In the Beginning...

Howdy, friends! Welcome to my first blog! In case you were wondering, bilagáana is Navajo for "white man". You're probably wondering why I've gone all native on ya (heehee); well I'm sitting in my room in Cortez, Colorado writing this blog because I am just in the beginning of a summer internship with Indian Health Services and I'm stationed at the Ute Mountain Ute Health Clinic, where we treat Indians of both the Ute and Navajo tribes. I'll be working both in and outside the pharmacy providing drug education to patients, public health services to natives in the remote parts of the reservation, and collaborating with the doctors, pharmacists, and nurses at the clinic to possibly start some new clinics to improve adherence for patients.

Through the course of my pharmacy schooling, I think I've said that I would like to be about 20 different types of pharmacists, the most recent of which (and hopefully last) a public health pharmacist with an emphasis in ambulatory care. This is why I'm out here; the clinic I work in serves as a medical home for our patients with 3 physicians, nurses, 2 part-time dentists, 2 optometrists, a lab, pharmacy, psychiatrist and psychologist, as well as home-health and public health nurses. In the pharmacy, we have access to all the medical records and the doctors are right down the hall to consult whenever we need.

So, my reason for writing this blog is two-fold: I know there are several pharmacy students interested in this kind of work and I hope that by sharing some of my clinical experiences on the reservation, it might help someone else decide what kind of career they want to pursue after graduation, but also because moving somewhere with no contacts, place to live, or any idea of the region can make a man shake in his boots a little, but is a great opportunity too to draw closer to our creator and I wanted an avenue to share with my bros and sisses in Christo the reflections and insight that the Lord blesses me with out here in the desert! Thanks for stoppin' by!

Fresh Off the Reservation:
- The Ute Mountain Reservation is located at the foothills of the "Sleeping Ute Mountain" mountain range. Legend goes, in the early days the Great Warrior God came to help the natives in a battle against the evil ones. As they stepped hard on the land, the ground was pushed to the side forming the mountains and canyons of the region. During the battle, the Warrior God was badly wounded so he lay down to rest and fell into a never-ending sleep. It is said that the blood of his wound became the living water for the animals and land around. He is believed to awaken one day to help his people fight off their enemies. See his silhouette of his folded arms across his chest, his head-dress still on top of his head, and his toes pointing towards the heavens.

A Voice Crying Out in the Desert:
I began reading St. Josemaría Escrivá's The Way on my hike up Sand Canyon yesterday. Msgr. Escrivá was a priest in the 1900's who had the desire to transform mundane ordinary work into God's work (Opus Dei) and thus founded an order of both clerics and laity whom he fathered to become stewards of God's love through their daily lives and work. The Way was a book of reflections, whispers, if you will, of the Msgr. speaking little phrases of encouragement in the ear of his sheep that were meant to impart the way to living a life after Christ's life.

The reflection that has stuck with me most potently is this, "May your behavior and your conversations be such that everyone who sees or hears you can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ." What is implied, of course, is that we do in fact read the life of Christ often or else how can we be perceived as being versed in Jesus' ways, by chance? Not likely! I challenge myself and you to increase your time spent with the gospels this week and allow yourself to fall in love again! After all, when we fall in love with someone, we want to be like them, amiright?! God's blessings!