Friday, March 14, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Bruised
I am bruised.
My bed has a pretty sharp corner protruding out at the foot of the bed. I've gotten quite used to it and learned to walk out of the way to avoid it even when waking up in the middle of the night. It had been two weeks since I last slept in my bedroom and the first morning after I got back from the trip, you guessed it, I ran right into it after waking up. My thigh is badly bruised.
In our everyday lives, we've gotten so used to our surroundings that we take these elements and our responses to them for granted. It takes a trip like this to remind ourselves of their presence...the human response to his environment should be intentional and thoughtful at first, but repeated exposures to the same environment will sometimes lead to the generation of a systematic, automatic response without even thinking about it. I've taken my relationships with my friends, coworkers, and frankly even God for granted...communication with these people (and prayer with God) has become a routine thing that I just do without thinking much about it. Same can be said about the hurts of the world, turn on your TV at 5:30 and you always find reports of murders, diseases, poverty, natural disasters, and other injustices. Occasionally I get moved and compelled enough to do something about it, but by and large I've become desensitized by these reports.
But this trip woke me up and reminded me of their presence. Getting to know the workers, clients, kids, and patients of Living Hope and working with each RHCC team member has been a tremendous blessing. It's been two weeks of hard work, travel, new experiences, sleep deprivation, laughter, tears, sweat, and culinary indulgence (unfortunately my recipes for penguins weren't tested). But it's also been two weeks of growth and change. Witnessing the impact of poverty, HIV, and injustice juxtaposed upon the beautiful city of Cape Town bruised my heart. With time, the physical bruise on my thigh will heal but not my heart. The stories shared during this trip changed the lens through which I look at life, relationships, and the world. My life has been enriched greatly by the last two weeks.
Nashville, Tennessee and Cape Town, South Africa couldn't be more different but at the same time couldn't be more similar:
- We all need love, grace, forgiveness, hope, mercy, and compassion, regardless of
differences in age, race, locale, profession, or HIV status.
- We all thirst for a loving God and an eternal life in heaven.
- Children want to be held and given attention (unfortunately in Red Hill, many lost their parents to AIDS).
- HIV/AIDS is not just a health problem, until the underlying economic, racial, and gender inequalities are corrected, the cycle of rapid transmission will continue.
- HIV/AIDS remains a stigmatized disease.
- As followers of Christ, we are to serve and love the marginalized people.
- Laughter is the best medicine.
- The contents of a Chicken McNugget are equally mysterious.
The original lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope was built in 1857, on a peak 780 feet above sea level. But because of its height, fog and clouds often obscured the lighthouse from passing ships an average of 900 hours a year. In 1919 a new one was constructed at a lower point and much closer to sea level. We are to be the light of the world, so don't let our ignorance or neglect of the poor and marginalized cloud our light. Just being an American, we are by default placed at the top of the global income scale even if you only make minimum wage...it's time for us to get closer to the poor and serve them, serve as a beacon of truth and love. Can't wait until the next trip? You can start by praying for them, pray for comfort and peace for the HIV+ patients, healthy growth and safety for the kids in Red Hill, strength and energy for the workers at Living Hope, food and shelter for the poorest of the poor, wisdom for the scientists looking for a cure.
Do you find your Christian life to be a little dull lately? I encourage you to start praying about a mission trip...it's time to get bruised.
What Happens in Africa...
I am fairly certain everyone has heard the phrase "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" or at least the same phrase but a different local. We joked on the trip that what happens in South Africa stays in South Africa. (For more detail on that see Steve Mok).
We are two or so days back and it is obvious to me that what happened in South Africa cannot, will not, and should not stay there. In some ways it would be much more convenient or less painful if things would stay put, but last time I checked God did not call us to a convenient, painfree life. He called us to care. He called us to go. He called us to serve. He called us to love. Nowhere in this calling did He say quit when you get back home.
This trip has been various things to different people, we all view things through different filters. I look back on everything and see how God hand-picked each of us to be there. It is scary when I realize that each one of us had a specific role that God was grooming us for since we began our separate lives on this earth. Each person had a role in Africa, on the team, corporately, and individually. The lives we touched and the lives that touched us are forever woven into a beautiful tapestry that will only be fully appreciated with the passing of time.
It is hard coming home. I am blessed with a beautiful wife who understands this. I wish everyone understood this but it is something only understood by those who have experienced it.
I left a part of myself in Cape Town and I brought a part of Cape Town home with me. (Unfortunately part of what I left there is my voice due to some mystery illness) It would be a sin to compartmentalize the experience and ignore the changes, feelings, and dreams that come along with the travel.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
What happens in South Africa stays in my heart.
Ethan
Friday, March 7, 2008
Hardships in a Township
On the last day of our trip, Jon, Susan, and I had the opportunity to visit patients with the community-based carers in Masi Township. A township is a settlement community designated by the government for the poorest of the poor to build their shacks as their homes. These townships are designed to be self-containing with shops, schools, churches, and clinics. Xhosa-speaking blacks made up the majority of the Masi township population.
We traveled with two carers from Living Hope and paid visits to patients in their homes to make sure their daily needs and health are taken care of. The tasks include changing wound dressing, bathing, exercising, clipping nails, checking on blood pressures or blood sugars, and following up on medications. The carers lived in the township themselves and shared their life stories and their difficulties with us between the visits.
I was struck by a few things during the visits. I haven't quite find the right words to describe the poverty and despair in the township, but I will give it a try with this post. Steve Davis visited the carers on Monday and called it hell, and he's not far off. The suffering and pain of the patients are all too visible...the first diabetic patient we visited was so sick she couldn't muster the energy to even engage in conversations. She was laying on her bed (if you can call it that) in her tiny shack, about the size of a small walk-in closet, shared with countless number of people in her family. A patient with such illness would have been rushed to the hospital in the U.S., but not so in the South Africa health system...she's literally rotting away in her own home.
Speaking of diabetes, every diabetic patient we visited during rounds had at least one of their legs amputated. If you have diabetes or know someone with diabetes, you know how important it is to monitor your blood sugars and monitor your carbohydrate intakes to prevent complications from diabetes. A common complication is diabetic foot infection. If not caught early, amputation is generally required--further limiting the patient's ability to participate in physical activity and worsening their cardiovascular conditions.
And one important tool to monitor your blood glucose is a simple device called a glucometer. I found out there is only one glucometer among the many carers and they had to share it during their patient care rounds. By the way, the carers travel by foot and it becomes extremely difficult for them to coordinate their timing in sharing the glucometer. Therefore, many patients did not have their blood glucose checked as closely as they should. In the first-world, checking your blood glucose 3-4 times a day is the standard of care and everyone has his own glucometer; in this township, checking them 3 times a week is a luxury...making the management of diabetes even more difficult is their diet. These patients often lack the knowledge and the funds to acquire food items appropriate for their diabetes. Their meals, if they can afford any, generally consist of processed foods that are unhealthy. And these probably explain the many amputees we've seen.
We visited a 4-year old patient with fetal alcoholic syndrome (FAS) in a special-needs school; her physical size, attributes, and mental/intellectual development are more consistent with a 2-year old. FAS is caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy. There are also many kids with Downs syndrome and other growth retardation in the school. Health illiteracy is clearly a problem in this township and its consequences are sadly displayed in this special-needs school.
Finally, I was most deeply touched by an HIV+ patient...let's called her T to protect her confidentiality. T is 34-year old woman who suffered a recent stroke that paralyzed the left side of her body. She speaks and understands English. HIV remains a taboo and carries significant stigma in South Africa, and voice carries over in these shacks as they were built so close to each other; so we had to be careful with our conversations. We asked her how we can pray for her and she kept saying her health, I felt there was something more but I was not sure how to proceed under the circumstances.
As I started praying for her health, comfort, and peace, she started weeping and related to us that her ex-boyfriend has found a new girlfriend. And he threatened to stop by later to take down her shack and take all her possessions away from her. In Africa, many women do not have marketable job skills and even those who have them, unemployment remains a major problem. As a result, many women have to find a boyfriend or man as a mean to support themselves. When these relationships do not work out, the women lose their means of support and there is little help these women could turn to. (For those interested in this topic, check out Helen Epstein's excellent book The Invisible Cure)
With T's stroke, she cannot easily get a job and the prospect of finding a new man to support her is poor. There is no women's shelter we know of, and the carers recommended T to contact the police, but I am not sure how much the police could do to protect T. Unfortunately, the rules regulating these visits required us to not get entangled in these disputes and we did not find out what eventually happened in this situation...so brothers and sisters, please keep T in your prayers.
I read these types of difficulties in books, websites, and dissertations, and these readings often ignite a fire in my heart concerning the many inequalities and injustices in this world...but this flame is often extinguished by other distractions. Being here in Masi in person is a totally different matter; I am still processing my feelings and reactions but I doubt that these hardships can be forgotten...T's face has been forever seared into my mind.
We traveled with two carers from Living Hope and paid visits to patients in their homes to make sure their daily needs and health are taken care of. The tasks include changing wound dressing, bathing, exercising, clipping nails, checking on blood pressures or blood sugars, and following up on medications. The carers lived in the township themselves and shared their life stories and their difficulties with us between the visits.
I was struck by a few things during the visits. I haven't quite find the right words to describe the poverty and despair in the township, but I will give it a try with this post. Steve Davis visited the carers on Monday and called it hell, and he's not far off. The suffering and pain of the patients are all too visible...the first diabetic patient we visited was so sick she couldn't muster the energy to even engage in conversations. She was laying on her bed (if you can call it that) in her tiny shack, about the size of a small walk-in closet, shared with countless number of people in her family. A patient with such illness would have been rushed to the hospital in the U.S., but not so in the South Africa health system...she's literally rotting away in her own home.
Speaking of diabetes, every diabetic patient we visited during rounds had at least one of their legs amputated. If you have diabetes or know someone with diabetes, you know how important it is to monitor your blood sugars and monitor your carbohydrate intakes to prevent complications from diabetes. A common complication is diabetic foot infection. If not caught early, amputation is generally required--further limiting the patient's ability to participate in physical activity and worsening their cardiovascular conditions.
And one important tool to monitor your blood glucose is a simple device called a glucometer. I found out there is only one glucometer among the many carers and they had to share it during their patient care rounds. By the way, the carers travel by foot and it becomes extremely difficult for them to coordinate their timing in sharing the glucometer. Therefore, many patients did not have their blood glucose checked as closely as they should. In the first-world, checking your blood glucose 3-4 times a day is the standard of care and everyone has his own glucometer; in this township, checking them 3 times a week is a luxury...making the management of diabetes even more difficult is their diet. These patients often lack the knowledge and the funds to acquire food items appropriate for their diabetes. Their meals, if they can afford any, generally consist of processed foods that are unhealthy. And these probably explain the many amputees we've seen.
We visited a 4-year old patient with fetal alcoholic syndrome (FAS) in a special-needs school; her physical size, attributes, and mental/intellectual development are more consistent with a 2-year old. FAS is caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy. There are also many kids with Downs syndrome and other growth retardation in the school. Health illiteracy is clearly a problem in this township and its consequences are sadly displayed in this special-needs school.
Finally, I was most deeply touched by an HIV+ patient...let's called her T to protect her confidentiality. T is 34-year old woman who suffered a recent stroke that paralyzed the left side of her body. She speaks and understands English. HIV remains a taboo and carries significant stigma in South Africa, and voice carries over in these shacks as they were built so close to each other; so we had to be careful with our conversations. We asked her how we can pray for her and she kept saying her health, I felt there was something more but I was not sure how to proceed under the circumstances.
As I started praying for her health, comfort, and peace, she started weeping and related to us that her ex-boyfriend has found a new girlfriend. And he threatened to stop by later to take down her shack and take all her possessions away from her. In Africa, many women do not have marketable job skills and even those who have them, unemployment remains a major problem. As a result, many women have to find a boyfriend or man as a mean to support themselves. When these relationships do not work out, the women lose their means of support and there is little help these women could turn to. (For those interested in this topic, check out Helen Epstein's excellent book The Invisible Cure)
With T's stroke, she cannot easily get a job and the prospect of finding a new man to support her is poor. There is no women's shelter we know of, and the carers recommended T to contact the police, but I am not sure how much the police could do to protect T. Unfortunately, the rules regulating these visits required us to not get entangled in these disputes and we did not find out what eventually happened in this situation...so brothers and sisters, please keep T in your prayers.
I read these types of difficulties in books, websites, and dissertations, and these readings often ignite a fire in my heart concerning the many inequalities and injustices in this world...but this flame is often extinguished by other distractions. Being here in Masi in person is a totally different matter; I am still processing my feelings and reactions but I doubt that these hardships can be forgotten...T's face has been forever seared into my mind.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Second Week in Cape Town
Our last week in Cape Town went by too quickly and we've been terribly behind in keeping up with the blog...mainly because our evening team meetings have been so rich with stories, insights, testimonies, laughters, and tears. We just couldn't peel ourselves away from each other to sit in front of the computer and write! Here's a reader's digest version of our second week:
Monday - construction team 1 (Ethan, Amanda) started building a new house for a lady whose house was burned in the Red Hill fire while team 2 (Jon and I) continued building cabinets in Living Hope's Oceanview office. Tammy and Steve D visited patients at home with community based care workers and Susan went out and bought bikes for the kids in Red Hill (unfortunately we didn't have time to put them together).
Tuesday - weather did not cooperate and our trip with the home carers up to Table Mountain was cancelled due to high winds and the "Tablecloth" surrounding the mountaintop! Contingency plan took us to the aquarium instead.
Wednesday - construction teams 1 and 2 continued while team 3 (Steve D and Pam and Mike from Brentwood Baptist) started a cabinet and counter project in the Masi clinic. Tammy and Susan visited with community based carers. Afternoon was our last kids club in Red Hill. Farewell dinner with our new friends from South Africa.
Thursday - construction teams completed their projects (well, the house in Red Hill is 90% done, to be completed by the good folks at All Nations). Jon, Susan and I visited with community based carers. We spent the afternoon packing and hanging out with our new friends as they all stopped by to see us off.
I hope to get some time to put up a couple more reflective posts later; so even though we might be back, stay tuned for more posts later this weekend.
Monday - construction team 1 (Ethan, Amanda) started building a new house for a lady whose house was burned in the Red Hill fire while team 2 (Jon and I) continued building cabinets in Living Hope's Oceanview office. Tammy and Steve D visited patients at home with community based care workers and Susan went out and bought bikes for the kids in Red Hill (unfortunately we didn't have time to put them together).
Tuesday - weather did not cooperate and our trip with the home carers up to Table Mountain was cancelled due to high winds and the "Tablecloth" surrounding the mountaintop! Contingency plan took us to the aquarium instead.
Wednesday - construction teams 1 and 2 continued while team 3 (Steve D and Pam and Mike from Brentwood Baptist) started a cabinet and counter project in the Masi clinic. Tammy and Susan visited with community based carers. Afternoon was our last kids club in Red Hill. Farewell dinner with our new friends from South Africa.
Thursday - construction teams completed their projects (well, the house in Red Hill is 90% done, to be completed by the good folks at All Nations). Jon, Susan and I visited with community based carers. We spent the afternoon packing and hanging out with our new friends as they all stopped by to see us off.
I hope to get some time to put up a couple more reflective posts later; so even though we might be back, stay tuned for more posts later this weekend.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Praise and Thanksgivings, Always
One of the songs that we've heard many times in South Africa is called Jarole (I am probably spelling it wrong). It is sung by adults in churches and kids in schools. The English translation goes something like this: Always, Always, Always
Always we pray
Always we give
Always we praise the Lord
Always, Always, Always
The lyrics are simple and it's a pretty fun song, especially when it is sung with kids along with a dance.
We worshipped with the Xhosa's in church for the second time yesterday in the Masi township. For those not familiar with the terminology, a township is a settlement designated by the government for the poor to build their shacks. The closest description I have is a shanty town but even this description does not accurately describe the extreme poverty.
I was sitting in the back of the church trying to take it all in. A mother was sitting in the front of the church with her daughter, probably about 2 years old. A quick glance into this girl's eyes and belly suggested to me that she has some sort of liver disease, probably quite advance with the yellowing of her eye whites (jaundice for those in the medical field). This girl roamed around the church during service, dancing along with the songs. And she is such a cute girl, everyone couldn't help but pick her up or pat her head. When the song Jarole was sung yesterday, I was struck by how her mother praised with all her heart and soul.
I got to thinking, how would I respond in her shoes...she's got a sick daughter, living in a shack with no electricity, running water, or sewage, surrounded by poverty, unemployment, crime, drugs, and HIV. If I were asked to pick a place to represent hopelessness and despair, Masi is it. Yet these things did not stop that mother from praising and giving thanks.
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33
Jesus said that we are guaranteed trials and moments of crisis. Anyone can trust and persevere when things are going well, but an untried faith is weak. I think a tried faith strengthens the bond between God and us. We should take comfort in the fact that God is in control and at work in our lives in times of crisis.
But I often wonder, when that moment comes, would my faith would be strong enough to overcome the doubts and anxieties and still giving thanks and praise to the Lord? It took me a trip like this half way around the world to realize that this mother has it; my life has definitely been blessed and enriched to see that kind of faith lived out and demonstrated.
Always we pray
Always we give
Always we praise the Lord
Always, Always, Always
The lyrics are simple and it's a pretty fun song, especially when it is sung with kids along with a dance.
We worshipped with the Xhosa's in church for the second time yesterday in the Masi township. For those not familiar with the terminology, a township is a settlement designated by the government for the poor to build their shacks. The closest description I have is a shanty town but even this description does not accurately describe the extreme poverty.
I was sitting in the back of the church trying to take it all in. A mother was sitting in the front of the church with her daughter, probably about 2 years old. A quick glance into this girl's eyes and belly suggested to me that she has some sort of liver disease, probably quite advance with the yellowing of her eye whites (jaundice for those in the medical field). This girl roamed around the church during service, dancing along with the songs. And she is such a cute girl, everyone couldn't help but pick her up or pat her head. When the song Jarole was sung yesterday, I was struck by how her mother praised with all her heart and soul.
I got to thinking, how would I respond in her shoes...she's got a sick daughter, living in a shack with no electricity, running water, or sewage, surrounded by poverty, unemployment, crime, drugs, and HIV. If I were asked to pick a place to represent hopelessness and despair, Masi is it. Yet these things did not stop that mother from praising and giving thanks.
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33
Jesus said that we are guaranteed trials and moments of crisis. Anyone can trust and persevere when things are going well, but an untried faith is weak. I think a tried faith strengthens the bond between God and us. We should take comfort in the fact that God is in control and at work in our lives in times of crisis.
But I often wonder, when that moment comes, would my faith would be strong enough to overcome the doubts and anxieties and still giving thanks and praise to the Lord? It took me a trip like this half way around the world to realize that this mother has it; my life has definitely been blessed and enriched to see that kind of faith lived out and demonstrated.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
For those of you that are interested last year's blog may be viewed at www.livinghope07.blogspot.com.
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