mostly work..

      I am so funny.  I am chuckling to myself as I realize, here I am saying I am being in the moment, well yes being here in Sri Lanka and not in the US in my head, but what am I thinking about when I become conscious?  I am thinking about how I can't wait to go to Colombo tomorrow!  Those who have been reading the blog might remember that I couldn't wait to leave Colombo to get to Badulla.  Then, my perspective was let me start my wonderful new experience in Badulla, now my perspective is I can't wait to buy a decent set of sheets and meet my friends at the shops!  I think that is so funny to realize (again).  What have I missed of my life in these last few days?!
     Today most of the nurses, the OT, SWs, the attendant staff, Ancy and me, went to the home of Mahendra, the nurse who is leaving, to bring a baby gift for his 4 month old!  So we all arrive, it is a tiny rented house, not much different then the houses of a lot of patients we go to on home visits.  So we take off our shoes and go into his living room.  Everyone sits down, chats a bit, food is put out, we all get up and help ourselves, we all eat, some people outside or in the bedroom.  After eating everyone gets in a line to get to the sink and wash their own dish.  Then dessert is served in similar fashion.  Meanwhile, I have been taking pictures here and there and say when we are finished we can take a group photo. No one says anything. After dessert, rapidly after dessert, one, two then almost all the staff stand up and leave!  No gift has been presented, no chit chat, coffee or tea, hanging out..no, the Sri Lankan way is: come, eat and leave!
     I don't know if I have talked about the houses here.  I shall in greater detail some other time but for now I can say the walls don't come up as far as the roof and the roof is usually tin. There are few doors on openings.  almost everyone has a two burner stove top, few have ovens.  Sometimes there are windows but then there is an opening at the top which let's the mosquitos in.
     For the last month I have been going weekly with Mahendra and another nurse on home visits.  This is for patients who don't come to the clinic to get their medication so we go to them and give them Modicate (Prolixin injections) and whatever other medications.  I did talk about this before.  It is actually wonderful that this is done.  Most of the patients live on the tea estates.  Tea is grown on steep hills and mountains and has to be picked regularly; very, very hard work.  There is a lot of poverty, alcoholism, spousal abuse, suicide.  Ancy has an idea to train the few health workers who are on the estates in clinics to know a bit more about mental health so this is something we shall work on.  What I wanted to share though is a bit of what it is like to get to some of these people.  The other day we drove (we now use an ambulance for transport) to a location, we walked up a hill to the railroad tracks, we walked for some time on the railroad tracks, we got off them and walked down into someones backyard.  These lovely people live with a 90yo mother, her daughter, sister, kids etc.  These people served us tea and cookies. need I tell you were the store might be.  We then walked back up to the train tracks, back along them, walked up hill to another home with a 90 year old father and the rest.  I thought we should fix the two 90 year olds up, they were so lovely and so young and vibrant.  The problem is that one is Buddhist and the other Hindu.  oh well...  We then tried to get to another woman who I have met before on the estate and couldn't get to her because every lousy dirt road on that estate is being fixed at the same time and we couldn't get to the top where she lives.  This means that she will have no medication for a month...
     I am just telling you everything that comes into my mind because I shall be away almost a week and shall not have an opportunity to write.  Also obviously I feel better and am overwhelmed with projects to do having just found out that most of the attendants on the ward asked to leave and we got 6 new ones, never worked in psych before, the one attendant who is staying is the one that pushes and shoves patients so I am anxious to get them together in a group and talk before too much influence happens the wrong way.  By the way, I cannot thank you who read my blog enough, for all your wonderful ministrations to me and have saved them all should I need choochkeying(?)  again!  Anyway what I wanted to tell you is a continuation of telling you how frustrating it is to never know what is being said and I get so annoyed.  So I now know that the nurses are frequently talking about me, if they like what I am wearing, the fact that I have 2 earrings in one ear and one in the other, what I should do with my hair etc.  So several times I have asked what they are talking about and they vaguely say something about my smile or face or something.  Today I said in my tell me already fashion to let me know what else is said about me and Laxmi said essentially to stop worrying because they are talking about how pretty I am, my smile.  So I know this is just a stage they have to go thru, getting to know me and pick me apart until there is trust but I think they should just take their time about it!!!