My Farewell and Goodbyes

In preparation for leaving this time I have to entertain the serious possibility that this is my final visit. Relating to this is the proposed building program the province is undertaking at the Mysore site including guest accommodation, a new chapel and rooms for the priests. With these things in mind, I penned an email to Mark McGinnity, Principal of Monivae and asked him to circulate it to the staffs of all four MSC schools. It is an open letter detailing my three teaching visits and countenancing the possibility of finding one or more replacements for myself over the next couple of years.
So far I have not had a huge response but the planter of the seed must be patient.

The brothers put on a spectacular, over the top, farewell program for me on Thursday night. There were speeches, dances, songs and presents. I invited the St Annes Sisters as they had been my saviours when I fell off my motorbike several weeks earlier. They run the hospital in one of the local Hindu villages and bandaged my wounds and gave me lots of sympathy.
On Friday night the MSFS Priests took us to a restaurant for a final farewell. I spent the Saturday writing thank you letters and caught the bus to the Bangalore airport at 3.00pm. And thus to Cambodia, land of the white skinned tourists where I am not an object for people to stare and the land of fast wifi.

Here are some photos:

The Cricket Weekend

Australia Vs India in Bangalore was just too good to miss, at least for one day. I invited Fr Prasad to be my guest and we travelled by train to Bangalore on the "fast" train on Friday afternoon March 3rd. It took 2 hours and was ver comfortable.
We took an Ola to the house at Richmond Town where about 15 MSC priests live while they complete studies or undertake particular missions.
The Saturday was difficult but rewarding as I visited Fr Gerald in St John's. While I was there, Fr Immanuel arrived from Kerala. He is the Novice Master and travelled all night just to see me. I invited him to come to the cricket with us and so, on the Sunday we attended a slow day of cricket where Australia ground out a small lead by leaving every ball not on the stumps and hitting ones and twos and losing wickets regularly. They eventually went on to lose by 88 runs because the pitch became a plowed field on the fourth day.
I enjoyed being one of a few Aussies amidst a hugely partisan Indian crowd.

Towards the End: 10 days to go.

My Last 10 Days

I am in India for another 10 Days. Today is the last day of February and tomorrow in Ash Wednesday and my second last week here is almost gone.

At this point I look forward and think of all things I need to do before I leave and I look back to see what I have neglected to report on. I feel excited about finishing but have to temper my joy as the Brothers are getting nostalgic about my departure and want to keep in touch.

In the retrospect, I have not yet recorded some of the events of significance in the last few weeks. These include:

the Brothers Exams, The visit of the MSC leadership regarding the building project, My new computer hard drive and the attendant frustrations, my fall from my motor bike and the subsequent healing process, the inauguration of the new bishop of Mysore (I didn’t go, but many priests visited us).

In my family there has been the departure of one of God’s gentlemen, John Vogels and his funeral events. I feel separated by distance but joined in electronic connection.

The brothers went on a days outing to the GRS Adventure Park which is a combination of water slides and other "games". The wave pool was a highlight. I used this as the topic for the Brothers to write about in one of their exams. They are now reading the story of the Greek Myth, Persephone and writing about it.

As part of the exam project I set a 3-5min speech and one brother wanted to talk about orphaned, so three of us went one afternoon to the little boys home attached to St Philomela’s Cathedral. It was a profoundly moving and informative visit and the old sister there was very keen for us to interact with the boys.

Fr Baskar

Orphanage visit

On the last night of our Bangalore trip, Fr Nelson and I visited an orphanage run by Fr Joseph. We met him Thursday at the 100th birthday party. He is a friend of the Msc. His congregation take in boys from Bangalore and surrounds who either have no parents or have difficult homes. The were very clingy and I had to abandon my personal space boundaries but it was great to be there. They danced for us, we share a mean and then said the rosary. Father put the hard word on me for sponsorship and we will help as much as possible for the fees of a lad who wants to go to University. He has been there since he was an infant.
A very challenging and thought provoking visit. Here is a photo.

Half Way

I have been teaching in Mysore for the best part of five weeks now and I have just 5 weeks to go.

Here are the issues the Brothers need to address if they are to do well in their exams at the end of the month:

Punctuation

·            Capitals for the start of each sentence

·            Capitals for Proper nouns

·            Full stops and commas

·            Direct and indirect speech

Sentence structure

·            Subject and verb at (near) the beginning of the sentence

Spelling

The correct use of articles – a, the

Use of correct tenses

Conjunctions – joining words: because, and, but etc.

Possessives: John’s pen.

Singular and plurals.

I have only three more weeks to hammer these through to them. I will put posters up around the room to reinforce them.

Wish me luck.

The "Annual"

At the end of each year most schools hold some form of concert to conclude and celebrate the year's achievements. Because Indian schools spend January and February preparing for exams at the end of their academic year, they usually have the Annual, as they call it, in December. St Francis School was preparing for theirs last year when it was postponed due to heavy rain, a rarity before Christmas. So it was rescheduled for last night and I was luck enough to be invited as a special guest from Australia.
The school's Mantra is Dream, Believe, Achieve and the whole night's performance centred around this theme. And the kids really believed it!
St Francis school goes from Kindergarten to 10th Standard. There is then a state set exam. Students then leave and go to PUC (Pre-University College) to do their 11th and 12th years. So this was the last blast for the Year 10 and they really let everyone have it.

Stories included the homeless Korean boy Sung-bong Choi who won Korea's got Talent, Helen Keller who was blind and deaf and Mother Theresa and her work among the homeless and abandoned. While I would love to have shared this event with many of my family and friends, suffice it to be represented here.

The First Profession

Today I attended the First Profession (Vows of Chastity, Poverty and Obedience) of six novices of the PDDM (Sisters of the Divine Master) order at their mother house here in Bangalore. I met them at their Noviciate House near us in Mysore when Fr Nelson went there to say Mass for them.
Until then they had been just another group, in blue saris, that I saw each morning at mass at Villa Joseph. They invited us to their profession and asked us to pray for them. I sent their names and eventually their photo to my mother to include in her prayers too.
So today, they made their vows amid the joy and admiration of their families and sisters and lots or priests.
Fr Nelson and I were special guests and were treated like royalty.
Here are some photos and I hope you like.

As novices

Their Names

As Professed Sisters 

Wearing Garlands as brides

Ready to leave for 2 weeks with their families