Welcome to Zanmi Haiti!

Hi there!

For those of you who may not know me, my name is SunMin, and I am a medical student at University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

This summer I am traveling to Haiti, from June 14^th to August 9^th, to volunteer with an organization called Maison de Naissance (MN). MN is a birthing home in rural Torbeck, near Les Cayes, which is in southwest part of Haiti (Google Map). I learned Creole while spending 4 months in Haiti last year, so I am very excited about the opportunity to go back to Haiti this summer.

My main project will involve hypertension and pregnancy. Hypertension is a major problem in Haiti and a major factor in maternal mortality. I will conduct home follow-up visits on patients, assess hypertension in their families, and gather data pertaining to past maternal mortality in family groups. My project will also involve teaching the community health workers to integrate blood pressure screening in their work and developing incentives for treatment, particularly for women who need to be assessed early and frequently during pregnancy.

I am confident that my time in Haiti this summer will be an invaluable learning experience since my career goal as a physician is to serve rural communities in impoverished countries. My previous travels to Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Haiti have stirred in my heart a passion for the medically underserved in poverty-stricken parts of the world. My experience in Haiti this summer will allow me to further improve skills that are necessary to serve effectively as a doctor.

To finance this 8-week project, I must raise $4270, which covers the costs of airfare to, from, and within Haiti, room and board, translators, transportation, gas, and travel medical insurance. Any extra I raise will go towards acquiring medicine and supplies to take to MN. Will you consider partnering with me by supporting me financially or by prayer? Any amount of contribution will be greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to subscribe to this blog as I will be posting updates during my trip.

Sincerely,
SunMin Kim

To donate, please click the button below.

Haitian Breakdance

Here's a video clip that I recorded at a football match (read: soccer game) in Haiti. It's a guy doing a breakdance to kompa music during half-time. It was the best part of the match.

Overwhelming

Back from Haiti as of Friday
Miss the kids at the orphanage
My Haitian friends
Talking in Creole
The pure cornflower-blue eastern sunset sky
My feelings for Haiti, they're overwhelming

Need to get a lot of things done before med school
Send out my newsletter
Get new prescription for my glasses
Move in to my new apartment
Things I need to do, they're overwhelming

Thankful for the experiences I had in Haiti and Africa
For getting into med school and finding housing at UCSD
For my dad's new position as a senior pastor at a church in Cypress
God's grace and mercy, they're overwhelming

Incredible what just happened in the past thirteen months
Dedicated these post-college months to God
He made all the difference
So much more than I had ever imagined
Things that God does in my life, they're overwhelming

Haitian Courier #3.3: Thank You!

Wow, I came back one day after I sent the e-mail and now I have more than enough to buy my ticket back home!

Thank you so much for to all of you who contributed! I received about $765 from 16 generous donors. Thank you!

Ok, so what am I going to do with the extra money? God willing, I am praying to come back to Haiti next summer, if not, to some other developing country. So whatever I received from this will go toward it.

If for any reason, you wish to withdraw your donation, let me know, since I now have double of what I originally needed. Be assured, however, that what you contributed will either help bring me back to Haiti (or Africa again or another place) where I would continue to do God's work, or will go towards another charitable work (if I'm not able to do them myself next summer).

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed! And thank you all for your prayers.

I'll send personal thank you e-mail soon, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I have enough to get back to the States now.

God Bless,
SunMin

Haitian Courier #3.2: Bring Me Home

I hate to flood your inboxes with my newsletters, but I wanted to let you know that I have now officially missed my flight back to the States. So there is no turning back.

So far I've received $180 from 4 generous contributors. That's basically halfway done!

If you can help at all, even $10 or $20 would go a long way. I would appreciate anything you can give.

After all, I do need to get back to the States sometime... Please help!

Visit here to donate:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/

So why did I miss my flight? (I see you didn’t read my other newsletters...) I’m staying here another month to help out with the orphanage while the president is in Korea raising fund for a new and permanent orphanage. I can’t just leave here right now.

Thanks!
SunMin

Haitian Courier #3.1: Help Me Stay in Haiti

As I mentioned in my last newsletter (#3), I’ll be staying in Haiti a little longer than I had originally planned.

If you’d like to help me stay longer in Haiti, please visit:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

SunMin

Haitian Courier #3: With Creole Comes Power...

...and you know what comes with power.

Bonjou Mezanmi! Kòman nou ye? (i.e. how are you [plural].)

Once again it's that time of the month when I must take a break and update you on what I’ve been doing in Haiti.

As you can guess from the subject line, I’ve been given more and more responsibilities as I continue to sharpen my Creole skills. Every morning except on Sundays, we have a Bible study with the workers at the orphanage. I read from a devotional book in Korean, translate it out loud in English, and then explain everything in Creole. Then every evening except on Fridays, I prepare and give a short sermon in Korean. After the service, I give the sermon again in Creole to Jude. Jude, a native here, is studying to become a pastor. On Sunday mornings, I emcee the Creole service (in Creole, of course), which involves leading French/Creole hymns. On Friday evenings, we have a late night prayer meetings, where I lead the prayer session, explaining each prayer topics in Creole. All these activities have helped me to learn a lot of Biblically relevant phrases in Creole.

I’ve been teaching as well as learning. After the morning Bible study, I read couple chapters from the Bible in English, and everyone else repeats after me to practice English pronunciation. Then I teach them English conversation from a book. It’s a lot easier to teach English now that I can explain things in Creole if I had to. On Sundays, I teach English songs to the kids (they’re crazy about “Making Melodies”). Also, now that I can speak descent Creole, I can lecture the kids more effectively when they need to be disciplined.

In my last letter, I mentioned about Fontain, the land the missionaries bought for a new orphanage. While Rev. Baek is gone raising funds in Korea, I’ve been in charge of looking after the land. Once or twice a week we visit Fontain and, if needed, fix up gates and fences or hire some neighborhood boys to helps us cut grass and shrubs. The little kids who are always there also helps us by gathering grass and trash. Building a good relationship with the neighbors is also an important part of my job here. Otherwise, they would dump trash in our land, cut barb-wires, or destroy gates... All of which they have done several times already. It’s been improving, so I’m hopeful.

Originally, Rev. Baek was going to come back by early June, but it seems she won’t be back till early-mid July. The only other missionary here is Mrs. Kang, and it would be too difficult for her to manage everything by herself. I was going to stay until June 28, which is fast approaching, but I’ve decided to stay longer, at least until Rev. Baek comes back. Once she is back, we’ll start the construction of the new orphanage right away, so I could be helping with that as well.

Some other things that happened since the last update:
• Earlier this month, I visited University of Fondwa (http://www.unif2004.org and http://www.unifusa.org), which is the first university in the mountains. They had the Haitian Bleu coffee factory next to it, so I got a little tour of that too. It was all in all a really cool visit.
• May 18 is National Flag Day in Haiti, so I got to see a local parade just outside our alley.
• Sometime in May, I visited the border of Dominican Republic, only to find out that it costs $35 a head to enter (so I didn’t). I also learned that we should never ever give passports to solicitors, or they would go get exit stamps for you at the immigration and demand money for their “work”.
• One day, a team of young missionaries came from New Jersey and visited the orphanage briefly. It’s always refreshing to be able to talk with people in English!
• I cut my hair really short again, this time with a 1/8” comb all the way around. I’m beginning to really like the convenience of short hair.

Now, for medical school, I’ll be going to UCSD School of Medicine (that’s University of California, San Diego for those who are not from the States) at the end of August! I’m very grateful that God has allowed me to move forward in this path. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with the application process! Speaking of San Diego, if anyone can help me find a place to stay (any suggestions), I would really appreciate it.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and for keeping in touch, those of you who do. I imagine many of you have just graduated college, so let me know what your next move is. No, I’m not that lonely anymore. I have Haitian friends now! But I’m always happy to hear from friends in other parts of the globe.

Please keep me in your prayers, for my health, safety, and faith. Let me know if there’s anything I could be praying for.

Bondye Beni Nou,

SunMin
Cell: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM:instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com