Wendy W∂⃝nders 2

Sinhala lessons are continuing, but avail me little. I have such a lousy memory that I find only with significant repetition of reading, writing, speaking each and every word, does the word or phrase finally commit to memory. Even then, retrieval of the memory is difficult. However, I can read most words now, but that doesn't mean that I know the meaning of them. In fact, I am more likely to not know the meaning of the words. However, I plug along and keep hoping that one day, something will click; my tongue will come untied and fluency will occur. I continue to work with an interpreter.

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I was teaching interpersonal skills the other day. I have invited the support staff (called Minor Staff, groan) to attend the classes along with the nurses and doctors, as they also interact with patients. Anyway, I was teaching a concept of how staff can help patients reframe their situation from "bad to good." The clinical concepts are known as "reframing" or a "paradoxical approach". In any event, I was using the Tsunami as an example of something bad that had happened to people in this country, but asking the question, "Was there anything good that came out of the tragedy of the Tsunami?" Some discussion ensued and one support staff member, in earnest, replied, "Yes, the bad people got washed away." In that moment, I realized that literacy, education, religious values, myths and beliefs played a much larger role in my work than I had first realized.

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Company is coming! Three VSO volunteers who work in Kandy, Colombo and Badulla and who are respectively from London, Scotland and the US are meeting us here, in Nuwara Eliya, this weekend. We are excited about having company and I shall try out my new laankawan prawn curry recipe on them.

We encourage each and every one of you to come out for a visit, if you can. Although Sri Lanka is a great distance from Canada, it is a good opportunity to see Asia and it comes with travel guides named Bill and Wendy. Travel and food are cheap, so the cost is in the airfare to get here. Guest houses range between $25-$50 per night and a good Sri Lankan meal runs about $2. Naturally, there are more expensive places, but we save going there for special occasions. Travel from town to town, either by bus or train, will never cost you more than about $10. If you come, I recommend a stop-over in Singapore or Europe for a few days before making the final leg of the trip to Sri Lanka. It is a gruelling flight without the stop-over. Anyway, consider it.

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