THE BEAGLE STILL SAILS

Albuquerque at dusk, from the west. That river in the foreground is the Rio Grande. The mountains are called the Watermelon Mountains by we (us?) natives. They do gather a faint coloring and shape reminiscent of watermelons at different times of the day.
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Be sure to click on the header. I got a kick out of it.
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A new facet has been added to Salome's story. Remember, she's 22 years old. Yesterday morning she appeared at our door looking horrendous. Once more. The thought went through my mind that her brother, Hakim, had gotten physical again. But that was not the case. Nope. She had given blood in a blood drive and it was the first time in her life she had done so.
The crook of one of her arms was heavily bandaged and she didn't want to show me. But I also saw bandages on the backs of each of her hands and one on her other arm. So I coaxed her to take them off and when she did, I saw what I could only consider some amateurish attempt at sticking her with various needles. Apparently the damage done to the crook of her arm was a misguided attempt (the first time) to find a vein. She told us that the girl looking for the vein couldn't find one and finally called someone else to help. That nurse had no trouble locating a good vein -- in her other arm.
But that had not caused this downturn in her health. Apparently she had felt dizzy and almost fainted. So a doctor was summoned (he should be ashamed of himself if the story we were told is true) and he said he detected a heart murmur and she needed to see a specialist. Now, instead of having one the nurses there call the heart specialist and make the appointment for her, they gave her a piece of paper with instructions on what to ask for and the phone number of a doctor.
So, we read the paper (I kept my big mouth shut about the cavalier attitude of this so-called healer) and told her how to handle the call. She was told this particular doctor was not working that day and they couldn't help her until late in July when she could call for an appointment. Never mind that the first doctor had told her to tell them it needed to be done in less than a week. That was ignored. So she called the first doc's office and told them her problem and asked for help. They gave her the name and number of another medico.
They didn't offer to call for her. She has an appointment with him Monday.
Now, it seems to me that if one of my doctors told me I had to see a heart specialist immediately, he would also have had his staff make the appointment for me.
So this lack of accommodation sounds like discrimination to me. And not because Salome is a female.
Wild Thing and I  got her car back here and her daddy showed up later that day ands took her to his home where it is assumed she will be babied and cared for by her family.
Oh, yeah, she and her father have made up (which cooled off the brothers). I guess Daddy is the final say so in Arabic families practicing Islam. It is easy to see that he really does love his daughter and wants the best for her. But he is also bound by the thousands of years of the practice of their religion. The man must have a lot of pent up confusion in his life, considering the conflicts of Iraqism and Americanism (I like making up my own words) that are built into the two countries.
We are concerned that an extremely bright, 22 year old kid, has a heart murmur. I'm sure her Mom and Dad are also.
This post is an interim post to let you know what is going on. The discussion on Darwinism will continue next post (God willing and the Creek Don't Rise).