Remodeling

The bishop's house is now almost 100 years old, so Fr. Khue, the Vicar General, decided some work was overdue. Here is an update on what is going on. Here you can see the front of the house that is being remodeled, and the rope the workers have put up to bring materials to the second floor.







The heart of the building is made of brick and mortar. There are no metal structural beams. Over the brick is troweled cement.









This is the inside of the new bishop's office. YOu can see how the wiring is embedded in the bricks. Each room will not only have air conditioning, but wiring for Internet capability.










The workers use trowels to apply the cement. This picture shows how smooth they can make a ceiling. All of the brick will soon be covered in cement also.











This is another view of a room. The back wall is new and helps make a new bathroom. Notice the coil of wires on the right that also includes landlines for the telephones.

Football

The big passion around here for the boys is football (soccer to us Yanks). They would play it all day long if they had the chance. Even the men love it. Right now the big European tournament is in full swing, and they think nothing of getting up at 1:45 a.m. to watch. Here is a video of some of the boys playing on the cement playground. The "field" (mostly scrub grass and rocks) is being used right now, so they have to play on this. You can see that either barefoot or with flip-flops, the passion is there.

And naturally, I have to put up a picture of the winning goalie who gave up only one goal in the entire game.

Dinh and the Bee

Yes, Dinh had a run in with a bee. It seems he was pruning the trees and a little one decided he did not like the look on Dinh's face. You can see how much it swelled up. Of course, we immediately applied first aid and then argued about who was going to get his computer and motorbike when he died. I'm getting the computer only because Vinh is the one with the driver's license.






Naturally, Dinh got lots of sympathy from the nurse, who told him to be quiet and just go lie down and sleep. Well, then Dinh took this opportunity to just stay in his room and not attend class. Yup, he can really play the system. But now he is much better and back to his old funny self. He will, however, gratefully accept any prayers you would like to say for him.

The Big Sunday

Sunday, June 23, I had two big events. First the visit from Nam and his family. Here is a picture of Nam, his mother Binh, and father Vinh, along with Fr. Bill and Dinh in the back. Vinh is a fine artist who works for the Vietnamese television station. He designs the backdrops for the news announcers. Binh is an elementary school teacher.





Here Vinh is sketching a picture of Fr. Bill. He also did one of Dinh and one of me. I have decided I would part with mine for only $1,000,000 if you would like it. Prints will go for considerably cheaper.







Here is a picture of Vinh's picture of me. I must say that I look dashing. It was sad to say good-bye to Nam and Vinh and Binh, but I enjoyed my time with them.




The second part of the day was my visit to Tuy Trung parish, about 5 kilometers outside of Phat Diem. Tuy Trung means Middle Village. It is truly the countryside, with beautiful rice fields and wonderful people. I rode on the back of Vinh's (the pre-seminarian) motorbike. Here is a video of my ride. Take a look at how the road is actually only a sidewalk, and how you can always run into a water buffalo or two.

I know, pretty amazing eh? And then we got to the church. It is in the middle of rice paddies, so the tower stuck up out of nowhere. Inside, the church, only four years old, was packed with every age, from toddlers to the elderly. Fr. Hien said mass and everyone sang beautifully, and I mean everyone sang. It was magnificently loud. After mass, the altar boys of the chapel (it is a mission of a larger parish), met me for a picture.

Then the elders of the church invited me in for tea in their new reception room. After some wonderful conversation, we took a picture. Here is a view of us under the statue of Mary. The background is the setting sun.

And finally, the bell tower. It was a magnificent sight that said goodbye. It is easy to see that God is blessing this place and these people.

Fr. Khue

There is no bishop of Phat Diem because the Vatican and the government of Viet Nam have not come to an agreement on who it should be. But for now, Fr. Khue is the Vicar General, which means that he is the one who makes most of the decisions around here. Fr. Khue's great fun is making jokes in French (he studied in Paris) and singing with the children. Here is a video of him hanging out before breakfast this morning and teaching the kids a new song.

A Vicar General also needs to be a good athlete so he can beat the seminarians in ping pong. Here is Fr. Khue (on the left) soundly defeating his opponent.

Some of the Girls

Here are some pictures of the girls. In the summer, there is a program for the children to stay on the grounds and study organ (keyboard), singing, and music theory. It is a three year program, and this is the second year. The best from the first year are allowed to continue, so this year there are less children. I've got to say that their voices are angelic, and I struggle to keep up with their sight-singing. We laugh all the time, and I get a chance to help them practice.

The Sisters of Phat Diem

Yes, that is a sister driving. The convent is building a new chapel, and because they are not rich, it is important to find as much free stuff as possible. There was a large pile of rubble next to the football field. Since the sisters needed fill for the foundation, well, one of them had to learn how to drive the truck. And here is Sr. The showing off her skills (her name is really just The). It took the sisters about 15 hours and seven trips to load the pile. And who helped? Me and Bill, of course. I shoveled, and Bill rode the truck. Since it is a green truck, Bill looked like he was on a float at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.


Here are the good sisters at work on the pile. And yes, they never stop smiling. I got a blister from shoveling, so the next day I got lots of sympathy. It's always a good way to get attention. They assured me I would live another day to help them.




We met with Mother Superior Mai and had some incredible tea. I need to ask her what it was. You can see Fr. Hien on the right. Sr. Hanh is second on the right. She came back last year from studying in Australia, and she's a crack up. Again, everyone smiles.

This is the site of the new chapel. To the right is the new building for the novices. There are no big cement machines, it is all mixed by hand and then applied by hand. All of this is built on former rice paddies.

The sisters have a small store where we stopped before coming back to the bishop's house. Sr. Chieu helped me to select two towels for my shower. Dinh took this picture for me. Let me know if you see anything you'd like me to bring back to the states.

Back in the Old Stomping Grounds

After the long drive, dodging piles of rice husks on the road - that way they can be dried faster - and almost going off the shoulder a few times, we arrived safely at the bishop's house. The first thing we did was take a short tour of the grounds. Here is Dinh, Bill, and Vinh in front of the cathedral. Bill was amazed at the beauty of the stone work and how marvelous everything looked.

Here, Dinh is explaining to Bill about the large bell of the cathedral. The bell weighs nearly two tons, so we don't want to drop it on our toes. It can be heard eight miles away. So if mom had used that to call us into the house, we could not have said we didn't hear it.

This is Dinh making me pose with a USB cable. There is no reason to take it except that he wanted to play with the camera. We need to get him some toys.

I'm Back in Phat Diem

Yes, that's me at SFO at 11:30 a.m. on June 14, 2008, just before getting on the plane. Danny took the picture, and I have to admit that he takes a good photo. This was after Sue, Jerry, and I had dinner at Chili's (mmm...). I was tired from a long week of preparation and from SCU graduation. But it was time to hit the old road. It was a short goodbye to Danny and then I was off on the big silver bird.

Dinh and Thuc came all the way to Hanoi airpot to pick me up. That's a drive of 3 hours. It was great to see them again. But then we could not find Fr. Bill Mulligan, S.J. Well, we waited and waited, and then Dinh thought, hmm, maybe Fr. Bill is on the other side of the airport. Yes, he was there! We all laughed, none more than Fr. Bill. He is from Boston, or should I say Bahstin.