NextNow Member Blog

From: —— —Betty Frain <dr.b.frain@sbcglobal.net>

I’ve fallen in with a group of elementary teachers.— We meet to take tours and attend events on the base. Sometimes we go to one of the officers clubs or the golf club for happy hour.— (The Air Force is well known for it’s great golf courses)

We’re all in our 60’s and have had unforeseen twists of fate.— A couple I talked with this past Friday, lost everything in the Katrina tragedy.—— I sat with them for two hours as they told numerous stories of devastation and horror from that painful time.— Both husband and wife, are special education teachers and were all set to retire when the storm hit and they lost everything.— Their home and vacation cabin in Mississippi were under water for 15 days. They fled to their son’s house in Louisiana but out of the area of destruction

Once they had a base of safety, they went with their grown children in their canoes to help save people.—— No federal personnel came to help out for five full days.— Helicopters could be seen overhead, but they did not see any of them land to actually rescue anyone.— The family took care of people as young as infants and as old as 80.— They took them from roofs and off their porches.

This family of four got diabetics the medicine they required.— They used their barbeque as a kitchen for the neighborhood and their garage became the trading post where neighbors bartered goods and services.—— The police gave them items that had been confiscated from looters to share with the neighbors. Her husband, who had been a social worker in Haiti, became the Spanish teacher for the neighborhood.— People were motivated to learn the language when hundreds of Spanish speaking workers came to the area to help them rebuild.

Today this couple has a new life as teachers at the Department of Defense schools (DODS).— —These schools can be found on bases around the world.— In four years, this couple has traveled to 20 countries on their vacations. They have met other “travel junkies” and encouraged me to join them and become a school counselor.— They claim to love their new lifestyle and feel blessed to have the opportunity to create a new way of living, knowing that many have not been able to bounce back from Katrina.

Most of DODS teachers in this group have gotten rid of their possessions or lost them to tragic circumstances, but they are happy with their adventures and are willing to put up with the numerous adjustments required to live in foreign cultures.

They find new pleasures in investigating the food and history of nations around the planet.— Many have a terrific sense of humor and love to have a good time laughing and planning new travel schemes.

It is fun to see the creativity in their clothes, many of them purchased from arts and crafts vendors in a multitude of countries.—— I enjoy seeing their unique jewelry, hats, shirts and hand-made coats, shoes and purses

By the time Friday evening was over, we had connected four large tables together and were hoping around to swap travel tips and stories, make referrals to each other and set up more trips.— Now I have travel buddies.— Too bad I only have two weekends left.

Most of the couples in this group are interracial or bicultural.— I look into their faces and see old hippies who continue to live an alternative life-style and are still peace-nicks.

I was given two C.D.s to borrow by my new friend Poppy.— One had Billy Joel’s song: “ Goodnight Saigon” and Jackson Brown’s: “From the Arms of Hunger”…— “Far from the world of disorder, beyond the reach of war, across a sea of differences, recognizing a brother, people walk in wonder, joining our hands, and find the means to turn our world around”.

I remember one of my favorite books in the 60’s was “Teaching as a Subversive Activity.” I think that’s what these teachers are doing.— Teaching peace and being goodwill ambassadors around the world.

My new friends asked me to join them on a visit to an orphanage.— Once a month a group of teachers and military families either bring money, clothes, toys, food and English lessons to the children or invite them to come on the base for a day of fun activities.— This month the goal was to bring some Holiday gifts and to sing songs to the children.— Boys and girls from the DODs elementary school planned a skit for the kids at the orphanage. Next week, the children they will join families on our base, for our holiday extravaganza. And believe me, it’s going to be something because it’s the Year of the Air Force Family and the commander is spending megabucks for a super celebration.

In contrast to the holiday shindig being planned for the military children, what is being offered for the Korean children who can’t be with their families is pitiful.

What an abysmal place the orphanage is!— We pulled up to a run down building and were greeted by the director, a rather reserved man in his 70’s.— Kids are crowded in dormitory like rooms.— Beds are lined up in large cold spaces.— Children have very little storage for their personal belongings.— Boxes under their beds were their only source of containers for their clothes and toys.

I learned that there are many orphanages like this in Korea.— Antiquated divorce laws give only Dads custody of their children.— Mothers, who are often uneducated, cannot afford to raise their children on their menial salaries.— Father’s are not required to pay child support.

Many fathers do not want their children because they remarry and start a second family.— They refuse to share custody, expenses or allow their children to be adopted and therefore sentence their children to an institutional life of neglect in an orphanage.

My heart sank as I saw their living conditions.— I was reminded of the “cottages” at Letchworth Village that my mentally handicapped sister began living in when she was eight (and I was 6).— I thought that my parents had sent my sister to a prison and was horrified that she was living there.— Luckily, because of the leadership of President John F Kennedy (who also had a mentally disabled sister), things slowly improved at such “schools”.

Stepping into the orphanage was like stepping back in time to the 1950’s in upstate N.Y.— The building even had the same antiseptic smell and was in shabby shape, very much like my sister’s institution.

I was heartened to see the teachers and military families bring temporary relief to the children that live in the orphanage. They also brought the possibility of a better for the children in the future. Being invited to join the teachers on their visit filled me with appreciation for their spirit and determination to reach out across a sea of differences and recognize the faces across the border as our brothers, sisters and children.