#11 Visit a New Country: Haiti

Although I have been blessed to serve in several developing countries, Haiti is certainly unique.  Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere; the average Haitian’s income is about $2 per day (World Bank, 2013).   Because of its history of colonialism and oppression, its culture is a mix of Spanish, French, and African influences.  As I was walking/riding around, with the exception of the Creole being spoken, I felt like I was living in East Africa again due to the strong African roots.  In contrast, when I have served in neighboring Dominican Republic, the Spanish influence is much more enveloping which makes you more attentive to the fact that you are in the Caribbean.

I went to Haiti with a medical mission team from The Haiti Mission Foundation.  The Haiti Mission sends a medical team four times a year to the Tovar Clinic which it built in the rural area of Grison-Garde.  By sending teams with such frequency and regularity, patients are supplied with some continuity of care.  When a patient is diagnosed with hypertension, they are dispensed a three month supply of medicine and told to follow up at the next clinic.  Usually, and somewhat surprisingly, they do.  At the second visit, a provider can determine if their medicine is sufficient or if it needs to be adjusted.  For people who have medical needs which are immediate and above the scope of our clinic, we have funds reserved to send them to the hospital in the city so that they can get the help that they need.  In Haiti, you have to pay for your hospital stay up-front before services are rendered.  If you go to the hospital without any money, then you will be forced to leave without any treatment.

For the first time ever, I saw a patient with cutaneous anthrax – a common malady for children in Haiti.  Because it requires shots of antibiotic, the patient returned to the clinic throughout the week.  Watching the lesion diminish in size was impressive and rewarding.  I saw a lady who had been seen by the July team who had a cancerous growth on her foot; the massive growth had been removed in July to restore her foot to normalcy.  In October, the growth had returned, grown larger from its original size, and was impeding the elderly lady’s ability to walk unassisted and without pain.  We knew she would require a foot amputation to prevent the spread of the cancer and to improve her quality of life; we were able to provide her with the funds necessary for the hospital to perform the surgery.  I was nervous for her when through the translator I explained she would need a foot amputation; to my surprise she was elated when we told her the news.  She was ready to be rid of the massive growth which has plagued her for so long.

The poverty of Haiti is a very real and present danger for the people who live there.  Because access to clean water is not readily available to everyone, diseases like cholera, dysentery, and parasites are alarmingly frequent.  Malnutrition is evidenced in wasted muscles, deceptively bloated tummies, and chronic skin conditions.  Because indoor charcoal stoves are used for cooking, asthma and COPD are common afflictions even in non-smokers. As patient after patient filed in, the most common complaint by far was pain.  Pain from things we seen in the United States like Arthritis, acute muscle injuries, or chronic overuse.  Yet, their pain was exacerbated above anything I see here: Pain from the burden of carrying firewood and water for bathing, drinking, and laundry great distances; pain from working out in the fields without the luxury of farm equipment; pain from a lifetime of hunger and improper nutrition; pain from parents worrying how they would put food in the mouths of their young babes; pain from watching too many loved ones die too young and of diseases which would have been prevented or easily cured if in another country.  Pain in Haiti is a daily companion that is often untreated, but impossible to truly ignore despite their best efforts.

In the midst of their pain, there is hope.  Hope for healing. Hope for relief. Hope in Christ. Although this is my first time coming to Haiti, there were many veterans on this trip.  They were continually astonished at the signs of progress from prior trips: we saw less orange-haired children (an effect of malnutrition) likely in part because of the clinic’s feeding program; we saw no cholera likely because there are more bore-holes and wells in place to provide access to clean water; and we saw better-fed babies because of better-fed mamas.  Progress can be slow, hard, and frustrating, but we are starting to reap the harvest from the seeds which faithful servants started planting a decade ago.  I am excited to see what God has in store for Haiti and her people. 

 

“You Said” by Hillsong

You said, "Ask and you will receive

Whatever you need"

You said, "Pray and I'll hear from Heaven

And I'll heal your land"

 

You said, “Your glory will fill the earth

Like water, the sea”

You said, "Lift up your eyes

The harvest is here, yes the Kingdom is near"

 

You said, "Ask and I'll give the nations to you"

Oh, Lord, that's the cry of my heart

Distant shores and the islands will see

Your light, as it rises on us

#10 Visit a New Museum: Museum of the Confederacy

A huge theme amongst the 30-for-30 challenge suggestions was fully appreciating things we generally take for granted.  One challenger readily recognized that most Richmonders fail to take advantage of the plethora of museums we house.  I am chief among sinners in this respect.  For this challenge, I chose the Museum of the Confederacy for several reasons: 1. With Richmond being the capital of the Confederacy, our MOC is well-known and highly regarded. 2. I am currently reading “Gone with the Wind” for a book club, so I have been learning about the Civil War. And 3. It comes with a sterling recommendation from my sister Gayle Lynn – If she patronized it on a visit here all the way from Washington state, I have no excuse to explain my absence.

When going to a museum, I highly recommend you experience it with the help of a skillful tour guide. Thankfully, my friend Marko, who is an amateur historian and aficionado of the Civil War, was available to take me on a narrative tour through the museum.  He recounted the Southern campaign year-by-year; the battle advances and the losses, the hardships and injuries the soldiers endured, the major mistakes that contributed to the South’s downfall, and the hand that fate played in both the wins and losses for each side.  Walking through the timeline display of the main floor brought to life the war that I have learned about in history classes throughout my childhood.  The tour also highlighted the fact that if a few factors had gone differently at some key times, the war could very easily have had a different outcome and our nation’s history would have been dramatically different.

My favorite part of the museum was the exhibit on the lower level which displayed the effect the war had at home.  The exhibit showcased the make-shift fashions which were worn when cotton was scarce; the jewelry women wore that held the locks of hair of their deceased husbands and sons; food fare which consisted of their only available food rations; and items made out of worthless Confederate promissory notes when the war was over.

Before visiting the MOC and reading “Gone with the Wind,” I had little appreciation for how difficult life was during Reconstruction.  Infrastructure was gone.  The new order distrusted the old order and vice versa.  Most Southern cities were in shambles from the ravaging of effects of the war, Sherman’s destructive path, or the South’s self-destruction of its own cities (including Richmond) to prevent their resources from the hands of the Union soldiers.  For most Southerners, their old ways of life and the security they brought were gone.  Despite these uncertain times, unity was maintained and our nation grew to what it is today.

The Museum of the Confederacy serves as a relic of the tenacity of the human spirit in the face of uncertainty and change.  I highly recommend exploring your local museums.

#9: RVA Trolley Tour

Everyone should get the opportunity to explore their hometown from the perspective of a tourist.  If you can do it on a trolley, even better!  As most people know, Richmond is saturated with history.  Having grown up here my whole life, I often take for granted the Civil War generals who are immortalized in statues along Monument Avenue.  As I walked the city streets when I lived in Church Hill, I definitely disregarded the significance of historical sites that pepper nearly every corner of the neighborhood.

Richmond is home to the first electric trolley line in the US.  The trolley line started running in 1888 and was shut down in 1949 to make way for the advent of the bus system.  The trolley was resurrected a few years ago as a tourist attraction.

Cruising through the streets in the elevated trolley allowed me to observe the streets without the distraction of traffic or hurrying to my next destination.  From the trolley vantage point, I was able to appreciate not only the Roman, but also the French influence in our architecture; the ornate ironwork outlining many homes as well as the absence of it due to the effects of the Civil War; and the contrast of buildings which have stood the test of time and those which have fallen to the hands of renovation. 

Our city is rich in history and unique in its patchwork of multiple cultural influences.  The trolley tour gave me a new appreciation of the vast history and culture which have surrounded me, and inadvertently influenced me, my whole life.  I look forward to learning more about the river city and enjoying her impressive testimony of time in the coming years!