Rain Rain, Come This Way!

It's been raining intermittently almost everyday from last week. And it's been lovely. But only while the rain falls. The temperature cools down, the sun is hidden behind the grey clouds. It also gets quite humid, but I think I prefer that to the burning sensation the sun's rays send to us.

Yesterday, I went to the hospital for a lecture and my usual drive took twice as long with the little bits of flooding occurring here and there on the way. Barbados is a small flat little island whose roads were not constructed for proper draining. So water collects fairly quickly with rain that would fall for only 15 minutes and the result can below. I was driving slow enough to snap some photos.

Taken in the same area on the same road. Sidewalk? Not visible.

The rain was still falling when I went into the hospital and I exited about 1.5-2 hours later into bright sunlight once more. If I hadn't been in the rain, I wouldn't have guessed that it rained at all in same places. Where lots of water collected, it was either completely dried up without a sign of water or there was a small puddle left. Any other indications would have included some excess mud on the roads. Of course, the sun was shining brightly and it was as hot as ever.

Sun + high humidity = Not cool

Some of the water would have drained off from the roads. But to see how dry the sidewalks and roads were, is a pretty clear indication of how hot our sun is to have dried everything so quickly. As said by a friend of mine:

"The sun that shines over Barbados is the sun that shines on Hell."

Oh, yes. No sun burns like ours. Believe it.

One Day Without Shoes

Today was the day to walk barefoot. Could you walk a day without shoes? Many children around the world do it, and not by choice.

Unfortunately, today was not a day in which I could walk barefoot, having to go to the hospital and all. Instead, I'll be virtually barefoot today while I'm not home. How? By blogging about it. Today was the day for the recognition and awareness of unfortunate children around the world who are merely hindered by being shoeless.

April 8th: One Day Without Shoes. This is a challenge sent out by TOMS to people around the globe to be, for as long as possible, shoeless. TOMS shoes has been, not just a shoe company, but a movement to provide children around the world with the shoes they need. Check it out:

One For One Movement - A Pair Of New Shoes Is Given To A Child In Need With Every Pair Purchased - TOMS.com

Their tagline: "With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One on One."

What have you done to support the cause?

Animal Testing

Today we had a lab on local anaesthetics. It was awful. It helped me realise something about myself that I never knew about before but I can't say that I'm surprised about the discovery.

Experiments that will undoubtedly hurt an animal should not be carried out! Especially not by a bunch of second year medical students who don't know how to hold a rodent and inject it!

Today, our experiment on local anaesthetics was carried out on baby hamsters. These tiny little things were only just over a month old. Why didn't we use the adult hamsters? I didn't like the idea of having to purposely cause pain to the animal by pricking it with a needle multiple times. Over and over again. For about an hour. The anaesthetics did eventually work, after they were injected, but until they worked, they were being pricked, poked and prodded with a needle.

What annoyed me the most, though, was the attitude some people had towards the hamsters. They're not "just hamsters. So prick them." No, no. They're baby hamsters that were born over a month ago, barely grew then had their backs shaved, to be moved out of the cage where they are comfortable into the hands of a bunch of students to be pricked with a needle multiple times and injected with some drug. For a little creature that's only 3 inches long, that's a lot to digest in one day. Truly. And that much pain? Torture.

I did not take part in this lab. In fact, I got sick of listening to people talk down on the hamsters just because they don't have as high a level of thinking that humans do. They have personalities of their own and feel pain just as we do. They're not "just hamsters". They were terrified. The little creamy white one was timid and after being pricked, it balled up in a corner of the tray in a defensive position. Eventually, I left the lab for long periods of time and returned near the end of it all. Got my results and left.

So, basically, these are experiments that I personally cannot condone.

I know the lab with the toads had its entertainment, but it didn't involve a lot of pain. Just a single injection into each toad and they got to sit in water. I felt a little bad about having to use them in our experiment just like that but at least we didn't do anything to purposely cause them any sort of pain. And they were set free back into the wild afterwards.

I know my view won't be shared by many others. I have a high respect for animals...some get way more respect from me than some human beings I know.

Ching Ming Festival

The Ching Ming Festival, as it is known in Hong Kong, is a public holiday that takes place on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox.

This is the day for families to remember and honour their ancestors. It's often known as Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day in English translation. Families visit and tend to the graves of their loved ones and pay their respect and well wishes. They clean the graves and place offerings of foods, drinks and, of course, incense.

This year, the Ching Ming Festival falls on April 5th. It's still the 4th where I am, but in Hong Kong it's currently the 5th. I don't believe I'll have much time to post about it tomorrow so I figured this would make a fairly good compromise.

I don't live there so I'm not accustomed to the usual things in Hong Kong. I learn of these things from my Mom. I remember visiting my grandfather's grave in China when I first travelled there. We cleaned the grave, placed our offerings and incense and prayed. I figure, this is basically all that happens on the day of the Ching Ming Festival. We weren't able to make it to China to do so on recent trip to Hong Kong, unfortunately.

How do you pay your respects to your ancestors?

Happy Easter!

'nough said.

I'm continuously grateful to God for sending a gift as wonderful as His son and to His son, Jesus, who died for our sins.

Have you ever wondered where the Easter bunny, chocolate eggs and little yellow chicks came from? I didn't. I'm the kind of person who doesn't wonder why things are the way they are and just take them as they come. Probably not the best thing. Regardless, I recently discovered that all the fluffy, chocolatey stuff came from pagan roots that probably go as far back as the 13th century in Germany.

• The cute furry little bunny: Eostra, the Teutonic deity, was the goddess of spring and fertility. Her symbol was the rabbit since it has a high reproductive rate.
• The eggs: spring = new life and rebirth so eggs = fertility.
• The chicks: bunnies don't make eggs. But chickens do!

Chocolate eggs? That just developed as time went by.

No matter how you celebrate, I wish you all a very

Happy Easter!