutes. Then all you have to do is turn off the heat and mix in the puffed rice. I kept mine simple and plain, but you can also add flavors into the honey mix to spice it up. Next time, I think I might add some cardamom to make it more interesting. 

Happy Baking!

Cumpari's Gelato & Caffe

Address: 535 North Road, Coquitlam
 
After dinner at Tofu House, the group of us decided to go for dessert somewhere near by. I suggest Cumpari since it's only a few blocks away. It is a beautiful and fancy look cafe that has two levels. I love the ambiance of the cafe, although I wasn't too impressed with the seating. Majority of the seats were these high and hard bar stool like seats. Although they looked funky and hip, they were really uncomfortable. Who knows, maybe that's the point, so people won't stay too long hogging up their seats. :P

As for the food, aside from the large variety of gelato and Italian coffee, Cumpari also serves a variety of desserts. We however, had our eyes on gelato. I have to admit, as compare to other gelato places, Cumpari is on the pricier side. However, I really like the creaminess of the gelato here and the funky flavors they offer.

The flavor I was most curious about was Bailey flavor, so I had to try that. It was delicious. So creamy and full of flavor, with just a hint of liquor. So without a doubt I ordered Bailey on waffle cone. I savored every bite. As much as I enjoyed the gelato here, I am not too happy with the fact that Cumpari doesn't allow two flavors in one scoop. I would have loved to try another flavor.

As I said before, Cumpari does offer other desserts as well. They all looked delicious, but they were also all a bit pricey.

SH was one of the few people that didn't order Gelato, instead, he opted for a true Italian dessert, the Cannoli. I didn't get to try it, but he said it was pretty good. Although it's not as fancy as the cannoli I'm used to, most of the ones I've eaten comes with some type of decoration at the end, Macadamia nuts or chocolate chip or something. But hey, who knows, maybe it's so good that it doesn't need all that. 

Haiti experience part 4 - Nursing in Haiti

Ever since I got back from Haiti, a lot of my coworkers has asked me what it is like to be a nurse in Haiti. My answer has always been, nursing in Haiti is nothing like nursing in Canada that's for sure. First of all, the equipments we used were like from dinosaur age. Before this trip, I've never seen a glass Pleurovac jar, or old metal suctions that shake so violently when it's on that it looks like it would explode any minute, or gigantic oxygen tanks that takes two people to roll in and out... But here in Haiti, we have them all. We definitely don't have the same luxury as health care professionals in North America. Everything was valuable and precious in Haiti. Everything that can be reduced, reused, and recycled are in fact, reduced, reused, and recycled. Coming from a society that wastes tons and tons of medical supply for safety purposes, this was hard to get use to, yet refreshing at the same time. The few things we did have in Haiti, they broken down frequently. I don't know how many times our "maintenance guy Jeff" had to fix the old suctions we had. By the end of the trip, it was no longer surprising to see a needle that retract because it's stuck to the plunger, or to turn on the suction that shakes violently but doesn't suck, or to tape the back of OR gowns with tape because the velcros on the gowns have melted...

Every time something broke or malfunctioned in Haiti, we would fondly say, hey, we are in Haiti, nothing is surprising, we need to do things Haitian style. Then we would pick up where we left off and come up with  creative ways to make things work. It's amazing how inventive we got with the things we had. We learned to be flexible, adaptive, and easygoing. Although we didn't have the best equipments, it really was medical care at its best.

Our humble little recovery room

In two weeks, we did 98 surgeries in the operating room, and a bunch of minor surgeries in the minor room. Majority of the surgeries went well, but of course, we were not without loss. Our very first patient was a patient who needed intensive debridement on her leg. She told us that she was chopping wood with her father over a year ago when a tree fell on her leg. This incident caused a cut on her leg. It wasn't a severe cut, but she didn't have any money to go to the hospital to get it treated. Then she developed a severe infection in the cut which result in necrotic tissue all the way from her shin to her thigh. The infection raged into her blood stream and she was quite sick when she came to us. Looking at her wound, I was in disbelief. I mean, something like this wouldn't happen in Canada. People with a minor cut would come to the hospital and get adequate treatment. It would never reach to the point where we would need to do extensive debridement. Anyways, after the debridement, we had to take her back to the OR to get her leg amputated. Then few days after the surgery, her hemoglobin dropped quite significantly. Of course in Haiti, there is no such thing as blood bank, so my team mates with the same blood type rolled up their sleeves and donated their blood. As I helped to agitate the bags of blood to prevent the blood cells from clotting. and watching the blood pouring out from my team mate's body, I kept thinking just how beautiful this is. God gave us the commandment to serve others, and to me, this was true service. It was ordinary people placing other people's needs before their own. I wish I had a better ending to this story, but unfortunately I don't. In the middle of the blood transfusion, our beloved patient passed away.  

We all struggled with the loss and we shed tears for our her. Quite a few of the medical staffs have grown quite close to her. For me though, I didn't know her. I've only met her briefly before she was given anesthetics on the OR table. I cried because I felt defeated. I think as medical professionals, we pride ourselves in saving lives. We are always fighting death trying to keep patients alive. But we forget that ultimately, it's not us that's in control, it's God. As I cried and prayed, feeling depleted and defeated, God reminded me that although it may be a defeat for me, it is a victory for Him. This lady had accepted Christ few days before she passed away. She had said that she was thankful she came to the clinic because if she hasn't, she wouldn't have known Christ. So although we couldn't do anything for her physically, she did find peace in Christ and for that, I am thankful. The verse I was reminded was,

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." Psalm 127:1

The other story I wanted to share about my nursing experience in Haiti are the kids waiting for surgery. As a circulating nurse, I had the "glorious" job of taking kids into the OR onto the OR table. I expected screaming, kicking, punching, like the kids in North America. But I was pleasantly surprised. Here we are, a bunch of foreigners leading these kids away from their parents into this mysterious room they've never seen before, yet these kids showed calmness, trust, and bravery. When I walk into the preop room, all the kids look at me with these big round fearful eyes. But when I smile at them, they all break into these big beautiful smiles. Then when I give them my hand to take them into the OR room, they hold onto my hand so tight with so much trust. Their maturity and their bravery never cease to amazed me.

One of our brave little ones

One of my favorite memories of the trip involves a little boy who needed a nephrectomy. For some reason I just had such a soft spot for this little boy with the most amazing wide smile. So after we finished in the OR, I went to the recovery room to see him. There was no family members by his bedside. He looked so small and fragile lying on this big bed all by himself. I sat next to him and held his little hands. He opened his eyes and looked at me, then he give me his million dollar smile. Then he reached up and put his hand on my face, pulled me close and hugged me. It was a precious moment that I hope I never forget.

House of Tofu Soup

Address: 4563 North Rd.  

I've just realized that it's been a while since I blogged about food. It's not that I've been eating less, that is definitely not the case, it's just that I've been so preoccupied sharing about my Haiti experience that I've forgotten all about it. Anyways, as I scroll through the pictures in my phone, I realize just how behind I am in my food blogs. So it goes, I am going to try to catch up.

For my small group outing a while back, we decided to go for Korean food. SH has been raving about House of Tofu Soup for a really long time, so we thought we just have to see for ourselves what all the fuss is about. So about 15 of us arrived at this small restaurant at the border of Burnaby and Coquitlam, and we basically took up half of the restaurant. As the name suggest, their most famous item is the tofu soup, so on SH's recommendation, we all ordered various combo of the tofu soup. I have to admit, the tofu soup here was as good as SH said. It doesn't look very big, but it's very filling.

We also tried their bulgogi, it was okay, nothing spectacular.  

Like any Korean restaurant, our food came with an assortment of side dishes. I wasn't too impressed by the side dishes though. I was especially disappointed by the potato, it was mashed potato rather than Korean style potato. 

Overall, I would definitely go back to House of Tofu Soup for the tofu soup. For everything else, well, there are other restaurants for those.

Haiti Experience part 3 - Promises

Our long term missionary Melonnie shared with us her favorite Haitian proverb the other day.

Sa ki fe pwomes bliye, sa k'ap espere sonje.
Those who make promises forget, those who are hoping remembers. 

This has become one of my favorite verses too because of how much truth it rings. We live in a society where we make many promises, but keep few. It's true what they say, promises are easy to make, but hard to keep. It's not that we break promises on purpose, they often just slip our mind because of how busy we get. I mean, how many times have we promise a friend that we'll pray for him, but didn't make time to pray? Or we promise to call someone and were just too busy to call? Or we promise to meet up with a friend we haven't seen for a long time, but the date just get pushed back one week after another? We've all done it, many many times. Why? Because we are human, because we are not perfect.

On the other hand, we've all been on the receiving end of this spectrum. I mean, we've all been disappointed by broken promises made to us. We all know how it feel like to look forward to something and only be disheartened because it didn't happen. Then over time, it snowballs into distrust. Why do broken promises hurt? Because we have placed our hope and joy in the fulfillment of those promises. The truth is, we depend on promises, but they are easily made, and easily broken.

I wanted to share about promises because this topic is especially pertinent in Haiti. Haitians are no different from us, they place their hope in promises the same way we do. Actually, they remember promises made better than we do. I'll give you an example. When we walk outside the campus, we often have little boys come up and talk to us. Sometimes they would ask me my name and they would tell me their names, then they would ask me, "will you remember me"? When I say yes, next time I am outside the campus few days later, that little boy would come and find me. I mean, out of over a hundred of us, he would remember me and he would wait for days for me. Then when he sees me outside the campus, and he would approach me with a big wide smile and he would call me by my name. Then he would ask me what his name is. The little boy would look at me with so much anticipation in his eyes waiting for my answer. Unfortunately, for those of you who know me, you would know that I am horrible with names, especially names in a foreign language, so this is not a game I am good at. Half of the time I would get the name right, and a huge smile would break out on his face and he is radiant with joy. The other half of the time, I would have to tell the boy that I've forgotten.. then there is an obvious look of disappointment on his face, he would repeat his name and ask me to remember him again. Why is it so important that I remember his name? One, because everyone wants to be remembered, and two, because I promised him that I would.

 One of the street boys

Melonnie shared with us that one danger of being a missionary in Haiti is that Haitian often misplace their hope in us, the North Americans. They often think that just because we are there to help that we are the answer to all their problems. They put so much hope in us, in our promises... But we are just people, people who make mistakes, people who break promises, people who are imperfect. But our God is different, He remembers every single promise He has made, not one of them is broken. It says in Numbers,

"God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19)

This is exactly it. God is not man, He is not like us. He actually remember and keep all His promises! He will not disappoint us! David praised God this way in Psalms,

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made." (Psalm 145:13)

Therefore, it was really important that in everything we did in Haiti, we gave glory back to God. We needed Haitians to know that we are just like them, simple people who needed to place our hope in God. Because He alone can provide, He alone can keep all of His promises. We are just broken vessels, called to do His work, to bear fruit. We are just people who are struggling to do good, struggling to live a purposeful life. 

 Sweet boys I met at church

Haiti Experience Part 2 - Heart of Worship

One of my team mate said something during the mission trip that stuck with me the whole time. She said, every time I come to Haiti, I think I'm giving something to the Haitian people, but the truth is, they've given me so much more. It's incredible how true this is. It's funny when I told people around me that I was heading to Haiti for a medical mission trip, the comments I often got were: "wow, it's so amazing that you are doing this", or "you are such a nice person", or "it's so good that you are helping the Haitian people"... After a while, I've even got it stuck in my own head that I'm heading to Haiti to help the people there. Yes, maybe it's true that we as a team helped people physically, but the Haitian people have given me so much more emotionally and spiritually than I could've ever imagined. I've learned so much from them, and I've experienced so much because of them... I've been debating how I want to write my next few Haiti blogs, I think this would be a good start, I think I want to share with you some of the things I learned for Haitians. So here it goes...this is to learning about the true meaning of worship.

On our second day in Haiti, we started the day attending church service with Haitians. The entire service was in Creole, so I didn't understand a word they were saying. Yet, I felt the presence of God is vividly. The Haitians truly understood the meaning of worship. Their worship was simple, they didn't have any of the fancy musical instruments we have. They didn't have power point on the wall or hymn books in their hands. All they had was their voice and a microphone. Yet, everyone sang with such passion and joy, they sang with their whole heart and mind. They sang with undeniable faith and hope. Their voice and their passion shook me from within. It says in Hebrews,

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrew 12:29-30)

When I think about this verse, the Haitian worship really comes to mind. It is truly an example of worshiping in reverence and in awe. It's funny in North America we have all our fancy equipments and gadgets that we use during our worship time, yet how many people are just mouthing the words along, and their mind is completely preoccupied with something else. We place so much emphasizes on the appearance of our worships and our prayers, but the truth of the matter is, worship is where the heart is. God doesn't care how beautifully we sing or how wonderful the music is, God cares what's in our heart. I mean, isn't that what worship is all about? Praising and singing to the Lord with our all.

 

This is a beautiful picture of an elderly Haitian man heading to church.  

During the church service, we had the opportunity to take kids from the orphanage and kids with disabilities to the service with us. I had next to me Owen, who has severe cerebral palsy. It's hard to tell exactly how much he understood from the service, but what I do know is the joy on his face when the music started. His laughter rang through the music, and he clapped to the rhythm of the songs so hard and with such excitement. It was beautiful to watch him. In Ephesians, Paul reminded us to

"Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:19) 

I can't help but wonder if this is what Paul meant. Owen's worship to the Lord really was the most beautiful music, it was music from his heart.

Owen laughing to the music

Few nights after, I had a chance to join in an Haitian devotion. It is a daily worship led by one of our Haitian interpreter in the recovery room after surgery. All the patients and their family members are invited to join. Often, that small recovery room is crowded with people wanting to worship the Lord. This was too a very simple worship, just one guitar. Yet the room shook with their passion. I could feel the holy spirit filling the room, I was so thankful to be a part of it, their music brought tears to my eyes.

Worship in the recovery room one night

The last thing I wanted to share in this blog is my time with a a boy named Michael. He was sweet teenage boy with  a bone infection. One day, I had an opportunity to sit with him just to chat. So we sat on his little bed and he took out his bible and his song book to show me. I pointed to one of the songs in the song book and I asked him to sing it for me. He said okay and he began to sing this beautiful song. He sang the song with such genuine faith, with such burning hope, and with such certainty of his Savior...After he finished, I hugged him and told him he sang the song so beautifully. He smiled at me and said, I sing because I love Jesus! What he said really struck me, yes, isn't this the true heart of worship? To sing and dance with our all because we love Jesus?

Haiti Experience Part 1 - The beginning

I've been back in Vancouver from Haiti for more than a week now. I've been meaning to start blogging, but I've having trouble organizing my thoughts and my words. You would think blogging would be easy since I kept a journal in Haiti, but I've experienced so much in Haiti that I don't even know where to begin. I have to admit, I left Vancouver four weeks ago for Haiti not knowing what to expect. I didn't know where I will be staying, what I will be doing, or how God will use me in Haiti... On the team list I received, all it said beside my name under the team section was miscellaneous. I went in with very little expectations and I was open to anything God wanted to use me in. I just wanted to fill any needs there, so if God needed someone to scrub toilets, I would scrub toilets. I know on a trip like this, no matter what we are doing, God will use us in anyway He can. In the end, I was needed in the operating room, so for majority of the trip, I was a circulating nurse; it was an amazing experience. But before I start writing about nursing in Haiti, let's rewind to the very beginning.

We arrived in the international airport at Port-au-Prince around 9am. We then took a little bus called the Tap Tap to go to the domestic airport. Tap Tap is the most common  method of transportation in Haiti, and it is the only mode of transportation in St. Louis Du Nord. It is basically a pick up truck with wooden benches placed in the back. There is no place to hold on and you basically bump against each other until destination. Of course, there is very little paved road in Haiti, so the entire ride gets very bumpy and everyone ends up with very bruised hips. After a ride on the Tap Tap, you definitely develop a new found appreciation for paved road.

 

Tap Tap used by locals in St. Louis Du Nord

Then we arrived in the domestic airport and we waited for our flight to Port-de-Paix, which is the biggest city in Northwest Haiti. The little plane we took was the most run down little plane I've ever seen in my life, it's hard to believe that something that rusty and old can still fly. The plane is not pressurized and it fits about 20 people. One of my teammates told me a story about how the window fell in the last time she was on that plane, so she had to hold the window in place the entire ride... What a wonderful story to hear right before getting on the plane eh? =) Anyways, you think I'd be a bit nervous stepping on a plane like this, but I was so tired from getting up at 3 am that morning that I passed right out. When I woke up, we've already safely landed in Port-de-Paix. My teammates had many stories regarding that plane ride and the turbulence we experienced, I slept through everything, I guess this is what they call "ignorance is bliss". 

Then we took another Tap Tap from Port-de-Paix to a city called St. Louis Du Nord, which is about 45 minutes away. This is where the missionary campus is build around 35 years ago. The reason missionaries decided to build the campus in St. Louis du Nord 35 years ago is because it is the poorest city in Haiti. Since Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, St. Louis du Nord is the poorest city in the Western hemisphere. As we sat in the Tap Tap heading to the campus, we had a really good initial look of the city. The appearance of St. Louis du Nord shocked me to my very core. My first thought was, I can't believe people actually live in this condition. My second thought was, I can't believe I have to live in this condition for two weeks...  All I could see was piles of rubbles, whirlwind of dust, and ditches and sewage water everywhere. I think for the entire day I was just in utter shock over the condition of the city. 

Street view of St. Louis du Nord

But as I spent more time in St. Louis du Nord, I began to see beyond the despair, destruction, and chaos of the city. I began to see the beauty of the country and the beauty of the people. Haiti has the most beautiful coastline. It is surrounded by the breathtakingly blue and clear Caribbean sea. We had a few opportunities to ride the Tap Tap along the coastline, and it was probably the most scenic route I've ever been on. It was impossible to capture the beauty of the coastline on camera, I tried, but the picture just doesn't do the city justice.

The beautiful coastline of St. Louis du Nord

As for the people in Haiti, they are the most friendly, pure, innocent people I've ever met. Their sense of community is so strong, and their selflessness and willingness to share absolutely amazes me. I especially fell in love with the kids in Haiti. I have so many beautiful stories to share, as I continue with my blogging about Haiti, these stories will surface gradually.

We finally arrived on campus in the late afternoon. The campus is composed of quite a mixture of things. Aside from the dormitories for the missionaries, there is an orphanage for kids under five years old, a center for kids with disabilities, a birthing center, a medical area including recovery rooms and operating rooms, an elderly home, and a cholera center. Right across from the campus, there is the church and the vacation bible school. Then not too far from the campus is the orphanage for kids five years and older.

I think I'm going to end part 1 of Haiti blog quite abruptly right here because I don't want to start telling stories yet, otherwise this post will run way too long. I do however, want to end this blog with one of my favorite Haitian proverb,

Neg di san fe; Bondye fe sandi
Man talks without doing; God does without talking.

I've experienced "God's doing" so vividly in Haiti, so many stories to tell...our God is an awesome living God!