In a recent conversation with Consul General Eldon Alik about covid and this past year, he recounted a clever turn of phrase in one of many meetings. He was encouraging everyone to get vaccinated and he said “Wā kuk Wā jim̧or.” He substituted wā (vaccine or shot) for wa (canoe) in the traditional proverb. As you may know, Wa kuk wa jim̧or, is a proverb that speaks to bringing the entire community together to build a canoe. The traditional large sailing canoe, or waļap, was central to village life and essential to the survival of the entire community. Everyone had to come together for the canoe (wa-kuk) and work together to build the canoe (wa jim̧or). This small but clever word play, wā instead of wa is particularly apt as high vaccination rates will be essential to preserving not only the unity and integrity, but also the health and wellness, of the community today.
Dr. Sheldon Riklon has also continued to keep Chikin Meļeļe up to date on developments related to COVID-19. Among other public health efforts, Dr. Riklon was on site for vaccine events at the JTL Shop in May and June. Events were scheduled every three weeks so that people could get their first and second doses in a row. It is hard to say exactly how many Marshallese people have been vaccinated, but Dr. Riklon said everyone over 65 in the Marshallese community has been vaccinated and that lots of teenagers had been coming in to get vaccinated. He said it’s going well but there’s still a lot to do.
June 9 was the last scheduled event distributing the 2nd dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines and the one dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Dr. Riklon kindly answered our vaccine questions while he greeted people getting vaccinated with a smile in his eyes and a big “Jeramm̧an!” The Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been pulled briefly after some people had bad reactions to the shot, but Dr. Riklon clarified this for us. There have only been 15 total bad reactions to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, less than 0.002%, with nurses and doctors like him prepared to respond if something were to happen. Three weeks from that event was July 4, so he said that the next step in vaccine outreach would be on-site in churches. That following Sunday, a sign up sheet went around church for people interested in receiving the vaccine by home visit through UAMS. You can also sign up online (the form is in Kajin M̧ajeļ too).
People were anxious to sign up for vaccinations by way of home visit. A middle aged woman I know from Ebeye signed up for a home visit for her and her adult children. She continues to wear a mask but she had been worried because of bad soreness in her arms from past vaccinations. In conversation with a few other people at the church, while children and siblings played volleyball, we talked about what our experiences had been like. A young man said it was too hard to read more news about the recent outbreak of another variant in Missouri; he was eager for his younger siblings to get the vaccine. A mother in her 30’s said that she had been sick with covid last year and she had all the symptoms except one. When she got the vaccine, that one symptom was her only side effect. She was lucky though. She remembered her friend, also a mother of several young children, who had not survived covid. Taking some comfort in knowing that their friends are in God’s care now, the woman remembered their plans that they had had to cancel and how she cried when she heard her friend had died. Two people had died in their church from covid.
With a little more than a year of covid behind us, it can be difficult to take in any more bad news. Think instead of the proverb wa kuk wa jim̧or and what that really means. You can also continue to read Part 2 for a clear explanation of the Delta variant and vaccination rates in NWA.