Life after Sri Lanka

This may be my briefest blog post yet in view of the fact that I'm in Australia and therefore far to busy looking out for koalas, supping fine wine and chain eating Timtams to write anything much. However, I can share with you some important things I have learnt during my time away. I now have some idea of how life might be for me...after Sri Lanka. Perhaps you should be forewarned (UK readers) about how it could affect you!

1. I start at least every other sentence with the words "Well, in Sri Lanka....." or "Do you know how long it's been (currently always 14 months) since I did/saw/had/ate this......?"
2. My bladder has shrunk! Intense and constant sweating leaves the bladder with very little in the way of hard work to do, however many gallons of water you drink. 14 months of laziness has allowed mine to shrink to the size of a palm squirrel's. The good news for you is that I can barely finish a sentence (including those above) before I need to head off in search of the nearest facilities.
3. My skin does not naturally glow! It turns out living in 90%+ humidity for much of the year does wonders for the complexion. However, it does not last! I have quickly returned to my ageing, pale and pallid usual self (the unseasonably cold Melbourne weather has not helped!). 
4. Sri Lanka feels a long long way away. I have quickly grown sickeningly nostalgic and find myself wondering if it was all a dream. As a result, I start at least every other sentence with the words "Well, in Sri Lanka...."

Ah...sorry, I think I might be repeating myself. Well, get used to it people...in Sri Lanka, people were fascinated by this strange foreigner and I will expect your full attention at all times!

However, what I promise not to do is force you to sit down and watch an hour long documentary about the VSO mental health programme I took part in. However, my aunt and uncle were not so lucky. We had a living room screening just the other night!

In actual fact, I think those involved in making it did a pretty good job and, if you want to know more about the 15 year programme I played a very small part in, it makes interesting viewing.  I do feature briefly, sometime around 11 minutes in or so. So, if nothing else, you may wish to take this opportunity to see my beautifully youthful and glowing skin one more time before I return home looking 10 years older.

You can click here to do just that.

Gihing ennang

I'm really not sure where to begin this particular blog post, but I do know where it is going to end. It ends with me leaving Sri Lanka and, at this very moment, I am not ready. I am neither practically prepared (so much of sorting and packing to do!) nor do I feel mentally or emotionally able to say goodbye just yet.

I guess it's no surprise when I consider just how much has been packed into these past couple of weeks. There was the VSO Final Event marking the end of the entire Mental Health Programme here in Sri Lanka, followed a week later by the 6th Scientific National Congress in Occupational Therapy focusing also on Mental Health. Both were rather grand affairs and involved a huge amount of organisation.

"Hello, this is Oslo calling"

I was particularly involved in the OT Congress. As part of this big bash, I was required to sari-up and sashay back and forth across a stage with my co-compere all day. However, my role wasn't purely aesthetic (although apparently I didn't do too bad on this front..."WoahOW madam" exclaimed one passer-by as I walked along the main road on my way home), I also had to invite various big wigs with tongue-twister names to the podium using, of course, my best Eurovision-esque announcing voice (think Oslo calling, rather than Wogan witterings).

Schmoozing the bigwigs

The bigwigs

Some beautiful banners inexplicably and miraculously
created at the very last minute using the magic of
Sri Lankan time

If this wasn't daunting enough, the planning process was done in true Sri Lankan style. Imagine the London Olympics planning committee starting to draw up the plans for the Olympic park as the athletes strip off their tracksuits to begin a final warm up, and...well, you'll get the idea. Nevertheless, both days went ahead as planned and nothing dreadful happened. In actual fact, they went rather well.

The published article

I feel particularly privileged to have been part of supporting the OT Congress. It really was an amazing achievement for the profession in this country, and it also provided a fantastic platform for them to launch their very first onlne Occupational Therapy Journal. I haven't often blogged about the actual work I'm doing here. So, if you do care to browse, you can see the article I wrote for a national newspaper, find out more about a new group intervention I was involved in, and read about some other stuff I've been up to during my VSO life...not to mention some interesting articles written by some fellow VSO volunteers and OTs in Sri Lanka.

And so, that's the end of the work stuff. But I hope you can understand why I'm not ready. I've barely had time to catch my breath.




Thankfully, I have a holiday to look forward to, squeezed into the final 3 weeks of my VSO placement. After 14 months in Asia, I'm off to Australia for 2 weeks to visit family and explore a tiny part of a big new continent. I am grateful for this trip for so many reasons, not least because it gives me time to pause and take a few deep breaths before I head back to the UK. Don't get me wrong, I am genuinely looking forward to seeing all of my lovely friends and family, and I know that all will be well. Nevertheless, it feels sad, unsettling and a tiny bit daunting to be saying goodbye to the place that has been home for the last 14 months.

And so, as I head to the airport tomorrow morning, I'm grateful to not have to say a proper goodbye. Instead, it's a "gihing ennang" from me. The literal meaning of this commonly used sinhala phrase is "having gone, I will come". It functions as a promise and is used fairly informally when popping out somewhere for a brief while. For example, "I'm just nipping across the road/to the toilet/home. Don't worry, I'll be back...gihing ennang". And it's sometimes used in response to an imploring Sri Lankan "gihing enna", instructing the person to come back....after they have first gone. However, you'll more often hear it translated as a simple "go and come" (e.g. "Shall we meet now itself?" "Ok, but I really need to buy my lunch from the canteen before they run out of my favourite egg rice packets!" "Ok, go and come" "Yes, I will go and come"). You'd be surprised at just how much of going and coming goes on in Sri Lanka!

And so...Dear Sri Lanka, I'm just popping over to Australia for a short while. I fully intend to return. I promise I WILL indeed go and come. Not only do I have a whole host of shit which needs to be scooped up and jammed into too small a suitcase before I head home, but I am really not ready to say my final goodbye...not just yet.