Friday 15^th

Kandy Hospital

Following our time at Kandy Hospital, we received news of a suicide that took place while we were at the hospital. While we were there, we had no idea this took place. A young man who had received a kidney transplant from a monk (just day(s) before) could not bare the pain and jumped out of the window of the hospital. This incident really impacted our team. The whole time we have been here and interacted with the nurses and doctors we have asked about pain management. I was told by one doctor, "We don't need pain medications like you Americans!" This suicide confirmed our suspicions about pain management in Sri Lanka.

Kandy Nursing School

We watched a cultural dance put on by the nursing students.

We stood and listened to them sing the National Anthem (which, by the way we have learned is sung every morning at the hospital!!) and realized how grateful we were for our "short" national anthem! During their presentation, they spontaneously requested a student from NU to share about Sri Lanka and how much we love it here. No one moved for an awkward moment, then Krissy so sacrificially jumped up and saved the day. Thank you, Krissy for your speech.

Assessment presentations to nursing students

We walked into the nursing school and were immediately informed that we were going to be performing assessments, while teaching our head to toe method and being critiqued by their administrative teams. Kandy's Nursing school had about 30 nursing students dressed in pajamas ready to jump into the fictitious hospital setting. Dot and Melba randomly selected 3 students to perform the assessments. As the time progressed, more of us ended up doing the assessments and we did so in teams of 2. That helped relieve the pressure!!

Shopping in Kandy

We split up into teams of 3 or 4 and began walking around the shops in Kandy. We found the locals very friendly and extremely good salesmen! One shop that Shawna and I came out of (e didn't buy anything because of the outrageous prices!) the salesman followed us and brought us back to his shop and brought the prices down to what we wanted!! Several of the other teams had random people wanting to practice their English or talk to them about where they were from. People are always surprised to hear we are from America. I think most believe we are from UK. There are a lot of Europeans here.

Saturday 16^th

Hotel in Kandy

"Heaven"- as one student described this hotel. It was better than we had ever imagined. There was a huge buffet with steaks, lamb, seafood, skewers, crepes, fruit table, chefs waiting to boil pasta and on and on. While we were eating our food, we were looking out over the deck at the huge pool that was set amongst the palm tree backdrop. It was absolutely beautiful. We had a much needed relaxing time in the pool and eating something other than rice and curry!!

Elephant Orphanage

We went to the Elephant orphanage and saw them bathed, fed and got to walk up to them and touch them. We got some great pictures of the elephants!! It was better than a zoo, because they were just roaming around. We were walking right up to them, without a fence or any barriers at all. It was our hottest day in Sri Lanka by far. Sweat just poured from our faces. It was amazing.

Tea Factory

The tea factory was a quick stop on the way back from Kandy. 16 "tourists" filled the little room with boxes and cans of tea trying to decide the perfect one to bring back to the States.

Sunday 17^th

On Sunday morning we decided to not take the almost 1 hour drive to church and opted to have church here at the compound. We had a great prayer time for each member of the team which lasted for 3 hours. The pastor (at the church we have been attending while here) came to AED to visit us- announced the arrival of his newborn son Jordan Seth. He told us that he always makes a point to visit his congregation if they are not at church. Our leaders said this was the first time a pastor has ever visited the team on a nursing trip from NU.

Monday 18^th

All day clinicals

Long day

Homework when we returned to AED

Tuesday 19^th

Happy 31^st Birthday Jeff!!! Today was a day full of fun starting out with the boys at AED giving Jeff at least 30 birthday cards to "Uncle Jeff." It was a very fun surprise. But even though it was Jeff's birthday we still had to get up at 5am and be out the door at 6 in order to meet with the Nurse Managers of the different wards of the hospital. It was interesting to learn a little bit more about their responsibilities compared to the Nurse Managers in the States. After that, just another clinical day, but since Bria and I (Kimberly) am in Jeff's clinical group we still made the day worthy to celebrate.

After the long hard day of clinical, Jeff had picked Il Ponte, and Italian restaurant at the Hilton in Colombo to have dinner. It was pretty amazing. Almost everyone got lasagna, pizza or fish 'n chips. Yummy! Oh, and then we had to sit by the pool and watch the sunset while we waited for people to go to the cash machine and such.

Wonderful day.

Wednesday 20^th

Pediatric Cancer Institute

Happiest patients we have seen yet

McDonalds

Thursday 21^st

Presentations

Last day at Lady Ridgeway Hospital

Farewell to tutors

Friday 22^nd

Today we got to have a whole day of rest and getting ready for our health fair on Saturday. We woke up and had a great breakfast of French toast and chicken sausages and onions cooked by Kimberly, Heather, Krissy, and Jeff. After breakfast we decided to have a volleyball tournament between the NU team. There were four players on each side and we played best out of 5. After 4 games we were at 2:2. We took a swim break and went out into the waves. We got tossed around a little and then came back in to finish the championship game. Bria, John, Shawna, and Beth took the victory. We worked on Health Fair projects in the afternoon—making posters, signs, cutting out fruit from construction paper, and laughing about our amazing artistic abilities. We are nursing students, not art students after all.

Day 16: Kandy

Today the team visited Kandy in the central part of Sri Lanka. They took a three hour bus ride through the heat and crazy traffic to get to their hotel. The purpose of this visit is to get a little time of rest and relaxation.

Its real different here. Its much cooler and totally beautiful. There are monkeys everywhere and tomorrow we are suposto go check out an elephant orphanage.

The team got a chance to do some swimming, shopping and sun burning in Kandy today. They have plans to check out some elephants tomorrow along with some other local points of interest. Keep praying for our team!
-Brent

Staying in touch

This is a quick note from Pastor Ken (Koeman).  I know Krissy, Tara, and Ashley from the team.  Thanks for your detailed descriptions of the world into which you have entered, a place of beauty, but also of brokenness, a venue for relaxation, yet also a pressure cooker.   Learning of your study and work schedule reminds us all that you are there for a serious purpose, and face some daunting days.  I pray that, fortified by the peace of Christ within your hearts, you will be able to sally forth each day with purpose, poise, and power.  And keep on loving one another, remembering the admonition of Joseph (Genesis 45: 24!), walking alongside of each other with complete humility and gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.  I pray for you frequently.

 

Warmly,

 

Pastor Ken 

Praying

Hi Brent and Team,
This is Shawna's future Mom-In-Law, Stephanie.  After reading your blog on Tuesday I am so touched by what all of you are doing, experiencing and living daily.  We are all here praying for you and know that the Lord is keeping watch.  I don't know if this will help any of you, I pray that it does, but James 1:2-4 came to my mind: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything".

You all have been working very hard to get to this point in your education, experience and you are excited to get to the end of this race so that you can practice what you have learned and care for others.  Each of you must be very tender hearted because it takes special individuals to do what you are doing.  I cannot imagine and probably wouldn't be able to handle what you are doing (Shawna could attest to this too) but I believe and have known you are there for a purpose and God is directing your steps.  He will continue to keep watch over you and we are trusting that the Lord will do his perfect and good will in each of you.  You will grow and be better people as you come back and my hope is that you teach the rest of us what you have learned!

Blessings to each of you.
Stephanie Sales

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Tuesday

Tuesday was a long day.... We got up at 5am, left AED by 6am and arrived home at 7pm... We have TONS of homework and another long day ahead of us Wednesday. Please pray for us. We are very tired and still have much more to do and learn! The experiences here are rich and eye-opening. A number of us have had experiences in the burn units... It's heart breaking to see these kids with burned bodies laying in hospital beds with no pain meds. Huge parts of their bodies are burned and they are debrided (dead skin scraped off) without morphine (sometimes they get Tylenol). The screams of the children stay with us and it is hard not to cry while watching the procedures... Even though it is tough at times the Lord is teaching us so much and we are grateful to be here. We miss our families and wish we could post more pictures but cannot because of our internet connection.

News from Sri Lanka

Hi All,

Well…. other than the heat… and the fact that I am sweating as much or more than I do when I visit Texas in the summer (since most facilities, even most hospital units, are not air conditioned) we are doing great here!! J
The students are rotating to some of the units in the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, a large 1000+ bed pediatric hospital. It is fantastic that they have so many different experiences available here. Mostly they have been in cardiothoracic/SICU; burns/rehab; medical/surgical; out patient department and child guidance clinics; ENT/plastic surgery. They are also rotating through the operating theatre. Some of the students were able to see a couple of neurosurgery cases today. There are many similarities and many, many differences between the health care systems (Sri Lanka and USA). The students are having great experiences but are having to consider some really tough issues such as very limited resources, health care from a different cultural understanding of pain (e.g., not giving any/much pain meds before debriding wounds on severely burned children, especially from different ethnic groups within the country), different perceptions of “standard/universal precautions”, etc., etc.
We went to meet the Minister of Health for Sri Lanka last Friday afternoon. We had several pictures taken. Saturday, we heard that the local radio stations reported about Northwest University nursing students working “interning” within the Lady Ridgeway Hospital. Today, we heard that on Sunday, our pictures were on the TV here; and today, we saw one of our pictures in the local newspaper here. We will purchase some extra copies to show when we return to Seattle. Pretty interesting!
We had several really good lectures this afternoon related to infectious diseases, weaning practices within the culture, statistics related to cardiovascular disorders in children, childhood nutrition, etc.
Janet and Adam, and Jala their “assistant” here, are absolutely delightful to work with. Fantastic ministry within the country! We have also enjoyed going to a church service both Sunday… the members have prayed for us and have been so kind in several ways.
Must go for now… having fun here! J

Thanks!

Melba
Hi All!

Blog

Hi Brent, I got to this point in your blog from a different direction earlier but I am not sure if it made it to you. It's my first big experence with blogging and I find it very interesting. I have been researching it on the internet. It's got some great things going for it. I might try a Blog myself. Thank you.

Heather's Dad

To Krissy & Ashley

Hi girls,

 

G'pa George here this morning! Had your Dad and Cory over for supper last night, Krissy. Had a good visit and also a good long prayer time for Auntie Karen, kids and your Mom. This is a hard time but God is giving them some good times together--we think this is extremely important that they have this time together right now.

 

Anyway, wondering how it is going for you two. Wondering if you are learning anything or is it one big, cultural overload. Read that you enjoyed Chinese food there so there is obviously more than just Indian curry--I would like that! The Chinese food!

 

Life in Lynden is quiet and placid as usual, with a lot of rain mixed with snow lately--kind of miserable; nothing much you can do with slushy, wet snow. Courtney is getting closer to her due date and is miserable--she gets so large. G'ma thinks it's a boy because she is carrying it so high--don't know about those things, she's just big! Of course I don't say that to her; poor thing.

 

I guess the big event of the week was that MOPS asked G'ma and I, along with Kurt and Gwen Langstraat and Adam and Daniele (don't know their last name; Adam is the big guy who works at Express Lube) if we could be a panel of married couples to give wise counsel to the MOPS Moms. It was very special in that all of us were very much on the same page on every subject and blended so well together--it was fun! We complemented each other so well even in our diverse age groupings.

 

There is another sort of exciting thing that happened yesterday but I will let your Dad or brother spill it to you, Krissy--don't let on to your Mom, it is a secret, okay? (No, Kenji isn't marrying a Somali girl.)

 

Don't know whether you heard but Kenji and Yattani are in Nairobi now for their 2 week R&R. They both have been rather sick so I hope this gets them back on their feet and ready to back out to Dadaab. Things are still volatile in West Kenya. Lots of great stories though, of God's Grace through His people, especially at Karura Chapel. Kenji will be a part of that Internship these two weeks.

 

It is almost time for church so I will say, Ta Ta for now,

 

Love, G'pa George

Day 11 (Sunday)

This morning we went to church at the same place we went last week. The members are so kind to us and the pastor is a great man. They are such prayer warriors and it is so refreshing to be able to attend service with these Christians in a country where Buddhism seems to be everywhere. After church Janet, Adam, and their daughter Randy took us to lunch at a Chinese Restaurant at a hotel in a very nice part of Colombo. The food was excellent and I think we all ate a little too much. The Chinese food here is very different from in the States. Some dishes were very spicy. We were so blessed by their kindness and willingness to provide us with an amazing meal. We went to the store to buy some much needed treats for the coming week.

The drive home from the store was hilarious. We were going so incredibly fast. Krissy and Heather who were sitting in the very back of the van were getting thrown around quite a bit.The girls in the back of the other car were hitting their heads on the ceiling. Driving is very entertaining here!

After coming back from the store a few of us took some of the kids over to Kalapuwa Sri (the boys orphanage). They love swimming there! The rest of us spent the evening resting and recovering. Tomorrow is an early morning. We have to leave here at 6 am to be at the hospital. Thank you all for your prayers! They are greatly appreciated.

Day 10 (Saturday)

Today it was hot. REALLY hot. Most of us were burned (remember we are very close to the equator)...We played in the ocean, played volleyball, card games etc etc. The first half of the day we spent doing homework though... so it wasn't all fun and games! We are now tired from the heat, and definately a shade darker...One of the guys on our team is celebrating his birthday this month... A bunch of the kids made birthday cards for him (Jeff). They are really sweet... They spent so much time making them perfect for him... Tomorrow we plan to go to the same church we went to last Sunday as well as do some shopping in Colombo! Yippee!

Day 9 (Friday)

Today was a long day of clincal, class, and relationship building. We started the day off by a disaster management and preparedness lecture at the Post Basic College by one of their nursing tutors. Following our lecture we had tea time (which we all still love) and then went to the Lady Ridgeway hospital for clinical. We all were split up onto different floors, and began to do physical assesments on children. At the end of our shift, we went to visit the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka. This is their national head of healthcare, which was a very big honor. We met with him and spoke with him about their healthcare and the similarities and differences. He is well respected and a major part in reforming the health care system in Sri Lanka We discovered that he recuits nursing students to enroll in his school and pays them 150 dollars a month to attend. We informed him that we paid large sums to attend our school- which he laughed about! We got our picture taken and will most likely be in the Sri Lankan newspaper! Following our visit with the Minister of health, we headed out to Pizza Hut. It was a nice treat. The pizza was deleicious, but included chicken sausage as the meat on the pizza! It was interesting.  After that we sat in rush hour traffice to come back to Sumadra Sri. It was a long day and we were excited to come back to the orphanage and relaxed. We came home to clean rooms and fresh laundry- it was a good day. We are excited for the weekend which involves rest and relaxation.

Day 8 (Thursday)

Today was our first hands-on clinical day. We went to Post Basic Nursing School where we waited for our presentations to begin (the 'tutors' were going to give us a brief lecture and answer questions prior to our in hospital experience). After our tea time with fruit cakes and sweet tea (which we are all continuing to love!) we were assigned to our very own personal tutors (1:1 student to tutor ratio) and went to our floors at Lady Ridgeway Hospital. We were split into teams of 3 and went to 5 different units including burn, pediatric, medical/surgical, cardiac, ENT (ear nose throat) surgical unit and the ICU (intensive care unit). One cultural difference that we were surprised to see was that fathers of patients were not allowed to visit patients. We then had lunch at the nursing quarters, where Jon was planning to feed a stray cat (which was running around the floor by our feet), then Shawna and Krissy stopped him! :D The girls named the cat "Valentine" (because there was heart shaped markings on the fur!). Nadya and Jessica assisted with Physical Therapy for a thirteen year old cerebal palsy boy. Sarah W., Ashley R. and Beth spent their time on the Cardiac floor where they were privileged to view their most current and modern ICU ward. This portion of the hospital is the newest ward in ALL of Sri Lanka! Heather, Tara, and Ashley V. were in the outpatient department (OPD) and the ER (Emergency Room). They observed children getting shots (9 year old boys) and noted that it was no different than in the states- they both screamed!! Bria, Jeff, and Kimberly were in the medical/surgical unit where they performed assessments on patients with colostomy bags (1 month old), hernia repair (2 month old), and a hermaphrodite... The 3 were also really surprised to meet 2 blond nursing students from Sweden!! They too had wanted to visit Sri Lanka for their intercultural nursing practice! Shawna, Jon, and Krissy were on the plastic surgery floor and saw children postsurgically after a cleft pallet/cleft lip repair. Nadya and Jessica saw a pt with electrical burns. One arm was amputated. The other arm was laid on the abdomen for skin grafting. Once the skin off of the abdomen grew onto the arm, they cut off the skin on the abdomen and stitched up the skin.

 

Right now it is POURING rain! There has been thunder and lightening...in fact the electricity went out once already! We keep joking that we brought the rain from Seattle... :D Hope not!

DAY 7 (Wednesday)

Today we toured several hospitals (maternity and a children's hospital)...They were very different from what we are used to in the US... It was neat to have one on one time with the doctors as they went from bedside to bedside with us and explained the diseases/syndromes.We saw microcephalopathy, scoilosis, cleft pallet, dysmorphic, poland syndrome, and spinal muscle dystrophy...among much much more. The most amazing thing we encountered was an 800gram baby boy (this is how much he weighed). One baby boy was left at the hospital when he was born (premature at 26 weeks and weighed 800 grams) and now is 5 months old. He will probably be going to a governmental home soon (in the next week). We spent time in the NICU, the maternity ward, the ICU, burn ward, and cardiac unit and we watched a cardiac catheterization... Today was a good day. We had ice cream at McDonalds at the end of our day! :D One of our favorite things is the tea time one hour prior to lunch. The tea is SO good! :D Yummy! We all want to buy some to bring home... Lastly, it rained today! WHAT IN THE WORLD? Who would have thought? Here it is 85 degrees and 90% humidity and it rains. There was some thunder and lightening as well.

 

We are all getting along and trusting the Lord for our lives everytime we get into the cars (the traffic is CHAOS!)...

Picture for today

This is a group picture from Lady Ridgeway Hospital the place we will be serving. This was shortly after having morning tea in one of the cooler rooms in the place.

Heather

Day 6: group photo

Hey everyone. The team sent me a group photo that you can see at the beginning of the slide show at the top of this blog. If you would like a closer look at the photo just click on it in the slide show. Thanks Bria for sending us the pic of the team, it looks awesome over there!
-Brent

Monday, February 4th

Today was "holiday" for everyone. This meant that the kids were not on a strict schedule and were able play volleyball, kick ball, jump rope, go swimming etc etc with our team. The kids are so warm and friendly (as are the leaders)...Out of respect, the kids call us "uncle" and "auntie". It's sweet. They love to see pictures of our families- and we have sat down and showed them who our families are and told them about each of you! One girl on our team, Heather, they call "Thelma" off of Scooby-Doo and when they saw a picture of my brothers (Travis, Skyler, and Rees) they called them "Shaggy" off of Scooby-Doo.

 

We played in the ocean again today! It is so warm and salty... Some of the team has been bitten by mosquitos, but most of us have been fine...We are tired but happy.

 

Today was also the start of our homework load...Assignments were due... Our tropical-bliss is now tainted with the reality that we are still in nursing school!!! It almost feels like we are on vacation (must be the weather and the beach!). 

Day 5: Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Sri Lanka which has spurred attacks from the The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This terrorist organization carried out two attacks. Everyone on the team is doing great. The attacks were not close to our friends.

Beth read Psalm Ninety One to us on our ride home. That was comforting. The service was awesome on Sunday. The church prayed over each of us and gave a word.

Be praying for our team's protection!
There have been no more attacks and you can learn more about the events of Sunday by clicking HERE.

Day 4 (Sunday)

From our luxurious beach front hotel in Nogombo, Sri Lanka we packed up our belongings and loaded on a bus to Colombo, Sri Lanka. On our way we had to stop for a heard of cows which were crossing between the buses, the three wheeled taxis, motorcycles and pedestrians without a care in the world. We drove for about 30 minutes and pulled up to a beautiful orphanage where 107 children were waiting on the steps for us with a huge banner reading, "Welcome to Samudra Sri Nursing Students from Northwest University"... No sooner had we begun unloading off the bus, when the youngest children began running towards us with tropical flowers for each of us.

A special BBQ was prepared for our arrival and we were served tuna steaks, seered fish, prawns, chicken, calamari and a variety of rices and fruits (and a random bowl of french fries!). Upon finishing our dinner we watched the bright pink sunset among the palm trees over the Indian ocean end our first day in Colombo.

While the children could not communicate very well with us verbally, they were very good at communicating how happy they were to see us. We played a game of "ice tag"...cricket...volleyball and sat around and sang songs together. The kids were thrilled to chant the English "nursery rhyme they knew... They chanted 12 Little Monkey's jumping on the Bed with great enthusiasm.

The animals we have seen to date include goat, pink, cows, dogs, chipmunk, kitten, geckos, junebugs, a rooster, mosquitos, CROWS... But, no barking-deer, monkeys or elephants...We were warned of the crocidiles that are in the neighborhood! One of the students was sitting in the yard when a green splat came from the sky- you can imagine what it was!!

12 girls slept in one room with bunk beds and the 2 guys slept in the "sick room"... The ocean is about 200 yards from our beds and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore became apart of our dreams. The AC stopped working in the girl's room, but the fans were still going strong...the weather is warm and the humidity high...and we are LOVING IT! Many of the girls were sunburned yesterday at the hotel when they went for a swim...

-Bria Colby

Day 3: moved in

Yesterday, the team slept in a hotel in Colombo. They said it was a tropical paradise with a deep blue ocean and palm trees right outside their hotel windows. Some of the team had trouble sleeping because of the jet lag and were up early the next day to pack up and move out to the orphanage.

The team is settled down in the orphanage which is told to be just as beautiful as the hotel. They have met a few of the kids in residence and Bria has already asked if we could adopt one or two.

Pray that our team will be able to communicate with the staff and kids of the orphanage.

Day 2: Bangkok to Colombo

The team should be arriving in Colombo within the hour. Everything seems to be going well so far. They had a seven hour lay over in Bangkok before departing for their final destination.

Day 2: in the sky

In and out of Taiwan. The team made it safely to Taipei and they had a few minuets before boarding their next flight. One student said,

We have been at the airport for about an hour already... We went to a Cafe' and bought coffees/teas... I got a Tangerine tea that cost $3.00 and tasted like a melted popcicle! It was SO sweet! WOW!

And the same student said about the plane ride,

The flight was a bit bumpy... The plane was a big one- lots of room to run around and change seats with friends....

So everything sounds good so far!