What a difference a year makes...

Time for yet another update!  This last month has been packed with fun, friends, and fruitful endeavors. 

1.   The Loma Linda University (LLU) International Ophthalmology Elective Rotation has officially begun!  In August, Howard Guan, a senior ophthalmology resident at LLU, was the first resident to come through for his month-long rotation at Lusaka Eye Hospital.  He was a great resident and fun to teach.  I’m sure he can attest to the fact that the eye pathology we see here in Lusaka is at a level that we don’t normally see back home in the U.S.  It was rewarding to watch him master, in just a few days, the surgical skills necessary to perform small incision cataract surgery.   

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We look forward to hosting our next ophthalmology resident, Nicole Kohan, who will be coming in November.  

2.   From 12 – 16 August 2013, we held the Chibombo eye camp at Lusaka Eye Hospital.  Doctors from the U.S. came to help during that eye camp – including Nitin Shah (anesthesiologist from CA), Angela Smith (LLU anesthesia resident), and Ravi Krishnan (ophthalmologist from Texas).   

 

During that time, 82 eyes (mostly cataracts) were operated on in patients who came from different parts of Zambia (Kembe, Chibombo, etc.), and it was such a blessing to know that this small effort made a big difference in the lives of those patients.

  

3.   From 17 – 21 August 2013, the South African Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery had its annual congress in Livingstone, Zambia.  It was a wonderful meeting with a great scientific program and really world-renowned ophthalmologists/speakers in an intimate setting.

4.   When staff writer and photographer from the LLU School of Medicine Alumni Association, Emily Wilkens, came to Lusaka earlier this year to interview us and take some photos/video footage, I was not entirely sure what she would do with it all. But recently, she revealed her creative and artistic talents in a short video she made.  Here is the link!  

5.   My parents are in town!  Paul and I are so blessed to have parents who love and support us as well as the work we are involved with.  Paul’s mother spent a total of 6 months with us, helping cook wonderful food and watching Jaycee while we were at work. 

 

Now, my parents have taken their shift and will be spending all of September and October in Zambia.  Their goal is to have Jaycee potty trained by the time they leave.  =)  

 

6.   I continue to do a lot of pediatric surgeries here in Zambia.  One of my most enjoyable surgeries to do is strabismus surgery (aka “squint surgery”), especially bilateral medial rectus recessions on little girls and boys with congenital esotropia (non-medical people: read, “correcting crossed eyes and making them straight”).  When the mother of a patient tells me words like, “It’s like a miracle that my child’s eyes are finally straight!” or “I never thought this could be fixed!” I feel that special sensation in my heart that burns whenever I realize how much I love being an ophthalmologist, being the hands of Christ in His healing ministry, and helping patients that otherwise could not have been helped.  Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be a part of such an amazing work.  

 Beautiful child immediately before surgery

 

Same beautiful child one day post-op

7.   Just a few days ago, we launched the official beginning of our partnership with Radian Stores/LG.  From September 2013 until January 2014, LG will sponsor 100 cataract surgeries for the poor, needy patients.  

Last week, they donated and installed two large-screen television sets at the Lusaka Eye Hospital waiting rooms.  And the discounted air conditioners were installed last week as well – just in time for the heat wave that has struck Lusaka!  The press launch was graced by the presence of Honorable Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Chikusu, as the guest of honor.  Many members of the press were present, and so in my speech I took that opportunity to ask the Deputy Minister of Health to help us in 3 important areas: building road infrastructure in the area surrounding our eye hospital (dirt + rainy season = impassible roads), financial assistance to allow Lusaka Eye Hospital to continue providing free eye care services to the vulnerable, and authorization to allow corneal tissue to be brought into Zambia so that corneal transplants can be done for those with corneal diseases.  

 

I believe that the message was well-received by the Deputy Minister of Health, and I hope that will translate into positive action that will benefit Lusaka Eye Hospital, but ultimately translate into better eye care for the Zambian people.  Regardless, it was fun to hear that the speech made radio news headlines the following day!   

8.   Last, but not least, Jaycee turned one!   

 

The expectation in Korean culture is that a big Doljanchi, or first birthday party, must be planned for any child turning one.  Had it not been for my parents insisting that Jaycee have this celebratory event, and had they not made the two-day journey to come to Africa during the month of this first birthday, Paul and I might have resorted to a small cupcake-and-candle type of event with just the three of us.  Instead, we had a Zambian Doljanchi.

 

We decided to open up the celebration for our entire eye hospital and dental clinic staff, their spouses, children, and grandchildren. Note the blow-up "jumping castle" in the background. 

The week prior was busy glue-gunning beans to a cylindrical cardboard tower, creating a photo collage of the birthday girl, pre-making 9 batches of home-made ice cream, carving a "one" into a watermelon, and participating in other arts and crafts projects for a precious girl who would never know nor remember how much work can go into planning a party like this. 

The number of guests ended up topping 100 (mainly because of the proliferation of children in each Zambian household), but fortunately there was enough food and fun for all!    

 

The day was quite tiring for the little princess, and she was a little bewildered by all the strange faces, but she seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. 

Fiinally, a Doljanchi is never complete without a Doljabi.

 

Jaycee’s choices were: stethoscope (doctor like Mommy), tooth (Dentist like daddy), pen (scholar), string (long life), money (wealthy), and music note (musician).  Guess what she picked?   

 The music note!  Looks like we’ll have a true musician in our household one day. 

Around the World and Back

I try not to let more than 2 months pass between blog updates, but somehow, we’ve slipped into the 3 month territory.  It has been a memorable 3 months, however, including Jaycee’s first around-the-world tour during our Annual Leave.

Jaycee, big girl status

***Lusaka – Dubai (7 hours) – Los Angeles (16 hours)

1.  Jin’s graduation: On 26 May 2013, our family gathered in Loma Linda, CA, to celebrate the big day for Paul’s younger brother, Jin.  He graduated with a Doctorate in Dental Surgery from Loma Linda University.  We are so proud of him!  

 

 

2.  Utah Family Trip: From 27-30 May 2013, we all took a trip up to the breathtaking Zion National Park, deemed one of the 10 most visited national parks in the United States. 

We stayed just outside the park in a large cabin.   

 

 We even visited Bryce Canyon as well. 

 

 

Jaycee had a lovely time bonding with her cousins – Wailea and Oliver.

 

 

3.  Speaking engagements & Baby Dedication: A trip back to the U.S. is never complete without a chance to share what we are doing in Zambia.  We were thankful to the Loma Linda Korean SDA Church, who gave us an opportunity to speak during their worship programs on 7 and 8 June 2013.  

4.  Baby Dedication: Jaycee had her baby dedication ceremony on that same weekend. 

5.  Friends: Jaycee got to meet Kar-Yee, Mervyn, and Kaylee Ng for the first time. 

     She also got to attend the first year birthday party of Minna & Eric Lee’s twins, Dylan & Ryann.  

She got to meet Ed, Sarah, and Yuna Nam.   

And Selina & Evonn Reyno’s boys, Nathan & Joshua.

 ***Los Angeles – Honolulu (6 hours)

 

6.  Hawaii: After two and a half weeks in California, we headed out to Hawaii for another two and a half weeks of fun, friends, and family (oh…and continuing education). 

Each weekend, the resort where we stayed ended up being a perfect hang out place for Paul’s old friends and their families.

 

Jaycee had the chance to meet many friends.  She especially loved her new playmate, Christian.

7.  Anniversary: We celebrated our 6 year anniversary with Waiola Shave Ice followed by Thai cuisine at Chang Mai’s.  It was our shortest celebration ever, as we had left Paul’s mom babysitting Jaycee and our hearts missed spending time with our precious daughter.   

 

It’s hard to believe that 6 years have flown by so quickly.  But every moment in our marriage has been wonderful, no doubt.  Marriage has taught us about sharing, thinking about someone else’s needs before our own, caring, and loving.  

8.  Scuba:  On 28 June 2013, we had the opportunity to go scuba diving on the South Shore.  We had what you call a quick “brushing up” by our dive instructor (as it had been about a year and a half since we got PADI certified in Zanzibar) before we dove right in.  The first dive was an old shipwreck down about 100 feet below sea level.  The second dive was along an old water pipe with a coral reef. 

 

 

***Honolulu – Seoul (10 hours) 

9.  Korea: Finally, we had an opportunity to spend the next 10 days in our motherland.  I hadn’t been back to Seoul since 2002, when I taught English at the SDA Language Institute for a year.  The building that I had taught in had definitely changed in the last 11 years!   

     And so had all of Korea.  The subway system was much more sophisticated.  

     There were new buildings everywhere.  They had definitely cleaned up and modernized many of the more popular tourist areas. 

 We took a little tour of the Gyeongbokgung palace. 

 And sampled some of the yummy food.  

 

10. More speaking engagements:  We were able to have yet another opportunity to share our mission story at Young Dong SDA Church as well as the Hoegi Dong Bonbu SDA Church.  

  There, Jaycee got to meet extended family members for the first time.   

11. Seoul Philharmonic:  On 6 July 2013, my aunt and uncle got us tickets at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall to see the Seoul Philharmonic, featuring works by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, and Rimsky-Korsakov.   

12. Family: We are so thankful to my aunt & uncle, who graciously hosted us in their home during our stay in Korea.  

      It was great to hang out with them, hear stories and see photos about how my mom and all her siblings grew up in Korea, 

     and visit key places that are important to my parents (the area they first dated, the building where my mom first worked, 

      the building my parents got married in, etc.).

13. Friends: It was great to meet up with an old friend, Yeo Jin Kim, who is now a prominent news anchor on YTN, a Korean news channel, and to visit the studio.  

 

14. Vision Care Service:  We even got a chance to meet Dr. Dong Hae Kim, who is an ophthalmologist also passionate about international eye care.   

     His eye team goes out numerous short-term trips per year to many different countries to perform free ophthalmic surgeries.  He has even come to Lusaka Eye Hospital in the past!  I am excited about the future partnership we can develop with his organization and our eye hospital.

***Seoul – Dubai (10 hours) – Lusaka (7 hours)

 

15. Home sweet home: After making it all the way around the world, we finally arrived back home in Lusaka.  And, boy, is home a sweet place to be.  After living in hotels, spare bedrooms, and makeshift spaces for baby Jaycee for almost 2 months, jumping from one time zone to another, it was so nice to be back in a familiar place.  Our own bed.  Jaycee’s own room.  It’s true, I didn’t appreciate the layers of dust that had coated every surface of furniture and floor.  I didn’t appreciate seeing those large, nimble, flat spiders creeping along the wall.  I didn’t appreciate the instantly dry atmosphere that seemed to suck all the moisture from my skin and necessitated multiple applications of lotion.  Never would I have thought that I could actually consider Africa home.  But it is.  And I love it.  

16. Back to work: We landed on Friday, and it was back to work on Monday.  Since then, it has been go-go-go.  Busy surgery and clinic schedules were to be expected.  A big Adventist Health International (AHI) board meeting was scheduled for that first week, so we were thrilled to see Dr. Dick Hart and Elisa Brown for that.  We also had our yearly Gwembe Eye Camp from 22 – 26 July 2013, during which we operated on 33 patients from the remote villages in the Southern Province.  

17. LG/Radian Stores partnership:  We are super excited about a new partnership that has just formed between Lusaka Eye Hospital and LG/Radian Stores.  LG has agreed to sponsor 100 cataract surgeries for needy patients starting in the month of September.  They have also graciously agreed to discount 6 LG air conditioner units at Lusaka Eye Hospital, as well as donate two large screen LG television sets for our two patient waiting areas.  It is my hope that once we get the politics of the corneal transplant issue resolved, LG can start sponsoring the corneal transplants done at Lusaka Eye Hospital.  I’m sure this is the beginning of a great partnership.  

      Now we are just gearing up for the next big thing – our first Loma Linda University ophthalmology resident is coming out to Lusaka Eye Hospital for a month!  Dr. Howard Guan arrives on Tuesday, and I’m sure it will be a good time.  We have been working hard on getting our small guesthouse completed, so that our visitors can have a place to stay.  We also have two eye camps lined up for the month of August, so it will be a busy surgical period.  Stay tuned!