Circular No 766

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

Caracas, 10 of July 2016 No. 766

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Dear Friends,

Correspondence below on thoughts for the establishment of a new institution to replace the Abbey School.

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Kazim Abasali <empowerwithart@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 4:31 PM

Hi Joe,

We await your ideas, and your collaboration with Fr Harold. Joe, I would like to commend you on your thinking outside the box as the saying goes. And I appreciate this process that is being taken here now. And Joe, you got me to thinking along the lines you suggested. And some ideas I would like to contribute as well. However, I will await your fleshed-out plan before I share more.

God bless......

Kazim

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Father Harold Imamshah <frharold12@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 4:22 PM

I have already done the above Nigel and now, prefer to respect the connections that Specs and Winston Ramsahai already have with the Mount. I will continue to relate with the Mount in other matters connected to the Parishes and Diocese.

Thanks, 

Fr. H

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Kazim Abasali <empowerwithart@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 4:19 PM

Thank you Joe.

I like your trend of thought. I look forward to the meat of your idea.

God bless....

Kazim

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Father Harold Imamshah <frharold12@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 4:18 PM

I will join you Joe in a brainstorming session.

Fr. H

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Joe <bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com>

Apr 12 at 3:56 PM

I shall be happy to, Kazim:

Thanks for asking. I flesh it out in the coming days and weeks.

Many thanks,

Joe

Joseph Berment-McDowald

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Kazim Abasali <empowerwithart@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 3:45 PM

Hi Joe, can you kindly further elucidate?

1) I don't believe that we will ever necessarily get that and it's absence is no obstacle to action on our part.

2) "the cause of the establishment of a new institution with the same mission as the Abbey School".

It seems you agree that the Abbot may never come around, and that should be no obstacle on our part. And you are saying a new institution with the same mission as the Abbey School.

Again, let me be quite clear. I am merely asking questions here. I am not judging any one and their views. This is now a discussion forum as such. And as we discuss options we get a clearer view and paths to to take if and when consensus is arrived. For in reality, for any path to be undertaken would need support from others if it is clearly explained and thought of as possible.

Blessings to you.....Kazim

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Joe <bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com>

Apr 12 at 2:37 PM

A lot of ideas have been suggested and many open-ended statements have been made.

My specific interest is "the cause of the establishment of a new institution with the same mission as the Abbey School"

Sincerely,

JBM

Joseph Berment-McDowald

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Nigel Boos <nigelboos@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 2:19 PM

Fr. Harold,

I propose that you, as a former monk at MSB and as a priest with good standing among the OB’s and, hopefully, with Fr. Abbot, have a clear advantage over the rest of us and as such, you might consider approaching him, on our behalf, to put a consideration before him: that there is a problem (to be clearly defined) at the Mount and that we, the old Boys of the Abbey School are seeking his approval to work with him in addressing this problem/s.

Should you have a problem with this, perhaps another of us (any volunteers?) would be willing to pick up the baton and run with it. . . . . . . . 

Would anyone like to second the motion?

N 

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Joe <bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com>

Apr 12 at 1:34 PM

I don't believe that we will ever necessarily get that and its absence is no obstacle to action on our part.

Joseph Berment-McDowald

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Nigel Boos <nigelboos@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 1:26 PM

My opinion: We should do nothing unless we have the very explicit support and approval of Fr. Abbot, to work with us and to allow us to work with him as a team. 

NB

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Kazim Abasali <empowerwithart@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 10:04 AM

Still, the Abbot has to be the person to want this.

So with agreement or not, sincerity of our intentions and purity of our efforts, what remains is the above underlying fact. 

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Joe <bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com>

Apr 12 at 9:19 AM

My view is that, rather than expecting others to agree with us or validate the sincerity of our intentions, we should do whatever we can under the existing circumstances and our purity of our efforts will speak for themselves.

Joseph Berment-McDowald

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Father Harold Imamshah <frharold12@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 9:06 AM

Thanks Kazim;

I, just like you, regret that relationships and concrete suggestions with Abbot John have not met with much reciprocation.

So much time has passed and perhaps much could have been accomplished.

My own links with the Monastic community remain cordial and yet minimal and at this stage while I remain open to the future and my continued connections with the Mount, I do not foresee any major changes forthcoming.

Sincerely, 

Fr. Harold Imamshah

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On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 6:51 PM, Jon Golding <jon@goldings.net> wrote:y

Dear Mount Bro’s

It is important before we start cross-firing our own sincere wishes and intentions that we put this topic into the proper perspective.

I believe the major part of our old boy’s alumni that Arthur activated (and Ladislao, hats off to him, has devotedly developed over the past few decades) goes back to the 50s, 60s and fading into the 70s. We are talking about the good/bad old days when we were fortunate to be educated by a mature, stable, cohort of Dutch monks who were all survivors of World War II.

We even got some of their war stories in class.

(Monastery>) Abbot Adelbert Van Duin, Fr Prior, Bro Gabriel and (School>) Frs Bernard, Benedict, Chris, Augustine, Peter, Paul, Cuthbert, Ildefonse, Francis, and about 3 more (memory block).

Then the more local Fr Chris (Dean with bull pestle), Bros Joseph, Odo, Vincent, Rupert, Fr Eugene, etc. and of course Ms Kitty Marcus and Bro ‘Skull’ (VW rally driver!).

A very stable era of 3+ decades with a constant headcount of ca. 150 boys:- approx. 50% from South America (Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia). 

Many were from WWII immigrant families in Venezuela (from Italy, Spain, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, USA and more; memory block!) and still spoke their native language.

We had a well-diversified scattering across the Caribbean (British, Dutch & French Guyana, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe, etc). Trinis ironically were not in the majority. In retrospect, what an amazing community we lived in among the boarders; being taught by Europeans in a Carib island; Headmaster with Masters degree from Oxford University; Scout master of the highest disciplinary calibre (Fr Scroots); and local brother monks of a high standard of support. 

Wow!! No other school in the Caribbean or Latin America could even get close to this uniqueness we all shared but did not appreciate at the time! 

We did not even appreciate the unexpected visit from Fidel Castro in 1959 soon after the Cuban revolution when he popped up to the Mount, with brother Raoul, for a quick visit while his plane refuelled at Piarco on his way to Caracas!! And of course, the continued disbelief about our quiet Venezuelan young old boy who became an international terrorist at the Munich Olympics and other murders. But now serving life in a French prison, thanks to the British Secret Service snatching him from Africa.

But our core groups, from Prep B to Form 5 (7 year moving block of buddies) have substantially kept in touch thanks to Arthur and Ladislao’s voluntary alumni efforts.

So when it comes to Abbot John Pereira, Bless him, he would have been in short pants when my year graduated in 1960, if he was in the school. 

And, to be fair to him, he was never exposed to the Mount period above or the close and significant international community of monastery, school staff and students; totally diluted and gone when he came on the scene. So we old boys cannot relate to him and vice versa.  Not his fault or ours.

We are living off different memory eras which will never be shared or understood for reasons we have no control over or high levels of interest.

The mentality of our Dutch-inspired & taught groups (from 50s to 70s) is one of pure nostalgia and retrospective appreciation for the unique experiences we had at MSB.

And a fantasy wish that the school was still there and we could send our kids (or grandkids) there to have a similar growing up experience.

But it could never work today, even with all the money to fund the fantasy.

That era is non-repeatable and any resurrection of the Mount would take on an entirely different shape and meaning than any of us could envisage.

So let us leave the poor Abbot alone and simply support him in prayer and donations as we are able to.

He has been dropped in a deep empty hole and we cannot reverse anything.

He can only persevere with the continuity of whatever projects he has on his plate.

This forum is good to share ideas if we have nothing to do but blog.

But looking at the cc list above it is speck of what the alumni is and I do not believe anything would change if all of them got involved.

Let’s just carry on with the club as Knights who share goodwill under the authorship of Sir Glen.

And let’s continue to support Ladislao’s excellent e-home for us all to go to whenever we wish to recall the good/bad old days!!

Warm regards to you all and God bless Fr John Pereira!

Jon

Jon Golding

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On Apr 12, 2016, at 10:04 AM,

Kazim Abasali <empowerwithart@gmail.com> wrote:

Still, the Abbot has to be the person to want this.

So with agreement or not, sincerity of our intentions and purity of our efforts, what remains is the above underlying fact. 

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 Thank you Father Harold Imamshah <frharold12@gmail.com>

Apr 12 at 9:15 PM

Thank you Jon, 

You have put into perspective and described a beautiful past and Abbey School legacy. You have helped us understand the present Abbot's inability to appreciate a wonderful Institution which was in its last year when he joined in 1984; the very same year I had brought the CXC O'level Art Class to complete its Form 4 level and found a Teacher who would replace me and bring the boys through Form V O'level Art after I left in July 1984.

I have an interest because I gave 5 years as a monk/Teacher and saw some fruits of having been there, so, yes, it's understandable that I can maintain some interest and the present Abbot can't. I agree with you, let's move the blog into an appreciation of the years that all of you received and keep our eyes and ears open to what we can donate to, whether it's a building's upkeep or whatever might be needed currently. If Joe can help start another Institution with a unique approach to Formation, it would still be a tribute to what you just described.

To Life, to the Future, and to the Past, 

Sincerely,

Fr. Harold

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EDITED by LadislaoKertesz kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include.

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Photos:

51AS0001AIRSCOUTS, by Walter Darwent

09LK0783FBTHE, Tim Healy

12DA7409DAIFB, Damian Ali

09UN001FAUGRP, Fr. Augustine and Jon Golding and Anthony Lucky

Circular No 765

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

Caracas, 3 of July 2016 No. 765

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Dear Friends,

THE INCOMPARABLE FR. BENEDICT – “VOOSH” TO US BOYS

He must have had an enviable childhood, back there in Holland. He must have amused himself continually, with his continuously inquisitive mind, his indomitable spirit, and his sense of fun. I can just imagine him at the head of a crowd of his boyhood friends, leading them on to some new adventure, some new experiment which he had concocted in his busy mind.

Fr. Benedict, “Voosh” to us Old Boys of the Abbey School at Mt. St. Benedict, arrived at the Mount as a young cleric sometime between 1948-49, according to Trevor Evelyn’s recollections.  He did not take long to make his mark, and every boy whose fortune it was to have met the man, can fondly recall the exuberance, the joy of life, the fun, the excitement which he exuded as he described in detail the latest adventure or experiment upon which he had embarked. Seemingly, everything he did seemed to end with an explosion, a high point somewhere along the line, which he punctuated with an expression of delight – “Vooooosh” – and that’s how he got his nickname.

I first met this happy wannabe scientist when he presented us, sometime in 1956, with a beautiful model of a speedboat, about 2’ long, which he had rigged with remote controls, to be operated from the upper windows of the Monastery on the hill above our swimming pool, which might have been a half-mile downhill from his bedroom. He asked us to simply take the boat down to the pool and deposit it in the water, whereupon he, with the aid of a telescope and his remote controls, would attempt to operate the motor from the safety of his mountaintop home. So said, so done. The boat worked magnificently, and was duly returned to him for storage among his memories.

Voosh also appointed himself as the School Photographer, and probably every Old Boy of the Abbey School still retains, among his souvenirs, the Class Photograph of his buddies and classmates, most of which were taken by the Great Man himself.

We loved Fr. Benedict and his hair-brained schemes, and the world will be a little sadder today, at the news of his passing last night, January 1, 2009 at 6.30 p.m.

The stories abound, where he was the star actor, extending the bounds of human effort, inspiring us boys to “try something new”, giving of himself, and I guess, enjoying our company and loving us into the bargain.

I recall the fact that he would never take a swim in the clean, chlorinated pool. “There’s no life in it. There’s no oxygen,” he’d say. But on one occasion at least, I recall, when the chlorination system had shut down for an extended time and we sat glumly on the bleachers looking at the dark green, clearly stagnant water with long green filamentous algae protruding from the walls, he came down, put on his bathing trunks and dived in. “Come on in, boys. This is healthy for you. Lots of oxygen.” Crazy man.

On another well-known occasion, Voosh brought an old seine, which he had either begged or borrowed from a local fisherman, and to which he had tied a large number of empty Vat 19 and other bottles. He asked us to help him spread the net-like contraption across the entire surface of the pool, so that, hopefully, the combined buoyancy of the bottles would keep the seine afloat. Then, proceeding to the diving board, he jumped right in, to check, I suppose, whether the net would support his weight.

It didn’t.

It took the combined effort of a lot of us boys to fish him out of the water, net an all, as he spluttered and gasped for breath. Another great idea which failed.

Voosh owned a large Australian war boomerang. Heaven alone knows where he’d got it. But we would often ask him to show us how it worked, longing to see the magnificent spinning weapon circling the Mount as we would stand admiringly, watching to see who the lucky boy would be to catch it on its return swing over our heads.

He resisted our appeals for a long, long time. But eventually, I suppose, his curiosity got the better of him, and with great pride in his possession, he approached a group of us one Sunday morning, after Mass. “Now, listen, boys,” he intoned, “I’m going to let you throw the boomerang. But I want to make sure it comes back to us. So, I’m going to ask the strongest boy to throw it for me.” (And here my memory fails me – I’m not certain, but I believe it was Richard Galt who was the chosen thrower. Please forgive me if I’m wrong. Time dulls the memory somewhat. I shall assume it was Richard, anyway.)

“Come, Richard. Take the boomerang. Hold it like this (and he demonstrated the correct hold), and throw it hard overhead. If you do it correctly, it will whirl around the school and come right back to us at this very spot. Voooooosh.”

So said, so done. Richard (I assume it was he) held the weapon in his mighty hands and swung back as he had been shown. Letting go of the boomerang at the last second, we watched, entranced, as it flew out, far over the mountainside and dropped, like a stone, into the trees and bushes far below us, lost forevermore.

“Ah well”, said Voosh, “I suppose we won’t see that again, eh boys?”

The day of the hot air paper bag dawned bright and promisingly. Sunday morning again, the Scouts having marched around the School a few times to the rhythm of the trumpets, side drums and big bass drum, Fr. Benedict emerged with his latest contraption – a tin can filled with kerosene or “pitch oil”, and attached via wires to bits of marline, themselves attached to the four corners of a large square piece of brown paper on which he had drawn some cartoon figures and the words “IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO FR. BENEDICT O.S.B. AT MT. ST. BENEDICT, TUNAPUNA, TRINIDAD”. He came over to us and announced his plan, to fly the paper bag “balloon” over the hills of Trinidad, to see how far it would go, and where it would land.

We watched with growing excitement as he had two boys hold the edges of the paper outstretched, and, drawing a match from underneath the folds of his white sauterne, he lit the flammable material in the tin can. Surprisingly, the thing actually worked. The paper swelled with the rising hot air and slowly, ever so slowly, it began to rise from terra firma, then over our heads and, amazingly, it took off over our mango trees, the basketball court, the Mount itself, eventually disappearing from sight. A few days later, we discovered, the flying paper bag was returned to Fr. Benedict by a U.S. soldier stationed at the Chaguaramas Base on the NW peninsula of Trinidad. Voosh had every reason to be proud of his achievement.

We graduated from the Abbey School and left Voosh to his tricks, to amuse and entertain yet another batch of wide-eyed youngsters. But the years eventually took their toll, and the old man slowly succumbed to the weight of his own mortality. A 2001 photograph shows him, still at the School, apparently demonstrating a microphone and speaker.

And finally, the end came. Or rather, as his faith would have it, his new life began yesterday. Freed from the infirmity of old age and the need to use his wheel-chair, the dear old man left us for the last time, VOOOOOOSH and went to live with his God.

May his soul rest in peace. May he enjoy his eternity in the presence of all the Old Boys who have gone before us, and in the presence of Almighty God.

POSTCRIPT:

The following email correspondence took place on January 2^nd, between Jon Golding and Richard “Mousey” Farah, and I believe it amply demonstrates the fact that I wasn’t kidding with my stories of the good old priest:

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From: jongolding

Sent: Fri Jan 02 19:01:47 2009

Subject: Memories of Fr. Benedict-Science Class

OUR MOST UNFORGETTABLE SCIENCE DEMO

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1957 - Form 1 class - held in upstairs large study hall - Science class.

I used to sit next to 'Mousey' (Richard Farah) - about 3 months before his mango tree accident which cost him his leg. Brave soul and another Mount Hero!

Fr Benedict was teaching us about gunpowder that day. To demonstrate, he made gunpowder in the class, a mix of Carbon, Potassium Nitrate and Sulfur. Mousey and I quickly wrote down the proportions (which we later bought on a dentist trip to PoS, and tried out in the bush near the reservoir. But we nearly killed Louis Lacour and my brother Geoff!!).

Our intrepid science teacher then produced a small cannon he had made from some lead piping, one end hammered flat, the other end a lethal open gun barrel anchored firmly onto a chunky mahogany 2 by 4.

He positioned the weapon at the hall window aiming it at a mango tree a mile away on the hill across the valley. His intention was to see if he could hit a mango from this distance. 

In went the gunpowder followed by a ramrod stick from Brother Joseph's woodwork shop to pack it tight. He then inserted a marble he had confiscated from one the Venezuelans in an earlier class.  (These guys sometimes used to roll a few marbles onto the floor before the monks came in to teach, hoping they'd 'buss their ass' on the floor! But so far no hits. Fr B knew the game and caught one red-handed the week before! Anyway he had his cannon ball for the demo and told us that is what he'd do with all the marbles he found on the floor!

Next step, he pulled out a length of Jetex fuse wire. We all held our breath realising this experiment was getting reeeel serious!!!   You could hear a pin drop. No other monk/ teacher had ever exhibited such macho bravado in a class that any of us had attended in the prison on the hill.

He ran the wire along the window sill and inserted the end into a hole in the pipe cannon near the flattened end. He drew a sketch on the blackboard to show us what was going to happen and asked us to write down the chemical equation; C+S+PNi = BANG!!

He then stepped back and pulled out a cigarette lighter (he'd borrowed from Fr Paul, the walking Chimney!). We all began to talk loudly and nervously and duck under the desks. It was pandemonium!! I vividly remember that Mousey and I could not stop laughing - wide-eyed and in disbelief to relieve our anxiety.

"OK, boys, get down, here comes the countdown! Ten - nine - eight - seven .... we all chorused the countdown getting louder and louder. By this time everybody was ducking down below their desks --------------

" - two - one - ZERO!!!" -------------------

Dead Silence!

Nothing happened!

Actually it did!! 

We looked up from under the desks and saw he'd just lit the Jetex fuse. I remember some of the guys sitting near the corridor were so scared they ran into the corridor. Others ducked down into the walkway between the desks and crawled to the back of the study hall. Mousey and I were in the second row from the front and we decided to stay put. We kept looking at the fuse hissing its way quickly towards the cannon and saw that our Voosh had moved behind the big desk at the front (where they used to sit to supervise us in study time).

When the fuse sparks were climbing up to the cannon we ducked down for certain this time and did not have to wait too long:

!!!!--------- BBBAAAANNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!----------------!!!!

The cannon let out such a loud bang we could not believe it. Heads slowly began appearing above the desks and we saw a huge amount of smoke coming from the cannon window- an after effect of the explosion.

The next thing I heard was someone starting to clap until we all quickly joined in the rousing applause! Our new military hero - Fr Benedict!!! We'd go into battle for him immediately, confident he knew how to blow away the enemy!!

Well the fun did not last long.

Next thing we knew was Fr Bernard coming rushing down the corridor into the study hall his face as white as a sheet and eyes wide open searching the room madly - as if to find an assassin hiding under a desk. He did not notice Fr Benedict at first since he and the big desk were camouflaged behind the smoke cloud.

Fr Bernard shouted out in near panic: “What's going on here?"  

We all sat frozen as we faced this unexpected aftershock! Our dear headmaster had never looked so furious and lethal - as if to prepare himself for the battle that Fr Benedict had signalled with his opening round of cannon fire.

The tension broke when Fr Benedict, amazed at his resounding success (sorry about the pun), called out apologetically, "It's OK, Fr Bernard, it was only an experiment!"

I cannot remember the rest of the dialogue but it was not pretty. Fr Bernard laid into Fr Benedict about how irresponsible it was not to inform him and the rest of the school first. We found out later that the bang was so loud that most of the other classes were cut short as they all ran out into the corridors to see what had happened.

Eventually, Fr Bernard left in a huff and Fr Benedict looked sheepishly at his terminated science lesson, ducking his head down a little with a mischievous grin, but receiving a round of supporting laughter and light applause from his newly initiated class. Yes, this was an initiation - into science - that every one of us present that day will never forget!

From that day on, we all listened intently to every word in his science classes and I believe we all got record marks, never to be repeated again. I am sure someone in our class will get a Nobel Prize for science one day!

For me, it was a true positive initiation into science which I approached fearlessly from then on - I eventually got A's all the way through 'A' levels and university and it is to Fr Benedict I owe my motivation- gaining my BSc (Hons) in the UK eventually.

I know I am joined by all those in the 1957 science class, and beyond, in expressing our utmost affection and admiration for our unsung hero of science education who put more than his best efforts into making our classes interesting and memorable. To top it all, he never needed to get heavy with us for discipline and had a lovely charm and gentle smile - identifying with the 'boy' in all of us - in a way that only few of the other teachers could!

The pictures attached, which I was fortunate to take before he went to be with the Lord, say it all! Let us pray that one day we also will arrive and see him again at that Heavenly Place where he must be continuing his curious science experiments- since God most certainly would have rewarded him with the biggest science lab and endless gunpowder to shoot down the enemy of our souls.

May God rest our Fr Benedict, a true Benedictine par excellence, and exemplar for us to emulate while we still have the time! Well done Fr Benedict and may the angels "Voooooosssssssh" you straight up into the Heavens like a cannon ball !!

Your grateful and admiring student

Jon Golding (1955 - 1962)

On behalf of all the science class of 1957

(Newer photos will be posted in future editions, EDITOR)

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From: Richard Farah

Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 7:24 PM

John,

I can remember that experiment vividly to this day. And I became a gunpowder freak from that day on to the eternal annoyance of our cascade neighbours at holiday time as they had to endure bombs and rockets every week, as I used to buy the chemicals at Albert Phillips Pharmacy at the corner of Queen and Henry Streets. It’s amazing that priests like father Benedict gave up their lives to pass on their knowledge gratis.

May God rest his soul.

Richard.

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EDITED by LadislaoKertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include.

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Photos:

01DM0503FBELDS, Fr. Benedict with his loudspeaker creation

00BG0143BGOFB, Brian Goddard and daughters

15GF0001GFAFB, Gregory Farfan

15MCO9260MCOFB, Maxime de Comarmond, helper of Fr, Cuthbert