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.