Zoom In and Zoom Out.. and Turn Yourself On

 I have started this time and again... So today, I'll post it even if I am not happy with it...and Anne hasn't edited my lousy typing and Brooklynese English...

Before I ramble on:  While I will not be there again, you and yourt generosity will be there to assist the new students with tablets.   It is only through your generosity that they are able to have these invaluable tools to learn.   I am grateful for everyone of you who have made a contribution... And I am greatful to all who didn't.  Tablets have been purchsed and shipped and , arrived in Guyana and wil be there for the students first day.

2021 Promises and 2020 Reflections

Covid won this year, but it wasn't a knock out!   A TKO at best.

Never Say Never

No I did not go to Guyana in person this fall.  Somehow I got talked into assisting online - Zoom-Zoom - with the usual Problem Based Learning Course.  Full time faculty member Robert Binda really wanted to offer the courses even during the lock down. And the clincher:  Roberta would do all the administration and I just had to show up and look cute!  How could I turn down an offer like this?

With Roberta doing the fulltime coordination plus two full time faculty Nurse Nathleen McNeil and International Volunteer, Nurse Candy Mohan, who just began working at a hospital in Croydon, England. [She had just returned to Guyana to visit her family when Covid struck and stranded her in Guyana.] and there are four or five more part-time nurses who wished to volunteer.   Wow! 

When Tony Carr and I started this about a decade ago, most Guyana faculty thought we were crazy [and the vote may still be out of our mental health.   It was a fad!     They will be doing it the same as I am in Canada; they will be online from Georgetown.

NB:  An added special thank you to my readers and benefactors.   Without your gift to them of the computer tablets, this remote learning would not be possible !!!

Change is Always Present

A Stroke AND Luck

On the morning of 18th January, I had a seizure and stroke at home... Actually, I knew nothing about until the next afternoon when I woke up on the 6th Floor at the Hamilton General Hospital.   Anne and a worker, who was here fixing something, called 911 and an ambulance got me to the hospital.   It was very upsetting for them and my family and I was oblivious to the whole thing...   And the luck!   I have recovered without any handicaps physically or emotionally.   I was disappointed that it did not gift me with more intelligence :)    I have not been able to return to driving as in Ontario there is a mandatory six month suspension.   So I will celebrate my 75hth birthday, not on the 14th of July as in the previous 74 years, but on the 18th whwn I got my driver's license unsuspended.    Without our family who have supported us immensely; they have been a real gift.

2021 Another Term at Mercy - without me😭

 The pandemic has forced me to realize - reluctantly - I am not indispensable.      Yes, I knew it before; I just know it again.      There will be a new gaggle of first year nurses starting at Mercy School of Nursing...  I won't be there and not even on line as they feel they can return to in class teaching. So I will not be assisting with the online PBL course.   

A confession:  I really didn't like it... It was too flat - too edited.   I really never got to know the students.   So I am somewhat glad I am not doing it again... and still somewhat sad.    I do know that the faculty there led by Nurses Roberta and Nathleen will lead a new group on tutors for the students to have a good learning experience.  

A side note:  Another girl who lived at St. Ann's will be starting in September.      And like so many girls there, she has changed her name so many times  It used to be  Subitree... and on FaceBook she is Starr...   I'll have to wait and see about what she will be called ay Mercy!   Hopefully she will join a long list of St Ann's nurses who have graduated from Mercy, including the Doyen Martina Abrams.

Many years ago...

Mental Health "Initiatives"

I really would have loved to say Mental Health Improvements... But I can't at this point.   There are lots of reports and recommendation from legislation to diect patient care... but reallty there have been no concrete actions.     Guyana has never succeeeded in taching me patience...    There are prtomises to do somethings and maybe that is "good enough" for now.   

However, with the successful graduation with a Master in Medicine of the first psychiatry residents in 2019, the prtogramme has grown substantially.  There are now a total of 8 residents and ther original trimverate are working and teaching throughout Guyana.   This is truly good news.    

The Future

Really who knows...  I take comnfort in my overdevloped "denial" skills, so will look forward to retrning in future years.   This Fall I will help on line where I can and relax. [Actually relaxing is way more stressful than working.]   I have done some gardening and put a flagstone path around my pond... Everyone warned my not to lift those flagstones as they were too heavy for me.   So not to upset them, I just didn't tell them.   I carried the 2,000 pounds of stone and 2 yards of triple mix by myself... [See I told you my denial skills are well-honed - or stubborn.]  

     

I love taking piuctures - mostluy of back yard flowers -mainly because they are the only things that move slower than I do....

And I now am back walking for pleasure rather than necessity.. mostly with a granddaughter, Sydney.  She climbs and I walk slowly and take pictures... as a side benefit is I get a rest.

If there are interesting developments for me and my friends in Guyana, I'll psta another blog.

Thanks for reading and supporting me.   

John

Damn You, Covid – 19

 

Guyana will go on without me this September.

 In March when I started to learn about the pandemic and the new restrictions of social isolation, I figured that it would be over by June at the latest.   That confirmed that I have no -- that is, Zero Minus One, skills in prophecy.   (I was sure and certain when I left the Catholic Church in 1970 that there would be married clergy within ten years.   Has it been ten years yet?)

 I am sure wherever you are living that you know the pandemic is not over… and, scarily, scientists are predicting “a new normal” for many months to come. 

Airline travel has moved from inconvenient and troublesome to impossible in many cases.   Canada hasn’t decided on opening its airports to international flights while Guyana has published, in its latest revision, plans for August 31^st …  Stay tuned for a newer revision perhaps moving that date back to September 30^th.    Also to be considered: it does seem that airlines have ignored the social distancing guidelines.  And if I did go for around 60 days, I would need to self-isolate in Guyana for 14 of those days and on return to Canada they would require the same from me.   So almost half of my “Guyana time” I’d be in isolation – ugh.

 So, my decision was both easy, because right now I can’t get there from here, and hard as I have made being in Guyana an important part of my life.   I will not be going to volunteer with nursing and psychiatry in Guyana.   I have been exhibiting all the signs of anticipatory grief… but I have to do them secretly as I can’t really seem to be sad that I have to stay here with Anne and family 😊 – if I want to live!   At present, I am not hanging up my “pegs” as I hope I can return when this new “normal” actually will be something like normal.

 Not going but the life in Guyana that I am involved with goes on .....

Mercy Hospital School of Nursing is presently interviewing a new batch of students to begin later in the year, maybe even September.   The faculty (Elsie Asabere, Roberta Binda, Nathleen McNeil and a special volunteer tutor from across the pond, Candy Mohan) have continued to teach online with each of the three years of students.   They are planning on doing the same in September with the new first-year students.  However, the really bad part of such a decision is that they invited me to be an online faculty member for our usual Problem Based Learning Course.   I am trying to decide how to “fake an injury” that would allow me a good reason to be excused -- I do hate online teaching, even if I can do it with my clothes off.

 In the last blog, I celebrated the work of many to graduate three doctors with Masters Degrees in Medicine (Psychiatry).   This success has sparked more successes.   Previously we have had trouble recruiting residents; however, the graduation demonstrated that Psychiatry and Psychiatry Education in Guyana was capable and strong.  (There was much that the faculty learned – maybe even more than the students.)   There will be EIGHT residents at different stages in the three year programme.  Amazing!  This growth has only been possible through the dedication of local faculty and staff, the international cadre of volunteers (almost entirely Canadian) over the years.… and of course, our sacrificial lambs, the graduates:  Elizabeth, Stephon and Veneta.  In years to come they will tell tall tales of their time in the programme that will seem so exaggerated that no one will believe them.  Yet, they will probably all be true.

  

You will still be there .…. your Student Tablets are there

 I have purchased the usual computer tablets for each of the first-year students, as the PBL course requires online access for research and homeworks.  (This word proves my Guyanese expertise!)   Humbly, I must explain that the tablets have been bought through donations to Guyana Christian Charities by so many of you ..… especially a few repeat major donors who wish to remain anonymous.   

 I arranged the purchase online, and the tablets will travel to New York City, to the Import/Export Business with my friend, Taju, and then on to Georgetown.  He will hang on to them safely until the new students start their courses.  A few extra tablets are for the girls leaving St. Ann’s Girls Home and starting on their own.

 

Speaking of donations ..… and with thanks

 Most of the costs will be the same this year as always, as they are ongoing expenses, whether I am there or not, so please consider continuing (or starting) with your donations.    

 

In case you didn’t know or have forgotten, I do not use any money that is donated for myself.   (In the interests of full transparency:  I have a few friends who do send me money for my “Beer Fund” and they don’t claim it as a donation.)   I support individuals who may need small amounts of money to enable them to live or eat and I give them money directly.  Sometimes that money is mine and sometimes it has been given to me for those purposes.     The longer I have been going there, the more people I know who need a little to get by.  This has recently applied to people I know through social media and year-long.    

 Over the last two years, Mental Health Without Borders has supported the student nurses with grants that have covered travel, a meal and expenses for the school trip to the National Psychiatric Hospital and the little left over has been used for PPE for them when they go to witness the post mortems at Georgetown Public Hospital.  

 

What will I be doing?

 I really don’t know.   I’ll probably get talked into tutoring on line because I want to be supportive.    I am not sure whether a PBL course has ever been offered virtually or exactly how it will work ..…   We will see and I’ll write another blog when the start seems more certain.

 

And since I have no pictures in this blog.  I’ll add this one as it will be one of my favourite “Sometimes I sits and think; and, sometimes I just sits.”

 

Again, thanks for reading,

John