Fun Pics from the Afternoon

I have been tutoring Sister Maria Hanh (left) and Sister Anna Lien in pronunciation at the convent. Today was my last lesson for the year and they presented me with a glass cube engraved with a likeness of Our Lady of La Vang, the patroness of Viet Nam. It is beautiful.

In typical sister fashion, we all had to get into one of the pictures, so here we are. My arm needs to get longer if we keep doing these kinds of shots.

Click on the picture and you'll see the note the good sisters wrote to me. I sure know how to pick great students.

Mr. Hieu insisted I take a picture of him with the water. It's his imitation of the Statue of Liberty.

I'm trying for the aww factor here. A  young puppy adopted by the sisters. You remember the bunch from a few weeks ago. This one is a bit bigger now, but just as cute.

In the foreground, that's ostrich, a specialty from the south of Vietnam. It's was yummy and didn't taste at all like chicken. It was cooked with little onions that were sweet. On the left? A whole lotta nope...snails.

Confirmation - Part 1

On Sunday morning I went with Bishop Joseph to Quang Phuc parish for confirmation. It is a small parish that was decimated during the takeover by the Communists in 1954. There are now only about 700 members of the parish. It is very poor but proud, with a great heritage and  history. Here is everyone going into the church.

As is usual in Vietnam, the women sit on the left and the men on the right. Next to the aisle in each pew sat the young person to be confirmed and the sponsor. It was a beautiful liturgy, and the choir was perhaps the best I have heard in the country, and that is saying a lot.

This is a view from the top of the church steps towards the rice fields across the street.

There was a procession into the church. Here is the band leading it followed by the elders of the parish.

The children to be confirmed processed in along with their sponsors. The boys had men sponsors and the girls had women sponsors. Some of the sponsors were parents, others were uncles, aunts, and grandparents.

Finally, the priests and the bishop. The colors for confirmation are red for the love of the Holy Spirit that is called upon those confirmed.

Here is the band taking a much needed rest. The brass band is a staple of religious festivals and dates back to the French occupation.

After confirmation, the bishop and pastor posed with the newly confirmed. We were all pretty proud at that moment. Then they all went to parties at their homes.

Confirmation - Part 2

During the first part of the mass, I wandered the grounds of the parish. Here is the small quadrangle of the rectory, the kitchen, and the meeting rooms.

Another view of the quadrangle. The smaller bonsai were mostly ficus which grow easily in this climate.

This s the oldest section of the rectory and is over 100 years old. It was built before the church was built and is still in great condition.

Here is a relief on the side of the church. It is the Holy Family and the painting is weathering to light shades.

Next to the church is a grotto that you can walk in to, surrounded by a small moat and accessible by three small bridges. At the top is Mary as she appeared at Lourdes. Inside you can see a creche where, at Christmas, Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus are placed. It is illuminated by small colored lights.

A single lotus blossomed in the moat.

This is s front view of the 100-year old rectory. All it needs is some minor repairs and some paint and it would be its former self again.

Across the road from the church are rice fields that seem to go on forever. This is a very poor village and most people are farmers. The rice from these fields have already been harvests.

Here you can see four sections of rice. The dark green on the left is a row of newly sprouted rice plants. The lighter green row is rice that is almost ready to be transplanted to plowed fields. The next row is a field that has been harvested but not fully hoed yet. Finally, on the right is a row that has been hoed and almost ready to be flooded and transplanted.

This is our driver, Mr.Hoa. He wanted a pose at the grotto, so here you are, Mr. Hoa. The grotto is made of limestone taken from the hills in the area. Water makes the smooth markings and also hollows out the rock into beautiful shapes.

Not to be outdone, Mr. Toan got his picture taken, also. This time it was taken inside of the grotto where the Christmas statues are placed.

An Eventful Saturday

First, I went with Quyen to give the baskets from Mr. Monaghan to the basketball guys. They were blown away and said they missed the Serra guys. I told them some more would come back next year but they said it wouldn't be the same. They sure were appreciative.










Next I went to see Joseph Thien and his family. Joseph befriended Fr. Tony and I our first year in Phat Diem five years ago. Ever since, I have visited his family each each and it's a high point of my trip. Joseph has finished his third year of seminary in Ha Noi and is going to spend the next academic year in a parish near the mountains.







This is Joseph's mom, me, his father, and Joseph. The stonework and gardening is all done by his father.

Now it is Joseph's mom, his brother Peter, Peter's wife, me, dad, and Joseph. Peter just got married a few months ago and everyone loves his new wife. It was a great visit, talking about old times and looking at the wedding photos. All in all, a great time.

Finally, I got to spend time with Sr. Hien, the eldest sister at the convent at 79. I teach pronunciation (pro-nun...very funny) to two of the sisters who teach the children English. We were working hard and sister walked in. The Serra guys remember her from our tour. She was one of the nuns who restored the convent after the Americans bombed it. Well, Sr. Hien started right in on here English pronunciation, which was not bad at all. Her mother just died a while ago at over 100. The white piece of cloth on  her habit is a Vietnamese sign that she is still in mourning. You are loved, Sr. Hien.

Around the Grounds

Each morning, this elderly woman picks up the leaves and fallen  flowers on the grounds. This is a shot of her across the pond.

The lotus flowers in the morning and closes in the hot sun.

This is the pond across by the girls' dorm. I love the way it looks in the morning haze.

The bonsai in Viet Nam are larger than what we in the States are used to. Here is a small one, about 18 inches high. Some of the mature bonsai get up to four feet and are seven feet wide.

The walk from the dining room to where we stay.

A long shot of the soccer field.

This is the dorm between the chapel and where we stay. In the summer it is used for travelers.

The front of the chapel where Vietnamese mass is celebrated each morning and where we had English mass at 10:30 a.m.

Even More Food Stuff

This morning right after breakfast I stayed for a bit around the kitchen area to see what was being prepared for the festival. The first thing I find is three of the boys enjoying fishing. I have to say I think they chose the best job.

Sister is having some of the boys cut up what look to me like the absolute biggest cucumbers ever. They were great at lunch...crisp and cool.

Staying with us for a few days is a group of overseas Vietnamese from New Orleans. One of the men is a renowned chef and was conned into cutting up the chickens. He has a famous restaurant in the city and man, can he cook.

Helping with the chicken dissection is another of the students. I don't know...something about that leg sticking out...

Hard boiled eggs are the best because then they are put in a barbeque sauce with fresh pieces of bacon. The girls are crinkle cutting the eggs.

More Food Stuff

At the same time as the pigs were being processed, Can was doing some canning (pun intended). What he is getting ready to make is the Vietnamese version of hot dogs. The cans are lined with clean plastic bags, then the meat slurry is poured hot into them. After refrigeration, the bags of meat are then taken out of the cans and the meat is ready to eat.

Someone has to wash the cans and the lids.That's Quyen doing the honors. We're proud of you, buddy.

The rice is made in these rice cookers. The hulls of the rice are kept and burned to provide the heat. You can see the trough of hulls. The hulls are just pushed into holes and fall into the fire. The openings underneath are to take out the ashes.

The sisters do a lot of pan frying, and nothing goes well with meat like green onions. Here, sister is being sous chef for the day.

Thanh is holding the pig's face and ears. This will be cut up for two specialties. The face for the hot dogs and the ears for, well, for pigs ears that are sliced, lightly marinated, and then cooked. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can go to waste when so many mouths need to be fed.

Festival Tomorrow, Pigs Today

Festival tomorrow, so it was time again to stock up on pork. Two professional butchers  come and do this, humanely slaughtering the animal (the sisters would have it no other way).

To keep the blood from getting in the way, the carcass is constantly washed with water. To take out  the organs, the men reach in and pull with all their might.

The guts are carefully taken out and separated so that they can be be prepared for meals. They are washed in the kitchen and put into plastics bags and then either refrigerated or frozen.

Quang (left) and Can (right) help with carving the large pieces into smaller pieces.

What do we make from pigs that everyone loves? Yes, boys and girls, bacon. The good sisters are carving up the soon-to-be-frying bacon.

And here we are a few hours later at lunch. Now we have on the the table both intestine (white) and heart (red/brown). The Circle of Life...well, not actually a circle because it kind of stops with us. So maybe the Great Line of Life, or something like that.