Many locals here have asked me "Where are you from?" When I tell them California, they ask as if astonished, "Why did you move here!"

For those of you who have never visited Co. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, the locals tend to react in this way because this is one of the two wettest counties in Ireland. Thus, for them, moving from Cali to Fermanagh is crazy. But for my decision to settle here came very different motives.

From Distant Shores

I originally left the United States in 1994 on a journey of soul searching. I had read a lot about India and considered it a land of wise teachers and ancient spritual teachings.

After much seeking for a path of truth in the United States, I set out to discover India by purchasing a cheap airline ticket to Ireland. I had recently met someone from there and figured that I could walk, hitchhike, bike, or somehow get to India fairly easily from Ireland. Little did I know what was in store for me.

I arrived in Shannon airport in late August and headed for Galway where a guy I had met at a Sun Dance ceremony in Massachusetts, earlier that summer, lived. Unfortunately, when I arrived there he had just moved, so I took up an offer from a few drunks I met on the streets of Galway one night to visit them in Limerick. Donned the name "the city of knives", as I learned hithing my way to the city, for many recent knife attacks and killings, I proceeded on my jouney. While visiting the home of my new found heavy drinking friends(I had mostly given up drinking and fully given up any other drugs in my quest for higher things)one of them pointed out a white unmarked van expressing, "oh, look, the Hari's are in town". Curious as to the philoshophy of "the Hari's", I returned to the van later, alone, to question its occupants.

Up until this time I had been reading a book entitled "An Autobiography of a Yogi", within which much discussion of another book af ancient writing called Bhagavada-gita was discussed. I was enthralled

"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."

by the mentions of this book because in all instances the quotes from it spoke specifically about the soul and its relation to the material world, its origins and its relationship to God. I had to find out more about this book, and on my inquisition of the "van resident Hari" I was handed a large volume of "Bhagavad-gita As It Is". I was thrilled with this discovery, but quickly waffled a response to the man that It was too big and too expesive for me at the moment, and did he have anything smaller. He handed me the introduction to the same book in a smaller format which I quickly accepted and exchanged for a small donation.

I took the book back to my recently found friends place and read half of it that evening. I was amazed at what I read. Here I found all the philosophical truths in which I believed already, yet here they were all together in one group of teachings. For the previous few years I had found many philosophical points of which I felt resounded deeply in me, such as reincarntion, the idea which corrolates with our true self being an eternal spirit soul, thus tying in with the understanding that this is not our only life, but instead that we live on. Also, karma was discussed in such a precise and clear way that my earlier beliefs of this idea became immediately solidified as truth. Srilka Prabhupada, the author, went on, expressing my relation to the world around me as temporary, but my relationship with God as eternal. All I had to do was recognise the link and do something about it, continue the journey to link with God, find my place in the world as the Lord's servant and become freed form the suffering I experience due to serving my sensual desires, and lesser ideals, which simple result in non-satisfaction. All of this his me like a bomb. It was so true to my being that I immediately began designing my journey to India around visiting Hare Krishna temples along the way. I wanted association with these people and their teachers, especially Srila Prabhupada, the author of this book.

The following morning I returned to my gateway into this new world, the white unmarked Ford Transit van which occupied several Hare followers. I met a different individual, a lad named Peter who was considerably more reserved than Derek, but quite sweet and friendly. I asked him if I could join them on their journey back to Dublin later that day and he suggested we wait until Derek returned and make sure it was okay. Derek agreed and I jumped into the front of their van sitting inbetween the two of them. We arrived in Dublin late that evening and i was quickly introduced to a half dozen young male "devotees" and offered a couch to sleep on that night.