Coquitlam’s Mac Miao with a Haitian child. He’s part of Tzu Chi’s relief effort in the island nation devastated by an earthquake on Jan. 12.

The media spotlight is no longer shining on quake-devastated Haiti, which is still digging itself out of a national disaster that left hundreds of thousands of people dead, injured or homeless.

But for Coquitlam’s Mac Miao, Haiti is still very much front and centre after two visits to the devastated area as a Canadian leader with the Tzu Chi Buddhist Compassion Relief Foundation team (www.tzuchi.ca).

Miao, a father of two who owns his own financial services company, visited Haiti a month after the Jan. 12 quake to hand out relief supplies and a second time, March 18 to April 8, to see about the possibility of setting up a school.

He is still haunted by visions of Port au Prince with most of the buildings in ruins and people digging out their relatives with little more than pickaxes.

It wasn’t so much that the buildings were flattened, one storey folded into another like flapjacks in a logger’s breakfast, Miao said; there were still people inside those buildings, and as yet no earth moving equipment available to dig them out.

“You can’t see it’s a house. Almost everything is like that,” he said, pointing to pictures he took while working in the city.

As a team leader with the Canadian branch of the Tzu Chi Foundation, it was Miao’s job to bring some order into the chaos. There was rubble everywhere, tents cities the size of small suburbs and hungry people looking for their loved ones.

One fellow Miao talked to was shy about having his picture taken while sweeping the rubble outside his home. “My mother’s in there,” the man said, as he went back to his sweeping.

At the same time, Miao says, there were glimpses of hope. Miao said he saw Tzu Chi relief workers and Haitians singing and praying together while tarps, blankets, rice and powdered milk were distributed to each family one by one with a bow and a smile.

“Our master tells us to treat them with respect; they will teach us something.”

Tzu Chi has more than five million members in 47 countries providing relief in 69 countries. It was founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966, and Miao joined the organization with his wife, Mary, a few years after they moved to Coquitlam. He got involved originally to introduce his children to Chinese language and culture but now he and his wife devote a considerable amount of time to Tzu Chi’s charitable projects.

As a member of the Canadian relief team, Miao was responsible for establishing work teams and helping to distribute rice, powdered milk, tarps and blankets. He said many Haitians joined his work teams and vigourously cleaned the streets for a free meal and an extra portion to take home to their families.

He was amazed at how little food they managed to survive on and was constantly reminded of his need to eat three meals a day.

When a nun at a convent turned away his offer of two bags of rice, sending one back to the tent city, Miao was surprised. “Why? You have 20 people to feed,” he thought at the time.

Since Tzu Chi started sending relief workers to Haiti, more than 150 tonnes of food and milk powder have been distributed, along with thousands of blankets and tarps, medical kits and tents. Hundreds of mobile toilets were set up at tent camps and now the organization is looking to mid-term and long-term plans.

Miao, who paid his own way for the trip, slept in tents and ate the local food, and spent a lot of time trying to organize plans for rebuilding a school destroyed by the quake. But he had to return to Coquitlam without firm plans in place. “We want to build a school that will last a thousand years.” But with no maps, no documents and few government workers, many of them killed in the earthquake, “It’s very difficult.”

He hasn’t given up hope, however, and continues to meet with officials in Canada, and the Sisters of St. Anne, based in Quebec, which runs the school.

The work has given Miao a new goal and, today, he says, he’s a different man. Dreams of a bigger house he had as a new immigrant have been replaced with the goal of eventually volunteering as a full-time relief worker.

“You get a shock that changes you,” he said. “I know I need less and less, and am lucky to live in this country.”

dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/tricitynews/community/94195429.html