Spiritans in Manila: July 2010

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Visitors: One Welcomed and One Thrust Upon Us

1:47 AM |

Posted by daniel

We’ve had a couple of first time visitors recently…Fr. Jean-Paul Hoch, C.S.Sp. the Superior General of the Spiritans, and Typhoon Caloy, the first typhoon of the year. Fr. Jean-Paul’s visit was certainly more enjoyable!

Fr. Jean-Paul was in Taiwan for an important general meeting of the Spiritans there, and so while in the “neighborhood” he dropped in on our communities in Vietnam and here, our new home in Metro Manila.

He arrived Monday, June 28^th, with Fr. Cyr to meet the first Filipino Spiritans in history. And he brought news and blessings from the community all over the world. While he was here we shared, prayed, ate, celebrated. We were especially happy to welcome him into our new home, to show him Loyola School of Theology and introduce him to some of Dennis’, Emboy’s, and Aying’s professors and classmates. And we showed him the beauty of Ateneo de Manila University’s campus; introduced him to many of my colleagues in the Theology Department.

Wednesday, June 30th, was an historic moment: the inauguration of the new President of the Republic, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III (himself a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University). Since classes were suspended, we decided to visit the Guanellian Center, the home for mentally and physically handicapped where Dennis, Emboy and Aying help out. As always, it was so touching to see how excited the people there were when we drove up. Everyone wanted to dance for us (to Tagalog rap, no less!)…and then snacks were served. After an enjoyable time with the Servants of Charity, we gave Fr. Jean-Paul the grand tour of historic Manila, Intramuros, the old Spanish walled-in city. The majestic Manila Cathedral, the warm and welcoming Church of St. Augustine and the old Augustinian Monastery which is now a museum, all the sights of old Manila welcomed us. We even passed through Chinatown on the way to a Filipino restaurant where we were joined by many of our closest friends, including our Board of Advisors which has been of such invaluable help in these early and often difficult and uncertain days of our settling here. The only thing better than the food was the wonderful company. One big family. Everyone was so happy to meet Jean-Paul, and he so happy to meet them. What more could we ask for? Later, in the quiet of the evening, we watched the replay of the inauguration and celebrations in the comfort of our home.

Not long after Fr. Jean-Paul left, Typhoon Caloy blew in. For months and months after we first moved into this house I had to call the roofers again and again to come and fix the leaks. They finally had to replace the whole outer roof!! And so now that we finally have a fine roof, Typhoon Caloy came along and threw two of the neighbors’ trees on it!!! Around 3:00am, while the whole city was placed on Storm Signal 2 of the typhoon, I thought a truck landed on the roof! I grabbed a flashlight and went out in the wild and furious wind and rain, only to see two trees had been blown over. While their bottoms were in the neighbors’ land, their tops were firmly planted on our roof!! Don’t ask me how, but the other guys slept soundly through what sounded like the Normandy Invasion. By then the electricity was already out all over the city, and we would remain without electricity for two more days. In the morning light we could see that trees ripped from their roots and signs torn from their posts littered the neighborhood. Some 68 people died in the storm, and some 90 are still unaccounted for. But the next morning, with typical Filipino resilience, people were out picking up the pieces and moving on to the new day. Our guys got on the roof with machetes and axes and made kindling of the fallen trees while I was the cheering section on the ground floor! All the schools were closed, so it gave us the day to clean up the evidence of Typhoon Caloy’s fury. It’s typhoon season, and another is already predicted to land within two weeks. I’m just hoping the trees stay where they are planted! And yesterday I bought two more emergency lanterns.

Fr. Jean-Paul has come, so has Typhoon Caloy. What about you?? Unlike the typhoons, you’re always welcomed!! We really enjoy visitors. We’re all doing well and keeping busy with classes. I’m still teaching Intro Theology Courses during the week, while being a student of Mandarin on Saturdays. In addition to their studies, Dennis, with the help of Emboy and Aying, harvested our mango trees and made over 125 jars of our delicious and now famous mango jam, most of which we managed to sell!! We even have some orders for Christmas!!

We’re trying to save up for Spiritan Basketball uniforms, and we want to get a couple of bikes for the house. Say, if you want, you can sponsor the uniforms and then we can put your company’s name on the back of the shirt so you can write it off as a business expense!! It’ll say “Spiritans” on the front, and something like “Eat at Joe’s” on the back!! So what do you think? Who wants to chip in?? (Hey, I’m from Brooklyn, you can’t blame me for trying!!)

May God continue to bless us all!! Know that you are in our prayers every day, as we always lift up to the Lord all our family and friends at daily Eucharist. Keep in touch! God bless!

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