Traveling seeker in British Isles

2-20- thru 2-24-06

TRYING TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT

Well, it’s my first week in my new home, Noeline’s animal farm. I haven’t told you the name of the home (there are no number address’s in Ireland- they all have names for their address) or the name of her animal rescue or even Noeline’s last name. I do want to give her some privacy. When and IF she ever wants me to ask for assistance from the people that look at my blog- I will then give you the information.
This blog was designed for me to share my experience with other members of my family and friends- to share my impressions of Ireland through MY EYES, from my own warped prospective. I hope never to upset anyone with my views of the things that I experience or even the people that I experience. I feel that I need to be as honest as I can- so much so that originally I had cards made up with my face, my e-mail, my blog address and my .com address. I made up 800 of these cards. Well, it turns out that I might of handed out 10 in my trip so far. As I started to write about my experiences, I realized that I would be writing about the people I meet, through work, living and the new family I found. And I didn’t want them to feel that I would have a conversation with them in the day and end up writing it all up in my blog the next – I realized that it would make them a bit paranoid. And I really didn’t blame them. Not that I’m not proud of this blog- because I am and really try to be honest with my impressions but I also try to be really fair too.
But if I met someone who was blogging everything, I might be a bit more protective as to what I share too. I do want you all to know that I don’t share things that I see as too personnel or something that shouldn’t be put in the blog. But I have also decided not to give out the information cards any more. I even blacked out the addresses and such on the card and just use it as a “calling card” a way to give people my name and face- so they remember me better. You would remember someone if they gave you a photo of them on your first meeting- wouldn’t you? I know I would.
I have told my new family little tid bits of information that I wrote in the blog. Sister Teresa (as Anthony calls her – and I like it so I use it too) has been concerned about this blog thing. I did read a bit of the entry that I wrote that concerned Sweet Mary. She and Sweet Mary just wanted me to share my feelings on the purpose of this blog. I don’t want anyone that is written about to misinterpret intentions should they read it.

So on to the real blog.

Noeline is very concerned about leaving me on the farm during the day while she is at work. She had an experience with her neighbor (who is down the road a bit) he called the Gov’t on Noeline and her animals a few years back. The Gov’t is fully aware of the service that Noeline offers to the animals of this country, and they even told him this. But they still had to so something about the complaint. They ended up making her decide which animals that she would kill- she had to pick 11 dogs. It killed this loving and compassionate woman. Her mission is to protect, rescue and love and care- not kill. It broke her heart.
So needless to say, Noeline can’t ever be put into that predicament again, so she is so afraid of having me stay on the grounds of the farm while she is away. She feels that if anyone is around, that the animals will bark. She thinks that when they are alone (the dogs)- they sleep and keep quiet. I offered to stay in the stone house and sort and box up things and not leave. I have a portable potty and I would make a lunch and not go outside. But she is too worried to even do that. So instead, I am to leave with her or go somewhere else for the day. I knew right away that this was going to be a real problem. If I had a job, it wouldn’t, as long as I worked the same hours as her….but I was willing to take it one day at a time- I needed a secure place to sleep and she needed lots of work done for Ghana.

The first day I went to work with her. (I am choosing not to mention anything about her job- I wish I could. Noeline is so consistent with her constantly giving way of life. Even in her job she helps the disadvantaged. But I will attempt to pull out some of my experiences without giving you personal information about her job.)

She works in Newport-, which is 5 miles outside of Westport.

To try and give you an idea of where I am – lets start at Westport Village- Coming out of Westport is a road called Newport Road. If you go down that road (5 minutes out of town and about 5 miles), you pass my cousin Teresa’s house then 2 streets later (but far a part) is Noeline’s house then 5 more miles is Newport Village. All down the same road. Which helps that I’m not too far from my cousin’s house or Westport. It isn’t a walk able distance (this fat, pussy American would die on walking the distance!) But maybe in the future I might be able to do it- if I can do it without getting killed by the narrow road and the fast cars…
To tell you about Newport I have to compare it to something- so of course I pick Westport. Westport is a small village with 3 or 4 streets off of two points, the clock and the octagon. It is mostly old storefronts with bright colors and easy walking to get to just about anything. It has 1 large grocery store and 1 smaller one. It has a few chemist’s (pharmacy), a few books stores, 2 or 3 newsagents (newspaper stores) 70 pubs, men’s and woman’s clothing stores, a few jewelry stores, and 2 internet café’s, a couple hotels, couple churches, few B&Bs, 2 cell phone stores, lots of restaurants, tourist office, solicitors offices (Lawyers offices), fabric and custom fabric stores, produce shops and butchers and a few banks- you get the picture. It has most everything you would need. It may not have it in quantity, (which makes the price cheaper, but you can get just about everything you would need). Westport has a small town feel, it is very clean and bright. I was thrilled with it – it even had the few things that I prayed they would have, like woman’s “personnel” items and hair dye (boy, I would hate to have to go natural!) Westport has a magical feeling surrounding it. I can’t say it any better, everyone seems to feel it- even if they have lived here their whole life.

Now Newport. I have to admit that I really haven’t spent much time in this little town. And I haven’t walked around it much- but I still have an impression of the town. Now as much as Westport is the town that my great-grandmother came from (the outskirts), Newport is the family town of my great-grandfather. So I have roots in both towns- so that makes them equal in that matter.

Newport is also on the main road – more main then Westport, meaning that Westport has one-way streets, so you come into town and have to drive around the town to get back out. And it has a few streets that take you to different parts of Ireland. But with Newport, you drive straight through it, like an old western town. And that’s the feel I get too. Just like an old western town. It has the feeling of a working town. It is not as fancy as Westport, it does have old storefronts, but they are not as well kept up. There is a wonderful old Grainery that is just sweet! It is all redone, but the rest of the town doesn’t seem to match up to it.
(In the Grainery: It has an Internet place that is very nice, much better then Westport’s 2 dinky places. It is situated in the upstairs of the old Grainery and it has a wonderful area for computers and lots of space and offers free coffee and tea and there is a nice feel to the place. It also offers computer classes. But the BIG issue is that Newport does not have Broad Band. It is dial up and it is the slowest thing I have ever had to deal with! I wanted to rip my hair out of my head! It took me 25 minutes to get to my goggle e-mail account and that was just to get to the site- I hadn’t gotten in it yet! I thought my computer was broken. I had to get help and they explained that they have been trying for months and months to get the company that should be providing broadband to get it to them. And then to add insult to injury- they charge 5 euros an hour and that’s the minimum charge! So If I’m on 15 min to 1 hour it’s the same charge! I was pissed off- what a blatant rip off. I do have to say that the staff was really nice people, just so helpful)
Newport has a coffee shop, a mom and pop grocery/convenience store, a small grocery store, a hotel, pubs, a clothing store that supposedly carries every type of clothing and size made, and a misc. type dollar store (but I don’t think dollar prices)
But the thing that also made the feel not as nice is that the town has a wonderful river that runs down across the town and it breaks some shops on to one side and then the other ones on the other side. It doesn’t run through the town, it runs along it- like parallel and it has a stone bridge that breaks the town in two. So it feels very disjointed.

And it seems that these two small villages have quite a big rift between them. They have a group of people that volunteer their time to clean up the village – called Tidy Town. Some of the people that are at Noeline’s job are involved in this community organization. They take great pride in their little village. And once a year there is a competition and award for the “Tidiest Town and Beauty” award. And Westport has won it for the last few years. This is where the rift comes from.

Each town has “town pride” and I (of course) ruffled some feathers when I mentioned my impression that Newport was a working type town VS Westport is more magical. Big mistake! (Let an American put her foot it in!) I have learned to not compare the two towns- except in my blog! (it is MY blog- so I can say what I want!)

Well, I am looking for a job and I think I found one…

Love Kym

Tags: Ireland, Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, March 3rd, 2006 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.