What am I doing here?

I don't think I've talked about my work on this blog. I work Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5pm and so far, I've spent all my worktime in the office so yesterday I asked if I could go and see some of their work. The result of that was that today, I attended a workshop run by my company. The company I work for tries to break down the barriers to employment for people with disabilities, and also tries to change society's perceptions generally.

My job is to put together and start the implementation of a Communications Strategy including a website, recruit and train a Communications Officer and research various post tsunami funding options.

Today's workshop was in the Gintota district of Galle at a buddhist temple (bare feet again but monks aplenty so I coped). They invited people with disabilities and their families to come along and expected 40. They got 100. It was a really good experience for me. I didn't understand a word of course but the one thing I've realised being here is that you don't have to use words to communicate. Of course I must have known that but perhaps I didn't realise the extent to which you could build relationships without spoken language.

I fell in love with most of the children and I think they quite liked me. It was particularly easy to communicate with them because they are less inhibited about eye contact and smiling and expressing themselves. I spoke to so many people and I'm pretty tired now but it was great. It was also hard to take at times. Lots of people thought I could sort all their problems out and I'm not sure if that's because I'm white or if they thought the other staff could do the same.

I had one guy come up to me with his mother. He was around 30 and they showed me a letter which was in Sinhala. I asked someone else what it was and apparently he'd been discharged from the army. He seemed to want me to do something about it even though it happened 6 years ago. I understand he has a mental health problem and often one of the symptoms of that kind of thing is not believing there is anything wrong. Imagine feeling so wronged for so long. I really felt for him. And of course I couldn't do anything to help.

The only thing I could think to do was salute him. He immediately stood to attention and saluted back giving me a big smile. You see what I mean about communication - I couldn't help the guy but we had a connection for a short time. There were other stories which I may share later but I consider myself extremely lucky to have been there today.