The Reasons Why I am Here

Student Nurses at Mercy Hospital

Their Singing Video

When classes started a week ago Monday I was almost settled except for the internet -- now it has worked for soooo long, I have forgotten the hassles!    I do like going to the student’s opening service every morning despite the fact that I can’t sing and have no rhythm and the theological expressions in the singing are not exactly mine.    I am comforted by the familiarity and enthusiasm of the students.   And by their third year even the Hindu and Muslim students are singing “I am under the Rock.”   Of course, it is not a conversion; just a participation in the lives of people to whom they have grown close.

I took the mandatory prison shots and added them to my screen saver.    Even before two weeks, I think I know them all most of the time.  I also gave my “older” self three weeks instead of two to get to know them all before I have to buy pizza!     The trouble here in Guyana is that everyone has varying names for different occasions, so Jaishree might be Davie, a Ronda may be be Kayla King, Ron could be Linden, Hamosady is Sarafina… And Chukwubuike is from Africa and that is his only name; however, his last name is Okorie, so Okorie he is.  On the first day, I am convinced they are so much alike that I will never sort them all out… but now I know and see how different they are.   I do so enjoy being part of their lives.

Problem Based Teacher

Not only is Problem Based Learning very different than anything they have ever done before… They are all sure that they have never had a teacher like me!   I give them an “ice-breaker” exercise the first day...  Easy.  They write down two of their secret weapons that are going to make them a great batchmate and nurse … so there are very interesting responses, such as that one is a professional cake maker and another can teach everyone how to breathe and relax, another is a good fisherperson… And the second question is “What are you most afraid as you start this nursing course.     And most put "failing" ..… even after I told them no one has ever failed my course ..… and none of them have ever failed a course!   Several of them were most afraid of have to talk out loud in class ("I'll die if I have to do that ..…") and in my comforting way I told one of them, “Well, I guess you are going to die.”

Our course leader this year has been tutoring with me  for many years.   Last year we co-led the course and this year she has taken over most of the coordinating tasks and arranging for small group tutors.     She has done a better job than I did as she knows more about who is around and when they are free.  She has also done something that I hadn’t.  Our pages start in the afternoon with the groups developing their research questions and then, the next time we meet is on a different morning.  Previously we had tutors who volunteered for one day.  So in the group they facilitated in the morning, the questions were developed by one tutor, and in the afternoon the questions would be addressed by a different tutor.  Somehow Candy has convinced volunteers to do a whole page, Say Monday afternoon and then Wednesday Morning.   Amazing! 

 Here are the tutors and students working in small groups 

 [Candy, Roberta, Vic and John]

Early on I have them do what has become a “Labba Hunt”. It originally [1980’s] started out as an Assisted Death "trigger sheet" to get at how each person felt ..…  Now it is Guyanese:

Imagine the classic Guyanese holiday:  A couple in the deep hinterlands – labba hunting.   While she is out on the river fishing – no labba yet – the man is attacked by a jaguar.   When the woman hears his cries for help, she comes back to find him lying there in a pool of blood.  His flesh has been torn away; he is in unbearable pain.  Both of them know that he is going to die.  There is no way to save his life.  He begs for her to shoot him, saying “Please hurry up and kill me.”   He can’t even turn the hunting rifle on himself.    His suffering is intolerable…

The question is “Would you shoot him?” The worksheet teases out understanding, approval, and doing the same or not.   Of course, I try and slide in a few ethics concepts.  This year after they completed the sheet themselves, I divided them up into debating teams of “Yes, I’d do the same.” Or “No, I wouldn’t do the same.”   It was almost evenly divided… each team selected a debater and ..... It was a lively affair, just short of a riot!   Three or four times during the class  the teacher or students next door pounded on the divider to tell us they were taking an exam.  I yelled back "So are we!"

The Second Reason I have Returned

The whole Psychiatry Residency Programme: l-r. Jackie, 

Veneda [guest pregnant appearance - due in a couple of weeks]

Stephon ,Colleen and Elizabeth.  (They are smiling because 

my class with them was over!)

This is the group gathered for ward rounds last Friday.

They are medical students gathered from different medical schools in Guyana. On the right are Colleen, Zenia  (a psychiatrist from Cuba) and  Elizabeth.

I find it a real honor to be assisting with a desperately need programme in Guyana.  As you may remember, a few years ago Guyana was Number One in the world with the highest rate of suicide deaths.  The Department of Psychiatry had been one of the leaders in tackling this problem

Of course, I am not alone in knowing very little about psychiatry.  I am also honored to work with other Canadians who know more and who have appointments from McMaster University in Ontario:  Tony Carr (yes the same old curmudgeon of PBL fame), Shrenik Parekh and Sujay Patel (psychiatrists). As well, there is Peter Kuhnert, a Family Doc, specializing in Psychiatry, who has just set up a non-profit corporation in Guyana to assist with raising funds to improve the state of both Psychiatry and Mental Health here.   I will let Peter give you the proper details for where to send your leftover thousands!

All of these docs have come to Guyana many times to teach and almost all have regular Skype teaching sessions throughout the year.  I don't really Skype yet, as I first have to master my #$%^*@ smart phone.

The residents themselves are a joy to be with as they are  inquisitive, dedicated to patients and learning, in the midst of what I perceive to be chaos and very few resources within the hospital or the community.   

Last and probably least (because they are all 

really small) - "my" girls at St. Ann's

St Ann's Girls Home is in the process of modernizing and improving how the home is run.    I just began an exercise and basketball clinic supposedly for the little girls and one for the bigger girls.   I am no stranger to coaching basketball though I have to remember way way back.   And I haven't coached girls since I was a Senior in High School!   Well, I had brought some basketballs (with your money)  and laid out a schedule of exercises and drills for both groups.   I started with two little ones  -- who I felt confident I could take on, one on one ..... 

 This was actually the most control I had in the whole 90 minutes.   If you think these two are cute ..... Wrong!  I could not convince them to share the balls when others showed up.  So the would start to cry if one of the bigger girls also had a difficult time with sharing.  These two cute little saints would just run away and hide with "their" balls.    I think that I may be getting too old ..... It was clearly the worst practice I have ever run in all my decades of coaching sports.   But as my old soccer co-coach Malcolm Paterson would remind me  "We lost 18 to 0 -- it can only get better".....   So I will be back next week with new energy and approaches and more balls .....though I may not let these two little angels on the court.

 I have written enough for anyone to read, so I am stopping, though there was a lot more I could tell .....  Thanks for reading.
                                           John

A Small Funny Aside

The University of Guyana is doing some great stuff and in their recent newsletter listed their top 25 accomplishments.    I just got a kick out of #4 .…. It is both funny and significant.   Dr. Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith has done an amazing job leading the Renaissance of UG.

1Secured the reaccreditation of the School of Medicine.

2Made the George Walcott Lecture Theatre (GWLT) and the Small Lecture Theatre (SLT) fully air-conditioned, and installed new bathrooms in GWLT.

3Boosted the Wi-Fi access at Turkeyen, Tain, and Dennis Irvine Hall, put new PA systems in lecture halls, fixed furniture and put fans in classrooms.

4Stopped wild horses, cows, and most dogs from roaming campus.

 (n.b,  The wild horses were only a problem in English Classes.)