“Are you two honeys?”
“What?”
“Are you two honeys?”
“We’re married if that’s what you mean.”
“Swell and Sheepie sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
And thus went our conversation with some of the kids of
First: Honeys?
We’re not sure what “camp” entails but assume that they go out of the village for weeks or months to collect provisions for the soon to arrive winter.
It is the beginning of June and there is still snow in the village and the ocean is still mostly frozen around Brevig.
We were told that the ice was lasting a long time this year.
When we asked when the ice usually melts we were met with the blunt and surprising answer of “April”.
Yikes.
Some of the villagers that we did see were excited to be able to replace the western diet they’ve been living off of for the winter with their native diet for the summer. I can’t say that I blame them for that excitement.
Their store is limited in choices with little to no fresh produce. So its canned, frozen and prepared foods.
Our entertainment on this trip was a couple of movies both of which made Swell cry.
First up was Sicko.
Michael Moore’s documentary on the
It was pretty good.
But I’m the choir.
Swell sat and cried because she sees herself in those people’s shoes. The ones who are dying because they can’t afford healthcare.
She’s not really in their shoes but its still sad to know that we live in a society that doesn’t care enough to declare health care (at least basic health care) a right and to stand in solidarity with each other to ensure that all have access to care without having to worry about the financial hardship that care would create.
She is still without health insurance but we’ll keep working on it.
The second documentary we watched I didn’t think was all that particularly good but was interesting.
Invisible Children has become all the rage with young people. It is about child soldiers in
I’m not sure what this movement has accomplished but its good that many young people have decided that what happens over there is worth being concerned about over here.
Again I’m the choir so it doesn’t take much to convince me.
A lot of tears have been shed the last few days as we try to come up with a life plan.
We’re still planless and hopelessly lost.
It’ll come together eventually I suppose.
We’re back in
We’re not sure why we’re doing village travel as they don’t usually do village travel in the summer months because of people leaving the villages for “camp” but we’re happy to do it as it means that we’re able to make more money than we deserve on many of the village trip days.
We’re living a pretty boring life.
We work (a little). We eat (a little). We watch TV (a lot). We sleep (a lot – but not soundly).
Here in
We’re waiting to hear about
We’ve decided NOT to move to
We don’t like the board of optometry there and it is far too saturated with optometrists.
So that leaves
We’ll see.
Stebbins does not; however, both clinics where we were working were equipped with running water. We were not able to have a shower in St. Michaels because of a broken shower. We had the opportunity to request to go to people’s homes to have showers but decided to go stinky.
How many people in the world don’t have the choice of whether or not they go stinky? Over 1 Billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water let alone extra water for hygiene.
Swell’s Grandparents are not included in that number because they have a well nearby their home the water is just not pumped into their home.
Although many were sick. Some type of virus was sweeping through the town and when native people are sick apparently it becomes "ok" to snort and sniffle and spit into garbage cans no matter who is sitting two feet from you.
By the end of the week we would all be sick.
Something that I’ve long despised.
What will our role in the world be if we’re living in
A good bit ago I read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. He seems to agree with a lot of my thoughts but rather than just think them he has put them into practice by living in community in the inner city and having nothing that isn’t shared. (All money from the sale of his book was given away.)
While reading his book I noted a few paragraphs.
Going back through the book some of them address the questions Swell and I have re: our future.
We worked hard in St. Michaels and when we were done working hard we hopped in an Ambulance for the short drive to Stebbins.
It’s funny that they have an ambulance. They don’t have a hospital. They have a well equipped health clinic staffed by a physician’s assistant and some health aides. I’m guessing that the ambulance was to transport people from their homes to the clinic or to the airstrip to be med-evaced to
Many of the things that are done in rural
Health aides (well respected local people trained to care for the community and refer up the chain if necessary)
A central tertiary center to which people can come if needed.
And many of them are from the “do not do” pages.
An ambulance is one of those things that should not have been done.
In a global context transportation to a tertiary care center (or for that fact a primary care center in a lot of places) is a challenge and a burden for folks. A solution attempted by some was the purchase of vehicles to either transport a medical worker to a patient or transport the patient to a medical worker.
Problem – roads are often impassable.
Problem – maintenance of the vehicle is often an issue. Ambulance in
This is but one example of why I’ve found it interesting to work in Rural Alaska. Rural
We worked harder in Stebbins than we did at St. Michaels – more people means harder work.
At least we had some happenin’ digs to sleep in.
As we were working hard late one night (probably 9 pm) a health aide accompanied a woman who was in obvious distress into the clinic. I knew immediately what was happening as I saw the health aide carrying two bags full of a bloody liquid.
The woman was having a miscarriage. Soon after they health aide and the woman arrived the physicians assistant who lives in St. Michaels arrived.
The health aides are amazing people. Lay people but trained very well. They can and do almost anything health related. From well baby exams to emergency care.
When they call in the PA trouble is brewing.
It was very difficult to be in the clinic that night. Swell and I had finished our – what often seems meaningless - work and were watching Heroes on the computer. Every now and again we would hear some sobbing coming from the clinic room down the hall.
At one point long after we had gone to bed we were both awakened by wailing. We both felt so bad but there was nothing we could do.
When morning rolled around the clinic was empty and it was back to work. As we worked we knew out there in this small village was a woman hurting. But as this thought crossed our minds we also realized that out there in this village there were many, many people hurting.
Alcoholism .
Suicide.
Neglect.
Abuse.
Problems around the world but more prevalent in some areas than others.
We hope that the underlying truth that people are hurting everywhere be it from a social disease, inequality, health crisis, injustice, spiritual battle, or some other cause will direct our future.
As we try to determine our future a passage that Shane wrote is of particular interest:
“As we consider economics, some of us will give people fish. Others will teach people to fish. But still others must be looking at who owns the pond and who polluted it, for these are also essential questions for our survival. We must storm the fence that has been built around the pond and make sure everyone can get to it, for there are enough fish for all of us.” Page 151
I had always hoped to be one who “teaches people to fish” but as an optometrist the opportunity to teach in a global context is rather limited. I’m guessing Swell and I will be relegated to the “giving of fish” and the important task of questioning our politicians and leaders as to why injustice exists in the world. The whole idea of living in suburbia and owning a practice scares us. It scares us because we don’t want to become those people. We don’t want to have a kid and say: my goodness our 950 sq foot home is no longer big enough. Bring on the 4000 square foot homes! (Have you ever watched HGTV? Those people are nuts. Three people family? You NEED a five bedroom house!)
Shane is able to verbalize concerns I’ve had for years much better than I can:
“Layers of insulation separate the rich and the poor from truly encountering one another. There are the obvious layers like picket fences and SUVs, and there are the more subtle ones like charity, Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and short-term mission[s]…, while they accomplish some good, can also function as outlets that allow us to appease our consciences and still remain a safe distance from the poor.”Page 157
How true this often is. The poor become an idea rather than people. Yes we recognize that poverty exists in this world but we do our part by giving to our church, by flying to
“As we consider what it means to be ‘born again,’ as the evangelical jargon goes, we must ask what it means to be born again into a family in which our sisters and brothers are starving to death. Then we begin to see why rebirth and redistribution are inextricably bound up in one another, as a growing number of evangelicals have come to proclaim. It also becomes scandalous for the church to spend money on windows and buildings when some family members don’t even have water.” Page 163
How do we redistribute? Ingrained in me as a Christian is the idea of being a steward of my money but I consistently hear from Christian leaders the idea of building wealth so that we can give more. Swell and I did our best to attend a Dave Ramsey study at our church (who are now disappointingly undertaking a multimillion dollar building campaign). Dave Ramsey is a Christian but the gist of his message is to live like no one else so that you can live like no one else. Translation? Spend less (GOOD!), so that you don’t go in debt (GOOD), so that you can save more (OK?), so that you can build wealth through investments (OK?), and then you can live like a king once your money starts making money. If you do it just perfectly you’ll be wealthy AND you’ll leave a legacy for your kids.
I don’t want to leave a legacy for my (completely fictional) kids. There is so much need in the world now. What good is my money doing in investments and savings when like Shane writes “our sisters and brothers are starving to death”?
(For those who have read things I’ve written over the years its like he stole the words out of my head, eh?)
“One of the fathers of the church, Basil the Great, writing in the fourth century, put it this way: “When someone strips a man of his clothes, we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not – should not he be given the same name? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat in your wardrobe belongs to the naked; the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot; the money in your vaults belongs to the destitute.’” Page 165
Ouch.
So what do we do? Do we move to the suburbs? Open a practice? Make money? Give money away?
Or do we move to the inner city? Open a practice? Make less money? Give everything away?
Or do we end up in Asia or
Or do we end up traveling more. Seeing what plagues this world.
Alcohol.
Drugs.
Sex.
Poverty.
Inequality.
Injustice.
And while we see these things can we bring ourselves to make a difference.
How do we make a difference?
It’s the end of another year (Our years begin and end on May 25th) and we are probably further away from answering these questions than we were 6 years ago but now we need to come up with an answer. Our house is for sale (its been shown once!), we have no jobs when we come back from our Eastern European tour of poverty and by now we’re probably unemployable in Atlanta (that’s what happens when you keep quitting jobs).
So we continue to struggle with life and the meaning of our lives. We continue to struggle with the choices we’ve made and are making. We continue to move about directionless hoping to stumble upon our life’s calling.
Where will this year take us?
Well this time last year we were just leaving
Stay tuned for that.
I guess.
Eventually our time in St. Mikes and Stebbins was up.
We hopped on the plane for our flight back to Nome.
Posts
All Comments
