Beau Rivage - Mauritius © L. Leclezio

Had I recently left? Had I just returned? If so when? If so - Had anything changed much?

I forget how long I stood there immobile pondering over the ponds? Nothing else was moving either. Had time stood still? There was not a breath of wind. The leaves on the trees were not fluttering. At some moment in time other leaves had fallen. Now they looked like puzzle pieces floating over the still waters of the ponds at the foot of the dried out falls. Were they waiting to be assembled in a timeless pattern?

When had the water stopped flowing? When would the water rush over the falls again to disturb the present peace and stir everything back into action?

I stood in the middle of the bed of 'La Riviere Seche'! I was gaping at the eighteen inch in diameter by eighteen inch deep hole carved in the volcanic basalt river bed rock. When had the first little stone started to swirl around slowly grinding a hole that got ever wider and deeper?

From the time of its original humble conception how many more stones had contributed to the expansion of that hole now at my feet? How many more will? How much grinding over how many millenniums had occurred for that particular hole to become so readily visible and so substantial that it could be finally considered as an integral part of the whole river bed? Through the years, how many of the grinding stones had been small? Indeed so small that they must have been judged insignificant by some of the haughty larger ones! Yet while being crushed back to dust in the process, they willingly and humbly supplied the necessary grit for the hole to grow. How many had actually started out by being big stones crowding the ever growing hole before being also reduced to dust? Today who remembers what? And does it really matter since so many of the original stones big and small have all disappeared in spite of all contributing their share in making the whole aerial picture what it is today! In the creative process, how many of the big stones had relentlessly crushed the little ones while the little ones had equally relentlessly reduced the size of the bigger ones? Does anyone care? Who knows? All we know is that without the continuous grinding process more room could not have been made for ever more stones to occupy and to continue to revolve and evolve in that hole?

At this moment in time, with everything apparently dormant, the small and the big stones in the hole all stood still and undisturbed shoulder to shoulder. The forceful fast flowing and energizing water that usually set them in motion had gone underground. I could not guess for how much longer the river bed would lull all to sleep? But I could wonder what would happen once the flow resumed? Would the currents then coming into play cause the stones to turn clockwise to mark the creative passage of time? Or would the stones be turning counterclockwise at times in an effort to revisit the passage of time. Would the stones resuming work together as a whole or individually feel the grinding pain as they ever so slowly stamped their own signature over the picture of the much bigger whole comprising the entire river bed?

With a splash a carpe jumped in the pond below. The ripples carried some of the leaves over the surface of the water. As a few leaves came together they revealed a part of the puzzle of life. Over time, how many new leaves would need to be turned over and how many would become bound together before the whole story could be told?

As I saw the leaves come together, I understood in a flash that at times the water may stop flowing, the stones may stop grinding for a while as they are no longer churned around clockwise or otherwise by the varying environmental currents, even the hands on my watch may stop - But time always marches on.

Thus there is a time for the water to appear and to flow freely; there is a time for the water to disappear underground and to apparently stop flowing. There is a time to stand still shoulder to shoulder when in a hole or not; there is a time to consistently grind away. There is a time for any stone big or small to fall in a hole to grind the hole bigger while it is being ground smaller; there is a time for any stone to be so churned round and round that the forceful water will force it to climb out of the hole and quit grinding and being ground. Indeed, there is a time for time itself to pass by so quickly that we fail to notice it and there is a time for us to stop so we can mark time. There is a time for some things to change over time and there is a time for nothing to change for all times.

Oh! What was that? It was another splash. Another carpe had jumped. More leaves came together. The puzzle became clearer. Had I stood there for forty years? What and how much had changed? My father was physically no longer there. But had his driving force lived on through his faith in our father in heaven? He was still infinitely present in the natural beauty of Beau Rivage and would be there and everywhere until the end of times. Alain Harel was also no more but so very much spoke about him here. In the midst of the silent lush tropical flora and fauna, Alain's son Jean Luc Harel was very obviously perpetuating his father's creative and caring tradition. In fact in the present, everywhere around Beau Rivage a loud living tribute to the past permeated the air. Zael had long left for the 'beau rivages' of a better world. But George was now there to go on baiting our fishing lines, unhook the fish and re-bait the hook. The 'carpes' and the 'gueule paves' were still biting. The gorgeous Bougainvilleas were still flowering
profusely. Somewhere along the banks of the river bed, our old boat 'Kitoper' had rotten. Even its ribs had been turned into compost! But there was a new similar looking boat with a blood red stripe moored in its place.

A sudden gust of wind caused some of the fine dust to twirl out of the hole.
Almost instantly the quickly dying wind returned it to the ground.

There was a flash of lightning in the sky. It was followed by a clap of thunder. Now fully awake to the present, I walked out of the dry river bed. Soon the water would be flowing again. The stones in the hole would resume their carving work, incessantly shaping the whole picture. The hands of my watch would start to turn again. They would decidedly turn clockwise. But depending on the often confusing currents, the small and bigger stones would alternately swirl around clockwise or anticlockwise. Would anyone care as long as the hole got ever wider and deeper? For sure and for all to see, the water would keep flowing forward to the sea. The cascade would come back to life with its roaring waters tumbling into the ponds below. With the
increasing noise and the prevailing water flow most of the puzzle pieces would once again get lost in the shuffle.

But life would go on! For ever, there is a time for life to proceed ruefully or peacefully and there is also a time for the clock to stop. It is only at such moments in time, when supernatural feelings negate the passing of time that time in turn takes time to truly elevate feelings beyond the natural. And it is only then, as we hold time in our hands, that over time our life can be somewhat understood and better appreciated.

Some day, when I leave. Where will I live? Forever.

Thank you dear Kits. God bless you and your children abundantly. With much love, Bopbops.
Please pray for us today as it is the anniversary of your mother finding out that she had ALS! I love you and the example you set. Bops.

My dear Catherine,

Thank you so so much for your mail!!!It made me so, so happy! It is the first letter that I received in Mauritius! Your drawings were excellent and I promise you that as soon as I can, you will all come to swim here! I love you lots and you always know how to make me happy. Please kiss your mom & dad and all your family for me. With much love from your Bopbops!

Dear Children and Grand Children,

Just a few pics from Mts. Obviously back in Anno Domine 1866, either the English did not believe in the effectiveness of their correctional system or they knew that as long as man exist there will be vagabonds! Hence note that 'Vagrant Depot' is intrically carved out of the stone! We had a beautiful day at Ilot Mangenie yesterday. I miss you, kiss you and hug you ALL.
Bopbops.

Dear Family,
I love the pictures! We can all be most proud of your mommy and daddy bringing you up the way they are. It makes you stand out and be very special in today's world. I love you and pray that I sell Snoq or publish my book soon so you can come fishing with me. I love you, pray for you and hug and kiss you. Bopbops

Dear dear Children and grand children

A pic is worth a 1000 words... Let the pics tell the story...from one of the fond places of my childhood seen for the first time yesterday after 40 years!!! I love you ALL and kiss and hug you Bopbops...

Dear, dear, dear Children and Grand Children,

On this, the first Thanksgiving day that I will be spending physically far from you, I choose to copy a few passages from my book (hopefully soon to be published). Indeed, we have so many reasons to be thankful! And the older I get, the better I understand the extent of the truth in the words of Saint Paul: “In all things be THANKFUL! It is ONLY when we become constantly and consistently capable of being thankful in ALL things that we show our ABSOLUTE trust in God our creator and provider of ALL!

So, on this ‘THANKSGIVING DAY’ – No matter where we are, at church, at the Lord’s Table of plenty and at our own tables let us take time to visualize and spell at least 3 things for which we should be truly Thankful! I will thank God for: Mama – Our children and their spouses and our grandchildren.

Book Excerpt:

“Thank You Dear Lord for being true to your guarantee on our wedding day. Through the sacrament of marriage You had guaranteed that You would be present at every moment of our life to help us and the family we would be founding on earth and now beyond. Thank You dear Lord for seeing to it that through all the valleys and peaks, neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, not any law in this world, no height or depth, no created thing could ever come between us. (Rm.8: 31-39). Thank You Dear Lord for opening our mind to your Word. Even as Wendy’s body is about to be moved from our marital bed to enter into the tomb, we thank You Dear Lord for opening Wendy’s womb like a most fruitful vine. We thank You dear Lord that Wendy left behind such abundant life through our five lovely children and their partners. We further thank You dear Lord for opening our children’s womb to the beautiful grandchildren who now surround us with so much love. Thank You dear Lord for being such a powerful magnet always drawing the tip of the arrow on the loving hand of our compass towards You. Lord on this solemn day, to You we particularly pray: “May our compass keep pointing towards our hope in the resurrection made visible through Jesus Your Son and our Brother. Please welcome our dear Mama in Your arms as she resurrects to new life with You.”

Thank you for having been. Thank you for continuing to be our guiding light and helping us understand so much more”. Through the gift of heightened vision, thank you for never letting us take the beauty and wonder of the stars for granted ever again.

Together let us continue to thank God from here and from there for endowing us with the necessary faith to know that by Him, through Him and with Him, we can all of us together, make anything work.

“Gentle woman, peaceful dove, teach us wisdom, teach us love.” Mom, we thank you for being so gentle with us. We thank you for always making peace for us, around us and with us. We thank you for teaching us your enlightening wisdom day after day in such a subtle yet powerful way. We thank you for teaching us unconditional love.

‘We’, we are your children who are luckily a living part of the loving ‘you’.

As I am on a new mission, writing a new chapter to our lives, I pray for the grace and courage to bring this chapter to a safe harbor too!
I love you ALL, I kiss you ALL and I miss YOU ALL.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I found a cyber café!!! Tomorrow I will send this mail to you. I missed writing the last two days as I have been working long hours on my book. I found an editor and hopefully, it will be published. I am thrilled!!!

I love you All. I kiss and hug you. Bopbops.

Happy birthday Kitty! Happy birthday Kitty! Happy birthday dear Kitty. I thank God for his gift of you! I thank God for all our children. I thank God for all our grandchildren! I long to take you ALL through the land of my birth such as it is!

Dear, dear Children & Grand children,

No cockroach in sight yet today! But the day is still very young! Yesterday, after writing to you, morning prayers and soft boiled eggs I got to enjoy some more of the comforts of life here in Curepipe, Mauritius! Surprise, oh surprise I got to shave with some warm water for a brief moment!!! Thank God for the joys of modern comfort even if for but a brief moment! Oh! Yeah, I forgot to tell you that here, most homes and most basins & kitchen sinks only boast of a single faucet! Unlike the proverbial saying: ‘A shower of cold water’ here only the showers have instant warm water on demand! Shaving, hand washing, dishes etc. is all done strictly under cold water except if as yesterday, the early morning sun was so hot, it got to warm up the outside wall and the water pipe running along it! Today, I will not shave. However if the sun is hot, I look forward to rinsing my mouth after brushing my teeth with warm water. I will jealously save that short lived flow of warm water for that purpose! Imagine washing all the oily and yellow stained curry dishes with cold water! Although at the beginning Eve told me that here I did not have to do the dishes and that the dish washer would take care of it, I decided not to lose the good habits I have developed over the last 4 years or so. Marik, relax, here the dishes once washed by me do not land into the dish washer for a second and final wash. There is no dishwasher here.

Yesterday, full of the joys of late spring after having shaved with warm water, I headed to town with my camera! Dear children, I bless you and thank you so much for my camera and the laptop! I would have gone crazy here in Curepipe, Mauritius without them. My goal walking to town was to illustrate my documentary with pictures for you. Forget the alluring posters, the white soft sandy beaches beckoning the tourist avid for a good time. I wanted you to see the real Mauritius, the one most tourist never imagine while being held captive in resorts at up to $3,000 a night! By the time I reached Main street, I was truly spoilt! All I had been writing to you was about from the wandering dogs to the dilapidated buildings were there and standing out in the bright early morning sun waiting for that photo opportunity. I am now eager to send this long letter and the pictures to you dear ones.
Oh! It must have taken me 30 minutes to type the above. From the room where I am this morning, facing East, I can distinctly and better than ever hear the muezzin walking in circles around his minaret calling to prayer. Depending on his position on the minaret the volume of his chant increases or decreases. So, for now, I will end this letter and I as a Catholic will join the rest of the praying world. I will first of all thank God for blessing me with such rare and wonderful children and grandchildren. Thank You Lord. Thank you for my children and grandchildren. Thank you my children and grandchildren for being who you are!

Dear dear children & grandchildren,

The muezzin called. Guess what? This morning, I did not hear him! I must be settling in. Indeed, slowly adjusting to a 12 hour time change, I had my first night’s sleep!
Going to bed, the same thought that has haunted me since my arrival here kept me passing in review various observations and oddities. It is sure one thing to come here with the eyes of a tourist strolling along the fine pure white sandy beaches basking under the hot tropical sun and bathing in the emerald blue sea of the lagoon. It is quite another to return as an unsettled settler facing reality looming large around every corner and across the horizon.
Drrriiinnngggg! The phone rings. I rush to it. It must be one of the children! Yeeesss! It is! It is the baby! I hear: “Hi Dad!” Krrrrric Krrroooccc! I have hardly time to answer: Hello baaabyyy! Hello? Hello? Heelloo? The line is dead! The phone rings again! But alas, this time, before I can even answer – the ring has crocked. Where am I? Oh yes! I must be in Curepipe, Mauritius! For an instant, at the joy of speaking to ‘baby’ I had left Mauritius. I had been instantly transported on the wings of a ring to the US where most of those dear to my heart are! With the crashing ring so did my dream. I am here in Curepipe, Mauritius. We are in 2005. Yet, in a flash I was flown back in time to Curepipe, Mauritius in the early 1900s. My grandfather, Pierre Adam was the first to introduce the radio in Mauritius. I remembered my father telling me how my grandfather would invite people at a set particular time to huddle around his one and only radio in Mauritius to try and snag to air waves diffusing the BBC news. Apparently more often than not, the guests heard a Krrriiiccc and a Krrroooccc over the air waves and the diffusion having failed the confusion reigned and the guests were told: “Well, sorry, the reception was not good today. There is too much static in the air today. We will have to try again another day! We are 100 years or so later. Apparently not much has changed! We will have to try again to hear not the BBC but ‘BB’ another day! So, what will I do now for the rest of the day? Walk! Walk to everywhere I need to go! Walk like people did 100 years ago! My grandfather was also the first person to own a car in Mauritius. He would be amazed to see how many cars plough and criss cross the streets of Curepipe today. But I cannot afford a car. Even if I could, I would find it very hard to reconcile myself to pay for a car here. Where is the bang for the buck? In this third world country with so many two tier systems, there is a price for a car for some and another price for others. If you belong to a certain privileged group, you can buy a car free of tax. If you do not, then you pay 100% tax on the purchase of a car. Thus, an old rusted 1991 Toyota with 200,000 miles sells for $7,000!!! That explains why I find so many ‘antique’ cars with square wheels and seemingly held together with scotch tape still running – excuse me crawling along the streets of Curepipe, Mauritius! I keep reminding myself that walking is good for me. Look out for dad by the time he comes back. He should be able to outrun a young buck.
As you know, animal life here abounds in the tropics. Especially here in this animal hospitable land. In fact so friendly to wild life that it was even once the only home of the Dodo! Unfortunately, the Dodo is today extinct. The cockroaches are not. This morning, I picked up my cup preparing to make my tea. In the bottom of my cup, there were some black granules? Coffee grains in my cup? Strange! Oh! No! Look! There under the micro wave. There goes the culprit. An enormous cockroach is peeking at me hoping that I did not see it. He must have confused my cup with a gargantuan toilet. Those granules in my cup are none other than his droplets! Thank God, I do not drink coffee. Otherwise, I might have thought that the maid had been overly attentive and had already prepared my cup for my morning coffee. However, thank God that even without coffee I was as usual wide awake at the crack of dawn. The world is now populated with one less cockroach. Problem is: how many more were born at the very time this one was no more? Tomorrow may tell us the rest of the story.

Dear Children & Grand Children,

I want to begin my days with God and with you all as often as I can. Again this was made easier today as the day started at 4:15 AM. As I was woken by the morning chant:

Aaalllaaah – hmmmm – Bissmilllaaaahhhh – Aaaahhh…

This chant by the muezzin asking God to bless us all at the start of a new day has quickly become my new alarm clock!

A chant by the muezzin in the middle of a well populated town followed shortly by the numerous Cococoricooooes of the cocks also crowing to announce the start of a new day? - Am I dreaming or am I awake? Where can I possibly be? Oooh! Yes! I must be in Mauritius! In but a few hours of flying, how so very far removed am I from Bellevue and my standard frames of reference? But, no matter where I am, I am near you because God is near us all!

Remember, I am in a well populated town! I walk by the side of the narrow road carefully watching every step and the very busy traffic of cars, trucks and loud colorful derelict busses belching out clouds of thick dark diesel smoke. On edge, I look out for both where and into what world I am possibly stepping while also scoping what is coming ahead? All of a sudden, I count one, two, … ten, fifteen, oh, I have lost count, there must be at least twenty wild erring dogs walking in procession weaving their way among and between the heavy traffic. My heart misses a bit, soon there will be dog meat all over the city street! Poor, poor Patta, she would have been run over eons ago. But these dogs are like street kids – They are survivors! Wow! Look out! I shout! But the leading dog as if with a sixth sense had already applied its brakes hard and then leaning to the right, it veered sharply to try and avoid the big red bus bearing down on the pack. The unperturbed driver of the big red bus did not even release his foot off the accelerator for a split second. The bus held on its course as it belched a continuous thick cloud of dark smoke. What happened? Had all the dogs followed their leader in taking that life saving quick evasive action? I heard no yelpings. The cloud of smoke cleared. The dogs were all safely still marching ahead heading for the Cash & Carry supermarket in quest for a second course of early morning breakfast. They had retrieved their first course out of an overflowing garbage bin. Where am I? What kind of dogs are these? Oh! Yes! I must be in Curepipe, Mauritius - Here multi ethnicity is not restricted to people but also to dogs. Indeed in that pack of dogs I could not single out two of them that shared the same breed or color! But all those wily bastards stood firm together shoulder to shoulder!!!

My fifteen minute walk, has brought me safely deep in the center of town. Thank God, I made it into the heart of Curepipe!

Oh! But where are all the skyscrapers, the clean tall glass buildings rising towards the sky? Where are all the window cleaners hanging alongside the buildings making sure that everything looks immaculate every day? All I see and smell rising here are the fumes from the buses and the varied perfumes from the cooking stalls. Where am I? I must be in Curepipe, Mauritius - Where it is not only the people and the dogs that show a wide array of colors but many a single building structure displays a kaleidoscope of colors. Oh! Yeah! Look at that one for example. I wonder what was its original color and when will it be finally completed? I wonder how long has it stood fully occupied in that state of seemingly permanent ‘unfinish’, like so many of its neighbors? What will be its single color if it ever gets one? Will time, sun and weather finally give it a uniform shade or will it ever even if were to last for a short while get covered with a single coat of Permoglaze paint? I understand that the climate, the UV rays, the rain and the humidity must work havoc on color schemes here. So maybe people have stopped interfering. Maybe for now and forever building owners rely on nature to give to each and every building a variety of shades ranging from off white to an even somber most uneven gray intermingled with stripes of dark black mildew marred with streaks of light and increasingly brown rusty rivers of leaching rust descending down each face of the building! Wow! Even the world famous architects of the most modern multicolored EMP building in downtown Seattle could not have in their wildest dreams come up with a color scheme to remotely match the somber if not sober colorful buildings found here!

But, yes, I am in downtown Curepipe. Here, I cannot afford to be at all discriminating! Even The Ritz sports a different ‘Ritzy’ look. So, I better enjoy it for what it is! Can I? Will I? Time will tell! Instead of looking at the multi-colored dogs or buildings, I now choose to gaze at the multi-colored people and the ‘tremendous’ opportunity that exists to make it really big here!

I am once again, on my way to Mauritius Telecom offices meandering through low arcades filled with high hopes where the multitude is all eager to make and to shout for a buck! What a wide variety of opportunity exists here? Indeed I can smell success along every impasse and arcade corner! (Note everything in life is relative) Look at this guy here for example – He is hustling his ‘gateaux piments, his faratas and his dahl pourris’ all being freshly cooked in a basin of burning hot oil right there on the street curb. Should Starbucks be envious? How ingenious? He pays no rent. Wow! He is creating a compelling road block on the side walk! How can I miss him? As I am trying to thread my way between the people moving about like an army of ants, that very industrious street vendor has spotted me. His job is no longer to cook. In an instant, he has transformed himself from being a cordon bleu chef to being one of the most ardent disciples of Elmer Wheeler. Indeed, he is a born salesman! He has to be. After all, his very survival depends entirely on his cooking and selling skills to survive in this most competitive society. I am a mug. Rather than be mugged, I fall for it. But, we are both in a hurry. In a jiffy we have exchanged goods. He has a few rupees from me, I am taking a bite of his chili bites! Oh! They are hot. But so is everything else here including the weather and the service!

I finally make it to Mauritius Telecom. After standing in a long line, I ask the lady dressed in her bright colorful sari if I can get fast internet connection ADSL? Oh! No problem at all she says! We can work on it right away. I am elated. Within hours I should be online! To confirm my hope I ask: How long exactly will it take? Where am I? I must be in Curepipe, Mauritius. Here fast speed ‘online’ connection does not necessarily mean that I will be connected to the service very fast. In fact, now that I am hooked, the lady with a smile has a new line. It will only take between 2/3 weeks to get my ADSL line. But you know – That depends – It can also take less time. I have been gone from Mauritius for 40 years. So I am entitled to pretend that I do not know what she means? Yet I remember that here fast service equates to fast underhand buck! I’ll wait!

I leave the Mauritius Telecom offices and I wander further down Main street. Some things have not changed. The sign: Raoul Caustat Tailor is still boldly advertising the services of our tailor who started making our school uniforms and suits back in 1956!

It is indeed reassuring to think and to know that other things around me have not changed! I am hot and head back to the flat. I need to go to the bathroom. I hope I can make it. No Mickey Macs, Burger Kings, Denny’s or gas stations offering clean bathrooms around every corner here! I make it home. Once in the bathroom I realize that some things do not change. At home in Bellevue, I had to open and close the water before and after each flush in our bathroom. I have to do it here too! Otherwise the water leaks. So, for now, while I am leaking all these day to day impressions over to you, I find comfort that possibly in time I will succeed to flush out all these oddities and truly re-become a down hearted Mauritian but a down hard one with renewed lifted up spirits!
And, I say to myself: “Louis, look up to the heavens and I note that the gray cold skies of Bellevue are gone, that the bluest skies I’ll ever see are – Yes, in Curepipe, Mauritius under the bright burning hot tropical sun! Was all I saw just a mirage then? If so, then where are my children and grandchildren? Oh! Yes! They are everywhere I am. They are constantly in my heart!

My Dear, dear, Children & Grandchildren,

As my body was being flown South, away from you, my mind was in flight faster than the speed of light. It was naturally racing North towards you - You All – Dear Children and Grand Children! You, who with God are ALL that I have known and will always want to know and love a little better every day. No matter where, no matter when, no matter how - This is, will and must always BE!

While on the one hand, we were flying and fast moving across the night or day skies crossing different time zones, on the other hand, time often seemed to stand still. Was it so because I so very much wished for it to be so?

But! Alas! Regardless of my wishes, all fiction had to eventually cede over to and make room for reality. Reality came storming in with a multitude of very varied thoughts. My body was gone from Bellevue and from you! My body and my torn mind had arrived in Plaisance, Mauritius. Eventually as the plane door opened, I tried to breathe in new hope and new life with a heavy dose of renewed faith – But the taste of reality was to be strongly flavored by and impregnated with deep regret for both distant and recent memories! It is then, that in a desperate effort to divorce myself from myself, I resolved to become a little bit more each and everyone of you!!! I tried to view all that my eyes and my mind were perceiving with your eyes and from your point of view. Divorced from myself I was no longer viewing everything with the previously charmed eyes of a returning native/tourist returning to the magic land of his birth but rather through the analytical eyes of loving children, wanting the best for me. I asked myself: What would you dear children and grandchildren see, think and feel facing that scenery of stark contrasting realities? Beautiful nature created by God on the one hand and abominations marring the landscape on the other created by man! Shortly after we landed, like in a movie, together, you and I, we watched the frames of this land, the real, the imaginary and the visionary, all unreel themselves to provide me (through your eyes) with newer and better frames of reference. Thus, while exploring the possible vistas of my future and while viewing it all through your eyes, I could get a better picture of the bleak reality. I could hear you lovingly hear you ask the begging question: Is this really the place where daddy can and will indeed want to write and let us read about a new chapter of his life? Chapters filled with fishing stories, treasure hunting and tourist opportunities… Indeed, how long will daddy be able to stay there writing these chapters bodily far away from us? Will it be all worth it in the end? What will it reflect? For my part, the appeal of my birth place, the dream of starting to read the old/new world around me and to write about new chapters of my life, those excitements that the first impressions had aroused only two years ago and then again to a lesser degree last year were fast fading. Through your eyes, reality was setting in! It is one thing to view your birth place through the eyes of a transient tourist – It is quite another to view it through the eyes of your children and through those of an ex-emigrant – now turned into a possible immigrant! NOW, through your eyes, my dear children and grandchildren, I could see it all better for what it really IS! Thus, as one set of words rang and echoed loudly in my mind: What you see – Is what you get - This Is IT! This is It!! This is it!!! Another more persisting set of words framed the question that popped up continuously: What is it? What is this? What is that? What is it/this/that…? Those echoes gave birth to THE RECURRING QUESTION: For how long would I want to make an uncertain dream become my every day reality?

The only present reality I knew with certainty is that: No matter where I am, I will always want to be and therefore WILL BE with you all till the end of times on earth!

Thus my priority upon arrival in Curepipe was to go to Mauritius Telecom to get hooked up back to you ALL. After a long flight and a tiring day, I thought that I would sleep long and soundly until late the next morning. But obviously I sleep fast no matter where I am!

The call by the Muslim muezzin ‘in chant’ starting at 4:15 AM addressed to the multitude begging the ‘faithful to come to praise and to glorify God woke me up and instilled a new dimension on the universality of prayer here in Curepipe, Mauritius. Indeed it feels my heart with joy! In a most vivid way, it reminds me that we the prayerful Catholics are not the exception. It is comforting to find that in a multi ethnic society, we indeed have a common though most uncommon denominator: ‘GOD’. In a way I was comforted to note that, that call to prayer is indeed a form of ‘publicity’! It is an effort to sell God and the necessity to praise Him to the heathen multitude! I considered that here, this ancient vocal way of advertising freely the one and only God publicly, indiscriminatingly and loudly through the natural air waves far surpasses what we find in a secular society where paid advertising through selected air waves tends to ‘glorify’ mostly all the false gods of consumerism. Furthermore short of plugging their ears, even the atheists do not have the ability to ‘click’ and change the channel or to mute the voice of the muezzin. Like it or not, here God is worth being advertised. God is worth being made known broadly and is most certainly worth being thanked, glorified and begged every morning at the start of the day at 4:15 AM.

As if the call of the muezzin did not suffice to highlight for me the universality of prayer, at the crack of dawn, I opened my curtain to better watch daylight swallow the darkness of night. On the horizon the bright emerging colors revealed that the God of Power was indeed busy turning on His gigantic source of light – The sun was gradually appearing to brighten our life, to promote and to sustain growth in all living creation. Moving my eyes away from the horizon, right below my window I was delighted to find another most inspiring humble form of beauty. In silence, yet somehow possibly answering the call to prayer being sung loudly for all to hear, an elderly Indian woman was moving reverently and most discreetly in the twilight, around her own piece of this world. She was silently obviously praising and showing deep respect to her gods through her actions. The old lady, all bent over and modestly wrapped from head to feet in her sari was lighting wicks dipped in little earthenware pots filled with oil and placing them in her ‘kalimai’ (Indian grotto/altar) in praise of the gods of light and cleanliness – asking them to purify her at the very beginning of a new day.

Indeed, I had landed in another world! Indeed I was far, far removed from Bellevue, Washington. I realized that in my small Bellevue world, through a dose of arrogance I tended to think that starting my day with prayer set me apart as an odd ball exception rather than being the norm. Here, I had the impression that those who fail to pray or at least to advertise the need to worship at the start of every day are the exception. Here, the ‘Faithful’ are not alone, the prayerful are not closed cupboard religious! Here, instead the faithful and prayerful boldly proclaim their religion.

While I most definitely pride myself of my Roman Catholic Faith and heredity, while I find great security through the very unique apostolic succession and through the very UNIQUE claim that only Jesus ever made: “I am the son of God! I am the Way, the Light and the Truth”, I further considered all that was going on around me. It helped me to better understand the reading from the book of Revelation in the Bible – Ch. 7:2 - “Then, I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the Living God….’ Then again at 7:4 – “Then I heard how many were sealed: a hundred and forty four thousand out of all the tribes of Israel.” Finally at 7:9 – “After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language, they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands.”

With that reading in mind, I was most humbled by all that I had just heard and observed. Yet that was still not enough. I was quickly moved from the last book of the Bible to the first book of the Bible. The vision of the huge and seemingly inert ‘morning glory’ flowers opening themselves and offering their beauty to the first rays of the sun was enhanced by the sound of the wide variety of birds greeting God and a new day with their songs feeling the air with so many notes. The aroma of the tropical flora was also rising with the first morning heat waves to offer their perfume to God in praise! Again how marvelously humbling? To think and to realize how the various forms of life choose to thank God for the gift of a new day!!! And to further think that we, human beings have been placed by God at the summit of His entire creation, at the top of the living chain. Genesis 1:28 – “Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth…” Indeed it is humbling to note that even lesser forms of life choose to somehow, anyhow glorify the living God while many who are blessed with the unique ability to think, to understand and to counsel, unfortunately choose through pride and righteousness to turn away at times from the very source of who they are!!!

God sure works in strange ways! Here in this ‘simple minded’ society composed of so many different faiths and colors, common people still venerate God albeit in uncommon manners while in more ‘developed’ circles the ‘elite’ having lost the common bond with their Creator choose to attempt to ‘godify’ things instead!

Things! Things are sure very different here!