And The Winners Are...

2nd Annual St Ann's Father John's Photo Contest

 Last year's photo contest was such a great success, so I thought it would be wonderful to do again.  It should be easier; the 2nd one was great though it certainly was not easier.

I had gotten tired of the girls always asking me if they could have my camera now and right after they had just given it up.   So... I brought TWO cameras this year.   I would cut my headaches in half; wrong again.  I doubled them as they all wanted to use both cameras.   And what I didn't think about was with two cameras there would be twice as many pictures to judge.   In fact, my girls had taken over 2,000 pictures for the photo contest.

I changed the categories this year as I wanted to try and give the smaller girls a better chance of winning one of the prizes.   So the categories this year were: Happy Faces, Work/Study, Play, Abstract/Unusual and Action.   Can you guess which category had the least submissions?

I spent a whole weekend trying to sort out all the photographs and then get each category down to 10 finalists.   I couldn't do it; I had to have 15 finalists and even then it was tough.    Then, I had to go to get them finalists printed as 5x7's so they could be seen from a distance.   Usually, i am out in an hour; however, this time it was over three hours - ugh.  Off to St Ann's to put them up on a wall.

Oh the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" as I put up the finalists, the chorus began:
[They all know who took what pictures and absolutely no fights.]
"Where are my pictures, Father John?".
"I know you missed mine."
"Why didn't you pick mine?"
I have no idea of who took what pictures as the girls go off by themselves and take the pictures.   I couldn't pick my favourites even if I wanted.   This is the reason that I don't want to judge the winners... The non-winners would be unrelenting...  So I bring in some "Ringers".   They don't know the girls and the girls don't know them.     This year I brought in the highly qualified Mercy Corp Volunteers:

The Judges: Annie, Matthew, Monica and Jess

I did have to ensure them there would suffer no injuries from the non-winners and I'd buy them something to eat after at the Everest Cricket Club.     But first, they had to do their job of picking the 6 winners for the prizes.... and face the sadness and moaning of the 38 other girls who were sure that they should have won an iPod Shuffle or one of the "surprise top prizes".

I played security as the judges had some "quiet" time to pick their favourites in each category.   It is amazing that these young girls instinctively know that they should try and influence the judges and were constantly sneaking around to assist the judges with their tasks.

First a stop in Ohio
I have to tell a back story in order for you to appreciate the generosity of my supporters.    I have a chaplaincy colleague, Rev. Deborah Damore, who is now the bishop of Summa Health Systems in Akron, Ohio.  She invited me to come and talk to the Chaplaincy Staff at the hospitals.   And, one of her residents, Rev Shannon Blower, who is the pastor at Church at Stony Hill, Medina, wanted to support my efforts with the St Ann's girls so the children in their Sunday School had raised enough money for five iPod Shuffles for the 2nd Annual.

John with Rev. Deborah Damore and Rev. Shannon Blower

And my friend, Deborah, had paid for an extra iPod Shuffle.   I was going to have six categories for the contest; however, I fell victim to Sister Guilt!   Sister Barbara McLean who was the previous Director of St Ann's and now in Barbados had heard that I had these iPods "wondered" if I had an extra one.  [I can't tell you how many people think that I have an extra anything... tablet, iPod, $1,000...]   One of the older girls at St Ann's had been promoted to the  work as an assistant at Mother Theresa's Sisters of Charity Nursing Home.  Petal has an eye disease and has been legally blind ever since I have known her;  she can read a few letters at a time if she hold the book to her nose.   Sister Barbara was worried about her being in a new place as the only home she had really known was St. Ann's and would be lonely; her only enjoyment would come from music and books on tape; and Barbara reminded me how much she had enjoyed my visits over the years....  STOP... please... I figured that Deborah wouldn't mind.

Then, Sister Mary Peter another Ursuline Sister at St Ann's and one of my heroes.   She is in her late 80's and still teaching mathematics.  Just two years ago she "volunteered" to teach mathematics in the deep interior of Guyana.   [Mary Peter loved it there as they have no real electricity, so she got up with the sun and went to bed when it went down.  No getting up in the middle of the night with the girls.]   She was required to come back to Georgetown and at St. Ann's.   She wanted to come with me when I visited Petal and that was fine with me.  So we set a date for Saturday Morning...

I was working on scoring some exam from the student nurses when the phone rang about noon.  "John, where are you?",,, a familiar Mary Peter's voice inquired.   Holy S---- [Sugar of course.]  I got in a cab and we were off to see Petal.

Petal grateful for her iPod

Cheryl "Teddy Bear" an older St Ann's graduates,
Sister Mary Peter and Petal

Petal was so surprised... and it would have been perfect - if I had thought to charge the battery or even put any music on the iPod.   She was not dismayed and Mary Peter brought it back to charge the battery and put her favourite music on it.   

Back to the Judging

The judges had decided on the winners, so we were ready.    The best laid plans of "Mice and John".  I have a rule that on one can win two prizes, so they had to have a second winner in each category.. and they did, but.   Anna won the first category.  In the second category she was selected as the best, so on to the second place pic -and it was Anna's too.   Now the judges had to be a little more spontaneous than they had prepared for...  The contest had now moved from the usual chaos to a new level.    The judges did an excellent job.  I think Anna ended up winning four of the five categories.   However, we did end up with five different winners.   Now who was going to be the Best in Show?   Would you like to guess?   Anna!

Anna with her prize while John consoles
Onisha who can't believe she didn't win

Anna the 2nd Annual 
Best in Show Winner

Anna was simply amazing as a photographer in this year's competition, especially as she was not even selected as a finalist in any category last year.

Her surprise was a android tablet that was an extra one from the ones I needed for my Mercy Student Nurses.   The tablets were donated by an anonymous friend and now Anna has one too.

An Added Surprise

Jerry Bacchus, the owner of Jerries All-Nite Long and a long time supporter of St Ann's had offered a dinner for the second place winner and she could bring five of her friends and a chaperone.   This time it was not Anna, but Delly!

Scarboro Fathers Bev chaperones
Delly and her friends at Jerries.

All the Winners

The Winners and Judges
Front: Solomie, Anna, Gabriella, Delly, Malika, Aishona
The reason that Solomie is looking so sad is that - a confession - I only used her
for the picture as the real winner, Makeba, was at a school event.
Solomie still has not forgiven me.

My Partners from The Church at Stony Hill

And then there are the wonderful children from the Church at Stony Hill who made all the prizes possible. Below are the children who represented the Sunday School in presenting me with the iPods.

Winning Pictures

I did want to put the winning pictures next to the girl who took it; however, it was pretty much chaos and I was taking pictures to boot... So rather than pick the category winners, I'll put all the finalists in a slide show... Actually, all the girls were winners and everyone had a great time. And I really have no idea of which  pictures were the actual winners. Thanks.

Scoring the 2011 Tour

I am now between leaving Guyana and Christmas.   I have enjoyed being home with Anne and watching the sea ..… and some golfing, as it has been exceptionally warm and sunny.   My last week in Guyana was a predictable – but still enjoyable and significant – flurry of activity as the “just now” culture came up against a precise departure time!   

A real old fashioned picnic

There were several "thank you" events arranged by our students, such as a picnic at the Botanical Gardens scheduled for 2pm – and who was the only person there at 2?  (I never learn!)   The festivities started somewhat later.   The students had prepared a picnic meal and each of us received a gift from them.   I received a distinguished, handmade pair of leather sandals ..… very nice!   Claudette and Marysia were singled out after a class for special recognition which left one of them overwhelmed.

Tony and I got to Taju’s one last time.  Tony gave Althia and Tommy their last music lessons and I hosted my two “Bosco Sons” for a farewell meal.  Well, one of them is still on his way ...... so we ate and took the picture without him.

You'll just have to imagine Julian with Rashleigh.

I said good bye to the girls at St. Ann’s, and to Sister Barbara, the Sister Commander at the home.   She has decided to leave as it was getting to be too much for her health and sense of vocation.   I am saddened to see her go.  Despite her claims to having no experience with young children, she was excellent, and brought many welcome changes to the home.   One innovation that I hope lives on without her is pairing “sisters” – an older girl with a younger one.   The older serves as a role model and helps the younger ones with the chores of the day.  The older girls were expected to be responsible – and they were.  (At least, as much as I am.)   Barbara will be based at a convent in Venezuela overlooking the blue ocean.   I wish her well; she is a phenomenal minister of the gospel.

Sister Barbara pretending to like kids

The Year in Review

I have been reflecting on the pluses and minuses, the successes and the failures.  I’ll venture a few thoughts:

Unchanged

My students keep emailing to ask me if I miss them yet.  My answer has a long history and is an indication of one of my personality quirks.  I once almost got stoned by a conference of ICU nurses where I suggested that they had poor long term memories:  I was talking about coping skills and I had included myself in the critique.  I deal with what or who is in front of me, and when I'm not there, I'm not there.  I get captured by the present.  This is an excellent coping mechanism for jobs like critical care, but really lousy for relationships.  So the short answer is, “No, I don’t miss them.”   This same lack of yearning is also active when I am in Guyana; it doesn’t seem to discriminate.   Since I retired, I am working on personal development -- so maybe I will eventually miss the girls!

Unchanged

I want to thank my circle of friends and family who continually support me while I am in Guyana.  They run the whole range: from those who look only at the pictures on the blog – and then only occasionally -- to those who comment on almost every post.   And there are even some who write me a real letter or two.    Then there is my family who celebrate birthdays and holidays without me [and me without them].   I miss them on those days.  (Good thing that I am a flip-flop liberal as I just said the opposite of the previous paragraph.)  No ambiguity about my love and appreciation of Anne who edits my blog for those who are offended by “dangling whatevers” and offers me the freedom to be present in Guyana, despite her preferences for my presence in MWP.

Helen is on the left.

Unchanged

It is hard to underestimate the importance of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital's CEO, Helen Browman.  She supports our work there - even when we are not there.  And if she tells us she is going to look into something or do something, she gets it done.   This is so important when we are not there most of the year, especially in contrast to others who require your physical presence before any response is provided.   I do not see how we could continue without her support... and she is not even a nun!  

Positive

This year’s students were an excellent batch.   Tony and I enjoyed their work rate, spontaneity and “pondering”.   We were also more skilled this year and had more time to focus on the students than last year, as we were writing the PBL cases as we went along last year.  

Positive

I had three fears this year:  one, how would we cope with 20 students; two, how would they cope with the same problems as last year's students had; and three, how would I cope with living with Tony.  

I have written of the miracle of two skilled tutors who made themselves available all semester – Claudette Harry and Marysia Donnelly.  Without them [and the occasional “volunteers” we commandeered] we would not have been able to cope with the amount of work and time required to do justice to 20 students.   One of the downsides of helping the students to be inquisitive is that they have lots of questions for you.    

As for the temptation of just copying last year’s work, there was only once that we worried about it, and we came to the conclusion that even if they did have the pages from last year's students, they still had to grapple with the problems.  A bigger problem was the lack of discipline, especially after a “clubbing” weekend.  On Monday mornings the students were the least prepared even though they'd had the longest time available to do research. The students all got better at expressing what they'd learned -- and at expressing "bull". I had an imaginary “Gold Shovel” that I would give to the student who said the most with the least content. (The actual Golden Shovel Award celebrates excessive ambiguity and unparalleled cluelessness. Applicants for the Golden Shovel are judged on a lack of the four Cs: candor, clarity, character, and conciseness. Entries are carefully monitored for key words and phrases that signal a bullshitting attempt.)  While there were several amateur contenders among our students, the Shovel definitely belonged to a consummate professional, Stanton.

The Undisputed Champion

Finally - Tony.  I didn’t think it was possible – we did extremely well with each other. Our teaching partnership couldn’t have been better. Our living together also had more benefits than problems.  Of course, we had enough irreconcilable differences to keep the students fascinated, but we were there to teach and we certainly did that.   



The Odd Couple



Positive and…

The individual netbooks that we [all the donors] gave to each of the first year students and half the second year students were unquestionably great.   Even in Guyana, the young are part of the electronic age; they took to learning the new technology with an enthusiasm never witnessed with a textbook.   The students learned how to search the net for accurate, up-to-date information to support their growing curiosity. 

And ......  even though I had received several threats of bodily harm if I didn’t get one for other students and staff, I left Guyana without any injuries.  However, we may have unleashed a monster – how will we ever keep up with supplying an individual computer every year in the future?  (I guess if I don’t go back, I won’t have to worry about it.)  Actually, if anyone out there knows of a granting foundation/agency that would consider taking this on, I would love to hear from you.   Last year, we didn’t know if the students would benefit sufficiently from the computers -- could they learn quickly enough, would the computers keep working in the heat and humidity, not get stolen, etc.  This year we know how effective they have been. Now I can hope to be more effective at begging for more!

Negative

Again our biggest disappointment was our inability to attract local faculty to participate in learning and trying the PBL method.  We have had an article accepted in the International Nursing Review Journal.   The reviewers were extremely excited about the possibilities for poorer countries; now, if we could just convince anyone in the Guyana nursing world .......   We will be submitting a second article on the success we had with comparing the success of PBL and traditional learning models in a specific area of knowledge.   We are hoping that a student from each learning model will be involved in writing the article.

We did generate more interest overall and had many more helpers and visitors than last year, but again, if Tony and I do not return, there will be no one there who will continue the experiment.   While the course has been written and tested, it does require someone to keep up with printing all the pages [story, tutor aide, test and answer sheets, etc.], not to mention reading and scoring all the work every PBL day.  AND there is no money for additional faculty!  We did get the miracle of Marysia and Claudette this year, so maybe more miracles can be expected.

So ends my ninth  journey.  I have no idea about a tenth - that will be a decision for January.  I do know that my Christmas will be filled with many memories of joy and meaning from my time in Guyana.  Thank you for coming with me on this journey.  May God bless you all.

One for the road ahead.