Circular No 1064

 

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

Caracas, 8 August 2022. No. 1064

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Dear Friends,

Some news on the PAX Yogurt and Fr. Cuthbert, and some Team George information.

And some news on the Clinic or Infirmary next to the old boys Form 4 and Form 5 Boys’ Room, since we were all very healthy because of sports and good food, nobody remembers having been there.

Remember the coding system that I use in the pictures:

The first two numbers denote the year the photo was taken.

The next two letters are the initials of the person that took the picture if known.

Otherwise, UN = unknown, or LK when I take the photo from FB Facebook.

I can make corrections and would like to have the year and photographer´s initial correct.

So, give me a helping hand.

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http://www.mountstbenedictabbey.org/pax-yogurt-1.html

PAX YOGURT MAKING NEW STRIDES

In addition to a dedicated team of management and workers in the factory, Pax Yogurt now has at least two patrons in the heavens.

The founder and inspiration behind the product, Fr. Cuthbert van de Sande, went to enjoy his heavenly reward on 28 August 2017. 

A loyal friend and director of the business, Mr. Brendan Garcia, had also gone to his eternal reward on 19 July 2017. 

For several months, the Pax Yogurt team has been doing research to improve the brand.

From December 2017 two new sizes of containers were introduced: 10 oz. and 22 oz.

A brand new label has also been designed which has more detailed information about the product. 

The traditional flavours have however been maintained: natural, almond, guava, passion fruit, pineapple, soursop, strawberry, and vanilla.

High quality live active yogurt cultures, rich in probiotics, with excellent health benefits to the consumer, have been included in the formula.

These are as follows: streptococcus thermophilus, lactobacillus bulgaricus, lactobacillus rhamnosus and a selected strain of lactobacillus plantarum.

Pax Yogurt is available at the Pax Abbey Shop on the Mount, at all branches of Massy Stores, Xtra Foods, Tru Valu, JTA and more.

PAX YOGURT replenishes calcium in the body, assists in the prevention of breast and colon cancer, assists in food digestion, and is useful in combating nausea / upset stomach (e.g. after chemo, in pregnancy). 

PAX YOGURT is within the diabetic sugar level range and cholesterol free and thus a good food for the heart.

The Pax Yogurt members of staff are grateful for the continuing support of the monks of the monastery of Mount St Benedict and the support of the loyal customers. 

They are also quite conscious of the presence of Fr. Cuthbert, who appears to be even more active now than when he was alive, seeking at all times the welfare of the health-conscious citizens of our beloved twin-island State of Trinidad and Tobago.

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High-grade product from Mount St Benedict

As more people become increasingly health conscious, there is a growing demand for food products that enhance the life expectancy of individuals.

Health and holiness have often been associated together, and in the Hebrew world-view an individual was considered blessed by God if he/she lived to a ripe old age.

The spirituality of the monks at Mount St Benedict has never been divorced from attending to the physical needs of individuals.

Almost from its beginnings, the monastery had invested time, money and talent in the production of a high-grade honey, used by thousands of pilgrims for both social and medicinal purposes.

In more recent times, at least from 1997, the monastery has been churning out several gallons of another high-grade health product:

PAX YOGURT! This fermented, semi fluid milk product, has been used extensively as a health food from time immemorial, being one of the oldest foods know to humankind.

The production manager, Maxime De Comarmond, is very devoted to the manufacture of high-quality yogurt and Fr Cuthbert, now in his 90s, and the brain behind the Mount's Yogurt, has left the secret recipe to him.  

A devoted cadre of personnel ensure that the yogurt gets to the people who need it.

For the health-conscious individual, the benefits of yogurt are legion.

In research conducted by Dr Grace Gopaulsingh, a friend of the Abbey, a number of its important benefits were identified.

It replenishes calcium in the body, assists in the prevention of breast and colon cancer, assists in food digestion, and is useful in combating nausea / upset stomach (e.g. after chemo, in pregnancy).

PAX YOGURT is fat-free and cholesterol free, and thus a good food for the heart.

It helps in the control of gastro-enteritis.

It is also good for expectant and nursing mothers and is recommended for baby’s first semi-solids (not for lactose intolerant babies).

For those who simply want to look good on the outside, yogurt is ideal for facials as it helps fight pimples.

In the smaller containers, it is a healthy bedtime snack and when fresh fruit is added it does have increased nutritional value.

Among its several benefits, it is reputed “to prolong life, increase sexual potency, remedy baldness and calm frazzled nerves”. (Katriena Gibbon)

PAX YOGURT is available at several supermarkets throughout the country.

If you have not yet seen PAX YOGURT on the shelves of your favourite supermarket, don’t worry; be happy! 

It will soon be there!

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ATTACHMENT 1: GRACIAS – OUR AMIGOS’ JULY, 2022 NOTES OF APPRECATION

Estimado George:

Cada día más agradecido con Team George por la ayuda recibida.

Las cosas empeoran cada vez más en Venezuela. 

Recibí la ayuda de este mes de Julio 2022, también agradecido por las gestiones de Adolfo Aumaitre.

Cordial y fuerte abrazo,

Miguel Angel.

Dear George:

Every day more grateful to Team George for the help received.

Things are getting worse and worse in Venezuela.

I received the help of this month of July 2022, also grateful for the efforts of Adolfo Aumaitre.

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Hello, TEAM GEORGE,

Credit Note for VED.248,94 well received in good order on my account. 

Huge thanks for your July 2022 Assistance and best wishes for a fruitful week.

Andrés

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Dear George,

First of all I hope you and your family and all the coworkers are well. 

I once again want to share my gratitude and thanks to everyone who participates directly or indirectly, with the constant monthly aid.  

Sometimes, I try to think of all the refugees, especially the ones escaping from Ukraine, this remind me of all the hardships my parents went through, as they escaped from Hungary because of the Russian threat. 

They left everything and were clear that what they sought for was a new future and home, which would require hard work and sacrifices in this new way of life. 

And not to take it as granted, that the host country has the obligation to give them everything on a silver tablet, as many, today unfortunately expect...

I am happy that we are not at war, and that we get through somehow, with our modest incomes, to achieve our goals. 

But nevertheless we thank The Team George and you, daily, for all the additional monthly financial help received. 

Love you all and thanks again,

Pal

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Buen día hermano George y familia, 

Mis más sinceras gracias y bendiciones a tu persona, familia y demás miembros del equipo Team George, de igual manera mis más fervientes gracias y bendiciones a nuestro hermano Adolfo por su constante e innegable ayuda para con nuestros hermanos del Abbey school y mi persona...

Les estoy eternamente agradecido...Dios les bendiga y les multiplique sus anhelos y deseos para sus familiares, el grupo Team y demás personas a quienes prestan su colaboración...

Mis saludos y bendiciones..

Edgar

Good day, brother George and family,

My most sincere thanks and blessings to you, family and other members of the Team George team, likewise my most fervent thanks and blessings to our brother Adolfo for his constant and undeniable help for our brothers in the Abbey school and myself...

I am eternally grateful...God bless you and multiply your hopes and desires for your family members, the Team group and other people to whom you collaborate...

My greetings and blessings...

Edgar

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Alan Date <alandate@gmail.com>

Tue, Jul 26 at 11:40 PM

Hi Don,

Many thx. Good of you!

Don, if not even one of the above is Ladislao's current email address, kindly fwd this to him.

“Hi Ladislao, 

i) Did I ever thank you for correcting this photo's inscription from 'Alan Date & family' to ‘Alan Date & students?’

Much appreciated; I remember someone saying to me, I think it was after seeing the initial inscription, years ago, something like,

"Oh, so you had a family in Korea...", something like that.

Which wasn't so; so I appreciate your righting the error. 

ii) I hope you're managing well in Venezuela; and 

iii) perhaps apropos to nothing in particular, may Chris (Knowles) RIP:

He was a good friend to me even before we had truly become friends.

But that is a whole 'nother story.

And may you and yours be blessed.

Alan”

(OK Alan, now tell us the Christopher story. Editor)

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ATTACHMENT 1 – MAY GRACIAS

Hello, TEAM GEORGE,

Credit Note for VED.196.32 well received in good order on my account. 

Huge thanks for your May 2022 Assistance and best wishes for a fruitful week.

Andrés

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Thankful and grateful for your humanitarian help and unconditional support.

God bless you all. 

Luis Alfredo

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Buenos días George y familia al igual que al grupo (Team George),

Gracias a nuestro hermano Adolfo por su abnegada ayuda y colaboración tanto a mi persona como al resto del grupo Abbey school.

Dios les bendiga por tan grandiosa labor para con el grupo de Abbey School Boys..un fuerte abrazo...

Saludos Edgar

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Good morning, George and family as well as the group (Team George),

Thanks to our brother Adolfo for his selfless help and collaboration both to me and to the rest of the Abbey school group.

God bless you for such a great job with the Abbey School Boys group... a big hug...

Regards

Edgar

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Hola George.

Hubo problemas internos en el banco.

Hoy pude verificar que me llegó la ayuda humanitaria de este mayo 2022. 

Mil gracias a Team George y a las gestiones de Adolfo Aumaitre. 

Cada día, es más importante la ayuda humanitaria de Team George, para poder sostenernos, mientras cambian las cosas. 

Fuerte abrazo y bendiciones, 

Miguel Angel

Hello George.

There were internal problems in the bank.

Today I was able to verify that the humanitarian aid for this May 2022 arrived.

Many thanks to Team George and the efforts of Adolfo Aumaitre. Every day, the humanitarian aid of Team George is more important, to be able to sustain us, while things change.

Big hug and blessings,

Miguel Angel 

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Jan en Berthy <jankoenraadt@gmail.com>

Sun, May 29 at 6:00 AM

Those are my memories too, that there was an infirmary down below the form I dormitory. 

You go down the stairs left of the entrance of that dorm, come into a narrow dark corridor, get past the barbershop, then a little room with a piano (where I learned to play "My Bonny flies over the Ocean" a few 1000 times, that was before Lindsay Moffat teached me to play the songs of Sound of Music)  and then you come into a courtyard. 

On the right was the chemistry lab, on the left a room they later around 1965 changed into an airconditioned room with television like a college teaching room with bunks from low to high.

There was a knob if you turned it the tv-antenna on the roof would turn too.

I think the monks of the monastery came to watch television there incognito in their free time.

At the end of the courtyard or "atrium" was the infirmary.

When I first arrived at Mount I was shown around but I didn't speak English yet and I didn't know what the word infirmary meant.

If the had said sick bay of hospital I would have understood.

Therefor when I was ill somebody had to send me to it as I didn't know.

I think once I got itches on my skin from a mattress that was dirty and then I went.

I faintly remember the nurse, I was afraid I would be accused of faking as such was the standard opinion, but the nurse was sweet and kind.

I remember her being about middle aged with dark brown curly hair coming out beneath her nurse cap.

She wore a nurse skirt.

I think she would have wanted to mother us all, but restrained herself from that because we were with too many.

I think I only went once to her, probably I was a healthy boy :-)

Once because of some contagious flue about a third of the dormitory was sick, me too.

We all lie in bed for a few days.

One morning I got out and felt myself better, so I left.

But the standard opinion was that boys were faking.

So that same morning father Cuthbert announced that the doctor was coming and everybody who was still in bed would get an injection.

Oh boy, so fast a lot of boys jumped out of bed and got dressed and went outside.

The real sick guys stayed, but afterwards they didn't get any injection but some medicine from the doctor.

I remember once some boy had fallen out of a tree in the hills and had broken his leg.

He was carried out of the bush to the basketball courtyard and father Cuthbert was very busy with it.

From there he was taken to the hospital downtown and got cured.

Much greetings

Jan Koenraadt MSB '63-'67

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Timothy Mew <timmewaussie@me.com>

Sun, May 1 at 7:27 PM

Hola Ladislao,

My thanks once again for all your struggles, successes and continuities over so many years with the MSB circulars.

It always interesting to read them.

It’s really quite an amazing job and dedication to the MSB networks.

Cheers

Tim & family.

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Elspeth O'Connor <pethrich@westnet.com.au>

Sun, May 1 at 8:40 PM

Hi Ladislao, 

I have asked Don to take me off your list and I am still getting the Mount Circulars.

As Richard was the one who was really interested in anything to do with the Mount and I have no idea who most of the people are, I would like to unsubscribe.

You have both done a tremendous job in keeping the Mount boys together.

I also belong to my old Convent in the UK but unfortunately it was sold after I was there and most of our Old Girls have gone to better pastures in the sky, so we are a very dwindling number and losing touch with one another also.

Thank you for your contributions over the years.

Sincerely,

Elspeth O'Connor

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to subscribe for a whole year and be in the circular’s mailing list or if you would like to mention any old boy that you would like to include, write to me.

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Photo:

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57BV0111BVIGRP, Brother Vincent

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