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Published: November 4th 2014
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I was unable to post a blog last week because I was ill again. This blog will cover everything I have been up to for the last 2 weeks.
2 weeks ago:
This was a good week and I had a lot of fun at all my projects! We had Wednesday off because it was Diwali and on Tuesday night we headed to Unawatuna beach for a night out as our friend who had finished placement was staying there. We started off in a bar called pink elephant and later we moved on to what you might describe as a club. It was on the top floor of a hotel and it looked out over the beach. All the music was played on bongo drums and there were dogs in the club! The best part of the night was when the tuktuk driver let me drive the tuktuk back from the club to our hotel! The next day we chilled on the beach before heading back to Maharagama.
On Friday we headed down to Unawatuna (I feel like I live there now!) to see our friend again. On Friday night we went out for a lovely candlelit meal
on the beach. On Saturday we got up early as the brother of the Sri Lankan family we live with had organised a boat trip on a lake for us. The boat dropped us off at two islands. The first was an island where they grow cinnamon and we were given cinnamon tea and shown how they grind it into powder or dry it into cinnamon sticks. The second island had a spice garden on it and we were shown how they grow the different spices. We were then given the opportunity to buy lots of different creams and oils and things that they make from the spices. A few girls bought aloe vera cream for sunburn! On the way back on the boat we spotted a crocodile which was very exciting but also a little scary! Our brother was kind enough to buy us lunch after the boat trip and it was really nice to spend some of our weekend with him. On both Friday and Saturday evenings we went for a swim in the sea as the sun was setting and the views were incredible.
1 week ago:
On Monday I was given the opportunity to
shadow a psychiatrist for the day which was extremely interesting. There are very few psychiatrists in Sri Laknka as lots of them move to the UK or the USA after the qualify. This psychistrist was responsible for 200 000 people and many of these people live in the slums. There is a big stigma surrounding mental health problems in Sri Lanka. Many people believe that it is karma and people are being punished for the bad things they have done in their past lives. Having a mental health problem can bring shame to the family and this can cause the family not to seek help for their loved ones. Many people also believe that mental health problems can be cured by spiritual ceremonies with fires and dancing and this is another reason why people often do not seek help. Usually a person will become very unwell before they recieve help and they have to be admitted into hospital. Once they leave the hospital they are supposed to recieve follow up care at a local hospital but most people do not come for the follow up care becuase of the stigma or because it is inconveniant. These problems led the psychiatirst
I was shadowing to set up community care for people with mental health problems. He runs clinics in temples and community centers that people can access easily. For very serious cases he visits their houses once a month. I was able to showdow him as he went to peoples houses and ran his community clinics. The work he was doing was very progressive but unfortunatly only 3 or 4 psychaitrists in Sri Lanka are working like this, so there is still a long way to go.
One evening I went to a lecture on child sexual abuse in Sri Lanka. The statistics they reported were shocking, 3-5 children in Sri Lanka are raped every day and there are 40 000 child prostitutes in the country. They explained to us that sex tourism is a problem in Sri Lanka, people come to the south coast to have sex with young boys. Again there is a lot of stigma surrounding sexual abuse in Sri Lanka. If a child has been sexually abused it can bring shame to the family and the child will often view themselves as damaged and believe that no one will want to marry them becuase of what
has happened. This often means that cases of sexual abuse are not reported in Sri Lanka and these children are not helped. Often the abuser will be someone who is close to the family and they will groom the family and the child until they can have access to the child alone. Recently a helpline has been set up for children who have been sexually abused. Children can ring this number and the abuse should be investigated. Again Sri Lanka is moving forward but they still have more steps to take, for example, it would be good if they had a sex offenders register like we do in the UK.
Unfortunatly I had a bacterial throat infection for most of the week and I missed a few days of projects which I was annoyed about. Please can you all pray/cross your fingers that I don't get ill again!
At the weekend it was my housemates birthday and we headed to Mirissa beach which was beautiful. We got up at 5am on Saturday morning to go whale watching. After taking some strong sea sickness tablets we all fell asleep on the boat and we were woken up by people
shouting "whale!" We were so lucky to see the same blue whale four times when it came up to the surface! We were on what seemed to be quite an ethical whale watching boat but it was sad to see how some of the other boats dorve straight at the whale and seemed to scare it. The indian ocean is very bumpy so I did feel a bit queasy but I think the tablets helped!
In Mirissa we discovered a restaurant that did the best weastern food we have had yet! I was in love with the tuna melts and we ate there three times over the weekend. Unfortunately on the day we went there and the owners dog bit my friend. This was a horrible end to the weekend as we had to rush back to Maharagama to the hospital. She had to have a tetnus and a rabies injection and she has to go back for 2 more rabies injections. As it was a pet dog it probably did not have rabies but its not worth taking the risk. My friend was shaken up at the time but she is ok now.
Finally I had to head to a hospital in Colombo yesterday to get my braces fixed which was an interesting experience. It has been a busy 2 weeks but on Thursday we have the day off because its a Poya day (buddist holiday) and we are going to spend the day in Colombo. We were hoping to head to Kandy this weekend but it is looking unlikely after the recent disaster in the hill country.
Sorry this is such a long post, I will try and keep it shortner next week!
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