Tuisligh

November is the month the people of Shillong step out and pray for their faithful departed. All Souls Day is the day when those left on this earth go to the graveyard and hope and pray that their loved ones get in the pearly gates. November 2nd is the day the Catholics in this town go to town to pay their respects. Someone asked me if we had such a tradition in Ireland. I said, “No way, we don’t do this sort of thing at all, at all”. I got a quick dig into the ribs and a reminder that  [ Read More ]

Since 2003 a little village in the north east of India has held the very prestigious title of ‘Cleanest Village in Asia’.  Mawlynnong, 90 kilometres from the capital of Meghalaya, Shillong, received the award from a travel magazine for having a zero litter policy, helped with pretty bamboo bins scattered around the village.  As well as that all the villagers have access to a toilet and everyone is literate. It seems (from my limited research) that no other place has taken their crown in the intervening years so Mawlynnong is still the King of Clean. If anyone is not sure  [ Read More ]

While searching for a few students I lost today, I started pondering the differences between teaching in Ireland and India. Being able to take 27 kids out for a day on your own would be not be possible on my green island. Losing students could get you into quite a spot of bother. Last week one of our teachers spilled hot oil on a child, and he just shrugged and moved along with his burning arm. When someone needs to light a gas stove they take a long piece of paper, stick it in the fire then run through the  [ Read More ]

One of the reasons I like India is that I have never been robbed, mugged or even badly ripped off here. I have found all 1.16 billion Indians to be nice, honest folk. All that changed this week. I was the victim of a planned attack by a local family who decided my 50% deet insect repellent would be of value to them (it’s not available in India so I see their point).  On the day of the robbery they even brought a new mother along with her infant to help out: When I first moved into my hotel last  [ Read More ]

After a two year absence I am back in India! It’s still hot and the mosquitoes still love me dearly. Even though this was my 6th time arriving into India, I still had to take some time to chill out and get my ‘India confidence’ back. That is, to go from shrieking at a man who dared ask, “How are you enjoying the rain?” to saddling up next to some people on a boat and asking them semi-personal questions. This usually happens within 24-36 hours, depending on how much sleep I’ve had. I blame the guidebooks for this initial nervousness I  [ Read More ]

I’ve just spent the afternoon walking through the town that was my home for the past year. Seeing as the 2nd most common way my blog is found on Google is through someone typing, ‘Living in Kosovo’ I figure I should write a little something for those who may be living here in the future or who would may holiday in this part of the world. 10. Location Kosovo is a great base for exploring the Balkans. As you can see from the informative map below it has a useful location in the region for travellers.  Just €5 and a  [ Read More ]

I’m seven years into my ‘youth’ (as defined by the EU 18-30) but I’ve only recently discovered the wonderful programs the EU fund for us young people so that we can hang out, get to know each other and become friendly EU neighbours. The lovely EU folk have created a program called ‘Youth in Action’ where people can go volunteer in other countries (not necessarily EU countries) and get together for short projects like training courses and study visits. In the last month I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in two such activities; a study visit of NGO’s dealing  [ Read More ]

(This post was formerly called Skiing in Brezovica….until I was told months later that I was not in Brezovica at all. Oh well, I enjoyed skiing in Prevallac!)   Recently I discovered an absolutely terrible way to learn how to ski; climbing to the top of a mountain and watching how other people do it. This was my tactic in one of Europe’s up-and-coming ski resorts; Brezovica Prevallac, in southern Kosovo, and it didn’t quite work out. According to the guide book, Brezovica has three slopes, but I spent all day at the resort with my friend Marie, and only managed to find  [ Read More ]

March 8th was a very big deal for us here in Kosovo as, not only was it International Women’s Day, but it was our first as part of the new UN gender entity; UN Women. Our motto of the day was, “We don’t want flowers, we want health insurance”. Women in Kosovo generally get flowers for IWD, this year they were asked for something slightly different; a public health insurance fund, and an overall higher standard of health care as well if it’s not too much to ask. Together with a group of gender actors in Kosovo, we wrote a  [ Read More ]

In 2005 I made my first trip to India. To prepare for my first trip east I had my brother ship home a video camera from America, a Sony Handicam, and on my return convinced my parents that I really needed an Apple laptop if I was ever to become a film maker (I was also helped by some insurance money – so thank you to the young fella who stole my car).  2 weeks of 12 hours a day in front of the laptop produced two videos, the first is below. Have to say a special word of thanks  [ Read More ]