Sapa; The Final Days
August 18, 2009
Sorry that it has taken this long for us to update! Our final two and a half days in Sapa were quite hectic!
Monday:
Monday, we continued shooting interviews with some of the people in and around the Hope Center. We quickly learned that interviews where a translator mediates can be challenging! It creates an interesting barrier between the interviewer and interviewee, one that I think with time and experience would probably fade, but definitely left our brains feeling fried! It's difficult to think of alternate ways to ask the same question in order to make it clear to someone speaking another language, coming from a different cultural background of understanding. Thankfully, God provided us with a wonderfully spunky translator named Gom! She is H'mong, but speaks a variety of languages well, one of which is English with a lovely Australian accent. :)
But the best part of Monday was lunchtime. The Hope Center is located on property owned by a man named Mr. Ma. He and his family invited our entire team into their home for a luncheon feast! We were extremely honored. They went all out for us- the kind of meal many H'mong families would have for a wedding reception so we're told! Mr. Ma told us that we were the first Americans/white people that they had ever been able to have in their home (as the village of Hoa Tao is generally not a tourist site). Isn't that incredible!? Together, the 15 or so of us celebrated life that day. Truly. Even though communication between us and the H'mong was extremely limited, you'd be surprised how easily some things translate across all humanity.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was an emotional day for our entire team. Soon after we arrived at the Hope Center, Miles discovered an 8 month old baby with a wound on her leg that appeared to be either a second or third degree burn. Poverty is never more gapingly apparent than in a medical emergency. The life circumstances of many H'mong people leave them with literally no where to turn for help- and baby Za's family is no different. Again, God had prepared things for us in advance. We had brought a TON of medical supplies with us to Vietnam that our supporters had donated, and luckily one item was a big first aid kit. Patty and Miles went to work immediately and treated the wound as best we could. Hopefully it will begin to heal, and perhaps lessen the scar baby Za will have on her leg.
At the end of the day we were all left feeling pretty helpless. We were able to provide medical attention for one child. One. There are hundreds of children that could use basic, day-to-day medical care and the villagers don't even have resources enough to begin. It's difficult to understand how humanity can allow people to live in such impoverished conditions. How can we live with ourselves knowing that there are people in the world living like this? Thankfully, we serve a big God. A God that is powerful enough to do big things in this world, even though things seem overwhelming to us. He can handle it.
Though we were all quite spent, we continued to finish our filming schedule after the medical emergency had subsided. Tuesday night we celebrated. We ate dinner with Father Nghia and Gom, and relished our final evening together in Sapa before we headed back to the US.
In Conclusion:
Father Nghia once asked me how I would describe Sapa, and I answered, "I'm not sure that I can." His eyes widened and said, "It is difficult, no? How do you ever do justice to the things you've seen in Sapa?"
We have pictures. We have videos. We have words. But I'm afraid that even the best of all those things cannot truly recreate what it is like to experience Sapa- both the good and the bad. In one look we see the beauty of the people, the breathtaking views of mountains and fields, and the freedom of an inherently simpler lifestyle. Yet another glance will reveal the heartache and painful toll of racism, the injustice of poverty and its dehumanization of good people, and perhaps most difficult of all, the necessary steps the developed world has yet to take in order to be a part of the solution.
I can't speak for the rest of the One:Eight team, but if I've learned one thing about myself from experiencing Sapa it's that I hope to spend the rest of my life being a part of the solution to the problems faced by our world.
Our time in Vietnam is over, and we've all returned safely to our homes. But I promise that each of us left a changed person.
Thank you for your support, and we'll keep you updated on the progress of our documentary!
Monday:
Monday, we continued shooting interviews with some of the people in and around the Hope Center. We quickly learned that interviews where a translator mediates can be challenging! It creates an interesting barrier between the interviewer and interviewee, one that I think with time and experience would probably fade, but definitely left our brains feeling fried! It's difficult to think of alternate ways to ask the same question in order to make it clear to someone speaking another language, coming from a different cultural background of understanding. Thankfully, God provided us with a wonderfully spunky translator named Gom! She is H'mong, but speaks a variety of languages well, one of which is English with a lovely Australian accent. :)
But the best part of Monday was lunchtime. The Hope Center is located on property owned by a man named Mr. Ma. He and his family invited our entire team into their home for a luncheon feast! We were extremely honored. They went all out for us- the kind of meal many H'mong families would have for a wedding reception so we're told! Mr. Ma told us that we were the first Americans/white people that they had ever been able to have in their home (as the village of Hoa Tao is generally not a tourist site). Isn't that incredible!? Together, the 15 or so of us celebrated life that day. Truly. Even though communication between us and the H'mong was extremely limited, you'd be surprised how easily some things translate across all humanity.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was an emotional day for our entire team. Soon after we arrived at the Hope Center, Miles discovered an 8 month old baby with a wound on her leg that appeared to be either a second or third degree burn. Poverty is never more gapingly apparent than in a medical emergency. The life circumstances of many H'mong people leave them with literally no where to turn for help- and baby Za's family is no different. Again, God had prepared things for us in advance. We had brought a TON of medical supplies with us to Vietnam that our supporters had donated, and luckily one item was a big first aid kit. Patty and Miles went to work immediately and treated the wound as best we could. Hopefully it will begin to heal, and perhaps lessen the scar baby Za will have on her leg.
At the end of the day we were all left feeling pretty helpless. We were able to provide medical attention for one child. One. There are hundreds of children that could use basic, day-to-day medical care and the villagers don't even have resources enough to begin. It's difficult to understand how humanity can allow people to live in such impoverished conditions. How can we live with ourselves knowing that there are people in the world living like this? Thankfully, we serve a big God. A God that is powerful enough to do big things in this world, even though things seem overwhelming to us. He can handle it.
Though we were all quite spent, we continued to finish our filming schedule after the medical emergency had subsided. Tuesday night we celebrated. We ate dinner with Father Nghia and Gom, and relished our final evening together in Sapa before we headed back to the US.
In Conclusion:
Father Nghia once asked me how I would describe Sapa, and I answered, "I'm not sure that I can." His eyes widened and said, "It is difficult, no? How do you ever do justice to the things you've seen in Sapa?"
We have pictures. We have videos. We have words. But I'm afraid that even the best of all those things cannot truly recreate what it is like to experience Sapa- both the good and the bad. In one look we see the beauty of the people, the breathtaking views of mountains and fields, and the freedom of an inherently simpler lifestyle. Yet another glance will reveal the heartache and painful toll of racism, the injustice of poverty and its dehumanization of good people, and perhaps most difficult of all, the necessary steps the developed world has yet to take in order to be a part of the solution.
I can't speak for the rest of the One:Eight team, but if I've learned one thing about myself from experiencing Sapa it's that I hope to spend the rest of my life being a part of the solution to the problems faced by our world.
Our time in Vietnam is over, and we've all returned safely to our homes. But I promise that each of us left a changed person.
Thank you for your support, and we'll keep you updated on the progress of our documentary!
Posted by Stormie Dorrell
