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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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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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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Indelible: A Social Worker in the Wake of Civil War is a book that makes you think about the huge capacity some human beings have for courage including - the courage it takes to step into the complete unknown as a CUSO volunteer in Sri Lanka following many years of its civil war; the courage to disclose, with brutal honesty, your motivations, your doubts, your biases and your assumptions; the courage to write with such raw honesty about unflattering or embarrassing, but oh so human moments; the courage to acknowledge you need help and then to ask for it from your faith, from your colleagues and from newly forged friendships; the courage to push yourself when you’re at the end of your rope; and the courage it takes to write with such vulnerability about a profoundly personal journey. Wendy Nordick’s book is a powerful first person narrative that reassures us there is still caring, humanity, and, of course, courage in our world.
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My sister Wendy Nordick’s book “INDELIBLE – a social worker in the wake of Civil War” is an excellent read, despite my brotherly bias. Before retirement I spent 40 years in the Canadian Armed Forces as an Infantry Officer and was deployed on UN peacekeeping operations, peace enforcement operations and wars (First Gulf War and Afghanistan), alongside various UN, Multinational and NGO organizations. I have also been responsible for preparing and training units and formations for overseas deployment. Finally, I also some firsthand experience on the
personal and collective trauma that armed conflict can impose on both participants and on those dealing with the aftermath of conflict.
In her Prologue, and throughout the book, Wendy talks about the importance of her Roman Catholic faith. Although raised in the same tradition, I have become a skeptic. Having witnessed the evil humans can inflict on humans based on differences of ethnicity, religion, and race, I now, unfortunately, view religion as one of the causes rather than a solution to conflict. As Wendy has related, there was little compassion to be found in the Sri Lankan Civil War. That said, I am still glad Wendy found solace and strength in her religion.
I loved seeing Sri Lanka through the eyes of Wendy and Bill. Wendy’s travelogue writing style was excellent. As an avid traveller, I share the wonder of Westerners when they realize the world is full of complex and valid cultures, geography, climate, wildlife, food and living conditions that bear no resemblance to home. Although being immersed in a sink or swim situation is tough, dealing with new and unusual conditions with humour and a sense of amazement always makes the experience worthwhile.
Wendy’s book, also highlighted the importance of family to those deployed in unfamiliar places and stressful situations. Biological family can sometimes only be a distant link to home, but new families are created from shared experiences. So Wendy’s in theatre reliance on her VSO and clinical colleagues was not surprising. Like the lifelong bonds developed between Military Veterans, they become the in-theatre support group (family), so critical in high stress situations.
Indelible also demonstrates the difficulties NGOs face in setting up a new mission. NGO intentions are good, but they still must get international financial support and win over host countries suspicious of their motives before a mission can proceed. Thus, it should come as no surprise that selected volunteers are often kept waiting for long periods of times before deployment and that initial mission goals take time to develop.
With regards to her mission, it appeared Wendy was faced with two separate mental health issues. The first is the intractable problem of long term institutional mental health care. Sri Lanka was and likely still is, using state institutions to warehouse and care for mentally handicapped people, with the help of family. Discontinued in many countries, including Canada, the replacement group homes, care centres, different drug and psychological programmes have still yet to demonstrate they can adequately address serious mental health issues. Without a proven working model to effectively deal with these serious issues, attempting to drive change in other countries appears to be a tough sell. However, the second issue, dealing with war trauma among both the general population and care givers, is an area where there appears to be some hope. During and following armed conflict, highly traumatised people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are still functioning as care givers and often still doing important work to support their families and communities. Programmes to develop cross disciplinary care teams, capable of recognizing and dealing with PTSD, are an important start point. Providing PTSD recognition and basic treatment options to a broad spectrum of care givers (padres, social workers, psychologists, all medical personnel and even among PTSD suffers themselves) is a great first step to building integrated teams. There is also a need to harden these care givers against the personal trauma of dealing with large groups of people suffering from PTSD. This requires robust and adaptable internal support networks. Train the Trainer programmes, coupled with group and individual grief and trauma counselling, and supported by a growing body of best practice on medications capable of helping sufferers’ control the worst effects of PTSD are critical pieces. Wendy’s experience also shows how receptive nations can be to this type of help in times of need.
Because there will be trauma after every conflict, it seems that VSO and other NGO’s should develop a standard package to permit the delivery of an integrated PTSD programme immediately upon entry into an area of conflict. The longer this type of trauma is not addressed, the more it will affect all aspects of life in the region, perhaps for generations.
In the end, I hope that Dr. Wendy Nordick’s book will spark discussion on how that international community can swiftly and effectively assist nations rebuild psychologically following periods of conflict and trauma. This is important as the need continues to grow.
Brigadier-General Glenn Nordick (retired) OMM, MSC, CD
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