ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Saturday, april 24, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Board
races
offer good
choices
nterest in running for elected office has
been unusually high in Umatilla and
Morrow counties this spring, and we are
pleased to see voters in Pendleton School
District have so many choices for the Pend-
leton school board.
I
Position 1
Voters have a choice between two
newcomers running for the seat currently
held by Steve Umbarger. Beth Harrison is
a community volunteer, part-time medical
biller, homemaker and mother to seven chil-
dren. Rodney Thompson is a retired lock-
smith who worked with the high school’s
foreign exchange student program for 20
years.
The school board could benefit from the
perspective of a deeply involved parent of
children at multiple grade levels in Pend-
leton School District, and we recommend
voters choose Harrison.
Position 4
While voters will see three new names
on the ballot for the seat currently held by
Gary George, Chris Garrigues told the East
Oregonian he has decided to drop out of
the race. That leaves a choice of Preston
Eagleheart or Joey GrosJacques. Eagleheart
is managing director of Cayuse Govern-
ment Services and an enrolled member of
the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. GrosJaques is director
of TRIOS Student Support Services for Blue
Mountain Community College and a former
Pilot Rock school board member.
While both bring something to the table,
we believe Eagleheart’s experience, includ-
ing directing a technology solutions center
during a time when schools need strong
online options, would be most beneficial to
the district.
Position 7
Board chair Debbie McBee is not running
again for Position 7, leaving a choice
between Briana Spencer and Patrick Gregg.
Spencer is currently a computer support
technician, with a history of volunteerism
and activism in the community. Gregg is an
attorney at Corey, Byler and Rew.
Both are excellent candidates, and it is
unfortunate that voters must choose one or
the other. In considering which candidate to
endorse, however, Spencer recently won a
seat on the Nixyaawii Community School
Board, and state law does not allow a person
to sit on the board of both a charter school
and its sponsoring district, meaning Spen-
cer would have to resign from one if she
won both. With that in mind, we believe the
community would be best served by choos-
ing Gregg for the Pendleton board, while
Spencer serves on the Nixyaawii board for
at least one term.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily
that of the East Oregonian.
LETTERS
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters
of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
individual services and products or letters that
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters
must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published.
Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
A screwball wedding in north Maasailand
ANDREW
CLARK
A SLICE OF LIFE
ast month I discussed experi-
ences in the Peace Corps and the
type of people who were involved
— adventurous, dedicated risk takers
— and how the Peace Corps brought
together young men and women who
shared those attributes. I also mentioned
that a particular young woman had
appeared on the scene.
After my Peace Corps stint was
finished I was immediately hired back
because there were very few Tangan-
yikan veterinarians and a qualified vet
was needed for the Loliondo Division
of northern Maasailand. Loliondo was
an important posting because it is in the
eastern part of the Serengeti ecosystem
and there are many interactions between
cattle and wildlife with potential spread
of diseases.
Loliondo village is 220 miles from
town, however, and very isolated in a
very wild and remote place, so it takes
a peculiar type of person to want to be
there. For me it was living paradise.
Good work to be done, good people to
work with, and every species of African
wildlife in great abundance everywhere
you went.
Barbara Bainbridge was a Peace
Corps teacher and on school vacation
time teachers took on assistance proj-
ects of various sorts, and the particular
project in this case was the World Health
Organization eradication of small-
pox. Peace Corps teachers were doing
a smallpox vaccination campaign in
Loliondo Division and using my house
as their basecamp, while I was gone on
leave.
Barbara had been working out in the
bush near the Serengeti National Park
boundary, walking between Maasai
dwelling sites with a Maasai warrior
as guide. He knew the country well,
L
could smell the buffalo and avoid them
(African buffalo are the most dangerous
animals of all the wildlife) and it was a
good adventure for her. The work was
finished and the whole group was at my
house when I returned, getting ready to
leave in a few days.
When I saw that girl in action it was
like being hit in the head with a baseball.
But before I could even have a serious
conversation she was gone, done with
Peace Corps, and traveling overland
through Ethiopia, Lebanon and Syria and
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India for
nearly six months.
What could I do? Answer, write. So
I wrote a long, detailed letter dealing
with my thoughts about our potential
future. When she arrived home and read
that letter it was quite a surprise. Our
romance was like something in the 1800s
— almost entirely a series of letters
except for three glorious weeks when she
was able to take Christmas vacation from
her teaching job and come to Loliondo.
I had sent her a check for airfare and
we agreed to see if there was “chemis-
try” between us. We camped in a small
meadow on top of the Nan’gasaakinoi
peak (Maasai for “The Hill of Friend-
ship). We saw thousands of wildlife,
including a herd of 69 giraffe and a herd
of more than 200 elephant.
We drove over to Seronera to get
petrol and saw 52 species of animals
along the way. I shot quail for dinner
roasted over a fire and we danced around
the fire to music from my battery-driven
phonograph playing vinyl records. We
took blood samples from goats for a
disease survey. And after those adven-
tures and many more, at the airport
in Nairobi as she was departing she
answered “yes” to my obvious question.
The wedding was planned for July 6,
1968. I had attended only two weddings
in my life and knew almost nothing
about weddings. The bride was on the
other side of the world and could have
essentially nothing to do with it. So — I
lined up the pastor, and the best man and
the best woman. I invited various people
who were friends and most of them came
in light airplanes. I invited the entire
populace of Loliondo village.
I invited Maasai people from all over
the Loliondo Division. And the wedding
service was held in front of a large poin-
settia bush in the front yard that was in
glorious bloom for the event. As for the
reception, the best thing you can serve at
a gathering in Maasailand is goat meat,
so my Maasai veterinary staff roasted
seventeen goats, one sheep, and one
wildebeest in the front yard. I had 500
beers and 500 sodas that were gone in
about 10 minutes. About 300 Maasai
attended along with the people of many
tribes in the village. It was a wonderful
event and so very peculiar that it was in
the Nairobi newspapers and on the Voice
of America.
At the end of the celebration an old
Maasai elder came to me. He said that
for many years, beginning in the 1800s,
white people had “studied” Maasai
culture, and attended Maasai events, and
had been at rites of passage ceremonies.
This wedding was the first time ever that
Maasai people had ever been invited to
attend an event of the white people —
and he thanked me for the invitation and
ability to celebrate with us. And for us —
Barbara and me — that was the frosting
on the cake.
The next day we went on our honey-
moon, down into the Ngorongoro Crater
where there is a little cabin in the grove
of woods for wildlife researchers. The
days were lovely and the nights were full
of the African symphony of lions roaring
and hyenas wailing and jackals barking
and zebra braying and wildebeest grunt-
ing and all the other noises of that wild,
wild place.
The screwball wedding in north
Maasailand lives comfortably with us as
a pleasant memory that is now 52 years
old.
———
Dr. Andrew Clark is a livestock veter-
inarian with both domestic and inter-
national work experience who lives in
Pendleton.