Continuity and Change - Again

Do Blogs have Prefaces?  Mine Needs This

I need one because my colleague, Kampta, who just was ordained in May of this year, died several days after taking over Emanuel Parish in Skeldon, Berbice.    I considered him a friend and my personal cultural translator.   I will miss him.  Please say a prayer for him and his family.

Pastor Kampta Karran, wife Dolly holding grandson Kadesh at Installation.

And This Too...

My colleague and friend, Helen Browman, resigned as CEO for many reasons including being back in school; she is now an Associate Administrator and there is a new interim CEO and a new administrative structure.   However, Helen has continued to look after me and arranging for a "deluxe" flat.   I look forward to seeing her again.

Now Onward

The time has come when I seem to have one foot in Guyana and one foot still in Canada.   I am physically wrapping up stuff, like soccer season [tournament this weekend] and saying "goodbye" for awhile to family and friends; however, my mind seems to have arrived already at Mercy.   [I'l end up doing this in reverse in three months.]

Ayr Under 16 Boys
I know it's a little hard to tell where I am as we all look so fit; I am on the back left.\

This year will bring many differences from my last teaching visit in 2011.  Perhaps the biggest change will be the absence of my colleague, Tony Carr.    He will not be returning as he has family priorities in his life and.. he is really old. (Well, several years older than me!)  As much as we have distinctly different world views, we made a good teaching team... And sometimes, the "Dr. Tony - Rev. John Show" reached Oscar nomination levels;  it was a student favourite.   I miss him... and he isn't even dead.

PBL Course Changes

I'll miss him for only a short time as classes will start on the first Monday with a whole new cast of students and tutors.   First among the new tutors will be Nurse Elsie Asabere (left, below) a full time Mercy School of Nursing Faculty member.   Elsie was voted the "2012 Teacher of the Year" by the students.   She came from Ghana in Africa with her husband, when he arrived as a pastor of a Georgetown Church.

We are going to share the leadership and administration headaches of the course.  

AND..
There will be many people sharing the work this year as we hope to have four graduates from the University Guyana who will act as tutors with the Problem Based Learning small groups, exam markers and special topics presenters.    For their efforts, the tutors will participate in a graduate course to be credited by St. Joseph College in Connecticut.  This part of the experience will be led by a long term friend of Mercy Hospital, Professor Marylou Welch, and two new colleagues Sister Beth Fisher and Professor Janet Kneckt.   

AND...
I will be joined by three prominent volunteers who will be with the students for three weeks each.    First, Bev Clarke, a longtime friend from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.  She is a physiotherapist and neurology researcher and recent author of On Suffering: Pathways to Healing and Health.     Bev will be the first to join us, so she will work out all the bugs between how I envision stuff to go and how it will really work out.  She will be at Mercy from September 7th to 27th. 

Then there is the mystery woman, Trish Cohen.   I haven't met her and she has absolutely no pictures of herself; however, she is Canadian and from Winnipeg and a Nurse.  She has more overseas experience than I do, but this is her first visit to Guyana.  There is a rumor that she is related to Leonard Cohen, so we will have to see if she gets him to visit.    Trish will be at Mercy from September 28th to October 16th.

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The last colleague to join me will be one of my oldest friends from university days with Maryknoll, Dennis LeBlanc.  Dennis went on to become a Baptist Pastor and has been a Pastoral Counselor around Greenfield, Massachusetts for most of his ministry.    We have remained friends over the years and our careers have paralleled each other closely.  Dennis will be at Mercy from October 19th to November 9th.

Look for a blog post from each of them describing their experiences.    This will give them some rebuttal time for my introductions of them... and give me the week off.  

Also, in the works: there might be a few psychiatrists coming down for a week to explore a larger commitment for volunteering and increasing  mental health services in outlying areas.  They will link up with Guyana's most famous psychiatrist, Bhiro Harry.    I am looking forward to seeing and yakking with Bhiro who I have known since my first trip.    I'll keep you all posted if it happens.   Maybe I can get a free consult too?

So I am leaving on a Jet plane on Friday... Start work [?] on Monday... And the Adventure continues.  I hope you come with me this year....   John





     

Dr. Charlie, Nurse Cathy and my Girls, of course...

Almost all the pics of the girls they ave taken themselves.

This week has been defined by the presence of our colleagues from Canada and, specifically, McMaster University:  Charlie Malcolmson, a pediatrician with whom I spent the better part of my time in an intensive care unit, and his wife Cathy Lee, a nurse practitioner who has spent a big chunk of her career working in family doctor's offices in Hamilton.  They reminded me that I had officiated at their wedding some time ago, as well as the weddings of a couple of their kids.   In some moments, I do realize how much of myself I left at the hospital with colleagues and patients and families... and how much they are with me [or more spiritually... "are me"] today.   There are so many stories... some remembered by all , some remembered by just one of us .... and probably most of our stories forgotten by all.

Charlie had been here last year for a week to look around to see how he could participate and was all set to help develop a pediatric residency for UG and the Public Hospital; however, it was delayed and will be starting "Just Now." [For those illiterate in Guyanese, a translation is "It sure isn't now and don't hold your breath waiting".  

Charlie knew what Tony and I were doing and jumped right in with our students.  So did Cathy, who is on her first visit and is exploring future possibilities for how she might be helpful if  when she returns.  [Anyone else who'd like to explore possibilities is invited to contact us.  As Sister Sheila used to say, "I haven't met a volunteer I couldn't use!"]   Charlie and Cathy have both been a welcome addition to our tutor corps as their experience and expertise have energized the students.  As well, they are kinder than two of the tutors - and the two aren't Marysia or Claudette.

 

 We took them out to worship last Sunday, to Dr. Daniel and Tabitha Mallampati's mission congregation [LEFI] near the university.  Tabitha is now the Director of the Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing programme at UG and has already begun recruiting Cathy for next year.

They also had the gourmet experience of Taju's Princess Kitchen.   Tony demanded that they go there as a way to hide his addiction to the ice cream. [Taju's ice cream is getting ever-better, even though some unknown and un-appealable Canadian immigration bureaucrat refused his visa request because ice cream and nursing don't go together.  Actually, Taju has gotten over it; I, on the other hand, am still mad at my own government.]  Tony has also begun teaching Taju's daughter and son, Althia and Tommy, how to play the guitar and keyboard respectively .....  he gives their lessons within sight of the ice cream ......

Of course, we all got to St. Ann's to visit with the girls and Sister Barbara who chatted with the visitors for a long time about the home and the girls.   They got an insiders' tour from Alma who was quite thrilled to have such an important responsibility.   

I don't think that I mentioned it last time, but Tony and I were over at St. Ann's earlier to get two of their computers working and connected to the internet, so the girls can do their homework.  Well, within a week, one of the fixed computers blew a monitor and so I switched it with another old one.  This is the pattern here:  many donations are used well before being donated [and donations are still a good thing] which usually means that their "trouble-free" period is quite short.  

Stream of consciousness:  orphans, girls, boys, old computers, new computers, Mercy, School of Nursing, wireless, IT department, new employee  --- Ah, to the point:  Hansel!   When I first got to Guyana, he was just a little weenee at John Bosco Home in Plaisance; and, now he is on the IT staff at the hospital - some very good things do happen!

Hansel, with Jennie, the IT Boss and the always helpful Dr. Tony

I started my cute(?)  "rat's tail" in the early 90's because it was trendy then, and then kept it just because it annoys people.  Now I think I have discovered its real meaning:  people all over Georgetown know me and remember me!   At the Brazilian barbecue place, I didn't recognize anyone- the owner, the waitress, the cooks... however, a beautiful young woman came over and started playing with my tail and saying, "I remember you... "  If there was ever a great pick-up line ......  and I was ready .....  She went on to tell me, "And you like your breasts rare" ..... Whoops -- I  think she actually said, ".... beef rare," and yes, I do.  

Many of the taxi drivers know without asking that I am headed to Mercy.  And yesterday on my travels I ended up yakking with a woman on the street because she remembered my conversation with her daughter when the girl was a patient at the hospital.  She recognized me by the tail; however, I am sure my words touched the child deeply!  And then at Bosco, one of the teachers knew me; she was a Lutheran and remembered --- the tail.   Speaking of being Lutheran, I am preaching across the river tomorrow and following up on the Revival Meeting of a week ago.  [I'll write about the whole experience next time.]  

And I really can't leave without a Tony Story.  We are getting along like an old married couple.   However, he still has some quirks [now fewer than 100] that I am trying to understand.  For instance his toothpaste roll.  I thought that I could go to the web and gain insight into such a seemingly violent approach to squeezing; however, I found that this particular pattern has yet to be described.  I have asked for help from the sites, but please feel free to comment.

Tony's Toothpaste Roll and used only for two days.

Thanks for getting this far... Take Care, John