10 OCTOBER 1, 2002
Smoke Signals
Marjie Mascarinas Joins the Peace Corps
Two years in Turkmanistan ought to fulfill her wanderlust.
By Ron Karten
Marjie Mascarinas is packing her books and movies and heading out to
Turkmanistan. The madcap (also called, autocratic) president of this former
Soviet satellite has recently been in the news for renaming months and
even days after himself, but Mascarinas reports that current Peace Corps
workers in the country tell her he's kind of a joke. She's not laughing yet.
As nurse practitioner for the Tribe for the last two years, Mascarinas
will serve as the Medical Officer in charge of the health clinic that cares
for some 80 other Peace Corps volunteers in the country. In addition, she
said, the clinic may contract to take care of State Department employees
as well.
From what she's heard, the main health care issues in this mostly desert
country bordering Iran and Afghanistan, may be alcoholism and depres
sion, but she would not be surprised if she also sees some gastrointestinal
problems brought on by "weird parasites." She'll have to decide whether
to treat patients in the field or have them life-flighted to city facilities, and
she is going to have to be good at her job, because nobody gets out of their
Peace Corps assignment until any illnesses they have contracted are sta
bilized. She will be on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
This assignment is a long standing and long delayed ambition for
Mascarinas. Even growing up in Virginia, she said, she has always wanted
to leave the country on an adventure. "And now I am," she said.
For a long time, she said, "I wasn't brave enough. I didn't have enough
confidence." But this desire "to live beyond the creature comforts" stuck
with her, and she ran into people who had been in the Peace Corps. Ulti
mately, it was not any one thing that spurred her to go after this job, she
said, but she inquired about it last October, sent in her application in
February, and heard the good news in August.
Her background always has been something of an exploration. Her
first schooling and employment came in the field of international busi
ness. She worked as a financial analyst with a contractor for the Depart
ment of Defense. "But I was not getting something," she said. "I was not
satisfied. I felt like a paper pusher and wanted to do something else."
Both of her parents are in the medical field, so of course she shunned it
in the beginning. "I ended
up coming back to it, any
way," she said. She went
back to school for nursing
at George Mason Univer
sity in Virginia, and came
west to Oregon Health Sci
ences University for gradu
ate school.
Her medical choice has
always been primary care
because it provides more
challenges, she said. "You
have to know a little about
a lot of things." And ben
efits: "You have a chance to
build relationships with
patients."
She also has built rela
tionships with her co-workers,
but did not realize how
much she valued them un
til she wrote her letter say
ing goodbye. Then, she
suddenly felt sad. "I am just
feeling like I'm part of this
community," she said, "and now I'm
leaving."
But she really seems on track as
far as having found her way. Her
interest remains working with the
under served, and whether she
goes on to continue with the Peace
Corps or return to the U.S. to work
Jf ''.hi,. I .1
Marjie Mascarinas
in public health, she said that this
niche has been satisfying.
She leaves from Washington,
D.C. on October 25 and assumes
her new duties on October 28. B
New Mental Health Therapist At the Heath & Wellness Center
Joseph Cook brings his experience and professionalism to the job.
V
Joseph Cook
By Ron Karten
Headline -
Teaser - He sees rage turned inward
By Ron Karten
Joseph Cook, an Ojibwa (Check
Spelling) Indian, has allotments from
three Tribes - Bad River in
Wisconsin, Grand Portage in
Minnesota and Lac LaCroix in
Ontario, Canada, but he brought his
family to Grand Ronde last year for
even better opportunities.
Dr. Joseph Stone, the Tribe's
Behavioral Health Director, recruited
Cook, who graduated among the top
three percent of counseling
psychology students in the nation.
Cook considered his many
opportunities and decided Stone and
the Tribe's Mental Health Therapist
Sidney Brown - both nationally
known and respected Indian
psychologists - were the best bet.
Stone saw in Cook a "personable
and well-prepared" professional who
seemed as if he would fit well with
the behavioral group's "collaborative
team approach" to mental health.
That is, although counselors see
patients individually, the team of
counselors get together regularly to
evaluate the work and help clients
"get past sticking points" in therapy.
In addition, Stone saw in Cook a
potential to do some written
advocacy for the Tribal community.
Cook, meanwhile, said that he also
wanted to work in a place with as
much potential as the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde.
"Most Tribes are not like this," he
said. "They don't have medical
buildings or community centers, or
build homes for their Elders. To see
what they've done in such a short
time, it's really quite remarkable."
Averaged over the year, Cook
estimates that he sees 20-25 people
a week for counseling. As an
adjunct to his work, he would like
to see an appeal to parents that
provides the signs of drug and
alcohol abuse, of depression and
anxiety. The vast majority of
referrals for kids, he said, come
from parents and the courts. Even
when he gets the kids in, however,
he doesn't insist that they
immediately stop destructive
behavior. He gives them "powerful
choices."
"They can take what they want and
leave what they want," he said.
In ways, Cook's family history
mirrors the horrors reported in one
of the books on his shelf: Native
American Post Colonial
Psychology. He described how his
father quit school in the sixth grade
leaving behind the notorious Jesuit
School in Port Arthur, Ontario. He
described how his father landed in a
YMCA in Arkansas after the war.
He described how is father was a
by-product of the Truman
administration's 'assimilation' policy.
"They taught him how to order in a
restaurant, leave a tip, and read a
bus schedule," said Cook.
"You can't have a socialization
process forced on you and not have
a backlash," said Cook about post
colonial Indian psychology. "What
we've noticed is an anger turned
inward, toward a family structure
where we now see neglectful or
abusive families."
"For a lot of Native people, the goal
is to resolve the anger instead of
internalizing it."
Cook knows that there is a way
through this anger, where you can
acknowledge it and accept it as an
appropriate response to an abusive
society and move on with the
knowledge but without turning the
anger inward.
He knows because of the life he has
built over the years. There is his
wife, Paula, (administrative assistant
in the Community Fund office,
profiled in Smoke Signals 71502)
his three children, Jennifer, Nathan,
and Jessica, all succeeding in their
worlds, two horses, two dogs and
now a fine, big place in McMinnville
to hold them all.
His private life revolves around
family, he said. They ride horses
together; attend athletic events like
football games where his son excels.
And of course, eating is a family
affair. Cook is a specialist ("if you
could call it that") in Italian food,
making spaghetti, ravioli, and