By Arnie Vainio
News From Indian Country 10-09
 It was my birthday and I was on call. Normally, I would have been able to take my birthday off, but I was flying to Los Angeles at 6:15 AM the next day to show “Walking Into The Unknown” at a Native American center there. I was hoping for a quiet night as I was passing off my call duties to one of my partners at midnight. Usually call is until 8 AM the next morning.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Before I was even done with clinic, I had calls from 2 of the emergency rooms and had to admit patients before I could go home.
I stayed until almost 7 PM in the clinic to get my phone calls and
other chart work done. Each hospital admission took about an hour and I
still had to pack before trying to catch a few hours of sleep. While I
was in the hospital, my pager kept going off and I had to return
multiple calls to patients, call in prescriptions…and didn’t get done
with that until almost 11:30 PM. As I was leaving the hospital, I had
pages from 2 of the emergency rooms and had to admit 2 more patients.
Neither was ready to be seen and I wasn’t able to get to them. I had to
get up at 4:30 to get ready to catch my flight, go through security and
check my luggage. I had to call another partner to see both patients.
This is something I would never do if I couldn’t help it and I wouldn’t
want someone to do that to me. But he understood this was a special
circumstance and saw them without complaint.
I fell asleep as soon as I got on the plane. The connecting flight in
Minneapolis was delayed and it looked like I wasn’t going to make it to
Los Angeles on time. I was supposed to be in Los Angeles at 10:57 AM
and I was scheduled to show the film at 1 o’clock. At the last minute
the flight was able to leave and I was on my way to Los Angeles. Once
the plane landed, I got my luggage and caught a shuttle bus to the car
rental complex. This was a huge place and took up an entire city block.
There was a chain link fence around it with automatic gates and there
was no way to get in or out unless you were on a shuttle bus.
I stood in a long line to get my car, signed the documents, found the
car and loaded my luggage. I had to wait in a long line of cars to go
through the last security gate. When I finally got to the gate, the
security guard took my driver’s license.
“Happy birthday. Your license expired yesterday.”
I had to bring the car back as there was no way they could let me have
a car without a valid license. I checked with a cab company, they
wanted $52.00 for a one way ride to the center, IF they didn’t get
caught in traffic. I called the center where I was showing the film and
got an answering machine. I called again and was able to talk with
someone who told me they would send someone to pick me up. I took my
luggage and ran past the automatic gate as a shuttle bus was coming in
so I could wait for him.
Andy got lost on the way to pick me up. I waited on the sidewalk with
the sun beating down on me, standing by the shuttle buses as they
streamed by. Three males with matching tattoos walked slowly by me
several times, but eventually left me alone. Every van that came by
seemed to have a Native looking driver and I stepped toward them as
they raced away.
Finally Andy showed up. By now it was 1 PM and I was supposed to be
starting the film. It took about a half hour to get to the center. They
didn’t have a projector that could run the film and had to make do with
a laptop. The first one wasn’t formatted to run a DVD and they had to
find another one. But everyone was patient and understood the concept
of Indian time. I had a great response and discussion with everyone
after the film and I met someone with an elder friend in common.
Andy volunteered to bring me back to my hotel. This was a long trip as
there was lots of traffic and the freeways were barely moving. He was
about 50 years old and from a tribe in the Southwest. I asked what
brought him to Los Angeles.
“I wanted to see the ocean. That was many years ago. Once I saw it I
could never leave it for very long. I used to save my 3 weeks of
vacation and go back and see my mother 3 times a year for a week at a
time. She had diabetes and died from complications of that about 10
years ago and I haven’t been back since. There isn’t any reason for me
to go back any more.”
He finally became a driver for the elder programs. He would drive the
elders shopping, to pow wows, health fairs and other places if they
didn’t have transportation. He was able honor his elders by doing this
and he thought this honored his mother. I asked him what he did on his
time off.
“I go to the ocean every chance I get. I’ve seen dolphins playing in
the water and I want to see them again. I used to swim in the ocean,
but once I got caught in a rip tide. I was trying to call out to the
lifeguard but he didn’t see me. Finally I couldn’t swim any more and I
felt myself being pulled under. I could see the sky through the waves
above me. Just before I lost consciousness, a 13 year old boy on a
surfboard appeared above me. I saw his hand come down through the water
and I felt him grab me by the hair. When I woke up, the lifeguards were
resuscitating me and the boy was gone. I never saw him again.”
This put my own difficulties with my trip into perspective.
The ocean calls to Andy and he sits on the beach at sunset whenever he
can. As the sun slowly sinks into the water there is a strip of light
that comes from the setting sun and points directly at him. He thinks
of his mother and how one day he will walk that strip of light to join
her. He watches for the dolphins and he thinks of a 13 year old boy who
saved his life. A 13 year old boy he never got a chance to thank.
Andy knows he is watched over by his ancestors and reminded me that I am, too.
Thanks for the lesson, Andy. And thanks for the ride.
Arne Vainio, M.D. is a Family Practice Physician at the Min-No-Aya-Win
Human Services Clinic on the Fond du Lac Ojibwe Reservation in Northern
Minnesota. He can be reached at
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