Day 5- Wednesday

The childbearing practices are different in this culture due to their high levels of drug and alcohol abuse. Only Cherokee adopts Cherokee and many times, the grandparents or even great grandparents are raising their grandchildren, or the children have been removed from the parents by their childcare system. They also have a boys and girls home which is like the youth farm back home. In the Cherokee culture, the elders have the most respect. However, I feel that everyone is respected in their culture because they are all very close to each other and they do not disrespect their children. Kayla also told us that the elder Cherokees will not look us in the eye and that is apart of their culture and to not take offense to that. She said it is because they know that we are taking care of them and they see us to be above them and that makes me feel bad because I don’t ever want someone to feel that I would be over powering them or that I thought that I was better than them or something. I have a lot of respect for them because of the way that they do treat their healthcare providers though. At home, we have signs at our hospital saying that you shouldn’t abuse your healthcare workers and here you don’t see that. The family structures that I observed was when I was in the primary care setting and I observed mothers brining in their children for a well child visit but other than that, I haven’t seen any families. The support systems in the community are the public and their culture. I think that through the spread of things like the play and museums, they are spreading awareness for respect of this culture. I think that people realize that this group has been through so much and that they need help. That is why people from the general public are working at their facilities and they love their jobs so much. Their culture supports each other because they have been working together to improve their health and expand in ways to meet their needs. For example, they lead their own healthcare and they are editing their current mental health system to prevent further relapses for the people going through the program. Most children and families who are resilient have a strong support system. They also have good health care to support them through their changes. “Bouncing back” from stress and other problems is very hard to do. It often takes many tries and hardships to be able to get themselves there. Today at church we saw the family dynamics firsthand and I enjoyed seeing how the families are fostering these children and I know that they will grow up loved. Overall, even though these people face many hardships, they have a lot of support. I hope that this drug and alcohol addiction is one day broken and that they learn how to love and grow properly again. I think that with the way that their systems are developing, that they have a high chance of getting that back.