Driven by a long-standing desire, her education and her faith, mental health professional, Wendy Nordick, and her husband Bill Blair, a retired judge, plunged into a two-year assignment with Canadian University Services Overseas. She believed her 25 years of clinical social work were appropriate credentials to help a country with the highest rates of suicide in the world. Bill hoped to work for peace and justice. They felt they became laughingstocks when work visa delays left them homeless. Days before leaving, Wendy’s father died. Once in Sri Lanka, she shivered in a rickety beer factory cum hospital where she taught mental health skills. A year later, she was transported into steamy, bombed out Jaffna, the epicenter of a civil war to teach a trauma team who worked with the war affected and tortured during the war. She was humbled by what she did not know and sought help from a previous refugee.
Wendy Nordick holds a PhD and practiced social work for 25 years in acute care psychiatry and mental health in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. She has published academic journal articles and is a member of a local writing group. She is a lover of literature. As a life-long learner, she is tackling the intricacies of bridge, and meets her need for fresh air with skiing, pickleball, cycling and hiking. She and her husband, Bill, love adventure and have visited more than 40 countries. Scuba diving is a thrilling aspect of their travels. A mother of five children and two stepchildren, she delights in her 11 grandchildren.
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31 reviews
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This book has all the elements of the human condition…joy, sadness, horror at war and its consequences, bureaucratic mixups. But it also describes friendships, collaboration, and trying to work in a culturally sensitive and diverse community.
The author is exceedingly articulate describing many of the events she experienced including her own personal health issues and family issues.
I highly recommend this thoughtful read to everyone especially anyone contemplating going overseas to help in so many disadvantaged countries throughout the world. A thoroughly entertaining book, kudos to Dr. Nordick!
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Wendy Nordick gives us exceptional insight into an already challenged country in the Global South clawing its way out of a decades-long civil war. Wendy and her husband Bill endured repeated delays in their placement with Cuso International in Sri Lanka and finally were posted from 2011-13. They endured challenging living and working conditions but gamely carried on.
Wendy’s experience in social work was critical in helping a population ravaged by a generation of war. She brought both her experiential knowledge in her field but also deep empathy and ways that people could gradually rebuild their lives.
I found that Wendy’s book gave me valuable insights from afar in navigating my own life here in North America. The courage and good humour that both she and Bill brought to impossible situations were admirable.
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This is an inspiring memoir. Wendy's writing style is faith-filled and authentic. I felt like I was swept along on the highs and lows of Wendy's journey to Sri Lanka. Her memoir shines a light on the history of that country as well as the many obstacles she faced teaching mental health skills in another language in post-civil war Sri Lanka. Her memoir will pull at your heartstrings. It has reminded me how privileged we are to live in a first world country in a time of peace. Her book has left me with a deep desire to have a more prayerful relationship with God and to explore volunteer opportunities in my own country.
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INDELIBLE, A SOCIAL WORKER IN THE WAKE IF CIVIL WAR is a memoir that takes the reader, not only to Sri Lanka, but also onto the heart and soul of the author. Feeling called to do something big and meaningful, the author leaves an comfortable and full life, with a career, family, and friends, and tests her professional training, her strength and her faith by volunteering for two years in country that had been torn apart by civil war. The result is an engaging account of facing the challenges not only of the culture and the sketchy mental health system but the loneliness and homesickness that almost brought her to despair. It is a story of courage, risk, determination, mixed with the occasional folly but driven by faith and a belief that one must heed the calling of their inner voice A worthy read.
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An educated and well-meaning couple want to give their time and talents to a war-ravaged country, but find they may be slightly out of their depth in Sri Lanka! Their adventure, overcoming one political and cultural obstacle after another, was a real page-turner! I couldn't put it down. Spoiler alert, they made it home, but I don't know how. Was it worth it in the end? You'll have to find out.
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The author takes you on quite a journey and you literally feel like you’re there with her. So well written with humour abound, but also very serious situations that she had to navigate through. My entire read was met with “How did you stay there for 2 years and go through the things you did and not ever just throw in the towel “You will get through it quickly as you won’t put it down.
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An enjoyable, often provocative read.
Wendy Nordick’s insights and wonderfully crafted descriptions are captivating as she takes us with her on her experiences while volunteering with CUSO in Sri Lanka. The joy, angst, and impact on her personal life and the lives of others are skillfully exposed in this account of her two years in a war-ravaged country. I recommend this book to anyone who has considered living or volunteering in a foreign country and definitely to everyone involved in social work.
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A fascinating and deeply personal account of the author’s experiences as a volunteer in Sri Lanka. Full of vivid vignettes of her life there - some funny, some very moving. The second half of the book which details life and work in war scarred Jaffna, gives an unsettling insight into the difficulties and complexities of a traumatised community trying to rebuild lives and recover normality.
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