Old

2008 - On my birthday in 2008 I was at the Sosua Garbage Dump. We went to a community about an hours walk from the dump where the people who "work" at the dump live. The driver then drove us half way to the dump and we got to walk the same path these people walk everyday to go and work and try to provide for their families. It was a long & hot half hour....uphill. When we finally arrived at the dump (by coming in the "back way") the sight was mind blowing. Open garbage covered the area the size of probably seven or eight football fields. There were about 8 cows standing amidst the refuse eating from the piles; crapping where they stood. The flies numbered in the quadrillions (I'm not sure if that's even a number but there were a lot). And there were probably 100 people going around collecting plastic bottles to be recycled. For every one of those extra large blue recycling bags they collected of plastic they were paid $2. Most people would barely make $2 a day. While we were there a truck came to dump it's contents. As it came to a stop most of the people gathered around the back end of the truck and were almost buried under the mounds of garbage the truck unloaded trying to be the first ones to pick at the new garbage. We were told that people have died from this before.


2009 - The year before that I was in a hospital in the Dominican visiting with sick kids. I wasn't in the new fancy hospital they just finished last year with the automatic doors and computers and beds that move with the touch of a button. I was in the general public hospital. That's the hospital that won't feed you no matter how long you are in there (your family / friends / good Samaritans are fully responsible for your food. If you have no one to get you food you don't eat). The one and only thing they give EVERY patient is a single I.V drip. That day we went in and hung out with a boy who had broken his arm, and a girl (who was very well educated in reading English colouring books) who had to drink some sort of gross medicine for her to get better. I remember Keeleah saying to her (while making a "grossed out" face) "I wouldn't want to drink that either" much to the disappointment of the doctor trying to administer the medicine and her mother who was there with her. Keeleah quickly got the hint and changed her facial expression and tried to (successfully) convince the girl to take the medicine. As a team we got a tour of the hospital and painted the kids wing reception area. It didn't seem like much but they were so thankful.

2010 -  Last year for my birthday I was in an orphanage (Mustard Seed) in the Dominican. A group of Jamaican Catholic Nuns do an amazing job at running Mustard Seed Orphanage. It's a place filled only with children having physical and mental challenges. This place is a heart-breaking place filled with so much joy. We have been to Mustard Seed two times over the last three trips to the D.R and to see the same kids lying in the same beds with the same challenges and frustrations is so hard to process. But when we walk into the room and start holding, and dancing with, and singing with and playing with the kids their faces could light up the whole island. Johnny and Jeffery are hard kids to forget. When we go to the D.R in a few days we will plan on going there again to see our friends there. 

2011 - Today is my 29th birthday. This morning my wife woke me up with french toast (side of bananas and real maple syrup) in bed. She tried her hardest to convince me to stay home for the day but being the stubborn person (goody two-shoes) I am I had to go to work. After work she made me a delicious steak dinner with roasted potatoes and beans. Then we went for a walk with our baby girl along Pier 4 and finished it off with a lot of ice cream and bubble tea. It was a fantastic day. I am truly blessed to be living in Canada with such a great wife, baby girl and family. I am so blessed to have as much food as I need (and want) when so many people go without. I hope someway I can be a blessing to those around me here and in the Dominican or wherever else God leads us.

Chris