7-9 First night in NC

Well we made it to our home away from home for the week and of course it has the most gorgeous view. I had a fun and memorable time on our journey together. 

As the next week comes I am most excited about getting immersed in the cultural and learning about the way Cherokee accept and practice medicine.  I am also looking forward to seeing the Cherokee Indian Hospital and all that it has to offer. With new adventures, I feel there are always apprehensions. As the week approaches I am apprehensive about feelings that could come up for me when exposed to difficult situations in the hospital for example cases of abuse. I feel this could be an issue for me because of my strong love for pediatrics and passion for children in general. When exploring and looking into social and cultural aspects of the environment we will be immersed in for the next week I found that the Cherokee have a Children’s Dental program. The program visits schools early in the year and also can be accessed from the hospital. According to the Children’s dental program potion on the Eastern Cherokee public and human service site “Dental decay is the number one chronic disease among children, occurring 5 times more frequently than asthma”. I feel that Native American people are interesting and often misunderstood. I feel that they truly believe in their culture as we all do but that others don’t easily understand their values, beliefs and practices. I think some of my beliefs around abuse and neglect my need to be set aside to allow myself to see, understand and take away from the Cherokee Culture. I feel my beliefs could cause judgement of their culture and I am really here to learn and experience it from their aspects as best as my abilities allow. Leaving my thoughts and beliefs behind for this week will have a positive outcome on my future and the things I take away from this experience.As I sit here staring at the mountains and enjoying the first night in the cabin I am really looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

“You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong”—Sue Fitzmaurice

Reference

Children's Dental Program . (2017). Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Public Health & Human Servies. Retrieved July 09, 2017, from http://www.cherokee-hmd.com/childrens-dental/index.html