I Was Trying Not to Talk About This

Well... I lasted to the 4th Week

You may not believe this, but I try for some variety in my blog.   I try and think of something new to write about every week.  However, this last week has been really, really, frickin' HOT!   I think for all of the previous decade, I have started my blog with the word HOT somewhere in the first sentence ..... but this is a new level!   It seems so hot that the air warms your breath and makes you chest boil. [Okay, this is a small exaggeration.]    And if there is a breeze, it just seems to increase your perspiration..  I need a deodorant I can paint on - in several coats like painting a wall.

This year we are living in Doc Daniel's old flat which is spacious but the living quarters are a floor lower -- and in the back of the Bank House, where half the breezes come from the opposite side of the ocean -- and behind the home on the East side from where the other half of the breezes come.   We got moved so that the boxes from Materials Management can enjoy the old flat with the Ocean and East facing windows...   I know there was probably a strategic decision for this; however, it does give you a sense of your worth ..... I guess it is like that for volunteers no matter where, eh?
 

And because the Bank House now contains something valuable, the hospital has added huge outdoor security lights to keep away any thieves at night.  I know this because when I sit in my chair in the living room I stare directly at it...   I have now started a Novena that the neighbour right next door will be so annoyed with how bright it is he will tear down his house and move... and we will get some breeze!

Celebrations of Commitment  

Sister Julie Matthews, RSM

Sister Julie is really the poster "girl" for the Sisters of Mercy in Guyana.  She is Guyanese and has over her career been involved with, and mainly led, almost every activity that the Sisters of Mercy are involved with:  John Bosco Boys Home, Mercy Wings, Board of  Mercy Hospital, and she is now the head of the Sisters of Mercy in Guyana.   In addition, she is an accomplished fund raiser and has taught in University Guyana.

Last Saturday her Sister colleagues, the larger Catholic Community, boys from Bosco (present and former), and people who have been touched by her ministry and energy, all gathered for a Special Mass (it was very special because the congregation actually sang) to honour her 25 years of Consecration as as a Sister of Mercy.    Believe me, with so much sadness and tiredness in Guyana, it was an event of joy and hope for the future.

Sister Julie offering the Blessing

Scarboro Volunteers [r-l Sylvia, Ashley, Bev,
Paulina, Donna]  blocking the Mercy Volunteers
Jess and Matthew

I was fourth in line

Long(Suffering) Service Awards on Mercy Day

Also, this week the hospital took time out - and cancelled my class too - to honour the employees who have given service for the past 5 to 30 years.  I do think that this group should have received Purple Hearts for surviving the struggles in the hospital - 2010 fire, layoffs, deficits, etc.   It was a small, low key celebration but the congratulations to the awardees and supporters were enthusiastic.  It is a small community, so everyone knows everyone else .....  The CEO Bridgemohan and COO Browman presented the pins and awards to each of the employees.    And Nutrition Services served piwari and cassava.   Dr Bridgemohan gave an optimistic talk about many positive developments for the future and the atmosphere was noticeably hopeful.  And my colleague and co-leader of the Problem Based Learning Course, Elsie Asabere, received a five year pin for her time at Mercy.
 

Elsie and I: the photographer thought I looked better
with my bald head cropped and in my Elsie shirt.

    

The Mercy Star of the Week ..... Drumroll please!

Patricia Benjamin “Benji”

Benji was born in Georgetown -- lived on Regent Street and now lives in East Penitence, still in Georgetown.   In between she had 6 "amazing” children – Denise, Sherman, Colleen, Onika, Rushell and Wendy – who have blessed her with 20 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. 

Benji has been working at Mercy for over 20 years.  She started as a maid and then went to the laundry for many years.   She liked the laundry (I did have to question her sanity, as the heat from the dryers actually makes it hotter than it is already) because you had to stay on your toes with everything throughout the day requiring precise timing to keep the loads moving along.

Then she was promoted to “Office Assistant”.  Benji is on her bicycle twice a day - morning and afternoon, delivering and picking up mail and packages for the hospital.   One can see her all over Georgetown; Benji said she has limits but it really is almost all of GT.   I have trouble walking on the busy streets of the city where everyone drives like it is a Friday and they're going home for the weekend, but she has had only one accident that left her with scraped and bruised knees.

Benji said she loves this job because she gets exposed so many interesting people and places that she would never otherwise go to or see, such as the Embassies and the Ministry Buildings.

Her wisdom for my hordes of readers: “Try to be obedient and honest and truthful all the time…..  or you will end up drifting; no one can recommend you and no one can count on you.”    Well, with that advice, I had to truthfully confess that my “hordes” may not mean the same thing to her.

And in 10 years?   "I don’t really know, you know?  I hope the Good Lord leaves me around to enjoy life for many more good years."
 

STOP THE PRESSES!
 

A few days after this interview, Benji received an outstanding service award from the hospital on Mercy Day.   

St Ann's, Jerries All-Nite Bar and Traditional Blindfold Walk.

I continue "leading" the senior girls' course "Bodies, Boys, Boundaries, Beliefs" at St. Ann's; I love their enthusiasm to learn ..... Motivation is pretty easy in a sex course for teenagers!
 

I have two cameras this year which I hoped would cut down on the constant pestering for whose turn is it for the camera.  It has just made it worse, I think. Again the pictures are in the Slide Show above. Just Double Click.
 

Jerry and his wife Paula have been great supporters of the girls at St. Ann's and he has had them for meals often at his restaurant. (They actually own four or five restaurants in Georgetown area.) Well, it was their 22nd year anniversary of starting.  Jerry actually started with a push cart on the streets - a Guyanese self-made man.  Sylvia and I went to the celebration to support their commitment to the girls and while we were there we had a few beers.
 

Sylvia and Father Chris
w/o Beer Bottles

Bev and Sylvia with their Beer Bottles

As usual, the students had an experience with Disability.  They paired up and one of the students was blindfolded.  I gave them a slip of paper that had a staff member's name written on it and it said they were blind and had an appointment with that person to collect a package. The "sighted" person was there just to keep them safe from steps and cars... They had to ask strangers what the note said as well as see if any one knew where the staff member was. Some of my choices were a little sadistic, like the security guard at the front gate whose first day it was.  Well, the staff person had a package with cookies for them, but first could ask them a nursing question that they had to get right ..... and say the magic words - Please and Thank You.   This exercise always causes lots of chatter among the whole hospital.

That's it.. I will try and do less this week so I won't have to type so much... Thanks for reading.  And please keep me and my family in your prayers this week.  John

The Tenth Year Should Be Significant

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Change and Continuity
Time goes... Sometimes the hours and days just disappear without a trace and sometimes similar moments mark a life.   I thought that my 10th anniversary deserved a "significant" reflection, but like empathy, it is the other who determines my grade.   I'll have to let the ten years of "my" students give me a mark.   And I'll just return to my usual insignificant ramblings.

This year certainly had the usual and familiar continuities: heat, flooding, energetic and grateful students, chicken and rice [though there was more chicken-and-noodles this year], the miracle of my mattress with the dinosaurs printed on it  (a miracle because I am sure that the mattress had been made before the Thoracic Period), and old friends...

There were enough changes to make it a distinctive year.   You know about my two volunteers, Bev Clarke and Dennis LeBlanc, as they each took up their "first" blogger pens.   I found their presence exciting and exhausting.  It was exhausting as they both had way more energy than I did and as "first timers" to Guyana wanted to experience as much as they could jam into their three weeks each.    I did get to see and do some things that I hadn't done before.  And really when it came down to it, I just missed a few naps.   The students loved Bev and Dennis and their contributions to the course.   I could not have run the course nearly as well without them.

A little autobiographical background:   I grew up on a street around the corner from my Grade School, Our Lady Help of Christians, in Brooklyn, New York where I had my first friends.  Then, I went to Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception for the Brooklyn Diocese, High School Department - a  Roman Catholic Seminary where I found new friends. Then, after four years, I went to Maryknoll Fathers College, Novitiate and Major Seminary where I had a whole new set of people who knew me [and that may have been a good thing].  After six years, I ended up changing religious brands, getting married and living in Ontario, Canada, where I became a pastor of a small German Lutheran Congregation, St. James. After another six years, I went to McMaster Medical Centre as a Chaplain  and stayed long enough to get a 25 year pin.   In 2002, I became a refugee from middle management in the hospital-turned-corporation and skipped into retirement, then soon began my semesters at Mercy Hospital, Georgetown.

The "constructed" bio above was part of my reflection from living for 7 years in Middle West Pubnico, Nova Scotia.   This small and tight-knit Acadian village is a place where most people my age knew their friends from school days... and knew their friends' parents, grandparents, siblings and how they are (ALL!) related.  No one there could escape their past.  I sometimes envied that harmony of years as there have been none who have journeyed with me through all my changes of place and person.   So being in the Guyana context with Dennis and Bev was a gift -- just to have them to chat with (and Charlie in previous years) and remember stories from our past selves.   I know I am not the same "Lefty" of  my childhood home on 28th Street, nor "Champ" of  High School, nor "Jo'c" of university, nor "Pastor" or "Chaplain" or the "Mr. O" of soccer, but it was good to feel connected to all those apparitions of My Self.

 

Now that I come to think about this theme, I realize it has been with me for some time.   When Maryknoll celebrated its 100th Anniversary, I wrote a reflection called, "The Accidental Missionary".  (I have attached a link to spare my students reading more than a few paragraphs; I suggest reading it to all those who are having trouble sleeping.)   And this year I celebrated 40 years of being ordained, at a service in my old church of St. James. To tell you the truth, even I can't remember what I said; I do remember being overwhelmed by all the people who showed up from my fractured history.    I guess I am just getting old -- the stage where remembering is more important that dreaming - Sh-t, I hope not.  

And you may remember the whirlwind visit of the Mental Health Canadians - Peter, Sujay, Ram and Brenna. In trying to get their visit planned I had the opportunity of spending a lot of time with my friend, Bhiro Harry, who is the Chief Psychiatrist in Guyana... It is always a joy to connect with someone who is "like you" in many ways.   And we "used" the Canadians to help us have a few beers together.     This month, Bhiro visited the Canadians at Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, not far from my home... Unfortunately I was out west in Calgary attending to a death in my family.  I had planned for him to come and visit in my home with my wife, Anne (I had been a guest in his home and met his wife, Georgia) and to take him out for a nice meal -- and to pay for it.   (He usually ends up paying when we go out in Guyana, so I was to buy here...)    Oh well, next time he comes to Canada .....

Events Worth Picturing in My Last Week

Azalia Luke [m.] who was a first year student many years ago
and a tutor in the PBL course this year graduated from University Guyana
with the highest grades in the entire Faculty of Health Sciences.
Of course, I have taken credit for setting her on the right path!

Judge Rev (I couldn't find my white powdered wig, so housekeeping helped me out) presided over the ethics final exam, "The Assisted Death Trial of Jessie".
The students write about how each of the ethics principles applied to a case of an elderly woman
who put her husband with advanced dementia in a car to die.   They showed growing understanding of all the principles -- even when they got them wrong!
In the afternoon I assigned different roles, ranging from Jessie through defender, prosecutor, Jesus .....  Hey, it is just a role play!
They each had three minutes to present their viewpoint ..... and they almost came to blows this year.
They served as jury too and the vote was split evenly for acquittal or  life imprisonment.  So I broke the tie.

Amazing!  The Sisters of Mercy, including many octogenarians like Sisters Judith and Noel,
took up supporting the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation and their leader, Simona Broomes  (left at top) in their fight against human trafficking in the interior of Guyana.   I wonder where the leadership for so many social issues will come from after these "tough" women die.

The students have formed the first Nursing Student Association in order to improve their schooling
and working conditions at Mercy Hospital.   Denzil Hernandez was elected the first president.  
They sponsored the trip to The Creek  (yea!) and are the ones behind the project of tiling the classroom floors.  
I do hope they succeed and gain a sense of power to take on other needed projects.

And the mandatory "Farewell Gift".  This time it was a carved turtle
as I had said more than once as they took forever to get into their small groups,
"A herd of turtles can move faster."

 My Florida Interlude

My slightly younger sister, Kathy and her partner Mike,
for many reasons too long and too crazy to explain here
are adopting a  baby, nicknamed "Jack".
And I thought the people of Guyana needed your prayers!

Speaking of prayer.. I spent a few days golfing with my brother, Tony.
I had not golfed at all in 2013, so I was prepared to yield the Family Championship.
He needed a win as he lost last year and so golfed 5/6 times a week.
I am practicing my humility, so I can't brag about who won.

The End 

Certainly it is the end for this tour.  I (and no one else either) do not know about the future and whether I'll get back.  As per my tradition, I'll celebrate Christmas and Old Year's Night with Anne, then start thinking about No 11.

I want to thank you all for reading these stories.   I do hope that they have conveyed some of the meaning the people of Guyana provided for my life, and some of my contributions to them.   I cannot do what I do without the support of many people who contribute their thoughts and support.   My most important supporter is my wife, Anne, who almost wholeheartedly encourages my time away.

Thank you.  John JSPS

Reflecting Back on 2010

I have been home now for some time:  visited the family and some friends in Ontario over Christmas and New Year; printed and mailed close to 1,000 photographs back to the girls at St. Ann’s and the students.  I’m recognizing the flakes flying through the air as snow and not ash from the cane fields, and I’ve begun to tolerate cooking with chicken and rice.   I take some time “pondering” my life, contribution, experience and frustrations of volunteering at Mercy and Guyana.   It sets the stage for me to decide about doing it one more time in 2011.  

Those of you who have been with me in the previous seven times will have found, like me, that much of what happened in Guyana happened almost all the other years.  There is some comforting familiarity with repetition of both successes and frustrations.    My time in Guyana has become part of the rhythm of my retirement.   My ever-helpful wife, Anne, just passed and commented, “You know, people who think that you go to Guyana for three months are wrong.  You are actually there at least half the year.”  Probably true.

This year I had some new experiences:

The most different and exciting development was the introduction of a problem-based learning approach to the first year students at the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing.    This was made possible by my esteemed colleague, Tony.   To tell you the truth, before we left I couldn’t decide whether I was more worried about introducing PBL or working with Tony.   However, neither worry ever came to fruition.   Tony and I worked extremely well together.   [The students would listen to one of us and then immediately look to the other for a dissenting opinion.]  I know that I could not have achieved the same richness, depth and comprehensiveness without him.   We had some interesting skirmishes, but no one drew blood or got a knockdown.  We were amazingly compatible on our learning objectives and assessments of the day’s work.    I hate to admit this but it would be hard for me to go back without him.   I think that this “odd couple” did a good job.   

Our students had been educated through high school with the main pedagogical intervention being a teacher [or often another student because the teacher wasn’t there] reading from the one textbook for the course and the students writing down verbatim what the teacher re-read slowly.    They are criticized for wrong answers; they are not looked-to for opinions or previous knowledge; they sit and write.   So the introduction of an adult and PBL approach was going to be risky.  However, it was risky only in our minds.   They jumped on it, right from our introductory problem, in which we decided to “do” a case rather than talk about the differences of PBL.   We played with a “Contract Pregnancy” one, in which some rich couple wanted to pay for their schooling in exchange for the conception of a light-skinned girl for them.  Some genetics, some anatomy, some ethics, some psychology, a little of everything.  They had so many questions and problems and ideas and quandaries, it was wonderful.  They wanted to learn and were eager to read, to get resources on the net, to find local consultants on staff to bother with their questions…   

   

This made leaving harder this year, as there were no faculty that seemed to have even the tiniest interest in our project.   The students would return from our classes to the tutor reading from a lone text, pouring in the truth via their sitting butts and their writing hands, through some unknown neuro pathway to their awaiting memory receptors…   Ugh.   Our inability to get any interest in PBL from others was a major failure and disappointment of this tour.   It didn’t outweigh the positive student reactions, though it did interfere with our fantasies of leaving an enduring legacy.    It was my biggest disappointment.

Speaking of disappointments, another big one was with my country, Canada.   Some anonymous visa official who was probably overworked and probably had been watching bad detective movies for too long and probably liked reading even less than my students, refused a short visa for my friend, Taju.  He wanted to attend an ice-cream-making course at University of Guelph in Ontario.  [He had paid the tuition and the airfare; a friend of Anne’s was putting him up in his home near the university; someone else was picking him up at the airport and was going to return him after a trip to Niagara Falls.]   Well, he was rejected basically because the reviewer could not see any connection between ice cream and Taju’s previous life as a student nurse.   Therefore, they “had no choice” but to refuse the request because Taju might not return to Guyana – to his wife, two kids, his own restaurant, internet store, home, truck and car, his plans to finish his degree in Nursing and improve his ice-cream-making business.    [An email from Taju in January read in part:

“....... I've signed a contract with the Government Of Guyana through GOINVEST Guyana that will give us duty free concessions to bring in Ice Cream equipment and vehicles based on the business proposal that I submitted to them.  Hopefully that will keep some dollars in our pocket when the operation eventually commences.   The struggle continues. ....”    ]
 

It is too bad that the reviewer did not read the documentation submitted, including a supporting letter from Tony and myself.   The officer did not even ask for clarification or make a long distance phone call.  [There are no visa services in Guyana; all visa requests are sent to Trinidad.].    

I was upset with the refusal, but much more upset with the fact that it is impossible to appeal a decision.   I have recently received an official letter from the Minister responsible, Jason Kenny, who just reiterated the words of the original reviewer.   To say the least – not helpful.     It is way too late for Taju to attend the course, but it is not too late for others to be treated with respect when applying to visit Canada.    This process is surely not the “Canadian way”.

As with professional articles, authors must declare benefits received that might influence their decision.   Therefore, I declare that Tony and I are recipients of Free Ice Cream for Life at the Princess Restaurant on Durban Street in Georgetown.  Taju and his wife Alison are the owners.

My other “new” was living away from the Mercy Compound and occupying the parsonage at Calvary Lutheran Church on the outskirts of the Bourda Market.   It wasn’t until the end of my time that I realized that the congregation at Calvary were my biggest financial supporters in that they gifted me with the lodging.   I did reimburse them by providing “security” and also delivering two sermons ..…  I think I easily got the best part of that deal.   Of course, there are many others who support me in various ways; it is just that Calvary’s support seemed pretty amazing.  [Living “off campus” had some small drawbacks, in that I had to provide more of my own meals and there was commuting time involved.]

 

My next other “new” was the realization that everything changes ..…  Yes, I knew that before and remembered it again as my colleague, Pastor Dick Young, announced that he would be leaving before I might return in 2011.   He has always been there for me since I started going to Guyana.   He has been an inspiration to me, especially as I struggled with the frustrations of doing anything in Guyana.     He has arrived back home at his farm in Oregon where the growing season will be a little shorter.     I’ll wait till next year -- until he misses Guyana -- to see if he wants to come and join us at Mercy!

My last “new” probably wasn’t really new to anyone but me; however, I did seem to notice a much larger number of old students who were still in Guyana.   This was pure joy for me as I have given my “Think About Staying In Guyana” speech every year.     I would like to think that some of them actually listened to me.   Maybe, it also has to do with a degree programme in nursing at the University of Guyana and a few better opportunities for employment, like the Caribbean Heart Institute.    Their working presence, along with the establishing of families, was one of the most encouraging aspects of my time there.    These are bright women [and a few guys] and as they gather experience they will increase the competency of nursing everywhere in Guyana’s health system. 

My biggest worry was and is about the future of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.   The fire has had an ongoing impact in almost every area of operations.    For the first time in their history they laid off “family”; the level of acute patient cases has decreased and the majority are chronic; staff optimism is pretty low; the new graduates were told that none of them were to be hired at Mercy; the redevelopment hasn’t begun, so the emptiness is there every day…  When I combine all this with several other “up and coming” hospitals and health services – with better pay and working conditions for nurses -- it is hard to feel optimistic.  I do know that CEO Helen and the Board are working hard to improve the hospital and get the rebuilding under way and I am still worried.    What does provide a never-ending source of optimism is the energy and dedication of the “old girls,”  Sisters Kenneth, Judith, and Noel, who are out there every day trying to raise funds for the new hospital; they continue to amaze me.

Speaking of amazing women, this was probably my last time to see Sister Beatrice Fernandes, although .....  I didn’t think she would have lived till I arrived in September 2010, and she was still alive when I left.     So who knows with these old nuns, eh?

I have been attacking this last blog for a month, and will now call it quits.

Take care, and I’ll write again when my plan for Fall 2011 is decided,

John

Planing to Head Back to Mercy Hospital and Guyana

A flower from Anne's Garden... and Kristin's favourite flower

"Time goes... that's it." I think that this is the wisdom of a New York City cabbie. Hard to believe that it is almost time to head back to Guyana. It does seem soon, though I last left in March 2009. Maybe I am just getting older? As with most of life [at least, most of my life] it is a time of ambivalence:
I am saddened to leave a good life, a good wife, a beautiful and peaceful place, and a golf game that will always be better the "next" day; AND, I am excited to be returning to my second home for over 7 years.

I want/need to do something with my living in addition to the pleasures of retirement and the fulfillment of grandchildren [Oh yes, the "kids" too.]. Funny how I have long given up ideas of the kingdom - or a kin-dom [gender neutral paradise] - where the criteria for entrance are known in advance.

Yet, I seem restless to give of myself and my talents. I am just not content to be... Never did buy into that "it is not what you do, just be" stuff; of course, you are what "you do"... at least, I am.   Everyone knows that you are only as good as your last game.

An early morning fire in May 2010 destroyed a big part of Mercy Hospital.

There will be many changes this year at Mercy. I am sure many of you know that the hospital suffered from a big fire. While the patient areas and school were spared; however, doctor's offices, surgery suites, medical records and Dr. Devi's flat were destroyed... Now this is very sad, but what is really tragic is that Dr. Devi got moved to "my" executive volunteer flat!

The CEO, Helen, graciously gave Tony and me a very nice flat - together. This is when I discovered how much of an old fart I am...I really like being alone [Only when I am in Guyana, Dear.] and I will be working with Tony every day in the same courses. As I told Tony, it is not him... It is me; I need quiet.  

I guess that I was grumping out loud because a friend and colleague - and a real missionary - Richard Young came through with a win-win situation. He suggested that I might stay in the empty parsonage at Calvary Lutheran Church in exchange for a security presence [?] there. Canadian Pastoral Team of Jack and Val Fredericks finished a term pastorate there in the Spring... And Calgary's resident caretaker just died... I didn't ask how. As Dick mentioned in his email, there were many benefits including, You get to be Lutheran and be called "pastor". Whata deal!

I thought I'd get some of the other benefits, so I wrote Jack and Val... and they wrote back in part: "The kitchen has a stove (gas), an electric fridge and a wash machine. The stove will scare the crap out of you when the oven heats up and expands with a bang...  The front entrance has a framed glass door that I could only lock from the outside."  [I can see Val climbing through a second story window after she locked the door from the outside!]  However, these inconveniences seemed quite manageable as they continued, "The bakery, Yhips, which is next door to you sells beer also."


I'll have more expenses than if I had shared at Mercy [Hint: and I'll try not to drink them all.], but I do need to preserve what little I have of my sanity and Tony's as well.     

Tony and John working to understand cultural nuances.

Tony and I have decided to really have an adventure this year.  We are going to combine our courses -Psychology. Sociology, Ethics, Mental Health and Neurology into one Problem-Based Learning Programme.   We have spent most of 2010 writing our cases and trying to integrate the major areas in our curriculum into our paper problems.    I am sure we both thought it was a good idea at the time; as it gets closer...    I am sure you will hear more about our attempts throughout our time there.