I Have Arrived - Well and as Sound as I Get

Georgetown, Guyana, South America


"Last night I dreamed 1,000 new paths, and this morning I woke and took the old one.” The last time that I preached this it was my sermon text. [I couldn’t find it in the Bible, but it must be here somewhere.] Anyhow, I was more confident when applying it to others… [I guess that is what preachers do.] We all have so many dreams of who and what we might become and yet so often we fall away from them in the tyranny of the routine and familiar. I can’t remember too much about the sermon, but I do remember saying that we all needed to pray for courage to live our dreams.

I have returned to Guyana for the 8th time to do mostly the familiar – teach student nurses at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. Yet with Tony Carr’s involvement and expertise [he is an English physician, so what more needs to be said, eh?] I have embarked on a new path. We are going to try to conduct our courses using a Problem Based Learning (PBA) model, i.e., a student/small group directed approach to learning. It is at the polar pedagogical opposite to the expert lecturer filling up he empty students’ heads with the correct thoughts [which by a unusual coincidence are the same as the lecturer’s].

As soon as we arrived, I realized that it was going to be near to impossible to do this, even if everything fell into place. And if you have journeyed with me before, you know nothing in Guyana ever falls into place…

The fire at Mercy destroyed many of the non-patient services, but not the school areas, so I assumed that we would proceed as before ….. However, the library where all our students will do their research is now the home of Medical Records and their whole staff is wedged in between the stacks of books. And the librarian is on leave!

The Computer Café which housed six mostly-working computers for our students to access health literature on line now has two computers – one of which can be used only by Nursing Services. The others have been confiscated to replace those lost in the fire. So one computer for all the staff and students at the hospital to use… And students have the same “status” here as in the North… Ugh.

Our class-time schedule that we negotiated by a contract back in January was revised as we arrived. Several hours were eliminated… I was ready to pack and head home; however, Tony convinced me to see if we could negotiate. Well, he did a much better job than me. And by the end of our meeting we had only lost one hour; we can live with that though it doesn’t solve the two above problems, nor the following one:

Within the last two weeks the Guyana Nursing Council has distributed a new curriculum for psychology and sociology that is the typical intro. that one would find in the north and totally irrelevant for nursing. It does include required texts -- which are not available – interesting.

This has been done because reviewers from the Pan American Health Organization are coming to accredit Guyana Nursing. Amazing! I can compare it to the preparation of hospitals for their accreditation especially in the generation of “CYA” documentation. So everyone here is now in a state of panic to make sure that they do everything right. Now PBL doesn’t come close to fitting the requirements.

Let me give you one example before I overwhelmingly bore you… Tony and I were told that we need to provide copies of all student assignments and exams for the Guyana Nursing Council ....… "snow them with documentation". A useless task only complicated by the fact that he only copier is broken.

There is more… Tony remains his optimistic self [I need to find out what drugs he uses.] so far that is enough for me. Monday we will start our classes, I hope.

Right now I want to go back and retract my sermon; God -- please just let me be content with the familiar! But I can’t because it wasn’t in the best interests of the students and nursing in Guyana. I do not know how all this will turn out and I guess that is a good definition for an adventure.

My living at the Calvary parsonage is different for me this year.

I have secured a bicycle and so far have not had any major damage to my body or my pride…though as I write this I have only made one trip!

It will take 15 days to get a legal internet connection here. I did discover that if I hold my laptop over my head near the kitchen window, I can pick up someone’s wireless signal. Except not on this Saturday morning ....… ugh.

My accommodations are quite excellent and everyone here at the church has been very welcoming. The shower here is a little slow ...… though as cold as usual. So that I am not accused of exaggerating, it takes over 45 seconds to fill a litre container. And the two guard dogs and I have worked out an arrangement .....

I cannot say enough wonderful things about my colleague and friend, a real missionary, Rev. Richard Young. He picked up Tony and me at the airport on Thursday at 6 am and spent his morning getting us settled, groceries brought, etc… He could give Sister Sheila a run for the hospitality award. Thanks Dick.

I cannot end this post without a personal reflection on my life. As I write this my wife is at home alone in the middle of hurricane Earl. She is more than a competent woman and will do all the best things through the storm. However, my thoughts are with her now and I deeply wish that I was there with her. [Not that I really could do anything… as most of you know that I read the directions before changing a light bulb.]

What most bothers me is that my new path is not different than my old one. I thought that I had changed [matured is too strong a word] in my retirement. Throughout my years as pastor and chaplain, I realized that I sacrificed my loved ones to my ideals and practice. I would head into the hospital for an “unknown” person or family at any time even on Christmas morning…

My family has accepted my craziness easier than I have and though I had tried to change and be more aware of family, this morning I am a failure. Except I have failed better… several thousands of miles away!

As I have said to others before me – “we are [I am] condemned by our personalities”. AND I am blessed by the personalities of my wife and children.

Without their acceptance and support of my craziness, I would have had no ministry at MUMC nor one here in Guyana. Anne bears the burdens of my adventures; I give thanks for her support… and the support of my 5 children and my friends.

I have not gotten my camera in gear, so the picture buffs will have o wait. I’ll send out one with pics soon.

Thank you all for being with me. John JSPS