The difference between the "needs" and the "wants" - Part II

Hurricane Katrina
Getting married was a catalyst to an incredible amount of changes and events in my life. Only a month or so after the wedding, your father and I got hired as Home Inspectors for an agency that deals with natural disasters. It all came about at a time when our island had been hit with a category 1 hurricane, and several states had also had disasters, so there was a huge need for inspectors. We were "trained" and sent to work in 1 day! I spent several months working almost 7 days a week and had the opportunity to visit hundreds of homes. This was an astounding way to see first hand how many people live, some with plenty and then some, and others lacking some of the things we would consider essential. It was a very demanding job, and one I was sure I'd never do again. Or so I thought.

At the Astro Dome in Houston

In August 2005, I got a call from the same company asking us if we wanted to fly to Houston, to prepare for the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. Your father and I had less than a day to make up our minds. Katrina had not happened yet, so we had no idea what it would be like, still, we decided to go. Four days later I was in Houston, Texas. Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast and the whole world watched in horror the aftermath of this terrible storm. We spent two weeks in Texas, just waiting for the waters to reside so that we would be able to go to Louisiana and start working. It was a time of much uncertainty for millions of people, including us. We had no idea what we would see, where we would sleep, where we would eat. As I waited, I saw the images of the destruction caused on TV and cried in unbelief at what we saw. However, seeing it in person was indescribable.

Katrina aftermath

There was rubble and trash everywhere. Some houses we needed to visit were completely gone! The only thing left to indicate there used to be a house there was the cement slab. We slept at a fire station for  several nights, since hotels were fully booked. We also spent a night at a police academy center, two weeks in a rented trailer, and finally a few months in a small apartment in the backyard of the home of an amazing family. We basically lived off of whatever fit in our three suitcases for almost four months. That really taught me a lot about needs! I thought about how many things I kept at home, things I never even looked at or used, and how I didn't even miss them! We visited over one thousand homes; some were the biggest mansions I've ever set foot in, others the most disgusting, stinky places I never want to set foot in again.

In a way it was an up-close look at human conducts. We met all sorts of people;  some people lost everything, yet still had joy. Some people only had minor damages, but spewed anger, desperation, and pride (two of them even kicked us out of their homes). I smelled things I never want to smell again, walked through piles of rotting clothes, toys, sofas, and sheet rock, and spent hours driving back and forth through neighborhoods that had been swiped out completely. We heard sad stories of separation and even death and we prayed with families and listened to stories of grace and compassion. There were also some funny moments, like the time your father used a toilet in a three story home that had lost the bottom floor, and when he flushed it, it all came falling down to the first floor, where I was talking to the home owners (who didn't know he was using the bathroom!).

In Iowa after the floods in 2008

We also saw generosity at its best. People from all over the world gave so much, there were piles of donations scattered across parking lots, gymnasiums and churches. Once again I was reminded of how much we have, how important it is to be detached from your possessions, and what a blessing it is to give abundantly. Katrina changed us in many positive ways. After those months, life seemed fragile and uncertain, but we also learned about the will to rebuild, to start over, to hold on to hope in the grayest of moments. A few months before I got pregnant, we also worked in Iowa after devastating floods tore through the state. The experiences were different. The lessons learned? The same.

If you ever wonder why we don't like to hold on to things we don't really use or need, Katrina is the answer. The important things in life are in our hearts and in our souls. Family truly is first. Give me love, and a suitcase with the things I really need, and I'll be ok.

The difference between the "needs" and the "wants"

Today as I shopped for some things, you spread your tiny hands out of the shopping cart, hoping to grab something, anything, and hold on to it for dear life (or until you got bored of it and grabbed something else). When I tried to switch products on you, you did it, you gave your first official toddler-tantrum-in-the-isle scream! Aaaaaahhhhhhhh! I'm glad I reacted calmly and traded any way, because in a matter of seconds you had forgotten all about the first item. I did not forget the incident, and began thinking that soon you would start using the famous, "I need it" script when you want something. With that in mind, I want to share a few stories that happened to me, that together with what my parents taught me and many more similar incidents, engraved in my heart the difference between our needs and our wants by the time I was 22 years old. Granted, these are memories I often have to recall, living in the consumerist and wealthy society I live in (even in times of recession). Having these experiences altered my view of the world and material possessions. It is my hope that one day you will understand the meaning of these things, and not take for granted how fortunate and blessed we have been.

The hospital
When I was 19 or 20 years old, I went on a medical missionary trip to La Vega, Dominican Republic. I was  invited to go with a group of doctors on this trip, to be an extra pair of hands, and sometimes to sing and pray with the people. It was a short, 4-5 day trip that had a lasting impact in my life. The first few days I spent helping out in the clinic they set up. Doctors would see families and patients with minor illnesses or just for preventive care. I was working with the "urine collectors," which was already a bit uncomfortable, since I had to look at pee all morning. However, in these trips, there's an adrenaline that somehow kicks in and things that would gross me out back home, seemed less weird when I saw the need other people faced.

Me trying to help out

On the last day of the trip, I was assigned to work at the hospital, where doctors were performing surgeries day in, day out. That experience totally altered my life. I thought, "I am never going to complain about our hospitals again" (which of course, I did). The first thing I noticed was that patients were so happy to be treated and operated, they did not care about anything else, including their own privacy. Now, in the States we have many laws and rules to protect our privacy, no one would think of having it any other way, but in this particular hospital, those rules were as significant as a single speck of sand in the Atlantic. The patients were lined up in the waiting room since the wee hours of the morning, dressed in their hospital gowns. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, those hospital gowns were practically transparent, so they might as well have been naked. The impressive thing is that no one seemed to care, even though they were men and women of all ages and sizes. Their need was far more important to them than their comfort level.

I spent all day running errands: "Bring me this," "Get me that," "Go check on this patient." I walked the hospital so many times the patients started calling me "doctor" when I walked by. That was interesting for me, an Art student, until they asked me a health-related question and discovered I knew nothing... Another thing that shocked me were the patient's rooms. I had always seen hospitals where two strangers could share a room, with a curtain in between them to provide some privacy, but you always had the option of requesting a private room. At this hospital, one room accommodated 15 or 16 beds! There were no curtains to divide spaces, there was no air conditioning system, no television to entertain you, and certainly no food service. In fact, I don't even remember seeing an emergency call button.

By the last surgery, the doctors had run out of gauzes (the ones they had brought with them), so they asked me to run to the nurses station to get some for that last patient. There I saw the nurses sterilizing the used medical equipment. They would rinse the instruments, then place them on a steel tray, pour alcohol over them, light a match and flame it up! That was it. Then, they opened a big, oven-type machine, and pulled out a hot, brown packet. In there was the gauze I needed to take to the doctors. When I took them back to the doctors, they opened it up carefully, so as to not contaminate it, and to my surprise, pulled out a gauze that had been used so many times before it had several holes in it and was already yellowish. I thought, back home I can get gauze at Walmart at 3 a.m if I wanted to. They needed it, but could not afford to get any.

That night I left the hospital around 9 p.m. and went back to my hotel room. I was starving, but not really hungry; tired, but not really exhausted; shocked, but not as numb as I should have been. I thought I was too blessed, too spoiled, too materialistic. I thought I would never ever complain again. But of course, such is the human nature, I have. Revisiting that hospital in mind is a great way to fight the temptation to succumb to my desire for wants that aren't really needs. 

This was one of the many experiences I had while on missionary trips in other countries that shaped my view of the world. I will share others in my next few postings.