I have a problem, I can't throw out my garbage today. My landladies (thought that would be a change from landlords), go thru my garbage! No matter what I try to hide in there, they go thru the peals and crap and find stuff. I know this because I had some bad cheese one day and threw it out and Rajapaksha came to me and said don't throw away food, give it to us. The dog got it! He was upset. Ancy has since told me they go thru everything. So it wouldn't be a problem except that I don't like all the sweets they gave me and want to get rid of them. I can't give them away because everyone has tons of sweets because of the New Year. Another problem I am having is itches and rashes. I am not afraid of much in the way of animals or bugs except for 2 things, head lice and bed bugs. We had patients with head lice and I went out and bought combs for the staff to use on them but it left me uneasy. You know how when you sweat and the sweat dries, you might feel itchy on your body or your head, well this is happening and I am also getting mosquito bites and other little bites as well as teeny little ants that appear on my body somehow this season..I am now fearful that all this itching is head lice and bed bugs and I am freaked out. Of course, I do have bites and a rash on both arms but there is no evidence of either dreaded infestation on my person or in my bed. I am washing everything that goes on my bed today though.
I think I have mentioned that one of the things I am attempting to do is get AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) here to Badulla and then to the Tea Estates where there is a high incidence of alcoholism, spousal abuse and suicide. So a date was set, arrangements were vin the works, calendars adjusted and then Nilantha, one of my favorite, best social workers ever, told me that with the New Year and the amount of time he won't be around, he couldn't get it all done by the date selected. I was annoyed. He, like many Sri Lankans I think, don't like to say no or don't think ahead, it was obvious that this would be a problem, even I knew but let the planning go on. I hated being annoyed with him but it was terrible telling all these AA people that they had to reschedule their work again. Hopefully people will learn from this and it will happen two weeks later. I am not sure that one thing has happened here that has not had to be rescheduled.
Because of the date being changed however, I could apply to be invited for free to a meditation retreat happening at this luxury resort in Galle. There were 2 open spots for those on the email list for a meditation center in Colombo. I put my name on the list a while ago in the hopes that I could meditate with them when I go to Colombo. Anyway, I had not applied for the retreat because the AA group was happening. I then applied, too many people for spots of course and the question came can you stay thru Monday noontime. Staying thru Monday noontime means I cannot be back by 2:30PM that day when I have finally scheduled a translator (yeah) to spend an hour working with me the support staff . What to do...Well I said I could stay, I have been accepted to the retreat and will start the translator and the sessions one week later. However, though not quite the same as what happened with AA being rescheduled, it is close enough to make me pretty Sri Lankan!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Avuruddha
Okay, this is it, I have only enough for one more cup of American coffee left. This will be the true test of whether I have acclimated to this country. Actually, I drink one cup of coffee in the morning and then about 11am really enjoy a cup of tea with the staff sometimes again about 4:30pm.
Today is a huge holiday here, although I must say there are many, many holidays here. This is Sinhala and Tamil New Year or The Avuruddha. It essentially celebrates the end of the harvest. Basically pretty much 3/4 of the country seems to stop working and go home or to visit family. Nothing much happens, post office stops functioning, stores close, restaurants close, for a week or more. The actually holiday is one day but there is the preparation leading up to the holiday and then the stuff that happens the day after the holiday and then the traveling back from family and so forth. so basically from this past Monday until next Monday or Tuesday, nothing goes on. Actually since last Thursday was election day the holiday seems to have started then. Patients of course need to be taken care of but many were discharged so they could vote and then be home for the New Year so the ward is very quiet and of course staff are not on full capacity.
So, what happens actually on this holiday? Well what I am gathering is that it is sort of like Passover or Jewish New Year. The entire house is cleaned top to bottom, new things for the home are purchased, new clothing is bought for the whole family. Certain foods that are significant, especially milk products like milk rice or Kiribath which celebrates the harvest of the rice, are prepared. Tons of sweets of various forms are made and lots of bananas are eaten. So all this preparing goes on until a certain hour on the day before the holiday, in this case the about 11pm on the 13th. At that point the fire of the stove must be extinguished and the stove cleaned and it is relit the following day at a time determined by the astrologers. No food is eaten in between this time either and no work is performed, it is a time of quiet and reflection. Then in this case at 9am this morning, the stove is lit, milk is boiled over on it to celebrate prosperity and health and everyone eats all day! Very loud firecrackers are set off all over, I can attest to that since it has been happening for several days now! Also money is passed between parents and children and children and parents as a sign of respect and prosperity in the coming year, I believe. It is truly a family holiday, people go to their parents wherever they are as much as possible. (Interestingly enough, Christians and Muslims do not celebrate this holiday but do benefit from the days off from work. Yes the country is really, really divided between 4 religions, Sinhala people being Buddhist and Tamils being Hindus.) The day after the holiday, there are still rituals with oil being placed on the head and certain kind of bathing. Anyway, I was hoping someone would invite me to their home to witness this ritual and as it turns out I am invited to Laxmi's home for lunch today. She is one of the nurses I have written about. I have unfortunately been benefiting from the holiday all week because people have been "baking" and making milk toffee for days. Staff have brought it to work and yesterday, my landlady brought up an entire tray of about 6 or 7 different treats for me. Pretty much everything made here is deep fried like oil cakes and things like funnel cakes. There cholesterol numbers are high as you can imagine. Outside my window at this very moment the firecrackers are going crazy, it is just past 9AM, the time the eating can begin! I think I'll go have breakfast.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
work and other stuff
I wish you could here the sounds coming from outside right now. Each morning there is a moslem call to prayer at about 5AM or so. Well right now it sounds like a bunch of guys trying to be a sort of Moslem barbershop quartet singing like the morning but in harmony, in my neighbors yard.
There is not a lot going on at work because we still do not have a consultant Psychiatrist so right now we are screwed. They took one of our doctors because they can and we have no one to fight for us. This is the system, we can't do ECT or keep aggressive patients so we have less than 20 patients right now. We did write a letter to the Minister of Health who is from Badulla and I think is also the brother in law of the president or something like that, telling him how desperate we are, and how bad it is for patients who have to go far away from home for treatment. It has given me more time though to sort of just hang out with the staff. Before I came I was told that there was a great hierarchy here between each level of staff. So far that is not actually what I am seeing, with a couple of horrifying exceptions, I find most of the staff to be pretty respectful of each other. Staff are made up of 4 Medical Officers (doctors), 8 RNs, 2 Social Workers who actually aren't master's level yet but we are working on it, an OT and 10 Support staff who are called Minor staff which I hate of course. The doctors aren't separate really, don't seem to expect particularly different treatment, know everyone. That's not to say doctors don't get different treatment because they do. The other day I went to another hospital with Dr. S. to see what other clinics are like and we go in this leather seated, plush car. When the nurses go on home visits, we are lucky if we get a trishaw or an ambulance. Nevertheless, in some ways it's less hierarchical then in the states. People don't seem to value themselves as so much better because of their work. Now there is probably a greater difference in thinking about roles between the Sinhala people and the Tamils and within castes in the tamil population which is just as crazy. Anyway, I am feeling very fond of a lot of the staff. The other day I fell ill, I'm OK, I think it was something I ate but the doctors and nurses were so sweet, several doctors came over to my home to visit and one of the nurses has been checking in. The other thing that happened which is most disturbing is the theft of 2 signs I had had written to put up for the new support staff but really for all the staff. I had one sign made in Sinhala and one in Tamil although that one hadn't been put up yet, I was working on convincing the nurse in charge that both needed to be there. The sign said in essence: Treat people with dignity, respect, equality and as you would a loved one. One day, last week the sign was removed from the wall. It disappeared. All the staff were very upset about it and a few days later, the Tamil sign which was sitting there also disappeared. The nurses got together and talked about it, the doctors and social workers, it was as if it was an affront to all of us. Our social worker and his father spent one night trying to translate my english into sinhala and then Dr. S. worked on it and got another sign made. I don't think that would happen in the US.
The Lankans love holidays or they love days off work so in these three weeks or so they take off for Good Friday, Easter, Tamil New Year, Sinhalese New Year, Poya (Buddhist) Day and more! The New Year time is very special, sort of like Passover. They clean their houses thoroughly, clean out the stoves, buy special ingredients, wash in a particular way and put on oils, cook and eat and visit parents but it is all determined to the minute by the astrologers who tell them when to do what on which day.
Oh I almost forgot, big, big news, literally around the corner from me they are putting up a resort/hotel with a restaurant and a pastry shop. They actually have wonderful food, the rooms are beautiful, Ancy and I are in shock, this is Badulla. Some rooms actually have AC and hot water! They are around $20 a room. It's a real restaurant, yippee. We had breakfast Saturday morning, she had dinner Friday eve. Aside from that, I have now located wonderful hotels on beautiful tea estates, people could actually come to Sri Lanka and hardly ever have to pee in a hole in the ground!
Speaking of Ancy, I am on the lookout for a baby maker for her. She is 37 years old and really wants a baby, she'll take a husband but really wants a baby so now all the staff are talking about who they know that could make good babies!
There is not a lot going on at work because we still do not have a consultant Psychiatrist so right now we are screwed. They took one of our doctors because they can and we have no one to fight for us. This is the system, we can't do ECT or keep aggressive patients so we have less than 20 patients right now. We did write a letter to the Minister of Health who is from Badulla and I think is also the brother in law of the president or something like that, telling him how desperate we are, and how bad it is for patients who have to go far away from home for treatment. It has given me more time though to sort of just hang out with the staff. Before I came I was told that there was a great hierarchy here between each level of staff. So far that is not actually what I am seeing, with a couple of horrifying exceptions, I find most of the staff to be pretty respectful of each other. Staff are made up of 4 Medical Officers (doctors), 8 RNs, 2 Social Workers who actually aren't master's level yet but we are working on it, an OT and 10 Support staff who are called Minor staff which I hate of course. The doctors aren't separate really, don't seem to expect particularly different treatment, know everyone. That's not to say doctors don't get different treatment because they do. The other day I went to another hospital with Dr. S. to see what other clinics are like and we go in this leather seated, plush car. When the nurses go on home visits, we are lucky if we get a trishaw or an ambulance. Nevertheless, in some ways it's less hierarchical then in the states. People don't seem to value themselves as so much better because of their work. Now there is probably a greater difference in thinking about roles between the Sinhala people and the Tamils and within castes in the tamil population which is just as crazy. Anyway, I am feeling very fond of a lot of the staff. The other day I fell ill, I'm OK, I think it was something I ate but the doctors and nurses were so sweet, several doctors came over to my home to visit and one of the nurses has been checking in. The other thing that happened which is most disturbing is the theft of 2 signs I had had written to put up for the new support staff but really for all the staff. I had one sign made in Sinhala and one in Tamil although that one hadn't been put up yet, I was working on convincing the nurse in charge that both needed to be there. The sign said in essence: Treat people with dignity, respect, equality and as you would a loved one. One day, last week the sign was removed from the wall. It disappeared. All the staff were very upset about it and a few days later, the Tamil sign which was sitting there also disappeared. The nurses got together and talked about it, the doctors and social workers, it was as if it was an affront to all of us. Our social worker and his father spent one night trying to translate my english into sinhala and then Dr. S. worked on it and got another sign made. I don't think that would happen in the US.
The Lankans love holidays or they love days off work so in these three weeks or so they take off for Good Friday, Easter, Tamil New Year, Sinhalese New Year, Poya (Buddhist) Day and more! The New Year time is very special, sort of like Passover. They clean their houses thoroughly, clean out the stoves, buy special ingredients, wash in a particular way and put on oils, cook and eat and visit parents but it is all determined to the minute by the astrologers who tell them when to do what on which day.
Oh I almost forgot, big, big news, literally around the corner from me they are putting up a resort/hotel with a restaurant and a pastry shop. They actually have wonderful food, the rooms are beautiful, Ancy and I are in shock, this is Badulla. Some rooms actually have AC and hot water! They are around $20 a room. It's a real restaurant, yippee. We had breakfast Saturday morning, she had dinner Friday eve. Aside from that, I have now located wonderful hotels on beautiful tea estates, people could actually come to Sri Lanka and hardly ever have to pee in a hole in the ground!
Speaking of Ancy, I am on the lookout for a baby maker for her. She is 37 years old and really wants a baby, she'll take a husband but really wants a baby so now all the staff are talking about who they know that could make good babies!
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