Circular No 345

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

Caracas, 14 June 2008 No.345

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Dear Friends,

I am enclosing a photo take n 2003 at one of our monthly dinners here in Caracas,

Those present were: Guiseppe Braggio, Matias Fedak, Enrique Castells and your Editor, Ladislao Kertesz.

We would hope that they are in good health since we have not seen them again.

On other matters, here is an interesting resume and memories by Richard de Verteuil.

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Some memories of Richard de Verteuil

Sunday, February 17, 2008 1:16:19 AM

I do in fact live in UK and have done so since 1953.

I came to school here at Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit institution, where my grandfather was educated.

That was after 5 terms at Presentation College in San Fernando.

Day school did not suit me!

My memories of Mount are mainly happy, except for the attentions of a person who I notice is missing from your database, at whose hands I suffered unmerciful torture, and this was in part the main reason for my departure from the College.

I played cricket and football for my year groups and enjoyed swimming in Catchecam and the scouts, although I only ever went to one camp at Arima.

I remember people like McCoy and Arthur Knaggs, Louis and Adrian Ache, Richard and Leary O'Connor, the Ames brothers etc etc.

I played Fr Chrys at marbles, and spent many hours kneeling down in the shoe locker area in the dorm at night.

I remember tops season, and my father having a purple heart one made for me in the carpenters' shop at Apex, it was a champion!

I remember Mr Achong ('The way of the transgressor is exceedingly hard indeed...' his favourite lines) who used to throw the board duster at erring pupils, and the ruler cracked across the knuckles by Brother Anthony.

An kind and gentle Fr. Peter who taught French and his favourite saying, 'Ya now, boys, be good!'

And Fr Paul who said Mass in less than 20 minutes, and Ildefonse who was next to God!

It was all wonderful, and I went back to see it a few years ago, and could get no further than the church which seemed so small and the Guest House where I had tea and it was strange.

The end of Mount left a terrible hole in the fabric of Trinidad and all the other countries who sent their boys to receive a wonderful education, not just as pupils but as young Catholics who I am sure to this day value the religious upbringing they received there.

Must dash,

All the best,

Richard. (MSB 1949-51):

richard@deverteuil.co.uk,

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From: Glen Mckoy (mckoy43glen@hotmail.com)

Sent: Sat 4/12/08 9:54 PM

Dear Jan,

Thank you for such an informative reply.

Here in Canada, people are buying old churches and changing them into Condos etc., and Dance halls and different things.

The young, are not too committed to any thing now, so the church will be the hardest hit.

I think the Irish, are the only ones who are exporting priest, all over the world.

However the mount where we attended, is prime real estate, and could have the most expensive Condos on top that hill, like a place for the very wealthy, movie stars or dignitaries.

Right now, some of the rich from Canada buys places in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, a friend of mine, has an engineering firm, here in Nova Scotia, he is building us 5 million dollars condos, in Cayman islands, there for developers, the cayman islands are arid and dry, hardly any trees, but these people will spend a lot of money for privacy and seclusion, my friend said they even bring down there Ferrari, as he also owns one.

I hope the mount will survive, however, every boarder would like to see the mount remain the same, in the end, we are the only people who really care, about the Abbey school building, and in the end we may be its last hope, I hope it does not come to that, I do not think their are enough of us to keep it.

However there are a few of us, that could turn it into a profit, but like anything, it takes money to make money, right.?

Suriname , we also went to the World Scout Jamboree there , in what year??

I can't remember, the girls loved us, I was captain of the mount band, Cosmic Vibes, we played for like 30,000 people or more it was awesome man, we were on the radio, we also played in the Hotel, we ruled man, ask Fr. Cuthbert, these girls picked us up on motorcycles, took us to the country club there, and partied, then to their houses for meals. we wanted to live there, man, funny thing in Suriname, any time you played a song, you had to repeat it the same song again, what's with that??

We would drink from these big beer bottles, I think Parbo??

Oh Jan, thanks for bringing back those memories, Tim and many of the boys who were there, must be smiling now.

Thank you again for your time, best regards, Glen.

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From: jankoenraadt@casema.nl

Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:06:12 +0200

Dear Glen,

Amazing that you have been in Holland many times and Suriname, I didn't know.

Samson is a well known name in Suriname.

I heard about Tim Healey from Andres Larsen that he came from Suriname too. Indeed there is a nice long trip to French Guyana, St. Laurent du Maroni, we went there a few times.

If you are there, you are in Europe too, because for France it is not their colony but a department ruled from Paris.

Nice to hear these stories from you, I left Suriname in 1970 to Holland and went back a few times, last time in 2003.

Being busy in Holland with work and so.

Read your mail about the costs of maintenance of the Abbey.

Here in Holland they have the same problem too.

There are about 150 monasteries but they are all declining because of lack of new novices.

The last novices who entered a monastery was about 1970.

They expect after ten years there will be only twenty monasteries left in Holland.

That means about one every month will close down.

Maybe for one or two monasteries they create a new function, conference place, education and so.

But they cannot do it for all monasteries.

Here in my home town Oosterhout the Benedictine monastery closed down after 90 years practice, the youngest monk was 84 years!

They left a library with 60.000 religious books but no other library wants it.

I believe MSB is facing the same problems.

The costs of maintenance and taxes are high and there is no new purpose for the buildings.

One of the most important monasteries in Holland was the Seminary in Hoeven where they educated most of the catholic priests in the Netherlands.

If you like you can read all about in here http://www.bovendonk.nl/zakelijk/.

It was closed down after some 100 years in the seventies because there were no more students who want to become priest, and it stayed empty for more than twenty years.

They were going to tear down the buildings in the nineties until some group rose and saved it all.

It is in Gothic style from one of the most famous architect Pierre Cuijpers.

The website you are looking at is what they did to give the buildings a new purpose.

That is Conference Centre and partly education centre for priests from all over the place.

After a lot of hard labour they succeeded in making it back to a profitable business and earn all the costs of maintenance.

Maybe people at Mount St. Benedict would like te read about it too.

Between 1829-1895 Pierre Cuijpers designed more than 100 catholic churches in the province Noord-Brabant, and Bovendonk was one of his large projects.

Hope you like it

Best regards,

Jan Koenraadt

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

From:Glen Mckoy

Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 1:07 AM

Subject: Taki Taki, Dutch and Suriname

(Big Hi!, to all.)

My dear brother Jan, Good to hear from you.

Hopefully, Your Belongings, was put to good use, by the Knights.??

The price of freedom, for leaving , the mount. too soon, Ha! Ha!

Jan, I have been to Holland, many times, I really liked Rotterdam, the little bridges etc.

I am sure, all the women, were 6 feet tall.

Most of my father's family, from Suriname , lives there.

My brother Dr. Guillermo Samson, by father, was a professor of Economics, at the University of Amsterdam and Univ. of Rotterdam, he is presently running his own , Private University, in Suriname .

Jan, Tim Healy showed me a lot of Suriname, he lived on Water Kant stra. in Paramaribo, visited Cola creek, we also went to the French side, we had to cross two big brown rivers, filled with piranha, to some place behind God's back.

What an adventure, Surprise we came back alive.

Now, you guys share, the same languages, TakiTaki, Dutch and Suriname I do hope, you guys get to speak to each other, on the phone, one of these days.

And I would also like to thank Nigel, for introducing you to us.

Thank you for the story, and hopefully, more to come.

Its a pleasure, to have you with us, from that time shared, on this journey of life, we take.

Best Regards

Glen Mckoy.

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From: jankoenraadt@casema.nl
Subject: Re: [SPAM] THE HISTORY OF THE CHEST
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:17:58 +0200

Dear Glen McKoy,

Wish to add my little story to it.

Left Mount unexpectedly in 1967.

We used to empty our lockers in a laundry bag and put it in the attic.

Only take home which would not exceed the 20 kg flying by aeroplane.

During the holidays my dad decided it might be better for me to attend a new school in my home town.

So I never came back and all my belongings stayed in the attic.

Never got them back.

Probably the knights took it all?

Greetings from the Netherlands

Jan Koenraadt

----- Original --------------------------------------------------------------------

E: The Mekdessie brothers.‏

From: Glen Mckoy (mckoy43glen@hotmail.com)

Sent: Mon 4/14/08 5:07 PM

Hello David,

I will forward this information to Nigel to add to the list.

So its Joseph and Raymond Mekdessie.

Well now we know the right names you never know, some thing might come up, out of the blue.

Take care Glen.

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From: thecalypsobandit@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: THE MECKDESKI BROTHERS IN SURINAM

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:50:26 +0000

hi glen

the other brother was Raymond

"bandit"

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From: mckoy43glen@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: THE MECKDESKI BROTHERS IN SURINAM
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:39:57 +0000

Its a start if you got the right name, some one might let you know more, we will see, Glen

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From: thecalypsobandit@hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:37:30 +0000

hi glen,

i think you spelt the name right and one of them was Joseph,

"bandit"

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From: mckoy43glen@hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:27:13 +0000

Dear brothers.

Hello David,

How yuh doing man ?

The Meckdeski Brothers,

The only name I saw on the Data base was Joseph Mekdessie 1940's.

I send your enquiry out, some other brothers, may have information , paging the Blues Brothers.

Take care Glen.

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From: thecalypsobandit@hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:02:53 +0000

hi glen,

did any one ever run into THE MECKDESKI BROTHERS IN SURINAM.

[hope i spelt it right they went to mount in 1950 & 1951}i went to Suriname in 1954 all i remember is drinking those huge bottles of dutch beers and the sunken ship in the harbour.

that was a 4 day blurr.

regards "bandit"

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Enrique & Winston

Winston Ramsahai

Sunday, February 24, 2008 6:52:50 PM

Guys

Enrique and Winston trying to blend calaloo soup with a swizzle stick at Enrique home in Houston TX..... for a novice it was surprisingly good.

Winston

----- Forwarded Message ---------------------------------------------------

From: Enrique Zanelli enriquez@choicequip.com

Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 1:38:19 PM

Subject: Emailing: 1-2008 003

Winston,

If anyone doesn't believe you made callaloo, just show them this picture.

It was pretty good too!.

Enrique.

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Now to the photo section.

08EZ0001EZAWRA, Enrique Zanelli and Winston Ramsahai making calaloo soup.

57RB0002a2, Ricky Chacon, his location is unknown, help

08LK0025BROD, Bro Joseph Dorset, at dinner in Caracas.

63MF0001DINCCS, A group of classmates at a dinner in Caracas 2003, They have not been seen since.

08IG0942DINGRP, Dinner reunion during ESMERALDA´s visit to TT, Ali Yunas and Alexander Garth.