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document.write("Final Blog from India - for now at least! CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS ARTICLE WITH IMAGES<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n I cannot believe that my six months in India are drawing\nto a close. The time has absolutely flown by. I think that says something about\nhow much I feel at home here. Don’t get me wrong; I am so looking forward to getting\nhome but that’s more to do with wanting to see people and see and hold my little\ndog Oscar who I miss so much, rather than wanting to leave here. (A note to my brothers and their families and\nmy friends: I miss you too but you all know by now that Oscar takes centre stage!<\/span>) As you know from previous blogs, my work here has been\nvery varied, if indeed you could even call it work! Such a joy it has been to share\nsix months of my life with the wonderful children of Flame of Hope and the children\nfrom the local area who attend the Holy Family school. I have given six months in\ntime and I have used the skills and talents that I have in the best way I know but\nwhat I have received in return is immeasurable. The two words that always come immediately to mind\nwhen I think of Flame of Hope are Love and Joy. The children here are surrounded\nby love, from Sisters Ann-Francesca and Usha and from the volunteers who come here\nfrom many different countries, but the children themselves epitomise love. They\nappreciate every tiny thing you might do for them: from helping them with homework\nin the evenings, playing a game with them, preparing a drama or ‘programme’ for\nguests; they love you for it. Despite their disability or horrific background of\nabandonment or abuse, or perhaps in spite of these things, joy oozes out of these\nbeautiful children. Perhaps, at a much deeper level than any of them know, they\nactually realise just how lucky they are, having been rescued, in many ways, from\na life of abject poverty and desolation. Here at Flame of Hope they have more than\nthey could ever have wished for had they remained with their birth family. They\nare now part of a much bigger and very happy family and one which extends beyond\nthe walls of the compound and beyond the borders of the India subcontinent because\nany of us who come here to volunteer, go home feeling that we are also part of the\nFlame of Hope family. The children sing a beautiful song (also using sign language)\nto welcome volunteers. Every time I hear it I have to wipe away the tears. I include\nthe lyrics here but to hear and see the children perform it is incredible. Welcome to the family We are glad that you have come to share your life with\nus, as we grow in love and.... May we always be to you what God would have us be: A family always there, to be strong and to lean on. May we learn to love each other more with each new\nday. May words of love be on our lips in everything we say. May the Spirit melt our hearts and teach us how to\npray; That we might be a true family. One of the things I will probably miss most when I\ngo home will be the hugs! Every time you meet the children they have a hug for you.\nThey say they particularly like my hugs: I think it has something to do with the\nsoft cushion-effect of my many spare tyres! They are not used to those in India! Before I left home in September I appealed to the people\nof Enniskillen parish and beyond to help raise funds to build a new accommodation\narea for the boys at the home. Without a separate building the government would\nnot give Sister permission to have both boys and girls in the home and without it,\nshe would have to in the words of the government official ‘get rid of the boys’!\nThe response to my appeal was far beyond any expectation or wish I could have had.\nThe result was that together we raised enough money to complete the house which\nwill be ready for the boys to move into next week! It is absolutely brilliant for\nme to be here to see the dream become a reality! Although most of you don’t know Fr Eamonn Conway, I\nthink this is an opportune time for me to say a word of thanks to Eamonn. Eamonn\nis a priest of Tuam diocese and is Professor of Theology in Mary Immaculate College\nin Limerick. He has been a member of the Lough Derg team ever since my involvement\nthere so we go back a long way! My introduction to Flame of Hope was by Eamonn who\nbrought me here in 2016. My association with this little piece of heaven on earth\nand with the little saints who live here has changed my life in a way that no-one\nwill ever really know and certainly a way that I cannot even put words on. I want\nto thank Eamonn for putting his trust in me by bringing me here and allowing me\nto be a part of this very special place and in turn, my being able to bring a sense\nof it to the people of our parish in Enniskillen who have been so generous in their\nhelp and showing such interest in the children here. I will be back in the parish from early March and hope\nto get an opportunity to show photographs and relate some of the wonderful stories\nfrom my mini-mission here at Flame of Hope. In the meantime please pray for a safe\njourney home for me and pray that I will not flood the compound with my tears on\nWednesday next! NAMASTE! CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS ARTICLE WITH IMAGES<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p> News of the Mary Immaculate College visit, Part 2 - February\n1st 2018 The first change that\nI noticed around here after the arrival of Eamonn’s group on the 3rd January was\nthe change in sounds of the Flame of Hope compound. Obviously with a family of 24\nchildren and a school of over 70, there will always be noise but the invasion of\nan 11-strong army from Mary I didn’t simply increase the volume of sound; rather\nthe nature of the sound changed. The children here seem to be always happy but the\njoy and excitement at the return of Fr Eamonn, Cian and Billy and meeting the new\ncrew created an atmosphere of exaltation and love. How quickly the children came\nto know and love the new members of the team too. The sounds of laughter, games\nand friendship have filled the air every day since. In the volunteers quarters\nthe changes were also palpable. For long periods since my arrival in September,\nI was the only volunteer; at other times there was one other. Silence was the order\nof the day upstairs. Not so since the start of January - chat, laughter and craic\nbecame the norm. I love being here but being here with this group has been unbelievable.\nMary Immaculate College and the families of the students who came here as volunteers\ncan be so proud of their young people. Their enthusiasm for the project, their respect\nfor one another and for the staff of Mary I and most of all, their love of the children\nat Flame of Hope and Holy Family school is incredible. They, along with Eamonn,\nBrendan, Emer and Sheila have made a huge impact, the effects of which will be felt\nlong after their departure. The teachers in the school\nhave totally bought into the educational ideologies of Active Learning brought to\nthem from Mary I. To hear the staff use words like excitement, enjoyment and fun\nwhen recounting their use of the strategies and resources ‘imported’ from Ireland\nwas, for me, a seismic change. I firmly believe that the sounds from the classrooms\nwill be different in the future: prior to the arrival of the group, all that could\nbe heard all day was rote learning; now I hear the sounds of movement around the\nroom, of children’s voices asking questions from the teacher, of laughter both in\nthe classroom and in the corridors. Several classes have been taught in the outdoor\nclassroom - the school yard; now that is definitely a first! I really dont believe\nthat this will cease when the group returns home. When chatting to the children\nabout their experiences in the classroom they said they ‘love school’, ‘it is so\ninteresting’, ‘classes are such fun’ and ‘we have learned so many new things in\nexciting ways’. Surely these quotes from the children say a lot more than I ever\ncould about the success of this project? There are many similar opportunities for\nschool and college groups both here at Flame of Hope and in many other parts of\nthe world - food for thought for local Enniskillen schools perhaps? Click here to see the\ncomplete pdf blog with pictures included<\/a> Blog 7 An Indian Christmas! We all know an Indian Summer is always a good one,\na little late usually but always good. Well an Indian Christmas is something else! I have always loved Christmas - it was my mother’s\nfavorite time of the year. We had great fun doing our Christmas shopping together\nand never more so than when the grandchildren began to arrive - she was in her absolute\nelement! (OK, so was I! ) So as I approached Christmas here, I was a little apprehensive\nas I was beginning to miss the fuss and the rush and the buzz and the lights and\nthe late night opening of shops at home. Aren’t those the things we think of immediately\nwhen we think of Christmas? We have to force ourselves to remember the true meaning\nof Christmas; Midnight mass, the carol services, the Nativity Play. No danger of forgetting the reason for the season here\nin Siliguri. Only 0.6% of the population of the city is Christian so there isn’t\ntoo much evidence of festivities in town. At Flame of Hope it’s very different.\nThe first mention of Christmas was getting carols printed and learned; getting the\ncrib down from the attic and the Jesse Tree in the chapel where a symbol was added\nevery day at Rosary time. For the children here, Christmas is all about celebrating\nthe birth of the Baby Jesus. What a beautiful alternative to the Christmases I have\nbeen used to. Thankfully my involvement in parish has enabled me to be part of the\nreligious side of Christmas in more ways than for some, but somehow the commercialism\nwas always bigger. Don’t get me wrong - these are children, young, lively\nlittle girls and boys who are also familiar with the festive element of Christmas.\nPurimol, the caretaker here, put up MILES of Christmas lights in the grounds. The\nplace looked fabulous. Sister had bought a supply of fireworks for Christmas Eve.\nWe put up a tree in the school as well as in the living room at home and yet another\nin the chapel. As Sister is Polish, she has adopted the traditions\nof her homeland and so Christmas Eve is the main event rather than Christmas Day.\nEvery child (all 34 of them) got a new outfit of clothes for Christmas and how well\nthey looked and how proud they felt! We had a special dinner around 4pm, preceded by a scripture\nreading and the breaking of a Panatone cake. Each of us was given a piece and asked\nto give it someone else, someone who perhaps we had had a gripe or argument with.\nThis was to be a gesture of apology and of starting over. Such a beautiful tradition;\nand the honesty among the children was amazing as they named their misdemeanor towards\nthe other person. I gave mine away with a curt nod of the head and a quiet ‘here’s\nto new beginnings’!!!! Click on the link below to read the Blog with photographs. http:\/\/www.saintmichaels-parish.com\/pdf\/Blog7.pdf<\/span><\/a> Blog 6 Return of the Irish! So its been a while! I had a very enjoyable and very\nwelcome trip home from 18th November until 13th December. I have never known time\nto fly so quickly! On my return here, the plane touched the ground thankfully\nbut my feet have hardly done so since. The children were asked to sing Christmas\nCarols at a multi-faith gathering in a parish about 20km away on Wednesday 20th\nDecember. It was an open air concert at 6pm and so night had fallen and there were\nTWO outside lights with a strength of no more than 50watts each - I jest not! Given\nthat three of the carols were in Hindi or Nepali it was very difficult for me to\nconduct the choir not being able to see the words!! And the effort that I put into\nlearning them in the first place - honestly, no consideration! All in all it was\na great night though; there were about three hundred people there. Afterwards we\nwere each given the gift of a food package but were asked not to eat it but rather\nto give it away to someone we didn’t know. The hope was, of course, that someone\nwould do likewise with us. Let’s just say no-one went hungry. It was a lovely exchange\nof gifts and for some of us the exchange in itself helped to overcome the language\nbarrier which made verbal communication very difficult. On the 23rd the Bishop asked us to perform at his Christmas\ngathering, again a multi-faith event. This time it was the full staging of Joseph\nand his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Boy, was it a challenging experience. Again\nit was outdoors in the dark with very poor lighting! The sound system was typically\nIndian, i.e. working only sporadically and to top it all, the children had to perform\non a platform (with no walls) about two thirds of the size of stage they were used\nto. But in true Flame of Hope style, they pulled it off without a hitch. Well almost\n- the pyramids fell off the stage!!!! Click on the link below to read the Blog with photographs. http:\/\/www.saintmichaels-parish.com\/pdf\/Blog6.pdf<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/p> I write\nthis as I prepare to bid farewell to Flame of Hope - for now. I have had an\nabsolutely wonderful, uplifting time here for the past 9 weeks. My love for the\nhome and for the children in it grows with every day that I spend here. Every\nnew day brings new wonder at what these children can do and at how they live\nthe gospel values without even realizing it. Read More : Click Here...<\/a><\/span> Greetings!\n My\nteacher colleagues would love to teach here - ANOTHER puja this week so three\ndays holidays. These Hindu people certainly know how to celebrate. They live in\nshacks, they have virtually nothing to eat yet they build these incredible shrines\nto the various gods on their festival, or Puja. This week’s Puja is Diwali or\nthe god of Light so there are massive constructions of multicoloured lights\neverywhere. How safe they might be is another question - wires coming and going\neverywhere! Most\nof my time is taken up these days with the musical. Producing a show by oneself\nis no mean feat, even in India or maybe I should say particularly in India.\nMaking props from small cardboard boxes is like the phoenix rising from the\nashes! Anyone of my own vintage would remember the small bottles of poster\npaints we had in primary school - well thats what I am using to paint scenery\nand props - honestly! I never want to hear anyone at home complain about lack\nof resources again. Try working here for even a couple of weeks and you will\nsee how important it is to make do and use all available scraps! There are to\nbe two showings of the musical; one on 10th November for the parents of the\nchildren who attend the school and the other on 13th November for Pavitra and\nMeena’s classmates from their school and invited guests of Sister such as the\nlocal Jesuit community, the Bishop, other sisters and the local Education\nrepresentative. This is all to celebrate Children’s Day which is extremely\nimportant to Sister Ann-Francesca. Download the full article with pictures - Click Here.<\/a><\/span><\/p> Headlines from High in the Himalayas!<\/span> The schools are all closed for the Puja holiday for two\nweeks so we have all decamped to the other Flame of Hope house in the\nmountains. Its beautiful up here but the journey........well, lets just say it\nwasn’t good for the heart! Cork screw hills with no crash barriers. There are\nno seatbelts in the cars and we probably had about twelve people in a seven\nseater along with luggage and supplies for a week! As I sit here typing this, the mist from the clouds is\ncoming in through the windows! Very surreal. This house is at 1500m above sea\nlevel which is 500m higher than Ireland’s highest peak, Carrauntoohil! The air\nis very thin and there is a constant dampness; it takes about three days for\nclothes to dry! Yesterday, the sun broke through for most of the day and we\nplayed board games and ball games outside all afternoon, resulting in me now\nresembling a beetroot, which the children think is hilarious! This house is located in a town called Kurseong; about an\nhour’s drive from Darjeeling, famous for its tea. There has been a lot of civil\nunrest in this region recently so all businesses, schools and shops have been\nclosed for the past three months which is why we had to bring all supplies with\nus. It was not a good time for me to forget the jar of coffee! Chocolate\ncravings are difficult to contend with too! Being in such a remote location\nalso means sporadic wifi and electricity. In fact the power has gone off at\nleast once a day since my arrival; it just becomes a part of life. On Tuesday, Sister decided to give the children a real treat\nand she enlisted my help to make home-made donuts! Dunkin Donuts wouldn’t come\nnear! Today was a real \'wow\' day. <\/span>We spent the early morning\ndistributing 90 food parcels to a leprosy colony which is only about 5 miles\naway. If I\'m honest I think the only other time I heard of a leprosy colony was\nin Luke 17! There are a couple of hundred families living in the village with\neach one having at least one person suffering from leprosy. Their only means of\nincome is begging. Sister has a great system whereby each family has a yellow\ncard which one of us signs as a parcel is given. This is the only way to ensure\nfairness!!! Click here to see the full update MaryMcDBlog22092017.pdf<\/span><\/a> Just a full week here\nnow and it already feels like home. You are very quickly made to feel part of the\nfamily by Sr Ann-Francesca and of course all the children.<\/span> I see many changes in\nthe children sine I was here last year. Some of them have got so ‘grown up’, although\nonly 13 and 15 years old. One little girl, Sneha who could only move around with\na walking aid, can now walk short distances unaided but on the other hand, little\nRoshni has regressed and can now only get from A to B by crawling or in a wheelchair.\nDespite everything they are still the happy, smiling children I remember so well.\nI really miss the two boys, Sarfraj and Mumtaz who the government insisted were\ntoo old to be here (12 & 13!). However Sister assures me that they are continuing\ntheir education and are with their parents who love them even though they are extremely\npoor. My routine at the moment\nis giving Maths tuition to Pavitra and Meena each morning before school (7 - 8am).\nThen I attend school assembly and spend some time in the special needs class where\nall 10 kids need but certainly don’t get one-to-one attention! We are staging the musical\n‘Joseph’ on Children’s Day in November. Children’s Day is a really important celebration\nin Sister Ann-Francesca’s eyes and so this will be a huge event in these children’s\nlives. Sister has appointed me as producer! So any spare time the children have,\nwe are practicing, practicing, practicing. The talent and the enthusiasm of every\none of the children in the home here is amazing. It is extremely hot and humid at\nthe moment; up to 36 degrees by day and doesn’t fall below 30 at night. It’s difficult\nto do anything, never mind dance and sing. Oh, I forgot to mention\nthat Sister has also appointed me as Set Producer and Props Master also! Painting\nsheafs of corn has awakened in me talents I didn’t know I had. Actually, I’m not\nsure that I do have them, but needs must! On Sundays I do two hours\ncatechesis with the children. With so many different religions and cultures represented\nin the school here, no religious instruction is given there so I provide it only\nfor those children who live in the home. It’s very similar to our Children’s Liturgy,\nso I’ve had plenty of practice! On Monday of this week\nthe children helped to prepare food parcels for poor families living in a nearby\nvillage and I went around with Sister to distribute them. Such a heart-wrenching\nexperience! The level of poverty is almost beyond comprehension. Our food parcel\nconsists of a bag of rice, a bag of lentils, a small bag of tea, a bag of sugar\nand a packet of Marie biscuits as a treat! It was very humbling to see the delight\nand gratitude of the local people. Mind you it was very difficult seeing the look\nof anguish and appeal on the faces of those who weren’t receiving. The new home for the boys\nis progressing well. It is now up to roof level and sister is so happy to see it\nbecoming a reality as indeed I am. The boys here are really looking forward to moving\nin and are excited at the possibility of being able to provide a home to some more\nboys in need. I am indebted to friends, family and parishioners for all the support\nin contributing to this project. On Sunday the main Hindu\nPuja begins and will continue for over a week. Schools close for this festival,\nas indeed do many businesses! They play very loud music and bang drums ALL NIGHT\nLONG. Sleep is impossible! Thankfully we are escaping! We are going to the other\nhome in Kurseong up in the foothills of the Himalayas and will stay for a week.\nIt will be wall to wall rehearsals for the show. The only downside is that we do\nnot have any possibility of internet connection, so it will be a real culture shock\nfor me! Still, I think I would prefer that to the noise of the Puja. Google it and\nyou will understand what I mean!
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<\/p><\/div>Click here to see the full update MaryMcDBlog22092017.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span>
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