Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

We feel better. Definitely, we tanked emotionally and likely for the first time, we both tanked at the same time and for an extended length of time. For the most part, when I'm down, Bill has supported me to get back up and when he slips, I pull him to his feet. We somehow got each other through the difficult troughs in the evolution of being away from home. I think it was the birth of Mickey and the pending birth of Tanya and Richard's babies that really made us realize how far away from home we were and absent from these very important events. However, we are now on the homestretch!   I gave my notice. I gave notice to VSO that December 14 th was my last working day in Sri Lanka. This affords us time to close down our home in Jaffna, say goodbye to our great VSO pals scattered about the country and get us all (Judge, Bill and me) on plane and back to Canada before Christmas. This year, I will be home for Christmas.

Some of my dearest mentors and friends have arrived in Sri Lanka: Bob Mullaly, Helen Pearlman, Louise Johnson, Barry Cournoyer and Hepworth and Larsen, to name a few. They arrived by mail. For the better part of last year and off the side of my desk, I developed a concept paper that was presented to the University Grants Commission (UGC). The concept paper's premise was that Sri Lanka needed to provide a post graduate diploma program in social work in order to meet the mandate of the Mental Health Policy of Sri Lanka. This glossy policy calls for a social worker to be in every Medical Officer or Health (MOH) Division by 2015.  Look inside the cabinet  There are more than 200 MOH divisions and precious few degreed social workers in the country. In 2005, The National Institute of Social Development instituted a four year social work degree program, but this is graduating students too slowly to meet the 2015 deadline (and this is just for mental health social workers). A...