Gerard Bourke India Trip - Resting in Bangalore

  I left India in a hurry on March 3rd 2020. I was leaving early to be with my wife Jenni in the final hours of her father Frank's heroic life. I arrived home on March 4th, Frank died peacefully on March 6th and was buried on March 11th.

March 16th was the beginning of the first  lockdown in Victoria which began 3 years of Covid lockdowns and restrictions.

Jenni and I remained at home for most of the three years with her working from home and me taking replacement terms in local Catholic Secondary Colleges. I also conducted some online English classes for the MSC Brothers in Mysore.

2023 looked like the beginning of my return to India to continue my teaching in Mysore. I had booked flights to leave on January 3rd. On January 1st I received an email asking me not to come as flights through Singapore were suspect to Covid infection and the leadership in India did not wish to contaminate their vulnerable youth in Mysore. Thus began a few days of cancelling arrangements and trying to recover costs.

Once there was no India trip, I was at a loose end. There was some interaction with Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum but the main purpose to which I applied my efforts was to assist Jenni managing the business for which she worked called "Warrnambool Helping Hands". This was a means of providing the elderly with care in their homes including hygiene, welfare and medication checks, shopping and transport. While this pivot was beneficial to the survival of the enterprise, it was difficult to accept that my India trip was thwarted.

Eventually I managed to arrive here in Bangalore on my way to Mysore again. I left home on the train to Melbourne on September 22nd and arrived in Bangalore via Singapore the next day. However, I am an expert now at managing delays so I am still in busy Bangalore enjoying the hospitality of the MSC fathers. It is warm but the occasional heavy downpour cools things off temporarily.

A series of strikes and holidays have delayed my departure to Mysore to meet with the students and commence my classes. In the meantime I am connecting with several of my original class of 2013 whose priestly ordination I hope to attend before my return home in late November. I am in good company and am treated as a favorite uncle.

They are in the process of building a new school called Chevalier Academy which as yet has only 3 teachers and 16 Kindergarten students. By the official opening in June 2024 they hope to have classes all the way up to grade 6.

I have included some photos.

And thus I wait.