Check out some more photos of Sri Lanka and Thailand so far… Highlights include Gemma and I posing as UN workers, lots of shiny Thai temples, Vicki and my exploits amongst the hilltribes of Thailand with elephants and bamboo rafts…
But don’t mention photos to Vix – there has been some awful accident which has wiped all the photos off her digital camera since September… boooo
We are being followed around Asia by live bands who play nothing but Dire Straits covers… They get everywhere, from the bar of a tiny tropical island resort to the foyer of a large shopping mall in Columbo where I am currently checking my mail…
I like 
So we arrived in Columbo yesterday at midday, and are staying with a great guy we met in the Maldives – John Mahoney’s big in NHS mental health stuff, and is on semi-permanent secondment to the WHO in Sri Lanka working on their mental health strategy. The last piece of mental health legislation that was passed here dates from 1873 so as you might guess there’s a way to go… But at least he has more time to work on it than the two weeks he was given in the Maldives to draft their mental health policy…
Missing the guys from Care Society, but loving Sri Lanka already – so much so that I actually felt strong enough to eat a tuna sandwich today. Might have something to do with putting 2 pieces of cheescake, a great curry, frozen strawberry margheritas and some marmite in-between me and Maldivian tuna-based food…
Today we’ve been round a mental health hospital on the outskirts of Columbo, met the Director of Mental Health in Sri Lanka, and fulfilled a personal dream to drive in a white UN landrover and run around dressed up in blue UN bullet proof vests and helmets… Mature I know…
Finding the politics here fascinating, in particularly how it impacts on delivery of services to the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka where the main conflict is and where by association the biggest need for mental health services is found. A political reality brought sadly closer to home with a suicide bomb in Columbo this morning outside the restaurant we ate lunch in yesterday. There just doesn’t seem to be any hope for an end to the ongoing conflict and retaliation by both sides.
