Retreat centers, carbon and dana: Dr. Tom Catena - Discussion
A few+ years ago I was planning to go on retreat requiring me to take longhaul air travel. Then I realized I could refund the ticket and commit the air fare & travel & food funds to an organization and community with a good track record for giving and working in dire places and creating sustainable improvements in their areas of care.
That was, for me, and still is, a large chunk to give away and it was easily the best decision I've consciously made on this meditative practice.
I know that many in this DhO community here do the same, because in the course of the years some of us have talked offline about dana.
These conversations arise when we're sharing our grief about a certain situation and who we're sending some dollars to to try to help.
So when I look at new(er) meditators weighing all these different retreat centers and so many teachers, I think, "Well, it's okay if people consider this option, too: retreat somewhere more locally, keeping a small carbon footprint to retreat [1], talking to the retreat centers and aware teachers about your actual food costs and giving the bigger chunk of dana to an organization that is working hard and well in changing dire conditions."
And this is how I've found my great teachers. Like, Daniel pays for this online retreat and discussion center (the DhO) there are teachers out there who pay for the retreat center to exist so that dana can be just like above: outgoing. (It's always good to offer one's meals and utilities' costs on retreat)
So this was a helpful change to make early on: training closer to home/at home and taking the savings of in simple retreats with aware teachers into dana in dire places with effective teams. I speculate that this conservation helped the training.
And I'm also posting this article on Tom Catena, MD, not just to offer an article and place for dana consideration, below, but because I'd also like to see articles over time on where other people have found to send their dana, dana places they'd like to share, and to see a "Dana" subcatgory set up.
Dr. Tom Catena, the only physician permanently in Sudan's Nuba Mountains, examines a leprosy patient, Nemat Kuku, whose child Nasra Makous is malnourished. Both leprosy and malnutrition are common in the area.
trying to kill us.”
Given the shortage of resources, Dr. Tom relies disproportionately on
makeshift treatments from decades ago.
“This is a Civil War-era treatment,” he said, pointing to a man with a broken
leg, which he was treating with a method known as Buck’s traction, using a bag of
sand as a weight.
“Sometimes these actually work,” Dr. Tom said. “You use what you have.”
Pope Francis seems to be revitalizing the Vatican and focusing on the needy,
and I have a dream — O.K., an implausible one — that he’ll journey to this Catholic
hospital in the Nuba Mountains as a way of galvanizing opposition to the evil of
Sudan’s bombings.
One reason I’m so impressed by Dr. Tom is that most of the world, including
world leaders and humanitarians, have pretty much abandoned the people of the
Nuba Mountains. President Obama and other global leaders have been too silent
about the reign of terror here, too reluctant to pressure Sudan to ease it.
That’s the context in which Dr. Tom stands out for his principled commitment.
Dr. Tom has worked in the Nuba Mountains for eight years, living in the hospital
and remaining on call 24/7 (the only exception: when he’s unconscious with
malaria, once a year or so).
Dr. Tom acknowledges missing pretzels and ice cream, and, more seriously, a
family. He parted from his serious girlfriend when he moved to Africa, and this is
not the best place to date (although hospital staff members are plotting to
introduce him to eligible Nuban women as a strategy to keep him from ever
leaving).
For his risks and sacrifices, Dr. Tom earns $350 a month — with no retirement
plan or regular health insurance. (For those who want to support his work, I’ve
posted how to help on my blog.)
He is driven, he says, by his Catholic faith. “I’ve been given benefits from the
day I was born,” he says. “A loving family. A great education. So I see it as an
obligation, as a Christian and as a human being, to help.”
There also are many, many secular aid workers doing heroic work. But the
people I’ve encountered over the years in the most impossible places — like Nuba,
That was, for me, and still is, a large chunk to give away and it was easily the best decision I've consciously made on this meditative practice.
I know that many in this DhO community here do the same, because in the course of the years some of us have talked offline about dana.
These conversations arise when we're sharing our grief about a certain situation and who we're sending some dollars to to try to help.
So when I look at new(er) meditators weighing all these different retreat centers and so many teachers, I think, "Well, it's okay if people consider this option, too: retreat somewhere more locally, keeping a small carbon footprint to retreat [1], talking to the retreat centers and aware teachers about your actual food costs and giving the bigger chunk of dana to an organization that is working hard and well in changing dire conditions."
And this is how I've found my great teachers. Like, Daniel pays for this online retreat and discussion center (the DhO) there are teachers out there who pay for the retreat center to exist so that dana can be just like above: outgoing. (It's always good to offer one's meals and utilities' costs on retreat)
So this was a helpful change to make early on: training closer to home/at home and taking the savings of in simple retreats with aware teachers into dana in dire places with effective teams. I speculate that this conservation helped the training.
And I'm also posting this article on Tom Catena, MD, not just to offer an article and place for dana consideration, below, but because I'd also like to see articles over time on where other people have found to send their dana, dana places they'd like to share, and to see a "Dana" subcatgory set up.
Dr. Tom Catena, the only physician permanently in Sudan's Nuba Mountains, examines a leprosy patient, Nemat Kuku, whose child Nasra Makous is malnourished. Both leprosy and malnutrition are common in the area.
| http://nyti.ms/1Kl2e69 |
| SundayReview | OP-ED COLUMNIST ‘He’s Jesus Christ’ JUNE 27, 2015 Nicholas Kristof IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan — IF you subscribe to the caricature of devout religious believers as mostly sanctimonious hypocrites, the kind who rake in cash and care about human life only when it is unborn, come visit the doctor here. Dr. Tom Catena, 51, a Catholic missionary from Amsterdam, N.Y., is the only doctor at the 435-bed Mother of Mercy Hospital nestled in the Nuba Mountains in the far south of Sudan. For that matter, he’s the only doctor permanently based in the Nuba Mountains for a population of more than half a million people. Just about every day, the Sudanese government drops bombs or shells on civilians in the Nuba Mountains, part of a scorched-earth strategy to defeat an armed rebellion here. The United States and other major powers have averted their eyes, so it is left to “Dr. Tom,” as he is universally known here, to pry out shrapnel from women’s flesh and amputate limbs of children, even as he also delivers babies and removes appendixes. He does all this off the electrical grid, without running water, a telephone or so much as an X-ray machine — while under constant threat of bombing, for Sudan has dropped 11 bombs on his hospital grounds. The first time, Dr. Tom sheltered, terrified, in a newly dug pit for an outhouse, but the hospital is now surrounded by foxholes in which patients and the staff crouch when military aircraft approach. “We’re in a place where the government is not trying to help us,” he says. “It’s |
Given the shortage of resources, Dr. Tom relies disproportionately on
makeshift treatments from decades ago.
“This is a Civil War-era treatment,” he said, pointing to a man with a broken
leg, which he was treating with a method known as Buck’s traction, using a bag of
sand as a weight.
“Sometimes these actually work,” Dr. Tom said. “You use what you have.”
Pope Francis seems to be revitalizing the Vatican and focusing on the needy,
and I have a dream — O.K., an implausible one — that he’ll journey to this Catholic
hospital in the Nuba Mountains as a way of galvanizing opposition to the evil of
Sudan’s bombings.
One reason I’m so impressed by Dr. Tom is that most of the world, including
world leaders and humanitarians, have pretty much abandoned the people of the
Nuba Mountains. President Obama and other global leaders have been too silent
about the reign of terror here, too reluctant to pressure Sudan to ease it.
That’s the context in which Dr. Tom stands out for his principled commitment.
Dr. Tom has worked in the Nuba Mountains for eight years, living in the hospital
and remaining on call 24/7 (the only exception: when he’s unconscious with
malaria, once a year or so).
Dr. Tom acknowledges missing pretzels and ice cream, and, more seriously, a
family. He parted from his serious girlfriend when he moved to Africa, and this is
not the best place to date (although hospital staff members are plotting to
introduce him to eligible Nuban women as a strategy to keep him from ever
leaving).
For his risks and sacrifices, Dr. Tom earns $350 a month — with no retirement
plan or regular health insurance. (For those who want to support his work, I’ve
posted how to help on my blog.)
He is driven, he says, by his Catholic faith. “I’ve been given benefits from the
day I was born,” he says. “A loving family. A great education. So I see it as an
obligation, as a Christian and as a human being, to help.”
There also are many, many secular aid workers doing heroic work. But the
people I’ve encountered over the years in the most impossible places — like Nuba,
| where anyone reasonable has fled — are disproportionately unreasonable because of their faith. I’ve often criticized the Vatican’s hostility to condoms, even as a tool to fight AIDS, and we shouldn’t tolerate religious bigotry against gays (which the latest Supreme Court ruling may chip away at). But we also shouldn’t tolerate another kind of narrow-mindedness, irreligious bigotry against people of faith. Diversity is a virtue, in faith as well as race. Certainly the Nubans (who include Muslims and Christians alike) seem to revere Dr. Tom. “People in the Nuba Mountains will never forget his name,” said Lt. Col. Aburass Albino Kuku of the rebel military force. “People are praying that he never dies.” A Muslim paramount chief named Hussein Nalukuri Cuppi offered an even more unusual tribute. “He’s Jesus Christ,” he said. Er, pardon? The chief explained that Jesus healed the sick, made the blind see and helped the lame walk — and that is what Dr. Tom does every day. You needn’t be a conservative Catholic or evangelical Christian to celebrate that kind of selflessness. Just human. By Adam B. Ellick 00:40Surviving 11 Bombs Edit: link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-hes-jesus-christ.html Dana interest can go here: Dr. Tom Catena Comboni Missionaries 1318 Nagel Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45255 |
Stories are our way of organizing our experiences. Where things go wrong is when one person tries to impose their story on another. And by the way, I'm making it mandatory for you all to agree with me on this point. 
Derek Cameron:
Stories are our way of organizing our experiences. Where things go wrong is when one person tries to impose their story on another. And by the way, I'm making it mandatory for you all to agree with me on this point.
As for picking travel as my subject, it was just an example, chosen in large part because I thought it would be a less hot button issue to think about. As for the good doctor, I didn't have much to say, the story speaks for itself and I didn't feel the need to add anything. Although it happens, typically commentators are less likely to make posts just to say 'yup, cool.' I typically only post on issues I feel like I have something additive to say.
-Eva