Namaste dost! (hello dear friends!)

Since there is a growing number of non-Dutch friends and subsribers to this e-mail newsletter, I decided to switch to English from now on. Hopefully you'll understand it and you don't mind!

The last weeks were both energizing and tiring, but full of new experiences and meetings with nice people. After a residence of ca. 1 month, Varanasi has become a kind of home for me. The people, especcially at the Social Centre in Nagwa, have become a kind of family for me. It says so much when there is a mutual understanding and love between people, a good cooperation, and when you talk about everything you want, even the most personal issues...

Well, to say so, the major thing I've done in the Social Centre, is to look for a possilbility for investing the sponsor money in a good and sustainable way. Before I came to India, my dream was to teach small kids in English and computer, but how can you do this without speaking Hindi, the major language in Varanasi...? Well, that was difficult. So maybe another time I come to Varanasi for a longer time, I will learn Hindi first.

Anyway, the staff of the Centre was - fortunately enough - very pleased to hear my plans for investment of the sponsor money, which had raised to approx. EUR 2000,- in the mean time, but still depending on the length of my cycle tour. It was a long-lasted dream to have some computers at the little school upstairs, to give even the poorest children a chance to learn computer. So we went, together with a local computer wizard, a well-known professor Yacoob Yawar, to purchase the first computer which was paid by the first part of sponsor money which was already present. Beside that, the health clinic downstairs needed a dvd-player for so-called awareness programs. So that was the first part!

After having an incredibly nice time in Varanasi with many new friends, I started my cycle tour the 18th. of November, exactly 1 month after my arrival in India. It was'nt a normal take-off. The Centre's chairman had decided to make it a happening worth remembering. So be it... But especcialy for the Social Centre it should be a good PR campaign. So 18th November the local press and many people of Nagwa were at the Centre's front to see Fr. Francis (finally... I met him! :-) give me the green light for departing.
Beginning on a challenge I could never dream of... Beside that, there had come a sadhu giving me an horourable blessing on the traditional Hindu way. Wow! What had happened? Why was I worth such a pubicity? Hm... Allah may know it.

Well, after 3 succesfull days, evrything is well, unless the 'needed' stomach-stuff... The road is just perfect, above all my expectations. Most part until now I cycled on the well-known Grand Trunk Road, a perfectly-kept, but busy connection between Delhi and Kolkata. Unless the dirty diesel smoke which comes directly in your face, the landscape islovely and the weather perfect. The part state I'm crossing now - Bihar - is very known for its dark sides - touts, cheaters, violence, extreme povertyand government corruption. And that's exactly the thing The Buddha 'forecasted' to happen in Bihar. Although it has such a great historic value and places of interest... The best example is Bodhgaya, the small village I'm now. It is the place where the holy Bodhi Tree stands and where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. A lovely green place full of temples, monasteries and pilgrims.

But Bodhgaya isn't just a place of pilgrimage. As soon as I'd arrived in Bodhgaya (250 km from Varanasi) there came to students towards me asking 'if I was Christopher'. How in all heaven could they know that???
Well, they had heard about me from a good Dutch friend I'd met in Varanasi, Johan Kempen. He had helped put up a minor school in a small village near Bodhgaya - Sunjata Village. They found an old, empty hospital and collected around 120 kids from the village which wanted to get education here - for free. Now there are 4 students giving lessons on a volunteer base and once a week there comes a docter to give any medical help. But it's hard to let the children come everyday. Because of the 'cold' season, children need sweaters which they haven't. So who will care for that? A typical Indian mentality is also not to come to school everyday. The school is just 1 month old and isn't dependent on any sponsor money at all. But where should they live of, when there's no money? At least there's a need for winter wollens for the children. So if you like to be helpfull in a any way, please contact Dit e-mailadres wordt beschermd tegen spam bots, u heeft Javascript nodig om het te bekijken or Dit e-mailadres wordt beschermd tegen spam bots, u heeft Javascript nodig om het te bekijken for more information. The initiative is called Gautam Buddh Free Education Centre.
Any suggestions for support are welcome!

Now I'm staying at a peaceful Ashram in Bodhgaya, and I'm expected to join yoga and meditation classes each morning at 4 o'clock! Hell, that's terrible! In a couple of days I'll continue my cycle tour along beautiful places like Nalanda and Rajgir, up to Darjiiling, where I'm supposed to arrive beginning of December.

The financial picture is as following: from the approx. EUR 2000,- there is used ca. EUR 600,- for the first computer and the dvd player. The rest will come when I return back to Varanasi in March.

All the best there!

Greetings, Christopher (sometimes also called Suzl or Chrissiepissie...