Just landed in Goa.

Started by Greg, March 15, 2018, 03:23:30 PM

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Greg

Going today in six hours.  By cab.  It is a 30 min ride away from my hotel.  Mass at 5pm local time.

Hoping to have a chance to speak to some laity, but the priest or organiser says that they all skedaddle after mass, (no tea room, ironic in India right?).  Thus going 40 min early.

I suspect that they work six days a week and therefore have a lot of tasks to get done on their one day off.  But would be interesting to get a flavour of their worldview.  There are no Indians on this forum as far as I know.
Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

diaduit

Is the sspx orphanage located where you're visiting? . I sponsored a child there yearly and I'd love to hear a first hand account of it.

Greg

Don't believe so.

Went to the Church just now.  Was small and full up.  Desperately hot and humid.  12km inland.  In a loose shirt and long trousers I was sweating like a pig.  Just pouring off me.  My skin is actually sore now from sweating.

The priest didn't show up so we said the stations of the cross.  Children were amused to see a foreigner especially one from London.  They spoke English and said prayers in English. Stations of the Cross followed by the Rosary.

Priest had a delayed flight from Bombay and was due to arrive in another 3 hours.  Taxi was waiting so after 1 hour of prayers I came back.  Some of them waited 3 hours.
Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

christulsa

#18
Quote from: Greg on March 18, 2018, 07:54:35 AM
Don't believe so.

Went to the Church just now.  Was small and full up.  Desperately hot and humid.  12km inland.  In a loose shirt and long trousers I was sweating like a pig.  Just pouring off me.  My skin is actually sore now from sweating.

The priest didn't show up so we said the stations of the cross.  Children were amused to see a foreigner especially one from London.  They spoke English and said prayers in English. Stations of the Cross followed by the Rosary.

Priest had a delayed flight from Bombay and was due to arrive in another 3 hours.  Taxi was waiting so after 1 hour of prayers I came back.  Some of them waited 3 hours.

This one time,  at an SSPX pilgrimage Mass in Bohol, Philippines,  I sweated so much my shirt was soaked.  Had to duck behind a bush to ring it out.  Hot as H E double hockey sticks.

Another time,  in Tulsa,  the priest's plane came in very late on Christmas Eve.   Only 3 of us attended the candle-light Midnight High Mass.   Some how I served it solo,  while the other 2 sang all the propers.   Then found a diner open at 2 am.  True story.   It was with the famous Fr. Kenneth Novak.

Greg

The amazing thing is that the altar servers are dressed in a shirt, long trousers then a surplice and alb and don't appear to break a sweat.

How did the British ever take this place over?  The interior is like a jungle.  No wonder foreigners died of fever..
Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

Greg

I was thinking.  Looking at the run down state of the chapel, the exposed wiring, the stations of the cross which some bodge artist nailed up without using a spirit level and speaking to the kids, what would I do to help these people out.

At first I had a idea of James and I coming out to the 3rd world to act as foremen over Chapel restoration.  This place didn't even have decent lighting.   In my vision we would direct works and so them how to run wiring, chase into walls, paint correct, hang doors, and cover a junction box so you did not get an electric shock from it.

No doubt, compared to us they have faith like that of children.  They kneel on tiled floors to say the Rosary, hang around for the priest for hours and hour in a hot jungle.  There we have nothing to teach them.

But...  it wasn't an Indian or Philippino Bishop that defended Tradition.  It was a European with a European intellect.  The child like faith people just prayed and obeyed their way to modernism. It took a European intellect to point out the problems and the contradictions of post-V2 Catholicism.

My answer was the internet.  If I was Bishop Fellay I would sponsor and encourage a huge internet connectivity program.  We could watch their Masses and be inspired by them and they could develop their brains.

Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

christulsa

#21
Quote from: Greg on March 18, 2018, 11:40:57 PM
I was thinking.  Looking at the run down state of the chapel, the exposed wiring, the stations of the cross which some bodge artist nailed up without using a spirit level and speaking to the kids, what would I do to help these people out.

At first I had a idea of James and I coming out to the 3rd world to act as foremen over Chapel restoration.  This place didn't even have decent lighting.   In my vision we would direct works and so them how to run wiring, chase into walls, paint correct, hang doors, and cover a junction box so you did not get an electric shock from it.

No doubt, compared to us they have faith like that of children.  They kneel on tiled floors to say the Rosary, hang around for the priest for hours and hour in a hot jungle.  There we have nothing to teach them.

But...  it wasn't an Indian or Philippino Bishop that defended Tradition.  It was a European with a European intellect.  The child like faith people just prayed and obeyed their way to modernism. It took a European intellect to point out the problems and the contradictions of post-V2 Catholicism.

My answer was the internet.  If I was Bishop Fellay I would sponsor and encourage a huge internet connectivity program.  We could watch their Masses and be inspired by them and they could develop their brains.

James lives in my neck of the woods,  so I'll join him.  You two can be the foremen.  I'll make the compost toilets!  Come in handy in 3rd world countries.   I suggested them for the SSPX Filipino pilgrimage, and ended up making several with this Filipino carpenter.   Saved the group going behind bushes, plus human-nure is good for the garden.   ;)    See pic. Log in to see. 


Greg

Fancy it James?  Next Christmas?  20th to 31st December?

We can wear Pith helmets and have the natives fan us with palm fronds.

Go and sort something out properly, in one of these godforsaken hellholes.  Show them how to construct something that will last 100-200 years.

Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

christulsa

Greg gets his compost toilet plated in gold.   ::)

Greg

Even composting toilet designs can be improved upon.

Unless they are foolproof they cause as many problems as they solve.

There's something bodge ass about the third world which really pisses me off every time I visit.  If they can't learn to do things professionally and properly, they are always going to live in squalid holes.

Right now, for example, I am at a 4 star hotel in Goa that has short  5-10 second power cuts even hour during the day.

Reeks havoc with modern electronics.  Install a UPS for goodness sake and have uninterrupted power which can run for 1 hour.  It's not that hard to do and for a hotel probably saves money in less wrecked TV sets and AC systems and light bulbs, as well as Alarm clocks that keep resetting to 12:00
Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

christulsa

#25
I wonder why the 3rd world is so behind?   The Mark of Cain??  Hellish climates?  Both?  My mother is from Bavaria which is a fairytale wonderland compared to my wife's homeland (which is very 3rd world but I still love it).    Was staying at a nicer hotel in the Philippines.  Woke up one morning to see a one foot wide wolf spider (that's what I call it) staring at me from the other side of the room (I suspect this is a common experience in many parts of Asia).  No exaggeration.   Knowing if I scared it away,  Id be too arachnophobic to stay in that room, so I crawled very slowly across the room.  10 minutes later I killed it.  Then I was told this is common, and people don't often spray for insects. Gotta love the adventure of the Orient.

I'd add more to the thread,  but I gotta Goa.    :)


Heinrich

Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

red solo cup

Quote from: christulsa on March 19, 2018, 08:09:39 PM
I wonder why the 3rd world is so behind?   The Mark of Cain??  Hellish climates?  Both?  My mother is from Bavaria which is a fairytale wonderland compared to my wife's homeland (which is very 3rd world but I still love it).    Was staying at a nicer hotel in the Philippines.  Woke up one morning to see a one foot wide wolf spider (that's what I call it) staring at me from the other side of the room (I suspect this is a common experience in many parts of Asia).  No exaggeration.   Knowing if I scared it away,  Id be too arachnophobic to stay in that room, so I crawled very slowly across the room.  10 minutes later I killed it.  Then I was told this is common, and people don't often spray for insects. Gotta love the adventure of the Orient.

I'd add more to the thread,  but I gotta Goa.    :)
Did killing the spider make it rain?
non impediti ratione cogitationis

Greg

#28
Saw the body of St. Francis Xavier today at the Basilica of Bom.  Old Goa.

New mass going on but overall vibe was conservative.



Then the tour (all were Russians except me) went to tiny Hindu temple, ( I hung around outside and drank vodka and tomato juice at 8am ) then went up the mountains to a waterfall.  Amazing thing was that after a 6 mile ride in a 4x4 up mountain roads from the final village and a further 15 minute hike to this high mountain waterfall and lake below there was still a working railway, engineered into these inaccessible cliffs and delivered by Victoria era colonists directing Indian hired labour.

Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

Carleendiane

Greg, thank you for your updates. I am your ordinary stay at home girl. It's great to hear your experiences. And it warms my heart to read about your affinity for the poor, the children in these places of poverty and neglect. Your story about the orphanage, can't remember where, really inspired me to DO more for the needs of those right here. Doesn't take a bleeding heart liberal to get things done. Though you manage to get all over, and I dont, it's the charity that inspires me. And I can do that right here. Right where I'm at, children need love and care, old people need some company, poor need basic things, like boots in the winter, money, medicine. Your example fires me up to do more.

For as cutting as you are, with no time for B.S., your heart for people suffering poverty among other things....your heart is soft. Oh, you may not make a  show of  it,  but these posts prove it. Good man. May God keep you well in your travels. And your famiky, while they await your return. CD
To board the struggle bus: no whining, board with a smile, a fake one will be found out and put off at next stop, no maps, no directions, going only one way, one destination. Follow all rules and you will arrive. Drop off at pearly gate. Bring nothing.