Circular No 728

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 17 October 2015 No. 728

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Dear Friends,

A little late but I am having problems with the Internet.

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Glen Mckoy <mckoy43glen@hotmail.com>

Oct 12 at 2:38 AM

My Brother & Friend Sir Joe Berment,  (Chairman: Abbey School Alumni, Trinidad).

Thank you for sharing this email with us. 

So glad to see, some movements are happening again on our dear Mount St. Benedict. 

It is so wonderful, to read this news from the Fr. Abbot. 

We are at his mercy, as he remains the protector & keeper of our Castle.  

We look forward to hearing more, of this positive and future development.  

It is also good to see the young people who are taking pride in the area.  

Sports, is where we all developed on the Mount. 

A good place to start.

Cheers.

Please Thank & let Fr. Abbot know, that he has our entire Alumni behind him, just waiting to be accessed in whatever way, we can be of assistance, within our means. Time is limited & precious, united we stand.  

God bless you my brother, keep the fire burning.  

Best Regards Glen.   

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Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2015 01:06:36 +0000
From: bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com
Subject: Videos from the Mount

Gentlemen,

Abbot John has kindly shared the videos below (which will keep you informed about what is happening at the Mount) with us.

I say that we must congratulate the Abbot and community on his incredible persuasiveness in accomplishing what I know Fr. Cuthbert and Fr. Odo (deceased) had tried to with the water supply for at least 40 years and also their insightful generous sense of neighbourliness in formally making the football field accessible to the people of the village. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxorhPuE1CY&feature=youtu.be ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZuGySvZLoA&feature=youtu.be,

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Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

Oct 12 at 4:15 AM

Thanks, Joe,

I enjoyed looking at all of them.

Keep well.

Don

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Some old stuffr from circular No. 57

From: Wayne Brown

Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 14:43:25 -0400

>>>I would like to ask you about your photo with the two pretty girls!!, I do not have their names, please write me about them.<<<

If you mean my daughters, they’re Saffrey (on left) and Mariel (Brown, of course).

That photo was taken about 8 yrs ago in Tobago, when they were both teenagers; they’re now 25 and 26 respectively; both recently left Jamaica, where they had been living with me, and went to live in England, where Saffrey (the younger one) has landed quite a big job with the London City Council in the field of Urban Renewal (which is what she’d been doing here), and Mariel, who’s very talented in the arts, is planning to do a post-graduate degree in fiction-writing.

>>>By the way I noticed in your articles that the letter “z” in organize, etc. is written with an “s”, also in an article that I have from a newspaper of TT, is this peculiar, my corrector for British indicates “Z”. Why would be this???<<<

Newspapers decide on a convention and stick to it.

Sounds like you’re referring to the “American English” variant.

>>>We are having our reunions about once a month here in Caracas but no luck with Manuel Prada as yet.

At our last dinner there were two present, Bernard Fontaine and Peter Morvay.

I am preparing a guest room at my house for when you come thru Caraca.!!,

it should be ready by June.<<<

I don’t know those two guys. Nice of you to offer a room.

Maybe I’ll come to Caracas one day, after all!

Best,

Wayne

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Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2002 3:23 PM

Subject: email Donald Goddard

Dear Wayne,

I am forwarding this email to you from Donald Goddard.

The wise guy!!  He was always trying to be funny.

Maybe you can reply to his comments to him.

He used to be in our age group.

I thought you might remember him.

I find your articles very good and I would not have liked to see two sentences where you use ten to describe beautiful events that can only be written as you do.

Please help me with an article, Bro.Vincent???

or any scout stories??

What is your telephone number??

When are you coming this way??

We need a writer on Chavez ways in politics!!

God Bless

Ladislao

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In another matter, as to the WVB columns that I send out as soon as I get them, Donald Goddard wrote the following:

Wayne Brown's "Waiting For It" (part one) is very confusing and difficult to follow.

He said in many, many beautiful words what could have been said in the following manner: "My dear Patty, what seems to be your problem??

Oh my god Brian, I fear a hurricane coming this way." 

I suppose that next week he will describe in detail in about five pages how the hurricane flattened their house.

Since Wayne's style is very poetic and verbose, I plan to read the next chapter even if it takes me three days to read and figure out the hell he's trying to say.

Best wishes to all.

Donald Goddard

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From: Wayne Brown

Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 20:48:01 -0700

Subject: email Donald Goddard

Dear Ladislao--thanks for the vote of confidence, and not to worry about Goddard.

The column has been pretty well received, but every now and then it encounters the duh-duh type of reader--the type who moves his lips when he reads--and provokes in him irritation or worse.

I'm not particularly fond of that piece, but Waiting for It was of course a story about a marriage in a certain state--not about the weather.

Feel free to send the above to Mr Goddard (whoever he is); and feel free too to post his letter to yr general readership.

I was actually in Trinidad at the same time you were last month but in the rush of leaving forgot to take yr phone number.

Next time. I'm afraid I'm pretty stretched workwise at present, but will keep in mind yr request for more material.

I also saw you carried a message from Prada--can you send me his email address?

Keep up the good work.

Wayne

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Wayne Vincent Brown (R.I.P.)

Tue, September 22, 2009 6:55:38 AM

From: Chris Knowles <knowlescb@hotmail.com> 

One memory of Wayne on the Hill is that we were No 10 and 11 in Woodpeckers Patrol (I was No 11).

As such, we got to chop wood, clean fowl, fetch water and other such vital and undesirable tasks for the patrol:

I am not sure of our badge achievements.

Another is his having spent an entire school holiday (Easter?) in the Savannah checking Horse form and subsequently coming out on top in the later Race meeting.

He later told me that he enjoyed the experience, but that it was too much effort for little reward.

I took that to mean that his betting float was small.

God rest you, Wayne,
Chris (aka Pupsy).

---

From: jjhenderson@flowtrinidad.net

Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:11:44 -0400

I have very fond memories of life at Mount with Wayne as we both very keen on races and we spent hours on the subject.

I remember him being forced to play a cricket match against St. Lawrence and he objected to having to play.

First ball from Owen Serrette cut his finger in two and that was that.

His finger healed for him to become one of the best Caribbean writers in recent history.

God rest his soul.

----- Original Message -----

From: David Bratt

Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:08 PM

Yes, real, real sorry to hear this.....

I had hoped to meet him again.....apart from his incisive writing and dour but amiable personality,

I will remember him for the Juniors A (remember that category?) St. Francis vs St Lawrence football game where he played right wing and Christopher Date, left wing, Cokie Joe could run fast and Date had the most natural left foot I ever saw, I played centre forward and both of them kept crossing the ball for me to score 4.

May his soul rest in peace

David

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From: Brian Lewis <brian@aclaworks.com>

Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 4:27 PM

I sat next to him at Mount for one term - his work will live on

Brian

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On Sep 16, 2009, at 3:09 PM,

Peter Laughlin wrote:

My God, he was a young man!

Please extend my sympathies to his family.

He was a great contributor to the Caribbean, and a good friend to all who knew him.

All the best,

Peter

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From: Nigel P. Boos [mailto:nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:58 AM
Dear Mike,

Thank you for including me in this message.

I am very sad to hear about the death of our good friend, Wayne Vincent-Browne. 

May he rest in peace.

Here are a few pictures I have of Wayne, at MSB and later in life.

Nigel P. Boos

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On 15-Sep-09, at 10:47 PM,

Michael Howard wrote:

It is with sadness that I must advise that Wayne Vincent Brown (Cokie Joe) passed away of lung cancer this morning in Jamaica, where he had made his home.

Lisa, please pass on to Jean and Roger Henderson

Regards,

Michael Howard.

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz  Kertesz11@yahoo.com

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Photos:

Bandit p47 The Early Times

64JK0012BENETHALL, Staircase at Benet hall

66WK0004GIRLS, Group at a party

59NB0001NBOGRP, Paul de Verteuil, John Ironsides, Richard Anderson and UNKNOWN

Circular No 727

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 10 October 2015 No. 727

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Dear Friends,

Do not despair, I am going to get the Circulars straightened out, once my internet service is back.

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GEORGE

Dec 19, 2013

With all the information bouncing room, I believe we have enough for a screenplay for a Hollywood, Bollywood or Trini movie. 

Also for creating a TV series that would weekly present our adventures and misadventures.

This effort would also help Trinidad’s economy. 

This type of entertainment has been successful in past decades. 

The monks could use these $$$$$$ to resurrect the AB.

What do y’all think?

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Attila GYURIS

Dec 19, 2013

Yeah, Jan, we built some good “Dens" in the bush, but, eventually they all got discovered by the "enemy" and destroyed.  

I think that's where you got your interest in a career in Architecture, right?  :-)

As long as we are telling spooky stories.

I have another Mount story that I have never been able to explain  to this day ...

This was back in the Autumn Term in 1965, when I was still a small boy, in Form I.  

One Saturday night I and another classmate were banned from the movies up at St. Benet's Hall above the Refectory for not doing our homework or something like that.  

The other boy with me was Michael Korda, from Venezuela, who stayed only for two school years (1964-1965, then 1965-1966).   

So we were bored and sitting around the back (the east end) of the big school building, towards where the stairs went down to the Physics and Chemistry lab, next to the small boy's dormitory.

It was already night, around 8:30 pm or so.

If you all remember back then the school had a small Chapel, which was in the small East building, next to the small boys' dormitory, and right above the Chemistry Lab.  

It had white wooden doors that were kept locked. 

There we sat in the darkness talking and looking out on the lights towards the town of St Augustine and the plains below us.

The night sky was clear and starry.  

We were pissing and moaning about the big injustice and how unfair it was that we were not allowed to watch the movies. 

Suddenly, out of the blue, the ground started to rumble and shake, (like an earthquake) and the chapel doors started to shake VIOLENTLY and making a LOT of noise, like they were coming off the hinges.  

The rumbling and shaking lasted for about 5-6 seconds then it stopped.

I remember I lost my balance and I fell to the ground.  

We both were wide eyed and terrified shitless and didn't know what to do.  

So we started to run towards the little road up to the refectory.  

And just then we began to see the first few boys starting to come down the road because the movie had ended. 

We started to ask our friends if they had felt the earthquake just now, ... and NOT ONE had felt or heard anything, and they thought we were crazy ....  

We could not believe they hadn't felt anything, while we fell down from the shaking. 

Up to this day I can't explain WTF happened that night, ... but it happened.

Attila Gyuris

Mount 1964-1969

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Gmail Jan

Dec 19, 2013

Ah Attila, you were one of the builders?

The old boy said he would be back in one hour.

So we planned to fool him.

Break down the den, put the dirt back, throw away all the materials at the other side of the hill, rub out all traces and go.

I remember him asking later where the den went to because he couldn't find it.

And an earthquake got you off balance huh?

No Holy Spirit from the chapel feeling sorry for you?

Jan

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Attila GYURIS

Dec 19, 2013

After you left I continued to build them dens in the most creative places, . ... 

Each one better than the last.    :-)  All that scouting knowledge really came in handy.

Attila Gyuris

Mount 1964-1969

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Gmail Jan

Dec 19, 2013

I was good in den building, until some old boy discovered us.

Yeah, and you put in those guys who sent the basketball and volleyball way down the hill!

And I have a few cases the prefects pronounced us guilty until proven innocent with no permission to talk.

Jan Koenraadt

'63-'67

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ANTONI MICKIEWICZ

Aug 6 at 9:41 AM

Thank you for sharing your experience and insights, Attila

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On Thursday, August 6, 2015 9:01 AM, gyuris <gyuris@yahoo.com> wrote:

In general, I refrain from discussing politics and religion, as all too often it leads to inconclusive and bitter arguments.  

But in this case I feel I must come out and say that I agree 100% with Nigel.  

Regarding religious education, our school was not really a "religious" school.

To me it was more like a secular school that happened to be run by priests.

My memories are not of wise, loving, thought provoking or stimulating priests but of serious, disciplinarian and mundane priests more worried about running a tight ship than "educating" catholic values.

They largely kept the religious issues to themselves, and we seldom had any serious discussions about religious matters.

Outside of the prayers before meals, and the mandatory mass on Sundays, (which were usually a boring affair for most of the boys), as far as I can remember, they seldom preached religiousness or did any pondering of the deep questions that Nigel posed below

And what's worse, I never felt the necessary openness or invitation from any of the priests to initiate a non-condescending discussion of these soul-searching matters with any of them.  

In my experience I never felt that they were approachable in that sense.  

They were always busy either running along with mundane day-to-day stuff and had little patience or time for the boys.

Our day was filled with the daily academic and school matters, then sporting matters or scout stuff or marching band stuff,  etc.

Never did I see a circle of boys having a good theological discussion group with any of the priests, and such discussion groups were not promoted, at least during my time there.

Even in the formal Religious Knowledge classes the bible was studied in a classical way, memorizing and explaining passages according to the dogma and very little interpreting and correlating its teachings to modern life and to practical issues for boys our age.

The explanations were kept at a juvenile level.    

I remember old Fr Peter, who was a nice old priest who taught Religion to the Prep A students.

Nice and benevolent as he was, his teachings were more like an art class, making beautiful and ornate colour drawings of religious scenes on the blackboard that we all copied with crayons.

But I do not remember him posing religious questions appropriate to our level and stimulating discussions in class.

He taught the bible "facts" in a gentle and artistic way, but that's it.

Sort of like a cathequism class.

Even during the time I volunteered as an altar boy in Mass and did learn all the proper responses in Latin by heart, I did not feel the welcome or encouraging warmth from the officiating priests, so after a while I quit.

In other words, even in the higher Forms, I don't feel we were taught any critical religious thinking, nothing was dared to be questioned, and therefore no difficult answers were needed.  

There were no explanations of any correlations of everyday mundane things to religion. 

They kept it very simple, separate, and dogmatic.

That was my religious experience at the Mount.  

In other catholic schools, each student gets assigned a priest who is like a "mentor" to them in religious matters, a sort of like a personal "father confessor", ... someone to bounce off the hard religious questions one-on-one, in confidence, without fear of ridicule or condescension.

Someone who could advise and explain how our tribulations correlate with religion, and how religion can provide comfort to our angst.

Unfortunately I did not get any of that, and I suspect I was not alone.

It is not that I was trying to be a deeply religious person, because I am certainly not one, but I feel that the window of opportunity for teaching us critical thinking about religion was lost.

This is strictly as far as my personal RELIGIOUS education was concerned at the Mount.

This is not a general indictment of the school, which was a good school in many other ways.

The general life experience, the academics of the hard sciences, and the language education were excellent. 

Attila Gyuris

MSB 1964-1969

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On Aug 5, 2015, at 4:51 PM,

Nigel Boos <nigelboos@gmail.com> wrote:

An interesting question, George, and one that deserves a serious answer.

I speak for no one else but myself, but what I say is sincerely meant.

I am quite disappointed in the religious education given to us at MSB.

A wonderful opportunity has been lost, when, instead of concentrating so much on the extension of buildings and the addition of yet more, the monks of our day could have and should have spent time with us, impressionable young men in the prime of our lives, in discussing the most important questions which affect every single human being. 

So far as I can remember, never once in my 5 years at MSB did a single priest ever sit down with me/us to discuss questions such as:

Who am I?

Where did I come from?

Why am I here?

Who made me? Who gave me life?

Why was I given life?

Where am I going?

Evolution - what’s it all about?

The existence of God - what proof do we have?

Who really was / is Jesus Christ?

Why do we believe that he is God / God’s Son, co-eternal with the Father?

Why should I follow Christianity? Catholicism?

Church History?

Worship. Sacrifice. Eternal life. Prayer?

And so on and so on. The list is endless.

Opportunities of this sort have been squandered, and I see around me the sad results of this lack of formal religious training, in that so many of our OB’s no longer practice the faith in which we were baptized.

I doubt that most of our OB’s today can carry on anything but a mixed-up, confusing discussion on any matter concerning prayer, worship, Jesus Christ , eternity, etc.

We seem to think that merely by having attended school at MSB, our understanding of our faith is secure and correct, but from my discussions with some of our OB’s I believe that our religious education is hopelessly lacking - I’m sorry to say.

I am no better than any of my OB friends of my boyhood.

But I have been fortunate, either because of my personality, my family, my parents or my associates and friends or whatever, to have been able to meet these questions head on and to develop my understanding of my faith.

And I thank God for the insights he has given me. 

I thank God for my Catholic Faith, and I hope to persevere in it until the day I close my eyes.

I recognize that my Church is led by fickle, faulty, sinful human beings, but I take solace in the fact that we are nothing but a group of sinners trying to become saints, and we often fall while on the way.

Thank God too, for the gifts of Reconciliation and of the Blessed Eucharist, his own flesh and blood.

I am privileged to say that Jesus is my Lord and my God, my Saviour, and I’m impressed that he died for me because he loved me.

Because he has conquered sin and death and rose from the dead - the ultimate proof of his divinity - I am convinced that he is God himself, and that, if he is God, then all that he has taught us is true.  

I am only a weak human being in his service and I shall continue to try to be true to him for the rest of my life. 

Nigel

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Glen Mckoy

Aug 3 at 3:01 AM

My Dear Sir George, 

This question is tempting faith. 

As a brotherhood, we hope for honour, loyalty & respect.

Example the French Legion, what does country, race or religion, have to do with it. 

We all came from the same school; we have volunteered to share this living reunion,

Many of us share the same faith, it was a catholic boys school, however there were a few, from other religions that attended the school.  

They can tell you their stories, and it was not pretty.  

I don't care what your ideology is; I think your actions speak loader than words. Cheers Glen.  

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George Mickiewicz

Aug 1

Where are we today in our beliefs and practices? 

Did attending Abbey School help or hinder our formation?

(Can anyone answer these questions, EDITOR)

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz  Kertesz11@yahoo.com

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Photos:

Bandit p46 The Early Times

66WK0002SWIMMING, Group of kids ready.

64JK0011BENET, Unknowns with mountain background

59NB0001PTATAS, Paul Tadros, Any one knows his wellbeing??