Month: December 2017

The second international event I attended this semester was also a part of the Neustadt Literature Festival. As a student in the affiliated course, I got a chance to talk with some of the authors individually, both in conversation and interviews. After the festival’s keynote address by African American poet Marylin Nelson, we got to have lunch with all the authors on the jury who come from all over the world.

I got to sit next to Adnan Mahmutovic, a Bosnian refugee who wrote the short story collection How to Fare Well and Stay Fair, which I absolutely loved. The short stories feature primarily Bosnian refugees, and some of them are autobiographical. His rich depictions of his homeland particularly resonated with me, as did his realistic portrayals of women.

The primary way that Mahmutovic describes Bosnia is through smell, particularly in the story “The Myth of the Smell.” An old woman in a refugee camp says that the rich scents of Bosnia are like “the greeting arms of a father.” When a girl returns to the refugee camp from Bosnia and brings back a handful of soil, her fellow Bosnians marvel at its heady, superior smell. Yet as the name of the story implies, the dirt smells ordinary, and the refugees are aggrandizing it in order to cling to their homeland.

Other of the stories feature very young female protagonists, most of whom are Bosnian, who are escaping the violence of war; they are victims of rape and have seen their family members murdered. Mahmutovic’s descriptions of these women’s relationships with their bodies and lovers are so strikingly intimate that it’s difficult to believe they’re written by a man.

When another female student and I complimented him on his ability to write female characters and tackle delicate women’s issues, he blushed with pride. Growing up with many sisters and a close family, he said he felt like he has always understood women better than men, and he credits the women in his family as his inspiration.

Mahmutovic was funny and honest, and meeting him in person only made me appreciate his writing more. While How to Fare Well and Stay Fair provides insight into the weighty issue of the Bosnian refugee crisis, it’s also sweet, witty and uplifting, much like the author himself.

 

This past November, I got to attend a lecture by the Russian author Alisa Ganieva. After reading her novel The Mountain and the Wall and excerpts from The Bride and the Bridegroom, I was particularly interested in both her perspective as a writer from the little-known region of Dagestan and as a Muslim woman.

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal republic of Russia in the Northern Caucasus region. With a population of under three million people, it’s a predominantly Muslim territory. In The Mountain and the Wall, Ganieva creates a quasi-apocalyptic yet not unimaginable future in which Dagestan is cut off from the rest of Russia. As the Dagestani people in general are oppressed by the larger Russian government, the women within Dagestan seemed to be oppressed by Islam. They are simultaneously rewarded and condemned for conservative and provocative behavior, showing that the men use religion as a means to control the female characters.

In her own literary career, Ganieva struggled to write as a woman. She initially submitted her first novella into a writing competition under a male pseudonym, and, so relatable was the male protagonist, readers assumed the work was largely autobiographical. When she won the award and subsequently mounted the stage to accept it, the audience was stunned. In Ganieva’s own words, “They were expecting some brutal, unshaven guy from the mountains.” 

I really enjoyed getting to hear Ganieva speak, especially since I had just read one of her books. It was also interesting to interact with someone from Russia; given the recent political turmoil between America and Russia, it’s easy to forget that it’s a massive country with normal, productive citizens who have nothing to do with the corrupt government. Ganieva was bright and personable, and she offered me a completely new perspective on Russia.

Considering my end goal of life (besides being a disney princess) is to work globally practicing medicine with Doctors Without Borders, simply the name of this organization attracted my instantly. A group who seeks to travel and serve and love all nations are the world supports everything I believe in.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus charges the disciples with His final words on earth before returning to be with the Father in heaven, telling them, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” From His last command to the disciples, it is clear that God’s intent is to have His message of salvation delivered to all nations and all people who need the Word of truth.

There are countries across the world where no outsiders are allowed in, especially Christians. However, these isolated people are in desperate enough need for medical care that they will allow doctors in to serve their people who are struggling to survive. This is where groups like Sooners Without Border would come in and help. Seeking to serve the downtrodden and hurting.

 

 

This is going to be a several part post, because three weeks of independent travel doesn’t just fit into one or two posts, and that’s exactly how I spent the last three weeks, backpacking the east coast of Australia by bus and boat. I started at the northern end of the coast in Cairns, famous for waterfalls, Cape Tribulation, and great snorkeling/scuba diving areas of the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately I was rather time crunched, and only had time to snorkel the reef. I had to miss out on the waterfalls and everything else the Cairns area of tropical northern Australia has to offer, but I plan to go back someday and cover the things that I missed. Only once though: I realized early on in my travels that there is always something you will wish you’d done or had time to do. No matter how long you stay in a place, a city, or a country, you’re always going to feel that you missed things. There are just too many cool things to do in too many places. So, for this trip I did what I could, I made my way down the coast, staying two nights at a time in most places, one full day for activities in each place, nearly two if I was lucky, and for me for this trip that was enough.

The hostel was its own experience. I’d never stayed in a share room with strangers before, and the first people I met coming in weren’t exactly welcoming. I wondered the first night if I’d made a mistake, if I should have just stayed around Melbourne and done short trips alone or with my friends who were still in the area. I slept pretty badly too, partly because of the weird environment and indifferent or unwelcoming strangers, partly because I was terrified about missing something. I’d booked through a booking agent, who had made a schedule for me and signed me up for everything in advance, so there was no room for error. If I missed a tour or activity that was it, I’d missed it. There was no time to go back, and if I missed a bus it could put me an entire day off, costing me at least one activity and even making going to a town pointless. I’m not exactly a morning person, and most of my activities and busses left at 8 am each day, with some starting as early as 6:30, so I was really anxious about missing something. This made for some fitful nights of sleep my first few days out, especially in Cairns. In some ways this was good though, it made sure I woke up in time for my activities, even if I was a bit tired. No one travels to be well rested.

So Cairns was the reef, and this little trip was when I realized that there were problems with booking through a booking agent. They’d put me on the cheapest boat available, which was fine in that the reef is the reef, but this boat was old and the water was a bit rough that day, so most passengers got sick (myself included, but less so than most). And the spots we saw on the reef, I later learned, were not as good as the areas people who paid a bit more got to see. But because I’d booked through an agent I had no idea what I was getting, they’d just given me the cheapest options available. It was still an incredible experience though. I rented a GoPro, but unfortunately, I don’t have a card reader, so I can’t post any pictures until I get back to the states. The colors were amazing though, we could just float over the reefs, close enough to touch them if I’d stretched my arm out far enough, and the fish didn’t care. They just kept swimming, avoiding anyone who accidentally kicked out with ease.

Because the sites we were at weren’t that great, we could also see some of the damage the reef has suffered. We saw broken and bleached corals that had fallen off the shelf onto the ocean floor a few yards below, and large stretches where fish didn’t bother to go anymore. But the surviving reef was beautiful, and honestly hard to take in. When they called us in for the last time I felt like I’d barely started exploring it.

From Cairns, I took a Premier bus (cheaper version of a Greyhound) south along the coast to Townsville, where I caught a ferry to Magnetic Island, named, apparently, because Captain Cook incorrectly thought the island messed with his compass. I could have stayed on this island for a week easily. Not only was the hostel there my favorite from my whole trip, but the island was ideal for just exploring and seeing wildlife. I only had one full day there, but I walked miles across the island and saw loads of lizards, wild wallabies, and wild koalas, and I only made it over one side of the island. Given more time I might have been able to spot eagles and sea life.

My next stop was Airlie beach to see the Whitsundays, a series of islands off the coast of mainland Australia. Given another chance I would do a two or three day tour to have a chance to see manta rays, dolphins, and even whales at the right time of year. But again, I was pressed for time, so I did a one day tour, and it was still amazing. Whitehaven beach was incredible, and no matter how many photos I took I knew I’d never manage to capture it the way it seems in reality. I had a great time there though, despite the massive sunburn I discovered when I got back. The only down side to this stop was Airlie beach itself. There really wasn’t anything to do there, and I wound up having to kill an entire day there waiting on an evening bus to my next stop. A day off wound up being pretty nice though, after going all out for nearly a week, an easy day to just walk around was a good break.