Dormitory block

The buildings on this site of St Bernard's House, for it is not yet an Abbey or Priory, were erected by donation in the late 80s and have been decaying since then. The mattress, for example, crackles as the foam disintegrates and conforms to ones body shape - provide that shape is a concave U. At the back of the room a small, tiled corridor serves as one's private bathroom: the old plastic WC with a shattered plastic seat at one end and in the middle a shower rose, faded, from which dribbles muddy water pumped up from the lake. Underneath it a leaking tap fills a 25 litre bucket daily providing ambient music throughout the night.

Yesterday evening I was summoned in the dark to help Bro James start the small 2 stroke Honda which moves the lake up to a tank above the dormitories. Since he had been trying to start it for 1/2 hour it was well flooded so the first task was to remove and clean the spark plug. Only there was no spanner: a boy was sent to rouse a nearby farmer who had one. Whilst we waited for him I removed the air cleaner and tipped the sponge filter onto the ground, not wanting to handle the black saturated grunge that served to clean the air. Bro James had no such qualms and picked it up to squeeze the oil and water out, but alas it completely fell apart and could not be reused. Eventually we removed and cleaned the plug and it started. Like the buildings, it had never been maintained.Read more