BY LEELA
20091006
20090915
A New Beginning
BY LEELA
Hello all, So here's the latest update on the life and happenings of me. I'm now in Calcutta, arrived here late Monday night, after a 14 hour bus journey from Dhaka. It was actually quite a comfortable bus, a little beat up on the outside but acceptable on the inside. Most important though, it cost me just 9 euro for the ticket!So......it's kind of warm here. It the start of March and the temperatures have already hit around 39 Celsius, along with the extremely high humidity. I'm not complaining though, it's very bearable, I just have to be a little careful with exposure to the sun and all.
Before continuing about Cal, I've still got loads to say about Bangladesh. Lots of stuff happened since I last emailed, which, I know, was ages ago.So I spent a few days in Dhaka, living in a seminary....no, I am not becoming a priest, with all this prayer and living in seminaries. I think the highlight of my time in Dhaka was going to the toilet, in a space between two highrise buildings, barely enough room to fit in, filth everywhere, rats running around, and rubbish and waste being thrown from the windows way above on either side. There was a real homely feel about the place, you know what I mean, small and cosy. Yeah, the dirtiest place I've been in my life. Anyways, my time in Dhaka was nice, although there isn't very much to do or see. The place is just crazy, dirty, crowded and different, but in a good way if that's possible for you to imagine.The rest of my time was spent in Mymensingh, working with the disabled and going on daytrips with different groups. The greatest luxury I had since arriving in Bangladesh was, by far, travelling in the front of a Toyota Hiace van, going on a picnic. You have no idea how comfortable it was compared to everything else I'd travelled in. We were going to a national park with the kids for a dayout. Beautiful place. some wild monkeys swinging around in the trees, and loads of fields full of pineapples. Tasted so good.I also attended a Hindu wedding, which takes place at midnight. Lots of noise, colour and music. So many different parts to the ceremony, I'd no idea what was happening, but there was a great atmosphere.
Talking of atmosphere, try a bangladeshi cinema. Mad. One huge hall with a big screen up front. Hall is so long, you can only just see the movie, and the only speakers are at the front. At the cinemas it's only men allowed in, as with a lot of things here. They kind of lose control, constant singing, shouting, smoking, everything but pay attention to the movie. The movies are rubbish anyway. Quality is like our movies 50 years ago, at best. The cinema is still worth the visit, just for the experience of it.So overall, Bangladesh was really great. I'll miss the people I was working with and the whole L'Arche community there. The Taize brothers were so good to me and I was lucky to be staying with such nice group. Jerry, Jean Jacques and Sigmear continue to send their regards and look forward to meeting you again.Now though, I must try settle in here in Calcutta. Where I'm staying at the moment, with the Christian Brothers is temporary and I'll be looking for a hostel in the next few days. Should cost me around 1.50 a night. The brothers here are so easy going and welcoming. They're running 2 schools and so that keeps them busy most of the time.I'm just after registering myself with the Missionaries of Charity and will start on Friday. Thursday is a holiday. I'll be working in a home called Daya Dan, once again for the intellectually and physically disabled. Because I'm here 3 months, I'm in the schooling section and will help teach the kids very basic things. It was all my choice, mainly because of my time with the disabled in Bangladesh. Definately an area I enjoyed, and want to continue with.
So I can't say much more, but will hopefully have a few more emails to send than the 2 in the last 2 months.Some more photos at http://www.mciarlaith.spaces.live.com/
I hope everyone reading this email is keeping well, and I love to hear back from y'all!
Take care and God Bless,
Iarlaith
Hello all, So here's the latest update on the life and happenings of me. I'm now in Calcutta, arrived here late Monday night, after a 14 hour bus journey from Dhaka. It was actually quite a comfortable bus, a little beat up on the outside but acceptable on the inside. Most important though, it cost me just 9 euro for the ticket!So......it's kind of warm here. It the start of March and the temperatures have already hit around 39 Celsius, along with the extremely high humidity. I'm not complaining though, it's very bearable, I just have to be a little careful with exposure to the sun and all.
Before continuing about Cal, I've still got loads to say about Bangladesh. Lots of stuff happened since I last emailed, which, I know, was ages ago.So I spent a few days in Dhaka, living in a seminary....no, I am not becoming a priest, with all this prayer and living in seminaries. I think the highlight of my time in Dhaka was going to the toilet, in a space between two highrise buildings, barely enough room to fit in, filth everywhere, rats running around, and rubbish and waste being thrown from the windows way above on either side. There was a real homely feel about the place, you know what I mean, small and cosy. Yeah, the dirtiest place I've been in my life. Anyways, my time in Dhaka was nice, although there isn't very much to do or see. The place is just crazy, dirty, crowded and different, but in a good way if that's possible for you to imagine.The rest of my time was spent in Mymensingh, working with the disabled and going on daytrips with different groups. The greatest luxury I had since arriving in Bangladesh was, by far, travelling in the front of a Toyota Hiace van, going on a picnic. You have no idea how comfortable it was compared to everything else I'd travelled in. We were going to a national park with the kids for a dayout. Beautiful place. some wild monkeys swinging around in the trees, and loads of fields full of pineapples. Tasted so good.I also attended a Hindu wedding, which takes place at midnight. Lots of noise, colour and music. So many different parts to the ceremony, I'd no idea what was happening, but there was a great atmosphere.
Talking of atmosphere, try a bangladeshi cinema. Mad. One huge hall with a big screen up front. Hall is so long, you can only just see the movie, and the only speakers are at the front. At the cinemas it's only men allowed in, as with a lot of things here. They kind of lose control, constant singing, shouting, smoking, everything but pay attention to the movie. The movies are rubbish anyway. Quality is like our movies 50 years ago, at best. The cinema is still worth the visit, just for the experience of it.So overall, Bangladesh was really great. I'll miss the people I was working with and the whole L'Arche community there. The Taize brothers were so good to me and I was lucky to be staying with such nice group. Jerry, Jean Jacques and Sigmear continue to send their regards and look forward to meeting you again.Now though, I must try settle in here in Calcutta. Where I'm staying at the moment, with the Christian Brothers is temporary and I'll be looking for a hostel in the next few days. Should cost me around 1.50 a night. The brothers here are so easy going and welcoming. They're running 2 schools and so that keeps them busy most of the time.I'm just after registering myself with the Missionaries of Charity and will start on Friday. Thursday is a holiday. I'll be working in a home called Daya Dan, once again for the intellectually and physically disabled. Because I'm here 3 months, I'm in the schooling section and will help teach the kids very basic things. It was all my choice, mainly because of my time with the disabled in Bangladesh. Definately an area I enjoyed, and want to continue with.
So I can't say much more, but will hopefully have a few more emails to send than the 2 in the last 2 months.Some more photos at http://www.mciarlaith.spaces.live.com/
I hope everyone reading this email is keeping well, and I love to hear back from y'all!
Take care and God Bless,
Iarlaith
20090914
Feelin' At Home!
BY LEELA
Hello all,
So I've been here now nearly a month and so far so good!My last week was quite an adventure and took me to another part of the country. Last Wednesday I left Mymensingh with Br. Sigmear and a couple others to head west to the city of Rajashi. The aim of the trip was for the others to try promote ecumenical prayer among Christians. For me, well, it was just to see a new area and enjoy myself. You see, everything is done through Bangla and i don't speak Bangla so I just tend to zone out and read something in English or think about something completely random like. In fact, I've been here 3 and a half weeks and I only have 3 words of Bangla. Kaman Acho? - How are you, and Balo - Good. Yes i'm kind of hopeless when it comes to the language. I am spending some of my free time studying Spanish though! Much more useful language for me, just not for the next 5 months! Anyway, we were in Rajashi for 3days, after taking what I thought was a horrible bus journey for 7 hours ( A few days later I discovered that really it was quite comfortable! ) In Rajashi (a huge city-maybe 4 or 5 million people) we stayed in an enormous centre for the disabled! There were only 25 people living there when it could easily cater for 100 or more. The people there were so nice and very welcoming. Only some of them were disabled, others were assistants and orphans. The disabled were physically handicapped, not mentaly and boy was I fully aware of that before leaving. 3 games of chess I played with one kid and he beat me everytime. What's more is they all had great English and spend way too much time studying!Anyways, while there we made a few visits to different boarding schools to invite people to the meeting. While walking down a small street some kid cycling is bike was so interested in staring at me he crashed straight into the sewer! Very funny. It's possibly the most difficult part of living here is the people. They just don't take their eyes me and it's very irritating and frustrating. It's not much fun walking through the streets and I try to avoid it as much as possible. There always people coming up wanting to walk and speak English with youno matter who you are with or where you are going, and they don't understand the meaning of privacy! There are so few foreigners in Bangladesh, outside of Dhaka, and so it's not going to stop happening till I reach Calcutta!
Anyways, while in Rajashi we visited a boarding school, which if you ask me was more like a sweat shop, not happy workers. When study ends it's straight into work! Then we passed an incredible sight of these enormous bats, bigger than crows, just flying around and covering the trees. 100's of them. Really weird!When our time in Rajashi ended on Saturday, most of our crowd headed back to Mymensingh. Brother, Marcel and I went north though to a place called Binadoir! No idea how to spell it! It's a really rural place in the middle of nowhere, but there are still loads of people. The best part of this stay was playing football with the local kids for about 2 hrs. They were so excited to see a foreigner and it was almost impossile to get away from them. My accomodation was as basic as you can get. Wattle and Daub! Yes, mud houses. It's tradition in this area, which is a tribal area by the way! The very worst part of everything was sleeping on a wooden matress. It was so painful and quite difficult to fall asleep on! Also, the toilet was a hole in the field behind the house. That was no fun, especially at night when there's no light. They have no electricity. Our trip came to an end on Monday morning when it was time to head back to Mymensingh. The bus journey was absolutely awful. 9 hours in an uncomfortable, small, old, smelly, packed bus. Like being in a packed metro for 9 hours, literally!
Since Monday I have been working and playing with the disabled, in the slums with the poorest kids in the city and playing cricket! Today is a hindu festival so I spent the day at a school where there was their prayer service to the godess of Knowledge. All I know is that it was very smoky and smelly with incense and then we ate a whole lot of food! Which was great!
Anyways, I think thats enough for now! Keep your replies coming, its nice to hear from ye!
God Bless,Iarlaith.
So I've been here now nearly a month and so far so good!My last week was quite an adventure and took me to another part of the country. Last Wednesday I left Mymensingh with Br. Sigmear and a couple others to head west to the city of Rajashi. The aim of the trip was for the others to try promote ecumenical prayer among Christians. For me, well, it was just to see a new area and enjoy myself. You see, everything is done through Bangla and i don't speak Bangla so I just tend to zone out and read something in English or think about something completely random like. In fact, I've been here 3 and a half weeks and I only have 3 words of Bangla. Kaman Acho? - How are you, and Balo - Good. Yes i'm kind of hopeless when it comes to the language. I am spending some of my free time studying Spanish though! Much more useful language for me, just not for the next 5 months! Anyway, we were in Rajashi for 3days, after taking what I thought was a horrible bus journey for 7 hours ( A few days later I discovered that really it was quite comfortable! ) In Rajashi (a huge city-maybe 4 or 5 million people) we stayed in an enormous centre for the disabled! There were only 25 people living there when it could easily cater for 100 or more. The people there were so nice and very welcoming. Only some of them were disabled, others were assistants and orphans. The disabled were physically handicapped, not mentaly and boy was I fully aware of that before leaving. 3 games of chess I played with one kid and he beat me everytime. What's more is they all had great English and spend way too much time studying!Anyways, while there we made a few visits to different boarding schools to invite people to the meeting. While walking down a small street some kid cycling is bike was so interested in staring at me he crashed straight into the sewer! Very funny. It's possibly the most difficult part of living here is the people. They just don't take their eyes me and it's very irritating and frustrating. It's not much fun walking through the streets and I try to avoid it as much as possible. There always people coming up wanting to walk and speak English with youno matter who you are with or where you are going, and they don't understand the meaning of privacy! There are so few foreigners in Bangladesh, outside of Dhaka, and so it's not going to stop happening till I reach Calcutta!
Anyways, while in Rajashi we visited a boarding school, which if you ask me was more like a sweat shop, not happy workers. When study ends it's straight into work! Then we passed an incredible sight of these enormous bats, bigger than crows, just flying around and covering the trees. 100's of them. Really weird!When our time in Rajashi ended on Saturday, most of our crowd headed back to Mymensingh. Brother, Marcel and I went north though to a place called Binadoir! No idea how to spell it! It's a really rural place in the middle of nowhere, but there are still loads of people. The best part of this stay was playing football with the local kids for about 2 hrs. They were so excited to see a foreigner and it was almost impossile to get away from them. My accomodation was as basic as you can get. Wattle and Daub! Yes, mud houses. It's tradition in this area, which is a tribal area by the way! The very worst part of everything was sleeping on a wooden matress. It was so painful and quite difficult to fall asleep on! Also, the toilet was a hole in the field behind the house. That was no fun, especially at night when there's no light. They have no electricity. Our trip came to an end on Monday morning when it was time to head back to Mymensingh. The bus journey was absolutely awful. 9 hours in an uncomfortable, small, old, smelly, packed bus. Like being in a packed metro for 9 hours, literally!
Since Monday I have been working and playing with the disabled, in the slums with the poorest kids in the city and playing cricket! Today is a hindu festival so I spent the day at a school where there was their prayer service to the godess of Knowledge. All I know is that it was very smoky and smelly with incense and then we ate a whole lot of food! Which was great!
Anyways, I think thats enough for now! Keep your replies coming, its nice to hear from ye!
God Bless,Iarlaith.
Whats-Up Bangladesh?
BY LEELA
Hey all!
This is my first time on internet so this is the story so far!I love it!I'm using possibly the worst computer nI've ever used, the buttons keep getting stuck!Weather is beautiful. Very warm during the day and a little colder by night and early morning, and I mean early morning because I'm up at 5.30 every day. Every meal so far is with rice, even in the morning!Possibly the noisiest place I've been, horns beeping all the time! I'm staying 10 minutes walk from the brother house, church and campus. It's small, just one room with bed, desk, hanger and ensuite(meaning a hole in the ground and a tap and shower, with just cold water. But it is just fine and is comfortable. Dont spend much time there anyway.A normal day meaning monday to friday and a sunday goes like this:
5.30am - Get up
6.30am - 30 mins of prayer followed by breakfeast with other members of brother house (around 30)
9.00am - Go to Shopno Nir, a home for disabled kids, by rickshaw and bring some of the kids to Asha Nir, another disabled kids home. Here we have daycare with the younger kids and play with them, or goto the park.
1.00pm - Go back to Shopno Nir with kids and have lunch there before going to take a break for a couple of hours and do whatever I like.
3.30 pm - Back to Shopno Nir and spend a couple of hours with kids or go to workshop with older kids.
5.30pm - Finished work, and go back to room or watch some cricket in park or do whatever I want.
6.30pm - Go for evening prayer in the brother house and then eat. After this I go back to room and relax, and go to sleep around 9. Really tired byt this time because of early morning and the heat.
Saturday is different because it's my day off. Get up early for prayer and then go to a little school with 3 brother house members. We cross the Brahmaputra, literally living right beside it, which is huge!! Costs 1 cent to cross! Once you step on the other side it's like a different world! One side is crazy busy,loud, and urban, the other side there isn't even a houyse. Rice field after rice field all the way, yet there are still lots of people. Their houses are hidden in small bunches of trees. The school is really nice with 100 kids. Also, anywhere I go I have eyes staring at me constntly. I'm like a celebrity to kids. They come running up with flowers all the time. The place is increwdibly poor though the streets are tiny with sewers on either side and everything is so old and broken. Getting here (Mymensingh) from Dhaka was the most dangerous thing I've ever done! Bus drivers are mad! Spent more than half the time on the wrong side of the road overtaking when there wasn't space to do so! They are crazy bastards! Anyway I'm here and all is well so that's all for now!
Talk to you later!
This is my first time on internet so this is the story so far!I love it!I'm using possibly the worst computer nI've ever used, the buttons keep getting stuck!Weather is beautiful. Very warm during the day and a little colder by night and early morning, and I mean early morning because I'm up at 5.30 every day. Every meal so far is with rice, even in the morning!Possibly the noisiest place I've been, horns beeping all the time! I'm staying 10 minutes walk from the brother house, church and campus. It's small, just one room with bed, desk, hanger and ensuite(meaning a hole in the ground and a tap and shower, with just cold water. But it is just fine and is comfortable. Dont spend much time there anyway.A normal day meaning monday to friday and a sunday goes like this:
5.30am - Get up
6.30am - 30 mins of prayer followed by breakfeast with other members of brother house (around 30)
9.00am - Go to Shopno Nir, a home for disabled kids, by rickshaw and bring some of the kids to Asha Nir, another disabled kids home. Here we have daycare with the younger kids and play with them, or goto the park.
1.00pm - Go back to Shopno Nir with kids and have lunch there before going to take a break for a couple of hours and do whatever I like.
3.30 pm - Back to Shopno Nir and spend a couple of hours with kids or go to workshop with older kids.
5.30pm - Finished work, and go back to room or watch some cricket in park or do whatever I want.
6.30pm - Go for evening prayer in the brother house and then eat. After this I go back to room and relax, and go to sleep around 9. Really tired byt this time because of early morning and the heat.
Saturday is different because it's my day off. Get up early for prayer and then go to a little school with 3 brother house members. We cross the Brahmaputra, literally living right beside it, which is huge!! Costs 1 cent to cross! Once you step on the other side it's like a different world! One side is crazy busy,loud, and urban, the other side there isn't even a houyse. Rice field after rice field all the way, yet there are still lots of people. Their houses are hidden in small bunches of trees. The school is really nice with 100 kids. Also, anywhere I go I have eyes staring at me constntly. I'm like a celebrity to kids. They come running up with flowers all the time. The place is increwdibly poor though the streets are tiny with sewers on either side and everything is so old and broken. Getting here (Mymensingh) from Dhaka was the most dangerous thing I've ever done! Bus drivers are mad! Spent more than half the time on the wrong side of the road overtaking when there wasn't space to do so! They are crazy bastards! Anyway I'm here and all is well so that's all for now!
Talk to you later!
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