# 47 - Frustration envelops me

# 47 – Frustration envelops me!!

It was a serene setting on Yam Island this morning as I sat on a jetty over turquoise water and wet my line.  A few small fish played with my line and as fishing goes it was pretty lame haul of three small boney fish, but it was definitely a satisfying experience.  I had some recalls this morning too, but as seems to be the way on this island, reliability to return for follow up is not great, so after sitting in the clinic between 9-10 am just tidying up from he last nurse, I decided that enough of my day off had been sacrificed, and I grabbed my reel and headed for the reef.

One of the frustrating things in this place is the value I place on health, is not reciprocated by the majority of Islanders.  So when Islanders are asked to return for follow up it is anyone’s guess if they will show up or not.  Now I am all for freedom of choice, but if you are the parent of small children who need consistent quality health care, ignoring health recalls and follow up appointments treads a fine line between child neglect, and exercising the right to refuse treatment.  I feel a little frustrated by this, and it unsettles me when I see kids that are so sick with infections, that if they were in a metropolitan part of Australia, where there are good services, the child would be flagged as a neglected child, and the parents/carers would be hauled in to explain to authorities why they fail to provide the necessities of life.  Am I being unreasonable here?  Is my expectation that you will be a responsible parent reasonable?  Or am I living in some other fantasy?

I know in my heart of hearts that the children I give antibiotics to wont complete the course.  I know that the Scabies treatment (which is complicated and intensive) wont be carried out properly.  And to confirm all this, I’m walking down one of the roads this morning, off fishing, and as I pass the homes of some of the people and kids I saw yesterday, there are the kids, in the same clothes, with the same bandaids I applied just 24 hours ago.  Big breath!

So I am reading an amazing book called “The Shack”.  A story based on the age old principle that we  all have questions that we want to ask God.  One man is given an opportunity to spend a week end in a shack in the Oregon woods, with God in all of His/Her forms (The triune God of my Christian faith).  Each chapter is a new lesson and a new challenge for Mack the main character, but the writer has me on Mack’s journey too.  Of “judgment” the author quotes Albert Einstein …

“ Whoever undertakes to set himself up as

judge of truth and knowledge,

 is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods”.

It dawns on me that this reflection I am having on lack of compliance for treatment, is judgment, and that I am not here to judge, but to serve, and to offer what care I can where the people are at.

……………

My night with the boys didn’t eventuate last night.  I wandered down to the hall, and could hear laughter.  As I entered the venue, I could see 70 or so kids sitting on pampas grass mats, with 7-8 Aunties and Akas (old women) sitting around a data projector.  An old movie (Home Alone) was on the big screen and the kids were rolling on the floor wetting them selves with laughter.  Not a man in sight. Not a TV with footy anywhere to be seen. I paid my $2 for “movie night” and sat with the ladies and the kids who all gathered around me while we watched the last 30 mins of the movie.  It was a great evening, and a welcome light relief to the end of my somewhat frustrating week.

It is going on  4pm Saturday 31^st July.  And I have just now returned from a walk on the reef.  It is warm crystal clear water, peppered with beautiful shells, and coral. Sun is breaking through the clouds, and my head is feeling clearer.  This really is a beautiful canvas, but like all masterpieces in the greatest of galleries, one gets to take a close up look and sees cracks in the art work.

There is no such thing as picture perfect.