“We want to go while we have a good mind and can be a blessing and assistance for others,” said Larry Panasuk.

In their 38 years of marriage, he and his wife, Shirley, both 65, have become accustomed to taking the road and airways less traveled.

In their version of retirement, they now are taking their heart, skills and experiences to help the people of Kabul, Afghanistan. Both have separate missions to achieve within the next 18 months - she in her public nursing background and he, with an expertise in agriculture.

Their belongings are stashed neatly into storage, and they will travel lightly.

“We just completely packed up Wednesday,” said Shirley. “We got down to our suitcases. We got our passports and our tickets, and Monday we leave out of Williston.” Larry is a native of Bainville, Mont. and Shirley grew up in the province of Alberta, Canada. The couple met in the Washington D.C. area, and married in the MonDak region in 1969.

Atypical of most of their marriage, this time Larry is following Shirley abroad.

NURSING Consultant

“I am going to be a consulting nurse specialist, mentoring the local nurses and educating the local nurses both male and female. Because of the Muslim society, male nurses treat male patients and female nurses treat female patients,” Shirley said.

Shirley will train about 130 nurses. She likened the conditions of the hospital to that of a 1950s or 1960s medical facility in the U.S. She said a lot of infrastructure has been destroyed over the years through different political upheavals, and now the government is trying to rebuild.

Gender policies for medical treatment will remain status quo. “We are not going to try to change their culture; we are only going to try and help them,” Shirley said.

Her work is being done through the Lomalinda University, a Seventh Day Adventist Medical Institution in Lomalinda, Calif. According to Shirley, Lomalinda University has had a presence in Afghanistan since the early 1960s, and has remained even when the Taliban was there.

Two years ago, the Ministry of Health asked Lomalinda to run a hospital, upgrade the nursing care and the overall patient care, standard of care and how to run different medications.

“(It is) because in many countries around in the world, as is the case in Afghanistan, many people go to the hospital and never leave (alive),” Shirley said.

“Lomalinda University Medical Center said they would, but they needed help with funding. That's where USAID (United States Agency for International Development) came into the picture. They are providing the funding, and we at Lomalinda University Medical Center are providing the manpower.”

Subtly, Shirley wants to raise the awareness toward a more community-oriented, universal approach to medical care.

“We want to create a rapport with them and open them up to learning. If you know somebody cares for you, you want to learn for that person. This will help them to learn to care for others, not just themselves,” she said.

“In the Middle East, everything is very family-oriented: ‘It's my family I am going to take care of.' We want them to learn to take care of people outside their family. We want them to see other people as us well.

“The beautiful part of America is we come together in a tragedy. You don't always see that in some parts of the world.”

“They have been so successful in building a collective society,” Larry said. “If we can help them come together as Afghans, not just as one family. We would like to help lift some of this tribal mentality,” Shirley said.

AGRICULTURE PLANNING

Larry was hired last week by a private voluntary organization which uses U.S. government funding to develop more legitimate, but profitable crops. It is through the Ministry of Agriculture.

“They are writing a proposal on sustainable agriculture in Afghanistan. They want me to be part of that group to write up the proposal,” Larry explained.

“So much of the cropland in Afghanistan is used to grow poppies which is used to make heroin. “We do have a success story, 50-60 years ago in Turkey. It also used to raise poppy. They still raise it a little, but only for medicinal purposes. The U.S. is the primary importer of that product.”

“In Afghanistan that's a major challenge. They want me involved because of my exposure, my background and living overseas and in the Middle East to give them some guidance,” he said.

“This came up very suddenly. I told them, ‘yes.'”

He will work with Americans who will interlock with the people of Afghanistan to determine what they want. “We will introduce programs we think they will embrace ... We will be doing a proposal now, and then go into funding for more extensive (work).”

His previous duties were as an attaché involved trading. In his new job, the task may entail more training.

“We want to get them off poppies,” Larry explained.

Wheat is a primary grain in Afghanistan. The Panasuks said the climate is arid, and Kabul sets upon a plateau at about 6,000 feet. Mountains surround the city.

35 YEARS ABROAD

Shirley earned her registered nursing degree at Walla Walla College in Walla Walla, Wash. in 1965. After she and Larry married, she worked with public health in Virginia. “We went overseas, and I worked as a public health nurse in the embassies of Moscow; Bucharest, Romania; Baghdad, Iraq; Istanbul; and Kiev, Ukraine,” she said. “Both of us have ancestry that was from the Ukraine so we were able to meet up with our relatives, sleep in the villages, walk around,” she said.

“His jobs took priority for 35 years. I was blessed in that I was able to work in the embassies a contract nurse, but I enjoyed traveling; I got that from my father. Through Larry's job, we have been around the world,” Shirley related. “We have seen and experienced many different cultures.”

Shirley recently got the tip about the work in Afghanistan from a former classmate. Via a few phone calls, she connected with the right people. Lomalinda University Medical Center officials flew the Panasuks out to California. “They hired her on the spot,” Larry said.

BACKGROUND GROWS GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Larry's simple farming background and MonDak region education have taken the couple all over the globe. They wouldn't have it any other way.

After leaving the farm north of Bainville, Mont., he obtained his bachelor's degree in agricultural business from Montana State University and earned a master's degree in agricultural economics at the North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D.

“When I went to the placement office, I saw foreign agricultural service and it caught my interest,” he recalled. “The rest was history.”

Larry worked for the Foreign Agriculture Service with United States Department of Agriculture which involved people working overseas as agriculture attachés, agriculture counselors trade counselors around the world.

“We worked with all the commodity groups to promote exports, made the world crop estimates and did a little bit of little bit of food aid. We lived 18 years overseas,” he said.

Since his retirement, Larry has been helping his brother out on the farm in Bainville for nearly four years, but the yen to travel and to make an impact has not ebbed.

“We were planning to make a move, and this came up,” Larry said. “Otherwise, I was going to look for a non-government organization to work with.” He said there always is a demand for those skilled in this field.

Blending in

Their housing will be provided on a 2-acre compound through the Lomalinda Medical University. “It's where the hospital sets,” Shirley explained. “This compound has a walled area with a mosque in one corner. You can do whatever you want as a Westerner behind those walls, but once you're outside the walls, you try and fit in. The women don't wear the really tight scarves, but they will wear something. The hospital will provide us hats that we will wear. On the outside, I will wear a scarf,” Shirley said.

“You don't want to draw attention to yourself when you travel the world,” Larry said. “If you fit in, people will accept you.”

“We have tried to learn the languages of the people where we have been,” Shirley noted. “We were able to speak Romanian by the time we left that country. We have also learned some Arabic and the Turkish language.”

Fortunately, in Afghanistan, she will have the assistance of a translator.

Their safety has been factored into their location of work.

“We have to abide by the security provided to us by USAID who is providing the funds,” Shirley said. “We will have an Afghan gentlemen who will take us around the markets and different places. We can go out of town, and we'll go with him. As an Afghan himself, he knows what is safe and what is not safe.”

“In my case since I'll be working with the ministry people, I'll have probably more liberty, but when abroad, you just have to use your good sense. Don't try to draw attention to yourself, and you do well,” Larry said.

“One thing we have learned is talk to the nationals: ‘What do you folks want?' And if we can be assistance to you, that's what we want to do.”

KEEPING THE FAITH

They remain steadfast that Afghanistan is where they want to be. “It's a unique opportunity. It will keep us vibrant,” Larry said.

“There is so much need out there. People want to live and live freely, raise families and educate,” he continued. “Our goal is to help free people, particularly the female society. They have been so saddled with a system of bondage. We want to give them the opportunity to express themselves.”

He said with the new government, the women are back in the mainstream and have more access to education. He added there are more education opportunities for the men as well. “God has given us all a free mind ... They have more resources, more opportunities.”

The couple relies on faith to thread her way through the challenge, despite recent reports of the Taliban returning.

“Ever since I found out about this project, I was excited. I just prayed that God's will would be done. I have such peace about it, and I still have peace about it. I am not afraid. Whatever the Lord wants me to do, that is what I will do,” Shirley said.

“There is something worse than dying, and there is dying without a cause,” Larry added. “When we lose purpose for life, we just go off on all kinds of unnecessary tangents that get us in trouble. Have a purpose and go forward,” he advised.

He urges people to go to school. “School is exposure,” he advises “School gives you an awareness that there is much more out there than entertaining yourself. Get involved and get involved in the lives of others, and your life will be enriched.”

Both look forward to the latest chapter of their lives.

“We are interested in people and in mission-type work. This really is a mission-type job - to teach other people, to inter-mingle with other people. I understand the Afghan people are wonderful people,” Shirley said.

“The Lord has given us so many experiences; we can't just sit and do nothing. We've got to go out and share. We have met so many people throughout the world. There are so many needs. We are trying to help in a small way,” Shirley commented.

“Here are two ‘prairie gophers.' We went to school and learned so much ... We feel so pressed to move on,” Larry said.

LeAnn Eckroth can be reached at leckroth@willistonherald.com.