Circular No 956

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

Caracas, 29 February 2020 No. 956

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Dear Friends,

Here is the latest on Kazim Abasali by Kazim Abasali.

Can you write something similar?  The Circular would appreciate it.

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Empower With Art <empowerwithart@gmail.com>

Jan 29 at 7:24 AM

Hi Ladislao,

Here is the latest with respect to my life, as of January 2020.

Sorry, I could not provide you this before as I promised.

There are so many activities in which I am involved.

Just sharing some of these as follows:

First of all, I acquired my Swedish Citizenship the latter part of the last year – 2019.

It feels wonderful to live here freely with my Swedish-born wife Angela.

Angela has literally nursed me be back to health since my stroke of 2012.

She came for me in New York where I was at the time of the stroke and brought me to Sweden.

She had just lost her Mom who at the age of 70 died of illness.

In my heart, I felt and knew it was difficult for Angela all the while she cared for me.

She, being a massage therapist was good therapy for me.

Besides the stroke rehabilitation, I have since had to deal with severe high blood pressure and high blood sugar or diabetes.

And I live now with a very rigid diet, exercise, herbs and whatever it takes to survive.

By staying alive, I can still contribute in any way possible to serve others for the betterment of mankind.

Incidentally, one of the projects I am involved in is facilitating a Website/Blog and Facebook Group for friend who is an activist for, and shares awareness about disability.

She has a daughter who has Down Syndrome.

When we think of disability, we should take note that disability is not only those in wheelchairs, or have hearing, speech and sight impairment.

Think of pregnant mothers who cannot traverse normally as they are used to, and even when navigating with strollers on sidewalks and buildings.

Those of us with physical injuries like broken limbs, even if these disabilities are temporary.

The term “differently abled” is more appropriate for those of us as we grow older.

We experience diminishing health in many varied ways.

A list can be depressing as depression is one on the list.

Others like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, Phobias, Physical impairment, Stroke, Injuries, Health concerns, just to name a few.

So, this project involves all of us in one way or another as we are growing old now.

In addition, I am still heavily involved in supporting my other School Alumni – Holy Cross College. I developed and maintain a Website/Blog and Social Media Groups for the Alumni, as I do for my Mt St Benedict Abbey School Alumni.

To keep up-to-date with this world of ever fast-growing technology is a daily task.

I do so because I love this field.

For I have been involved with the world of computers for so long. It intrigues me!

So, I am constantly learning new and developing technologies.

This way I stay abreast of what is happening in the present.

As well as future trends and how that is all taking place as we move along.

That’s it in a ‘nutshell’ with what I am preoccupied with now, my dear Brothers.

Lastly, I give thanks to God for my wife Angela, my new country of domicile, my regaining health and the work I continue to do.

It is a life that I am truly blessed and privileged when I think of some of my other Venezuelan MSB Brothers.

For, here in Sweden, we do provide sanctuary for a lot of refugees from other war-torn nations.

My thoughts and prayers continue to be with you all.

With loving regards,

Kaz

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From: GEORGE MICKIEWICZ amickiew@att.net

Sent: Saturday, 15 February 2020 10:45

Subject: RE: ABBEY SCHOOL MEMORIES - LAUNDRY

I do kind of remember the presence of another lady, Father. 

But, it is very foggy in my memory bank.

Best Regards,

George

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From: Father Harold Imamshah

Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2020 8:06 AM

Subject: Re: ABBEY SCHOOL MEMORIES - LAUNDRY 

My Aunt, Mrs. Yolanda Aman, worked with or in the dormitory possibly 1961/62?

She died in December 2019.

Does anyone remember her?

Fr. Harold Imamshah

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On Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 9:58 AM

GEORGE MICKIEWICZ <amickiew@att.net> wrote:

Dear Brothers,

Another test of our memories.  Please share yours.

Salah Wilson’s mom was our seamstress and sewed on a specific number on our clothes to identify them when they were laundered.

What was your number?  Mine was 67.

It stayed with me for my 6 years at the Mount.

And……who, what, where laundered our clothes?  Anyone remember?

I recall that in my time we had to place our dirty clothes in a laundry bag on Tuesday mornings after we woke up and the clean clothes were returned on Thursday afternoon.

The white clothes that we used to play cricket where usually very dirty likewise the football uniforms when we played in mud but always came back clean. And how about those luxurious storage cabinets where we kept our clothes?

Also remember that my mom sent a can of Venezuelan cookies to Mrs. Salah in appreciation of all the sewing related work that she did for me. 

When I left, she still had that can where she placed and stored miscellaneous buttons and other small items.

I also recall that our Brother Vincent, Lionel Roberts, is the one who gave me a roll with these numbers and kept track of which number belonged to which student. 

Another task of thousands of invisible ones that he performed lovingly & selflessly to help us while we were there…….thanks a million Lionel, we still remember and love you.

Everything was done by hand and kept in his log books; no Excel and related software available back then.

Cheers,

George Mickiewicz (AS-MSB 1956-1962)

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Feb 15 at 11:11 AM

Sorry, Fr Harold, 

I was there, but in Fourth and Fifth forms, and do not recall her. 

She may have been in a junior dorm, which would mean I would not know of her.

Best,

Don

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Hi Esmond

Don must have written to you on how the Circular is being distributed. 

Yes, I have reduced the mailing of the Circular to those who contribute with a subscription to help to differ the costs of producing the Newsletter.

The cost is 52 usd, for a year, because it is at least 52 issues, without counting some extra issues when needed.

I am working on issue 950 and hope to reach 1000.  God willing and with your help.

Here in Venezuela our economical conditions are dire.

The socialist regime has reduced the minimum salary to 5 usd a month, and this is what I get in my retirement fund, hahaha

There are around 13 Oldboys who receive donations from the school´s association in Trinidad.

These are managed by Joe Berment, so it is sad and true.

Hope that the fires did not affect you too much.  I wonder what can be done in the future to prevent them?

I have a couple of old boys that live in Australia and have lost contact with them, can you help??

God Bless

Ladislao

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From: Esmond Lange <esmond@soundingboardaustralia.com.au>

Date: Sunday, 19 January 2020 at 19:34

Subject: MSB Old Boys newsletter

Ladislao,

For some reason I seem to have dropped off your radar/mailing list as have not received anything for quite some time.

However, I have been sent the latest one by my brother in law Leary O’Connor and in it I see you (and maybe others) have a yahoo email address.

My server, which is US based, has an ongoing conflict with yahoo and therefore no emails transiting through yahoo are able to get through to me and me to them – they say they are working on solving it but I am not holding my breath!!

In the meantime, can you or anyone trying to get in touch with me please use my work email address which is the one I am using for this email.

Thanks, and very best regards and a Happy and Prosperous 2020

Esmond J. Lange

Managing Director

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Glen Mckoy <mckoy43glen@hotmail.com> wrote:

Attila, How many times, did they try to expel you?? 

Your stories are Amazing. G#1

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Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 13:33:35 -0700

From: gyuris@yahoo.com

Subject: Escapades with the monk's scooter

LOL:

Yeah but .... That was only with girls at the St. Joseph's Girls Academy down the hill...

Where I would go play "Romeo" after stealing Fr. Gregory's or Fr. Hildebrand's Lambretta motor scooters at night after lights out...

Ask Frank Malaver about one incident, when I invited him along once for the adventure.

If one incident stands out better than others.....It is this one:

Sometime in 1968, I asked Frank Malaver if he was interested in coming with me to visit the girls at the Academy that night. He thought for about 2 seconds and of course he was in.  So, I briefed him on what to do and what to expect.  I could see he was a little bit worried, but not too much .... yet.  

We got up a few hours after lights out, and got dressed in all black clothes, then we sneaked out of the 3rd floor dormitory window and down the water pipe on the side of the building like cat-burglars.  Then down to the garage area, where the buses, cars and the scooters were parked.  The scooters were not locked, and they could be started.  (ahhh, those were the innocent days!)

So, we pushed the scooter downhill and bump-started it in second gear when sufficiently far from the monastery so they wouldn't hear us.

And, down the hill we went with Frank Malaver hanging on for dear life behind me.  It had rained and the road was wet, and we slipped out and slow-crashed in one of the curves after passing the swimming pool. Nothing serious, just some scrapes and a scare, but then Frank got too scared and wanted to scrap the plan and return back up the hill.  I didn't want him to get more worried and I said OK ,... let's go back.  As we were going back up the hill, just when we round the curves by the private houses that were just below the PAX Guesthouse we saw headlights!   Oh shit ... Next thing we see the headlights of this vehicle coming down the hill ... It was one of the VW minibuses from the Mount!

Almost in panic, we quickly parked the scooter on the side of the road in front of one of the private houses there, and dove head first into the bushes just as the minibus was driving by.  The bus stopped, backed up, a few minutes passed.  We kept our heads low, not daring to breathe!!!  The after a minute or two, the bus drove away.  We sighed in relief.

After waiting prudently for a few minutes to make sure the bus was gone, we remounted the scooter and, now with hearts pounding, drove it back and parked it in the same place it was before in the garage.

The whole episode took no more than maybe an hour, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.  We fully expected an investigation by the Monks the next day, but never heard anything from the incident, and Frank and I swore to each other that we would not tell a soul about it. 

Well, I think the statute of limitations has about expired on this little caper by now, so finally I am telling.....

I always wondered, what did the driver of the bus think after seeing the scooter belonging to a monk parked in front of this private house at 2 o'clock in the morning??? HMMMM

Attila Gyuris

Abbey School 1964-1969

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  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:

15SW0001SWI, Salah Wilson

18LK0583FBKKH, Kamal Khan

07AZ1496SCOAZA,Salvador Coscarart and Enrique Zanella

20LK1534FBGKE, Gerard Kenny