Friday I had the opportunity to go to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota.Two words: way cool
At first, the Dutch in me was wondering if it was going to be worth the $18 plus parking money, but I thought it definitely was. The exhibit was kind of packed but I assume that's just because it is leaving town soon. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to go. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 12 though, I think they might be uninterested or bored.
The one recurring thought I had today, especially after viewing the fetal development section, was how can one be apart of that experience and not feel pointed straight to God. I was very encouraged, because beforehand I thought that they might try to intertwine evolution as they do in most of the rest of the museum, but the exhibit was totally just honoring the complexity of the human body's design. Obviously, it didn't say God created them, but it was almost better to leave it up for the viewer to decide. I was just awe-struck with every single one, how we truly are fearfully and wonderfully made. And to look at the prosthetic knees and the in-motion bodies - how cool that God has enabled doctors and scientists to discover and invent these technologies that make it possible to view the human body in such a close, defined way.
It is easy to take for granted good health. It is something one expects. I've really learned to appreciate being healthy since moving to Haiti. There are so many people worldwide whose lives are bound in sickness. And most of those lives are going to be bound in sickness until the illness ends them.
Here in America, if one is sick, there is a clinic pretty much every 5 miles to choose from. How insane! We are so blessed but yet when we have the slightest ache or pain, we complain and want to find an answer and resolve the ailment. We are problem solvers. I realize more and more how we are blessed to even BE ABLE to solve these problems.
I've been defining myself lately as culturally confused. Now, for those of you who do not know me well, you may be concerned. But all I mean by this is I truly have started to mesh into some ways of the Haitian culture, which has changed my view on a large majority of things I see in the USA. The first few days here were really hard, I was feeling odd and kind of out of place and maybe even guilty about everything. I hadn't experienced this before.
My culture 'meshing' has been beneficial. It has given me a lot more patience, made me less irritable. (Your kid is crying in the waiting room? No problem. You are having trouble getting your bag in the upper compartment on the airplane and it is causing me to wait a whole extra half a minute? No biggie! Seriously, people get completely irked about the tiniest things here. And I probably used to be one of them.)
The only other significant thing is I've become more friendly. It is SO odd to me to walk into a store or a room and not greet the person. But I want to greet them in Creole so I probably really shouldn't. It is sad to me how Americans are so self-focused that they can't even greet one another when it makes sense to do so. (Like if you're gonna make eye contact and not say anything, well that is just too weird.)
My mom and I have tons of thoughts and have noticed contrasts; some would be obvious and others that are more for us personally.
The biggest one for me is the bounty and plenty in this country, specifically with medical supplies/care. The amount of new buildings - clinics and specialty centers - going up in the area is shocking to me. I would love to know the statistic of how many clinics per 20 mile radius or something like that. I seriously think there is one about every 2 miles in the Sherburne County area. I'd also love to know how many doctors versus the total US population. I know the (old - from 1986) statistic is 1.4 doctors for every 10,000 Haitians -- no words can express how that makes me feel. *starfish, think about the starfish*
So this blog started out as praise for Body Worlds and now it's got me going on how weird I feel, almost as a foreigner in my own country. I miss Haiti. There's too many thoughts running through my head to organize them. But that one is for sure, I am alright with America but Haiti is home for now.
~Britt, the ex-pat
P.S.- If any of you get the chance to see Body Worlds, my favorite one was 'The Runner' or there is one man whose skin was preserved so well in the 'slice aways' of his body that you can see he had three tattoos. That one looked really realistic. It was hard at first to believe that they were once actually real, living bodies but by the end of the exhibit I was saying, "oh yeah, look how real that is!"
