8June
My mom has retired and repatriated back to
Taiwan. She has been extremely exhausted from the busyness of moving and
sorting out her real estate properties: sorting through >300 boxes of my dad’s
things, buying, selling, renting out and renovating real estate properties, etc.
It is winter in Australia, the busiest time for the clinic, so I am thankful
that they graciously allowed me to take time off to go back to Taiwan during
this time of the year.
There was a storm in the evening with a
temperature of 7oC, so I am very thankful that one of my housemates drove me to
the airport. I couldn’t sleep on the plane, so I watched the following movies:
Silence, Beauty and the Beast, The Wall. Had two significant impressions: 1)
Sometimes silence is better than excessive talk. Even when there’s persecution,
people cannot take away what is already in your heart. 2) Letting go comes from
trust and love. If there had been a true relationship, those who had been freed
will come back by free will.
9June
Saw a beautiful sunrise on arrival in Hong
Kong. Read Psalms 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies
proclaim the work of his hands.”
On arrival in Taiwan, the weather was sunny
but very hot. I found it hard to stay focused in my grandma’s noisy house, so I
went to Linkou in the afternoon to see my mom’s new property, which was still
being renovated. I could already use the facilities in the apartment, so I went
to the quiet library. I also realised that this new property coincidentally is
right across from the New Hope Baptist Church which I attended last year when I
visited my youngest maternal aunt on multiple occasions! So my mother can
consider attending this church when she moves in to the apartment!
The Taiwan Family Medicine specialist exam
will be in two days’ time. I’ve already been fellowed in Australia six years
ago, but Taiwan Association of Family Medicine still wanted me to sit their
fellowship exam. The timing of their annual exam coincided with my visit to
Taiwan, and I don’t usually visit Taiwan in June because it is so hot, so
sitting the exam is probably now or never. Having the Family Medicine specialty
in Taiwan may enable me to help out with short term medical mission outreach
trips. Passing the Taiwanese doctors’ licence exam in 2009 gave me the
opportunity to sit this specialist exam. However, I had no time to prepare for
this exam at all, because work in the clinic had been extremely busy and there
were many assignments due in the Master of Divinity course too! The required
reading for the specialist exam involves three thick textbooks which are 700
pages each, and three years’ worth of medical magazines. I sped read the three
textbooks and had no time for the magazines at all. I also watched a live broadcast
of Guillermo Maldonado. When I opened the broadcast he was praying for the
presence of God and to receive anointing. I felt a strong presence of God. In
the evening I stayed with my youngest aunt who lives in Linkou.
10June
Did four years’ worth of past exam papers.
Based on the % of questions I was getting correct, passing this exam will be a
miracle. The exam is not hard, but you have to read through all the materials
and understand the health system in Taiwan. Preventative medicine is practiced
quite differently in Taiwan. I was lucky to have the opportunity to go on a
medical exchange at Mackay Memorial Hospital last year, which was actually very
helpful for this (it was because I went on the exchange program, that I realised I could sit the Taiwanese Family Medicine fellowship exam, or else this type of thing would never have occurred in my mind).
I had been very sick since arrival.
Suddenly I realised I have pitting oedema! Is my heart, kidneys, or liver
failing?!! In the middle of the night I woke up three times due to diarrhoea! I
desperately prayed for God’s healing. Otherwise, if this diarrhoea continues
during exam time, how would I be able to sit the exam if I keep running to the
toilet? And if I have a soiling accident I will make the whole exam room smell
bad!
11June
Luckily the diarrhoea stopped in the
morning. However I was very dehydrated and had a headache. Other people say my
face colour looked really bad. I saw that my under eye circles are the darkest
it has ever been! Still had to go to NTUH for the exam. Saw several familiar
faces from Mackay Family Medicine Department there, but I kept a low profile.
When I looked at the exam slips from the people sitting around me, I saw that
they were all around 2-4 years younger than me. Why do I have to sit the exam
with little kids? But I also saw a few people who are much older, eg. a 50 year
old uncle who had the monk’s pearls all over him. A monk sitting the family
medicine exam? The exam supervisor announced that the oral exam will take place
in Taipei Mackay Memorial Hospital! During the exam I found that I read Chinese
very slowly, word by word, and sometimes I still couldn’t understand the
meaning. After the exam my headache worsened.
I bought a coffee in the NTUH food court,
then met up with my friend Rachel. I went for a Sunday service. The sermon
topic was “Finding strength in your weakness.” I was reminded that I need to be
very alert in my prayers during this trip back to Taiwan. After the service I
felt even more unwell and missed out the opportunity to catch up with another
friend. On the MRT back to my grandmother’s house, I felt the danger of
vomiting anytime!
12June
This is the anniversary of my maternal grandfather’s
passing away. This made me realise that all my direct family passed away around
this time of the year! My dad passed away on 31May, my paternal grandma on
20June! Many relatives came to my grandma’s house. When they started to sing
karaoke, I escaped!
I saw that the seven story library close to
my grandma’s house was full! Hundreds of seats all full! Never seen a library
this full in Australia! So I went to Rachel’s secret work place for Ross
Paterson’s web ministry: Renai Baptist Church, the church where she spent her teens in!
This place is very peaceful, and I did more assignments for my MDiv (previously
my field education supervisor had a family emergency so this course was
extended by one month, so I still got assignments to do). Interestingly I walked past a Buddhist centre and saw that they have counselling flyers with very "Christian" terminologies such as "hope" and "spiritual care". In the evening I ate
Korean cuisine in the “Tofu Village” restaurant and felt very full.
13June
Much to my surprise, I passed the exam! And
many of the questions I got correct were from random guessing! A miracle! Gotta
prepare for the oral exam next! I might even see some familiar faces on the day
of the oral exam! I asked two of the R4 family medicine trainees I met last
year for advice and they both said the oral exam is easy. They said you should
pass unless you just sit there saying nothing, behave very strangely, or make
up random stuff. I remember my intercessor friend Shelly telling me previously
that I should take this trip lightly and have fun.
In the afternoon I went to the Bread of
Life Taipei to do some reading, and saw that there is a nice space with free
wifi on the 9th floor which is open until 5pm.
I was invited to attend the “Jericho prayer
meeting” led by Dennis from Uganda by my intercessor friends Rachel and Shelly.
There was a strong presence of God in the meeting, which was focused on revival
in the land.
14June
The Renai church was being disinfected, so
I went to the library close to my grandma’s house and was lucky to get a spot.
The aircon was pretty cold and the place was not as comfortable as the Renai
church. I started reading the family medicine magazines and realised that many
questions from the exam came from these magazines! I was really lucky to pass!
Interestingly a few of the medical articles in the magazine talks about the
health benefits of coffee!
15June
Caught up with another friend in the high
tech region of Taipei. Rode the bike, hit some moles, sat on the massage chair,
etc. Then returned to Renai church and prayed with Rachel there while listening
to symphony music (someone was practicing her piano in the church). This church
had a revival back in the times of our grandparents. We prayed again for
revival.
16June
In my life, I am always looking at closeby
objects. The assignments in Morling College was blinding my eyes, and I felt my
myopia may be increasing. So I visited an ophthalmologist hoping to buy
Atropine eyedrops to prevent my eyes from deteriorating. The ophthalmologist
said my myopia is extremely light, and the eye drop only improved my eyesight a
tiny bit, so it’s not very worthwhile. I still wanted to try. He gave me
Tropicamide instead of Atropin because he believes Atropine is so long acting
that it will adversely impact me during work. The Tropicamide eyedrop made me
very photosensitive. I think I will use it during night time when I do my
Morling assignments, for force myself not to look at things too closely.
17June
Went for a haircut at noon, and had dinner
with my paternal relatives in the evening. My fringes got cut too short and it
kept poking my eyes. It’s been raining for the last few days with no flooding,
so the weather is comfortable, a grace from God! However, by the evening the
storm felt almost like a typhoon. My youngest paternal aunt had just won first
prize in another literature competition recently, and gave me a copy of her
writing.
18June
Went to the New Hope Baptist Church in
Linko for Sunday service, and coincidentally the female pastor with the same
name as my youngest maternal aunt is preaching. She emphasised this is a small
group church and spoke of the church vision of linking the community. Coincidentally,
the pastor couple lived in the same apartment complex as my mom’s new place! I
sure hope my mom’s foundations in faith can be built firmly this time, and
influence the whole extended family positively. In the evening, I had dinner
with my maternal relatives.
19June
Studied in Renai Church again. A friend of
mine knows an orthodontist very close to this church, Dr Lin, who also has a
PhD in pastoral counselling and leads a counselling ministry. I am very
thankful that she could make time to see me. I had braces when I was young, but
there were some “retainer accidents” which made my teeth crooked again. A few
years ago I got Invisalign to realign them again, but the Invisalign retainer
kept breaking from my teeth grinding and my teeth became crooked again. So this
time I will get the Hawley retainer, which will not be influenced by teeth
grinding hopefully.
20June
Rachel said that Renai Church would like me
to use a different spot in the church. However, this other spot is dark and
full of mosquitoes. So I travelled to China Evangelical Seminary to try and
study in their library. It was difficult getting there. Not only was the
weather hot and giving me heat exhaustion, but I walked in the wrong direction
quite a few times so it took a long time for me to get there. Then I was
blocked right at the entrance of the seminary when I asked the receptionist
where the library is. She said the library is not open to people who aren’t
studying in their seminary. I was very upset at that. Of course, it’s not that
lady’s fault, but it was just frustrating travelling for so long and wasting
time like that. Study space seems very precious in Taiwan. Very inconvenient
not to have a home in Taiwan. At noon I had lunch with our family friend but
kept nodding off to sleep from heat exhaustion. In the afternoon I finally
found an air-conditioned library study space and felt alive again.
21June
Another maternal relatives gathering in the
evening. I came to my mom’s new apartment in Linko. There was progress in the
renovations. I swam in the swimming pool. Can’t remember when was the last time
I swam in a swimming pool. Speaking of which, I actually had PTSD from
swimming! Before 8y.o. I loved swimming in a swim ring. When I moved to Hawaii
I realised all the kids knew how to swim, even babies! Then a girl two years
younger than me taught me how to swim and I began swimming very fast.
Therefore, I joined the swimming team when I was ten. However, the intensive
training for competitions made me hate swimming so much that I quitted the team
after a few months and there were ten years where I didn’t want to swim at all.
During that time I used to receive enjoyment out of seeing other people having
to swim and me not having to. Nowadays I don’t make any special arrangements to
swim, but when there’s opportunities to swim I don’t feel repelled, and I still
swim pretty fast.
22June
I will be catching up with Angie for
dinner. Angie has been sent by her church to do a three month intensive
training at the Bread of Life Christian Church in Taipei in preparation for
leadership in the church. So I tried going to the 9th floor of this
church in the morning, but the space was closed for the day!! So I sat on a
chair on the 2nd floor not knowing what to do. Coincidentally Angie
walked past and saw me and suggest that I stud in the Bread of Life bookshop.
In the bookshop I saw the book Dr Lin wrote last year and flipped through it
again. In the evening I went for dinner with Angie and Rachel. Before meeting
Rachel I was telling Angie how Rachel’s so busy like the rabbit in “Alice in
Wonderland.” Subsequently when we saw Rachel during dinner, she was wearing an "Alice in Wonderland" t-shirt! After dinner I prayed in the 24hour prayer
centre. The worship song was on “the heart of a son”. The people then started
praying for the revival of the nation.
23June
Ross Paterson’s holding a Webinar for Field
Partners this afternoon, so I returned to Renai Church. My laptop had been
running very slow so I took it to the manufacturer’s office, which is close to
the church. They say they have to make sure the hard drive is ok first and will
return the laptop to me on Monday. So I borrowed Rachel’s computer for the
webinar. The webinar was very interesting. However, internet ministry is very
challenging, because the internet mutates rapidly like influenza viruses! May
God lead this ministry.
24June
Had lunch with Dr Lin. I can sense she is
someone with great mercy. She has just became the principal of a seminary: may
God bless the Methodist Graduate School of Theology. She also reminded me,
everything will pass and we have a home in heaven. I received my new retainer,
which has two protruding springs that repositioned my crooked teeth back into
the right position! In the afternoon I studied in the library of the university
which my dad used to attend for the first time in my life.
25June
Came to the Taipei Mackay Family Medicine
Outpatients unit for my oral exam, a place which I became very familiar with
last year. I noticed that no one was wearing their white coats (I assumed
Taiwanese doctors wear white coats in the exams too because they are always
wearing white coats). I didn’t bring my cloths back to Taiwan so I had to
borrow my mom’s blouse from 30 years ago. Surprisingly it actually looked quite
nice. We had to randomly pick two questions through drawing lots. If we do not do
well, we are given an additional opportunity to pick a third question. The
questions I got were gout and heat injury. I am very thankful that one of the
R4 sent me a list of past exam questions from 2016 or else I wouldn’t have
studied heat injuries. Heat injury is an area which I had no experience in. In
fact, I didn’t even know there are different terminologies and definitions such
as “heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat paralysis, heat stroke.” Luckily I skim
read through the topic so that I know these different terminologies exist. I
only managed to remember the English names of these terminologies because I
didn’t even recognise some of the Chinese characters of these terminologies. To
make matters worse, the examiner kept asking me “are you sure” and made me
think I was getting things wrong, so I had to answer “I’m not sure”, because
the R4 warned me not to make anything up in the exam. After the exam I checked
the textbook and saw that I got most things right, but I just didn’t go into
the subsequent management steps they carry out in the Emergency Department such
as giving medicines by injection and cold IVF. I also learned from the textbook that my pitting oedema is “heat oedema”. The examiner even started asking
me about Dantrolene and malignant hyperthermia, which were off topic. Maybe he
just wanted to do some teaching? He even asked me whether I rotated through ED
and Anaesthetic terms previously. I said I did, but that was a long time ago
(approx. 10 years ago). Unlike Taiwan, the GP clinics are private clinics that
are not located in hospitals, so we don’t seen people with heat syncope. If someone
has those type of symptoms they’d be brought to the ED straight away! Maybe
heat stroke is more common in Taiwan. I mean, if a heat stroke patient really
comes into an urban GP clinic in Australia, all we can do is take the patient
to a cool place, give hydration, remove clothing, splash some cold water, turn
on the aircon or fan, and call the ambulance to take the patient to the
hospital. The rest of the management have nothing to do with is. Maybe the
Taiwanese Family Physicians have to do more than that? Anyway, if this is an
exam question, it is a pretty important thing in Taiwan, so I am thankful to
have picked this question and learned something. The question about gout is
pretty straightforward. I just didn’t remember the dose of Colchicine because
this is second line and I don’t prescribe it as often. It is very easy for me
to look up doses of medications so I didn’t bother memorising it. They didn’t
ask me to pick a third question so I guess I passed. When I got out of the
exit, there were two Family Medicine trainees waiting to ask examinees for
examination because they will sit this exam next year! (One of the two was a
familiar face from Mackay Family Medicine department last year). They even used
their iPhone to record what I said!! This is the first time in my life I
encountered such a thing and I thought it was pretty funny.
After the exam, I took the new airport
metro for the first time, to go to my mom’s new apartment. However, the
distance from the Linkou station to my mom’s new apartment is a 30min walk! I
swam again, and had dinner with my maternal relatives. My cousin had a fun
photo editing app. There’s even makeup aps that makes people look very pretty!
After dinner I visited my new niece Hannah! Her eyes are so big, with deep eyelid
crease. She’s a such a lively beautiful baby!
When I was waiting to catch the bus back to
grandma’s place, I saw a Muslim lady who just finished her Ramadan prayers. She
said she travelled all the way from Dingpu to Linkou to attend this fasting
prayer. She was very scared because she was not familiar with Linkou. So I
taught her how to catch the bus. She was carrying a meal from 7Eleven and said
she didn’t eat anything for the whole day. I felt pretty sorry for her and
prayed for her when she got off the bus.
26June
Went to the shopping centre to buy some
gifts for friends in Australia. It was very hot so the trip was pretty
strenuous. I had afternoon tea buffet at the Regent Hotel with Shelly, which
took care of both lunch and dinner, and absorbed some of Shelly’s wisdom.
I went to pick up my laptop and dropped by
the Renai church again. Rachel said she went to a Christian bookshop during the
weekend and saw many books about John Stott. She found his life an amazing
testimony, where he lived what he preached and is consistent inside out. John
Stott loves birds (me too) and even wrote a book on birds! We walked to the
Huashan 1914 Creative Park where the hipsters hang out. We saw a picture of a
big fish and I could already hear the fish say, “I am a big-mouthed fish! I
shall vomit Jonah out to where God wants him to go!” Finally, Rachel and I
prayed together. Half of 2017 have already gone so fast. We pray for a greater
passion for God, and to follow God’s footsteps more closely.
I saw my oral exam results in the evening:
very lucky to have passed without adequate preparation! I don’t know if God
will call me back to Taiwan one day. Anyways, just take things step by step. I
won’t be going anywhere until I finish my MDiv. This trip made me realise that
if I am to repatriate back to Taiwan, I will need to cross a huge cultural gap.
