Wednesday, March 4, 2009

sigh

I have a headache.

It was a hard day. One of the refugees, a 26-year-old man from Bhutan, committed suicide last night. He lived in an apartment building that is 95% occupied by refugees. The chance for secondary trauma or even contagion is pretty high. The community is reeling.

Padam left behind a 24-year-old wife who is seven months pregnant.

It was just a really tough day.

The headache set in at 8:30 this morning. I still have it.

Sometimes you need to focus on yourself when a crisis has passed.

I have red hair now. It isn't helping.

2 comments:

Sophie in the Moonlight said...

I'm so sorry, Mae.

Sending prayers to the entire community.

((((hugs))))

May Voirrey said...

Thanks, Sophie. We're all doing better, I think. Last week was difficult, but the Bhutanese community has done a beautiful job of providing mutual support and helping the other groups understand how it came to this.

Also, the state refugee office immediately dispatched grief counselors/therapists to work with frontline staff affected by Padam's death. It really helped.