Economics 101, a Novel, ch 2, The First Semester: pt 1 -- Talking about Missions

Previous: Letters Home (Optional) Hexadecimal Time

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Now, in the previous chapters, we saw how Bobbie and Karel and Dan and Kristie began to establish their friendship. We see a bit of how close they already felt from the letters they sent home.

And maybe we also got a bit of a sense of how it might have happened that Bobbie and Karel were still not married to each other when they went to the islands for their fieldwork.

So skipping ahead to the island story is probably not going to impede your understanding of the rest of the novel.

Not too much, anyway.

On the other hand, you might find their years at university interesting. It could almost be a separate novel, if a little thin on plot. And you might be interested in what kinds of experiences some young Ehyephoot students might have at a Church operated university. 

There's information here. Let's see how it went.

---

 

During one of the study sessions during the first fall semester, Kristie started talking about missions. They had been talking about different ways to get teaching experience.

"Does church teaching count for teaching experience?" Kristie asked.

"Of course!" was Dan's reply.

Karel thought more needed to be said. "Well, yeah, it counts as informal experience. So what you learn from the experience can be useful in the classroom and in discussing teaching methods, and you might even refer to it in a job interview, but you can't use it to fill degree requirements. In church, we don't keep the kinds of records that schools and school districts and management can evaluate."

"No grades?" Kristie postulated.

"That would be one of the problems." 

"Grades in Sunday School!" Bobbie said with a grin. "That sounds horrible." 

All four chuckled, and Karel continued his explanation. 

"That's the dichotomy. The value of what we do for God often can't be directly communicated to the institutions in the world around us. That's one of our sacrifices when we engage in church service."

Dan groused, "Valuable to the world ought to be valuable to the institutions in it."

Bobbie nodded in agreement.

"Even missions?" Kristie was thinking out loud. "I've been told it's okay to put our missions on our curriculum vitae."

Dan took a positive view. "We can definitely tell people about what we have done in church. Whether they accept it as meaningful to them or not is up to them."

"Exactly." Karel concurred.

Bobbie was not satisfied with leaving things at that. "We definitely shouldn't hide our missions or our church service. Jesus Himself said, 'Let your light so shine.'"

(Jesus? I could translate it Immanuel, I suppose. Or Joshua. It translates the same: 

God is with us.
Or, God is our help, our salvation. 

More carefully stated, the universe is not really out to get us, even if it can be dangerous and difficult, and even though some people in it think they are out to get you.)

Karel replied, "I didn't say anything about hiding anything. We just shouldn't expect that teaching Sunday School will fill student teaching requirements or things like that."

"It'd be nice if it did," Kristie said wistfully. She thought for a few moments more. 

"Say, Dan, you said you went to the Prosperous Country and Eastern Realms Mission, right?"

(Somewhat comparable in reach and function to the post-WWII Swiss-Austrian mission in our world.)

"Right."

"So you spoke the languages of the Country of the Common People and of the People of the Spear?" 

"Y también el idioma del Pais de los Conejos."

"¿Es Verdad?"

"Si, si."

And Dan and Kristie started talking about their missions in the language of the Country of the Conies.

(Permit me to borrow Spanish for effect here. I don't think the language of the Country of the Conies is not one you would recognize.)

Karel complained, "¡Yo no hablo el idioma Conejo!" 

Everyone laughed.

"So," Bobbie asked,  "Kristie went to the Conejo-Respira mission, but how do you speak Conejo, Dan?"

---

 

Prosperous Country? Eastern Realms? Country of the Common People? People of the Spear? Country of the Conies? The Wide Continent?

There are parallels in culture, history, and relative location. Sort of. 

These were countries of their Old World, as compared to their UIS, one of the chief among the countries in their New World. The Prosperous Country took a neutral position in most of the fighting during the major wars on the Wide Continent in the pre-modern and modern eras of the Old World. The mission organization where Dan was assigned was one set up after the second such conflict to draw their entire world into the wars ended, and included that country and several countries around it

And I suppose it bears being more explicit -- the name of their Messiah/Christ does translate directly to Jesus, or Joshua/Yeshua: "God is (my/our) help/salvation." And it can even be understood, in the converse, as an assertion that the Parent God is not the enemy of the Children. 

---

 

"I took some in high school, and the Mission pretty much was called on for all parts of the Wide Continent that didn't have regular Church organizations."

Bobby asked for confirmation -- "So you speak three languages besides ours."

"Yeah."

Kristie said, "I only speak the language of the Conies and the language of the Fishers." She sighed. 

Then she asked, "Do you guys still feel like you have a testimony?"

---

 

Testimony. Witness. Some people confuse this kind of thing with a testimonial. I suppose there is a similarity. 

But this testimony, or witness thing is basically a conviction or a strong belief.

Outside the religious sphere, a testimony might be compared to a mathematician's conviction that the concept of a unit vector has fundamental meaning. Less abstractly (although not a perfect parallel), it's similar to the confidence that we have that one plus one is two -- well, most of the time.

We may not be able to carefully define the contexts in which adding one to one gives two, and we may not properly understand the concept of a non-compressible unit vector, but we know that those contexts are important to us in our day-to-day lives. And we know we can use the concepts of adding and subtracting meaningfully in many places.

Likewise, a testimony is the kind of belief that gives people the confidence to do things under moral conviction, and especially to keep going when things get hard. It's the kind of belief that is expressed in faith and action.

---

Dan said, "Well, yeah!"

Karel asserted, "I haven't changed my mind, either." 

Bobbie thought a moment. "I definitely have a testimony now, but it isn't the same one I had when I was a missionary."

"Oh?" Kristie prompted.

"When I first went out, I wasn't sure the atonement and the redemption would do me any good. I just went to be a nurse where they needed nurses."

"Well, that's a good reason to go." Dan was encouraging. 

Karel nodded in agreement. "Important, saving reasons. How did you feel when you returned?"

"I was beginning to believe I had a place in the Gospel and the Church, that I could be saved, too. That's part of the reason I started saving up to work on the PhD." 

"So your testimony is stronger now?" asked Kristie.

"I think so. How about you?"

"I'm not sure. I saw a lot of things that I didn't expect when I was a missionary."

Dan guessed at her thoughts. "So, were you disappointed in people who weren't perfect?"

"Yeah. I guess so. I just thought things would be so simple. Some of the elders behaved pretty badly."

---

 

Similarly to Mormons, Ehyephoot men who serve as missionaries are called the equivalent of "elders" -- even the young men. And women who serve as missionaries are called "sisters".

It can be a little confusing, since members of the church in general, in the consideration that all members of the human race are part of God's big family, are also called brothers and sisters, no matter what their other callings are.

Men seem to need the formal investiture of authority before they will get up the ambition to do good things. Women don't seem to need that so much. And men seem to have more need to perform set rituals, where women seem more to understand things more intuitively. It seems to be a general rule, although there is wide variation among individuals.

But it's the same metaphysical substance of faith, whether formal or not.

---

 

Dan looked down. "I made a few mistakes when I was a missionary." Then he looked up at Kristie. "And after, too. Don't hold it against them. Some of them will have changed their ways, anyway."

And Bobbie and Karel concurred. 

Karel said, "I know if I'd had to be perfect, I wouldn't be here now."

"Thanks. I tried not to judge them, but it was hard."

"Hey," said Bobbie. "I find that, when I go to the temple, it's easier to forgive people. I've set a goal to go to the temple at least once a month during school. How about you guys?"

All four thought it was a good idea. None of them had classes the next Friday morning, so they decided to go together then. Several of the other students who were studying with them also decided to join in. 

"Hey, I'm still stuck on this question." Chad was one of those other students. We'll introduce him a little better later. "Listening to you guys talk about missions and the temple isn't helping." 

Several other students murmured in agreement.

"Sorry," Karel ducked his head, the other three also murmuring apologies. 

Kristie leaned over the table to look at Chad's work. "How far have you gotten?"

Chad grimaced. "Well, not very. Not at all. 'Do I see common elements or underlying principles in the education systems practiced on the islands in this group?' What kind of question is that? Most of these have no system at all, but three have inherited systems from the countries that used to claim them as colonies. Different countries, different systems."

Karel and Bobbie exchanged glances. 

"Well, I have to admit," Bobbie started, "on first read through the material, that's what I was thinking."

Dan added, "I just wrote something like that down and moved on. Might have more to think about it now, though. What did you come up with , Kristie?"

"From the descriptions we have, I think even where they adapted the former colonial rulers' systems, they adapted things to their own culture." She glanced over at Karel, who just nodded. "Anyone else notice anything special?"

That started a small discussion, and shortly Chad and a couple of other students who had been stuck were scribbling notes and moving ahead.

---

Table of Contents

Next: Beliefs and Attitudes

---

 

You can find the original first draft of the chapter this chapter was extracted from, and various approaches I have tried with it here: https://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/05/economics-101-novel-ch05-first-semester.html.

Economics 101, a Novel, ch 1 pt 2 -- Introducing Karel

Previous: Introducing Bobbie

Table of Contents

 

We've met Bobbie for real now, and seen a little of Kristie. 

Does it go without saying that I'm borrowing from this world to give rough translations for the names? 

Well, before I introduce Karel and Dan properly, I also need to tell you, time on their world is measured a little differently from time on ours. Am I stating the obvious? I do that too much. I suppose you don't want all the details, but so far I've been using a rough translation of the time units as well.

---

 

Karel turned the ignition off and sat for a minute outside Dan's house. He needed a little rest.

The door of the house opened and Dan stuck his head out the door. "Hey, Karel, how the heck are you?"

"Not bad for just finishing a five hour drive. How about you? Got your stuff?" 

(Five hour drive. He actually said "three and a half chip drive", since you need to know.)

"Yeah, I got my stuff, but come on in and say hi to the family. My little sister's dyin' to see you again."

Two voices chorused, almost in unison, from inside the house, "Dan!" 

"Your little sister ignores me whenever I come any more."

Dan ducked back in and came outside, carrying a small briefcase. "Unless you give her a ride on your shoulders.

The door opened again behind Dan, and a fifteen year-old girl came running out and slapped her big brother up side-of-the-head. Dan just ducked and grinned.

Karel climbed out of the car, glad for the excuse to unbend, and walked around and gave the girl a hug. "My, you've grown, Sheliah. Wanna piggy-back ride?"

"Mom says I'm getting too old."

"Ah well. Are you still gonna marry me when you turn twenty?"

(Twenty. They actually use hexadecimal numbers, for what it's worth. Gives a different sense to "teen-age", even I don't coin the word "hex-age". And 20_ten just doesn't read like 14_sixteen. But I'll stick to decimal here. For now.)

"Mom says you have to find someone your own age before then."

"Darn. She's probably right about that, too, though."

"Where are you gonna find someone as cool as me?"

"That's a tall order. But I'll let you know when I do."

Karel went in and said hi to the Claymount family, then he and Dan got in the car and headed out of town.

"I don't know whether I'm better friends with you or your family sometimes."

"Yeah. Too busy to keep up with each other. Sure is too bad the team waived you after your second year."

"Football can't last forever."

"Which is why I let you talk me into checking out grad school with you, right?"

And they caught each other up on personal news as they went, until Dan dozed off. 

Dan had promised to drive at least half of the way from his town to the university. But Karel knew he would be tired, and would probably not be able to wake up enough to drive when it was his turn. So they had left early enough that they could stop and get some sleep at a rest area on the way.

*****

(We used to stop to sleep at rest stops in the middle of the night, like that. But we can't any more. Too many problems with criminal activities going on in the middle of the night. So the highway patrol has to wake you up and tell you to move on.

But back then, in the UIS mid-west, too, it was standard operating procedure for students traveling the long distances between home and college, especially for male students. Not so much for female students traveling alone, of course.

Football. You'll allow me to continue with the substitution? It was a game with rules close to American Football in our world, anyway.)

*****

Not quite a chip after sunrise, Karel parked the car in a school parking lot and reached over to wake Dan up.

"Hey, we're here," he said, shaking his shoulder.

They had caught a bit more than three chippu of sleep at a rest stop east of the mountains, but, even with that, Dan was still not feeling safe behind the wheel. So Karel had driven the rest of the way in.

"Oh, man. Sorry I couldn't wake up."

"That's okay. You can drive on the road back."

"Has it been five years?"

"Five for you. Since I finished up my master's during the off-season while we were playing pro, it's only been a couple for me." 

"Yeah. So, I'm going to the PE department to look at a graduate degree in sports education while you check out the anthropology department, right?"

"That's the plan."

"And you'll come down to the PE department to look at studying dance as another option, right?"

"Right. So we'll meet down there and then go get some lunch."

------

And that is how it was that Karel was sitting in the anthropology department offices, tired from the long drive, trying to read application form instructions, when Bobbie came in that morning. And why he wasn't there when she came back.

He did get an appointment to talk with a member of the anthropology faculty heading down to the PE building,.

------

"Hey, Karel, what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing."

"You look like you just lost a friend." 

"Just kicking myself for not trying to get a girl's phone number."

"That happens."

"Didn't even introduce myself. I only said something stupid like 'Nice day.'" 

"Heh. Hey, don't sweat it. If it was meant to be, you'll get another chance."

"You should talk."

"True. Girls just don't understand us boys. Did you get an interview?"

"Got an appointment for the afternoon."

"Me, too. Are you going to come in and ask about the dance program or what?"

In the dance office, one of the professors was available to talk, but she was not encouraging.

"We just don't have the expertise to help you with teaching dance to football players, and, frankly, I think the football body would not train well in dance. Getting the turnout would be nearly impossible."

"I know it would be pioneering, but I'm willing to put in the effort."

"I really hate to be so discouraging, but I can't promise that any of the faculty here would be willing to put in the effort to help you. We're up to our necks in our standard curricula, anyway." (We'll forgive this professor for not being a little more forward-looking.)

Karel must not have hidden his disappointment well. 

She continued, "Look, you have another option you're considering, right?"

"Yeah. Anthropology."

"Maybe that's going to be a stretch for you, too, but I think it will be less of a stretch."

On his way out of the office, he noticed a poster on the wall.

"What's this?"

"Oh, that's from several years back. A master's candidate at," and she named the school Karel remembered Bobbie saying she'd gotten her master's from, "who came to give us some workshops in modern dance here. It was very exciting. I keep the poster as a reminder."

"Roberta Whitmer," Karel read absently.

"Do you know her?"

"Know her? Can't say that I do."

After that, Karel and Dan went up to the school cafeteria, showed their alumni cards, and bought lunch. While they were eating, they talked about the morning.

"I can't believe she just basically turned me down flat."

"You've got to quit letting women walk all over you like that." Dan grinned between bites. "On the other hand, maybe that girl you didn't really meet this morning is part of your destiny."

Now, for whatever reason, Karel had not mentioned anything further about Bobbie, not even about seeing the poster.

"Destiny. Maybe. Well, let's go to our interviews."

Karel's interview was with a Doctor White. When Karel gave him his CV to look at, he scanned it, muttering, "mission, football, instrumentation technician, military, engineering, semiconductors, ... . Lots of experience. But I don't see an obvious connection. Why do you suddenly want to get a PhD in Anthropology?"

"When I was a missionary in," and he named the same mission that Bobbie had named, "I thought the islanders I worked among had an intuitive understanding of the cultural basis of economics and management. At that semiconductor company where I worked, I watched managers who seemed to have no interest in things cultural tear the company apart with bad management and worse economics. I think their lack of interest in the human factor was the proximate cause of their bad management, much more than the technology."

"I see. So, what do you intend to research?"

"I want to learn how to describe the human factors and develop some useful economic models companies can operate under, that take them into account."

"Okay, that sounds like something we can work from."

So Karel also had to explain his groundwork for coming in from outside the major, just as Bobbie did.

Of course, he had different holes to fill. Where he would just monitor the senior-level research methodology class, he would have to actually take the anthropologist's introduction to medicine and physiology, and so forth.

He also committed to correspond with Doctor White for further advice as he prepared to begin coursework in the fall, and Doctor White promised to shepherd his application through the processes.

When Karel and Dan left later that afternoon, they both had the necessary forms and had made the necessary contacts. 

Dan drove on the way back, and they arrived at his home around midnight. Karel crashed in Dan's room for three and a half chippu before driving home in the morning.

On the way home from Dan's house, he complained a bit to God:

"Why didn't I try harder to strike up a conversation?"

It didn't feel natural, did it?

"If I were smooth like Dan, I could have gotten her phone number, I'm sure. Why can't I be smooth like him?"

Dan said it himself, he's not particularly successful at getting married yet, either.

Karel didn't have a quick response to that. But, ultimately, he said, "Well, Father, like Dan said, if it's something that should happen for me, I'd sure like another chance to make her acquaintance."

He could have described the response he felt as a galactic "Hmmmm." 

------

Dan picked up some publicity work for their former team, and Karel picked up some consulting work, mostly for his father's company, and both Dan and Karel spent a lot of the time over the next eight months preparing to go back to school.

They made another trip about a month after their first trip, to hand-deliver their applications, because it was a little close to the deadline.

Karel wanted to live on campus, and Dan wanted to live off campus, so after they submitted their applications, they each spent part of the day separately arranging for housing and checking out possible work opportunities.

---

I explained a little about what a "mission" is, at the end of last chapter. I forgot to mention there that a missionary's field of labor is also called a "mission" in Ehyephoot parlance.

There are two parallel organizations within the Church. One is focused on the members, and one is focused on the missionary work.  

In the latter organization, a "mission" is both a physical area, and the organization within which the missionaries assigned there work. It's similar to the church I attend, where, at this time, Japan, is divided into seven or eight areas called missions, and the Philippines is divided into twenty or so. Each of these missions had around fifty to a hundred fifty missionaries working in it (in our world, also, up until the Corona virus pseudo-pandemic.)

When Karel served his mission, there were not nearly as many missions in existence. A few years later, when Bobbie was serving hers, some of the missions had been divided, so there were a few more. Even though it was the same mission, it was a smaller area when Bobbie served.

(Which mission they served in, well, I don't want to dig into Xhilr geography. Not just yet.)

About time, before I strain my back in interpolation -- there are sixteen chippu to a day --  10_sixteen. 

If we were to travel to Xhilr, we would experience their day as approximately the same length as an Earth day. But, of course their days aren't exactly the same length as ours. That kind of equivalence would require constant intervention over distances so vast the comparisons wouldn't be meaningful. Whether they are longer or shorter, and by how much, doesn't really matter.

Midnight is zero or 10_sixteen. If the days were exactly the same length, there would be exactly ninety earth minutes to the chip:

 

(Just for the record, I once calculated it as ninety-one and a fraction minutes to the actual chip, but, as I say, the calculations become meaningless at the distances and velocity differentials involved. Because of the different paths the planets are traveling, I'm not sure the calculations I made then still hold, if I even got them right in the first place.)

Table of Contents

Next: Bobbie Meets Karel

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You can find the original first draft of this chapter and various approaches I have tried with it here: https://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/05/economics-101-novel-ch02-introducing.html.

Economics 101, a Novel, ch 1 pt 1 -- Introducing Bobbie

Previous: Framing Story

Table of Contents

 

So let's back up a little and get to know our co-protagonists before we start doing experiments with them. 

---

 

Bobbie entered the anthropology department office and looked around. Near the receptionist's desk was a rack of pamphlets, catalogs, and other informational material. A couple of students were sitting nearby, reading, maybe waiting to talk with faculty or counselors.

One of them looked like he could be a football player, although he looked like he might be a few years too old to still be playing for the university.  He was rather good-looking.

He looked up and nodded absently, and returned to the sheet of instructions he was reading.

The receptionist was friendly. "Hello. May I help you?" 

Bobbie returned her smile and approached the desk. "Yes. I'd like some information on graduate programs. I have a bachelor's in nursing from," and she named a well-known school with a nursing program, "and a master's in dance from," and she named another school with a well-known dance program (well-known among dancers, anyway), "and I'd like to pursue a PhD here in anthropology, with a focus on island politics."

The receptionist took a note in her log and said, "Well, I don't think we have a program specific to island politics, but we do have ongoing fieldwork in certain island countries. Let me give you some general information on graduate studies, and I could schedule an appointment for you with one of our graduate advisors."

"I would like that, please."

"My name is Melissa Burns, by the way. May I have your name?"

"Roberta Whitmer. I go by Bobbie."

Bobbie took the materials offered and sat down next to the maybe-football player to read them. He looked up and smiled, and said, "Nice day, isn't it?" to which Bobbie agreed. Then he went back to reading. 

Mrs. Burns excused herself and left the office for a moment but was soon back.

"Miss Whitmer, do you have time now? Doctor MacVittie, who is one of our professors participating in island fieldwork, is available for a few minutes."

"That would be wonderful."

"This way, please." Mrs. Burns took Bobbie to a nearby office, where she announced at the open door, "Miss Whitmer, sir."

"Thank you Mrs. Burns. Please show her in."

Mrs. Burns stepped back to allow Bobbie to enter, indicating the professor with her hand. "Doctor MacVittie." 

Bobbie thanked Mrs. Burns as she entered the professor's office and extended her hand to the professor. He shook it warmly. 

"And thank you, sir. Please call me Bobbie."

"Nice to meet you, Bobbie. Please sit down and tell me a little about yourself and why you are interested in our graduate programs." He thanked Mrs. Burns with a nod, and she left.

They both sat down, and Bobbie introduced herself.

"As I mentioned to Mrs. Burns, I am a nurse. I'm registered as a nurse and certified as a midwife both in my home state and in this state. I have a bachelor's degree in nursing, and a master's degree in dance."

"Dance? In addition to that impressive list of qualifications?"

"I've liked dance and sports ever since I was a cheerleader in high school."

"Oh. So you already have a broad range of interests."

"Yes. I served a Church service mission in," and she named a mission that included a lot of island area, "and I spent a considerable amount of time in the islands there. I found life there interesting, and I've been doing some limited research in island politics on my own for the past year." 

"I see. Do you have a curriculum vitae with you?"

"Yes, I do."

"May I look it over?"

Bobbie gave him her CV and he scanned it for a few moments, nodding and asking questions.

"And you're certified to fly."

"It's a kind of hobby. My dad encouraged me, and helped me get certified."

"I'd almost wonder whether your range of interests is too broad, lacking in focus."

He returned the CV to her. "This is all well and good, but you are asking to enter a field for which your training in physical education and nursing will have only minimally prepared you. Not only that, but you will find the terminology, and even the ways of thinking, somewhat foreign."

"I am aware of that. As I mention in my CV," she handed it back to him, indicating where she had briefly described her dance experience, "much of my work in dance involved ethnic dance. That and the languages I learned and cultures I experienced as a missionary were my springboard. I have read an introductory textbook in archeology, [textbook name elided], and I began, I think, to see how the four fields of physiology, archeology, linguistics, and culture interrelate. I'm not sure I agree with the four-field point of view, but I can operate within it."

"Okay, so we have one freshman-level class out of the way."

"I've been specifically preparing, reading more college textbooks on the undergraduate subjects -- cultures of the world, symbolism and symbolics, morals and ritual, family relationships, the anthropological view of physiology, psychology, economics, politics in particular, religion as a topic outside Ehyephoo-ism, quantitative methods, and so forth."

"Where did you find time?"

"I've been carrying a textbook with me whenever I go anywhere, including work. I learned to speedread a long time ago. It's not emotionally satisfying, but it gets the job done." 

"Okay, I get the picture that you are not just daydreaming."

"I know I'm going to have to work hard to get ready for graduate level work. I'm weak in quantitative analysis, so I'm assuming I'll be taking that, among the other undergraduate classes I'll need. Hopefully, I can get by with just monitoring linguistics. I'm hoping I can get some suggestions for additional preparation before I start attending classes next fall." 

This satisfied Doctor MacVittie, and they discussed some reading he thought might help outside of textbooks, and she promised to come back for more guidance.

Before ending the interview, he encouraged her to submit her application and promised to see that the appropriate members of the department reviewed it, and they shook hands, and Bobbie left.

On her way out, she stopped back by the department office to make sure she had the application documents, instructions, and other materials she needed. The maybe-football-player was not there.

At Mrs. Burns suggestion, she worked through the application forms, filling out much of them while there, so that she would have fewer questions to worry about when she returned home.

Then she returned to the parking lot. She had borrowed the family car for the three-hour trip south to the school, so she made use of some of the rest of the day looking around campus, looking at apartments in town, and such.

(Well -- roughly three-hour trip, as we might experience it if we traveled it in their world.)

While she was in town, she stopped by the hospital, to ask if they might be interested in hiring her part-time when she started school. Of course, there were no promises, but she was able to meet and introduce herself to some of the regular staff.

When she returned home, her mom was in the living room, reading a book.

"How did it go?"

"Well enough. I got my applications, met a professor, met some people at the hospital down there, and got a look at the town. Brought home a lot of paperwork."

"Meet any interesting guys?"

"No." She stopped and blinked here eyes. "Well, sort of. There was this guy waiting in the department office who was probably also getting ready to apply for post-grad work. He said hi, but that was it."

"He didn't hit on you?"

"No. Didn't ask for my phone number, didn't even introduce himself. Nice looking guy, too. Almost everyone I met was very nice. Almost as nice as being at Church here is now. Maybe I'll like it there." 

And she spent her time after work over the next several weeks filling out the application forms, making another CV for the application itself, and so forth. About a month later, she had her application ready, and returned to the university to hand-deliver it and talk more with the professors.

Several months later, when she received her approval to start taking classes in preparation for becoming a PhD candidate, she gave notice at the hospital where she was working and got her dad to help her buy her own car.

Later, she went back to the university to talk more with the professors and make arrangements for an apartment off-campus for her first year. She met one of the women who would be her roommates during the coming year, a petite, active blonde named Kristie Person, who was finishing her bachelor's in physical education and was getting ready for master's work in education.

And she was able to arrange to be on call at the hospital as a midwife for emergency deliveries, and to work there on the weekends, to help stretch her savings and keep her skills fresh.

From the time she went to get the application forms and materials until she started actually taking classes was about eight of their months. (These days, in our world, that would be a rather short time. Then, in that world, it wasn't especially short or long.)

Sometime in the summer before grad school began, as we have noted, her mother showed her an article in the newspaper about one of the students who would be beginning graduate studies at the same time as she would. He was a former football player at the school who had spent two years as a professional player while completing his master's degree in engineering, and would now be seeking a PhD in the same field she was choosing, anthropology.

After getting his masters, he had worked for more than two years as an engineer, in the (then) new field of semiconductor fabrication. But the company he had been working for had failed, and he had decided to take the opportunity to pursue a new field. 

His name was Karel Pratt.

The article had been picked up by the national press because he was an example of football players who were pursuing careers requiring advanced degrees during and after their professional football careers.

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About this "mission" thing -- 

In the time frame this story is set in, many young, single Ehyephoot men would take two to five years out of the time young men would usually be starting work or studying at college, to serve as full-time proselyting missionaries. The Church was not yet emphasizing the idea that every young man should prepare for and serve a mission, but it was by no means an unusual thing among the Ehyephoot.

Serving a mission was and is an expression of faith in their Lord and in His Church, at least for many missionaries.

Young, single Ehyephoot women at that time were generally not encouraged to go on missions. Their first mission was considered to be in the home.

Unfortunately, there was often a bit of social stigma associated with women who went on missions. Women serving proselyting missions were often considered by the gossips in their home congregations to be "past their prime" days for being courted -- or some such silliness.

A service mission was a little different, often being considered, socially speaking, as a recognition of skills that the woman had developed. Single women who had qualified to work as nurses or in other service capacities would often be recruited to serve for a time in areas of the world where medical and other services were needed and hard to get. A proselyting mission was "for women who hadn't been trying hard enough" -- according to the wags. But a service mission was obviously different.

On the other hand, in their fields of labor, the women who served as either proselyting or service missionaries were generally seen as the mortal equivalent of angels.

Just goes to show that gossip is a bad thing, even in a good church. Especially in a good church.

It would be several years later that women in general began to be encouraged to serve missions, and the artifact social stigma would begin to be erased.

Table of Contents

Next: Introducing Karel

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You can find the original first draft of this chapter and various approaches I have tried with it here: https://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/05/economics-101-novel-ch01-introducing.html.