The Week After and The Week Before

Departures and Arrivals

Emilee Flynn has left and is back hard at work and Dennis LeBlanc is in the air going the wrong way from Boston to get here, but he said it was quicker.    So this week has lacked a little panache... Good but average... and for most of the week I forgot that I had my camera in my pocket... Must be my age or my biorhythms are off.   Anyhow, a colleague in Nova Scotia wrote me: "I guess the scary part is that neither Julie nor I found this last two weeks boring at all, even though this letter is about as mundane and ordinary as you can imagine. So either I am not much of a writer, or we are just getting more and more ordinary."   And I remembered a quote from Malcolm Muggeridge [1998:p 112] wrote, with much wisdom, that "the true wonder of life is indeed its ordinariness."   Sounds okay to me for a week, but I hope next week will be unordinary... at least a little.

Saying farewell and
Maggie looks happy?

Dennis will be joining me for the third time, so he is an old pro... And he has set out an ambitious agenda for the three weeks he is here.  I hope that I can keep up with him; I should, as he is older than I am.

 World Mental Health Day  

As you may remember, Guyana is Number One in the world in the number of suicides per 100,000; the WHO suggests that it is 44 per year.  The average in neighbouring countries is about 7 and in the world about 11.   So the Guyana numbers are really worrisome.   And to their credit the previous government and the present government have been trying to address the problem directly.    Today, the Ministry of Public Health hosted an awareness information session at the National Public Library (I may be wrong I think it is the only public library in Guyana. Yes or No?).

My friend Bhiro 

William Adu-Krow, Leslyn Holder,
Mosa Hudson, Morris Edwards

In typical Guyana fashion the 9:00 sharp start time became somewhere after 9:30 and the introductory greetings ran long, so the workshops were somewhat shortened.  However, this year's event was better attended than last.  I was talking about "Helping people who have suffered a loss by suicide".  I was actually quite busy with questions about almost everything in the Mental Health field other than the topic.    Actually, a medical student was there and we had a great conversation about coping with the special griefs surrounding a suicide.   She is a bright, young, engaging doctor and will be waiting for the Master in Psychiatry programme to get going at University Guyana, so she can begin her residency training.  And did I mention she thinks I am smart?  

The usual cast of characters filled out the speakers and presenters.   Bhiro Harry, Jorge Balseiro, Indhira Harry, Maria a Cuban psychiatrist, several psychologists, including Mosa Hutson who has been working now for over a year in Mental Health.   There were representatives from the Ministry of Public Health and William Adu-Krow, the head of PAHO in Guyana, and the Acting Chief Medical Officer Morris Edwards.    There is a National Coordinator of Mental Health, Leslyn Holder - a first for Guyana.  She is Guyanese and trained as an RN in England; she has returned to give something back to Guyana.   Her position is a vital step in the organization and growth of Mental Health Services.   I am starting to get tempted to believe that mental health services will improve and improve quickly .....  Mind you,  I have been wrong about married priests and just about everything else I have prophesied .....  But (just like the lottery ticket I just bought):  this one I have a good feeling about!

Leslyn Holder addressing the "Crowd".

Miss World Guyana was there with her entourage. She has
been dedicating her year to talk about youth suicide prevention. 

If you have read the following on FB you can stop.

Lunch with Kavita and Dolly

As I wrote on FB: I was honoured today by some old friends: Kavita Karran Sookhoo and her  husband Naresh, and Dolly (her mom) and the wonderful grandchild Kadesh. They celebrated a meal after church and it was the first time that they had a sit down meal since Kavita's father Kampta died several years ago. Dolly had made a special snapper meal; it was delicious.

I had to think for a while about what to get Kadesh to annoy his parents. A cricket bat, wicket and ball - just the answer as Kadesh started playing right away in the house. 

And as it is all over the world, especially since Robert Frost wrote a poem about it, there was  disagreement about where the fence should go.  It wasn't settled when I left...  It is somewhat comforting to know people are the same all over the world.

Have a good week, readers.  John