On my way home

Dear followers, thanks to a young but good doctor I could avoid a surgery and at this moment I am sitting in the Business Lounge at Nha Trang Airport. Waiting for the flight to Saigon. From there I will take a flight to Frankfurt and a train to my hometown. I should arrive there Thursday mid day local time.

An unexpected change

Dear follower, caused by a medical problem that I actually have, I can not go to my next planned town in Da Nang. I have to stay in Nha Trang for medical treatment. I am happy that it looks like that there is no surgery necassery. But I can not fly to Da Nang and that is really sad. I have to stay in Nha Trang for five days, then I have to fly back to Germany.
I keep you informed as soon as I feel a bit better.

On the farm

Today we went to the area of Cam Tan.
From Nha Trang it is less then an half an hour to drive
First we visited the home for disabled children in Cam Lam. It is one of Ursula's newer projects in this region.
About 30 - 40 children go here every day, some are even living here. There are four nuns looking after them. The chrildren were so happy to see us and embraced us all the time.

They really liked to be photogrraphed

Me too!

A German student helping Ursula in the project with many children and a mother

Most of the disabilities are long time effects of the chemical weapons used by the US army during the Vietnam war. Most of us might know "Agent Orange", a chemical used widely by the US army to defoliate the trees in the jungle (10th of August is "Orange Day" in Vietnam - that day the remember the victioms of Agent Orange).
Ursula today brought mainly things to play with for the children. A punch or clown theatre for the children.

A warm welcome to Ursula. The nun is a studied teacher for disabled children

Little puppets for the small children

Ursula is always trying to help were the need is the biggest. Since this is a new project there are many thing that need to be solved: Water supply and a new pump systen, a surgery for one of the boys who only has one ear, support for a single mother with a heavily disabled 17 year old boy, a wheelchair for another boy and many other things.

The children showed us at the end of our visit a little show they have prepared for us. It was really amazing to see this children beeing so happy with us. 

A dance for us

Breakdancer!

Ursula with a mentally retarded boy

The nuns were friendly to me an promised to help me to find my sister. They will ask elder nuns in the congregation.

Finally we made a group picture and again many hands waved us goodbye.

From the orphanage we drove to the church auf Hoa Tan. There was a young priest. I found him not very helpful but he agreed to show the poster after the sunday service and ask elder member of the parish about the wife and child. I really hope he will do that.

The Church in Cam Tan (named Hoa Tan)

The house were the priest lives

Then we drove to the farm my father worked on. It was not easy to find, again it is in the middle of nowhere. We passed the station of Cam Tan (still named Hoa Tan - like in the old days) but got lost on a sand road. We phoned the grandson of Marcel van den Berg and they found us on the motorbikes, guiding us to the farm savely.

Lost

Dogs barking at us

Behind this trees is the farm

Impressions from the farm

Madame Doan Thi Duc in her late days

The rebuild old farm house - Did my father live her also?

A very old truck, but still in use

The grandsons who will try their best to find my sister

The two brothers told us that there is another church nearby which belongs to another parish but is closer to the farm. So we went there. The priest didn't open the doors although we asumed that he was at home. But right next to the Church we found a congregation of cistercian monks. We rang the bell and a young man came out and we told him also my story. He promised to speak with the priest from the church and he will also discuss it with some elder monks from the congregation. I saw some old pictures on a wall and he told me that they were made in this area around 1960 (when my father lived here).

Some monks in 1959

On a farm in 1968

The friendly monk

When I came back this afternoon to my hotel room I was really tired. It is again a hot day here in Nha Trang and I hadn't have a breakfast this morning, so I was hungry too. I wenn to a small restaurant right around the corner for some fried noodles with chicken and water spinach with garlic.
I have tried now nearly everything possible to find a hint or a trace of my father's first family.
Many people told me here that they might have emigrated to the US or France after the victory of the revolution in 1975 to avoid persecution as a child with a german father, a former soldier for the French.
I think this is highly possible but if I would try to find there in old files from the French or US Emigration offices or Embassies I need their ful names.
I hope the some of the elder people might remember them and also their names.
To me it was also very emotional to walk a bit in the footsteps of my father, to stand on the farm where he worked 50 years ago as a machinist. To see how the people live there, the near mountains, the rice fields and all the other things.
On the way back we planned to got back soon, talk to the priest and try to find out more. Maybe I will rent a mototbike and go on my own to feel really the situation. I also like to videotape some things for my family at home.
I am not sure today that I can come any further with the search for my sister, but I am proud to have found the place where my father lived in Vietnam.
Thanks again to all the people who helped me.

The next steps are ahead

A long journey is always done step by step. This is also with my family research.

On Monday we visited the house of Madame Doan Thi Duc and Marcel van den Berg.

Madame Doan Thi Duc and Marcel van den Berg (around 1973)

In the house lived their son, he died one month ago. I spoke with the widow and her daughter, she came from the US for the mourning celebrations.
First I explained my condolence to the family. They were very friendly and they will try to help me.
They think that my father was a friend of Marcel van den Berg, because he was also a soldier in the Legion Etrangere and was of my father's age. They showed me exactly were the farm is on a map. There also live some members of the family.

My visit to the family in Nha Trang

They even will try to find out the adress of Alain van den Berg in Bordeaux (France). He is the other son of Madame Doan Thi Duc. I tried to find him two years ago, when Fr. Tien from the Bishop's office here in Nha Trang mailed me that he got married in the Church of Pessac. Maybe this time he will help me.
When  Mr. Hue and I returned to his house we met Ursula. A nice German woman who is married to a Vietnamese man. They live half the time in Germany and in Vietnam. She is doing charity work for hospitals and disabled people. We discussed about my search and another lucky situation came up to me:
She will go to Cam Lam (where the farm is) within the next days and she knows a student who is catholic and speaks English and German. We all will drive together to Cam Lam and visit the farm and also speak to the priest in the local parish.
In the afternoon I went to see Fr. Tien from the Bishop's office in Nha Trang himself. He helped me many times in the last two years.

Fr. Tien from the Bishop's office in Nha Trang

Unfortunately he is absent for two weeks. His collegue helped me by giving me the adress of the local parish and the name of the priest. So we can easily find him.
Since we can not go to Cam Lam before Thursday, I have two days to rest and relax a bit.
This morning I went to the beach

Fishing at the beach on Nha Trang

and later I made 30 copies of the poster which we want to hang up in the shops, restaurants, churches in Cam Lam area. (I know I already broke my two days rest by doing that).
But the rest of the day and tomorrow I will be lazy. So, don't worry if I may not write another entry before I come back from Cam Lam on Thursday.

Disappointment and hope ...

....sometimes lie close together.

I am just back from a visit to Mr. Dang Vinh Hue. He is the president of the German-Vietnamese-Friendship-Comitee here in Nha Trang.

He studied in Moritzburg, so he speaks a good German. After I explained the situation to him and he has read the files and information he understood the situation perfectly well. He even phoned the house of Madame Doan Di Duc's son here in Nha Trang and spoke to a woman there.

Later he told me: The son of Madame Doan Di Duc just died a month ago. He was born in 1946, so he might  have had remembered my father and his family.

This was disappointing - I have had so much confidence to be able to speak with him.

But the hope is: We will go to the families house tomorrow and the grand daughter of Madame Doan Di Duc will see us. There are still five children of this man living in the area of the farm, which is only some 10 to 15 km away from Nha Trang.

There were some informations in that phonecall that they even be a chance that they remember the wife and child. But this has to be clarified during the visit tomorrow.

Mr. Dang Vinh Hue

From Paris to Nizza

Many people say, that Saigon is the Paris of South-East Asia. And if so: Nha Trang is Vietnam's Nizza.

The Beach at Nha Trang

Wonderful

The promenade at the beach

I arrived yesterday afternoon.
I decided to go by plane because the train needs app. 8 hours for the 400 km from Saigon to Nha Trang.
I stay now in the Diva Guesthouse, 24/12a Huong Voung street, Nha Trang.

DIVA Guesthouse

The Hotel is owned by Helmut and his wife Trang. Helmut is from Germany but lives most of the year in Vietnam now.
In the book "Mein Vater der Mörder" the author Jürgen Pomorin mentioned Helmut and so I contacted him to stay in is Hotel.
Last night we went out for dinner and had some wonderful hours together. We drank some beer and spoke until midnight about Vietnam. He has made many positiv but also some negative experiences here. The country is wonderful but at the same time it can be terrible to live or even work here. Without serenity and a good understanding of Vietnames history and cultur you will never understand why the Vietnamse people act as they do.
This morning I slept very long, I really needed some hours to rest. I went to the beach and took some photos there, had breakfast in a nice restaurant next to the beach and of course I went to the adress 39 Hoang Van Thu Street, the adress my father had in 1960.

At 39 Hoang Van Thu they are building a now house

The area around that house

A view down the road

This afternoon we will meet an old Vietnamese man, he speaks good German because he lived in Moritzburg (in the former GDR - East Germany). He might have enough contacts here to help me or to give me some advice.

The Bishops house at the beach of Nha Trang

That is all I want to do for today. Tomorrow I will try to see Fr. Tien from the Bishops office in Nha Trang and Helmut told me that the Bishop is speaking German very good because he studied in Switzerland for some years. So hopefully I can see him also.
When I went to Nha Trang this morning, I thought to myself: If I were my father, I rather lived in Nha Trang then in Rach Goi. Nha Trang is really a nice place.
We will see, what I can find out in the next days.

Lunch with the mayor and a meeting with the Bishop

This day in Can Tho was packed with lot of activities and experiences.
I am so happy to have Julia with me, she is just wonderful in supporting me. Just read about the day:

After a very good breakfast at the Phoung Dong Hotel in Can Tho we started our trip to Rach Goi. Again I was sitting on the backseat, maybe that's the reason why Julia put some extra air on the tires at a        servicestation next to the road. :-)
After app. 45 minutes we reached Rach Goi. A little hamlet with houses lined up like pearls along the road and the canals. We stopped at the local town hall and Julia started to inform some people about our request.
A town hall in Vietnam in a small village looks much different to what I am used to from Germany. There are no long corridors with offices behind closed doors. Everything happens in a big hall.

Julia and the mayor discussing some facts

Soon some more people joined us and started to discuss, I tried to follow each time Julia translated something.
After they had understood what my seach is about and why I came to Rach Goi they were very helpful.
First we printed out the poster that I have made for my search in an updated version, then we copied it a hundred times. A young assistant took 50 of the copies with the order of the mayor to place them everywhere around Rach Goi in Shops, Offices and elsewhere.
The first copy was taped right at the main gate of the town hall. Many people started to read the text and discussed about it. But nobody could remember the family (did I realy hope for that?).

After this first action we we accompanied by the mayor on his motorbike to the catholic church in Rach Goi.


The Church is even further away from the center then I thought and lies in the middle of nowhere, right between many rice fields and very small houses and canals.

The Catholic Church in Rach Goi

A view down the road from the church (right side)

The canal next to the church (left)

Unfortunately the priest was not present but we gave all the informations to a woman working for him.
Then we walked around a bit, just down the road. I wanted to make some photos to show at home. Julia had the brilliant idea to show the search poster to some of the inhabitants in Rach Goi. We did, there are always people on the road, in front of their houses. :-)

Julia with people from Rach Goi

Soon we got some hints to speak to some of the elderly people and so we met an old grandfather and in another house an old grandmother. We explained again the situation but again: They could not remember any German man living among them 50 years ago.

Julia and the Grandfather

Also the Grandmother could not remember my father or his family

So we finished for this day the search in Rach Goi and the mayor (still with us) showed us a nice restaurant (so what you call a 'restaurant' in Rach Goi) and we had a traditional Vietnamese lunch.

After the lunch we said goodbye to the mayor and he promised us to bring the search for my half sister into the local radio program. What could I expect more from this morning?

After a short stop at the hotel (to pick up the presents) we drove to the Thien An Orphanage of Sister Mary.
When I said, Rach Goi is in the middle of nowhere, Tien An is a place you even can't reach with a car!
Only on bycicles, motorbikes and on a boat you can go to this orphanage.

A road sign in the middle of nowhere

The only road to the orphanage

Yes, it is really the right way to Thien An

When we arrived to volunteers from the Netherlands gave English lessons to a group of little children. Sister Mary was out so we waited a bit and followed the English lessons.
Sister Mary is a nice and friendly person. We explained again the situation and the last results and I asked her what a Vietnamese woman with a child from a foreigner could have done after the husband has left the family.

Sister Mary from Thien An

The explained that there might be a high chance that she emigrated to the US after 1975 because the US government allowed all families with half Vietnamese children to emigrate to the US. It was not important if the children had an american father at that time. This is a new aspect I have to keep in mind. But to investigate on this I need clear names and eg birthdates of the woman and the child. That's a fact.
The volunteers from the Netherlands and France where all very interested in my story and all wished me luck to find my sister.

Children and volunteers dancing 

We met also another nun at Thien An who works for the Bishop in Can Tho, she explained that she will arrange a meeting with the bishop at 8:00 am tomorrow. I was really happy that she said that. I believe that the Bishop of  Can Tho has the best possibilities to find hints in the church books and to look what his predecessor Bishop Dien did after his return to Vietnam in 1963 (when he met my father in Muenster / Germany).
After we handed over the presents to sister Mary we where waved good bye by many childrens hands.
We were just on the way back to a normal road as the mobile phone from Julia rang: The Bishop is busy tomorrow he only can see us right now. An unexpected meeting with the bishop will finalize a busy day!
We drove to the Bishops house and he welcomed us in his meeting room. Since he already had tried to find any informations about my father in Rach Goi two years ago (when I first wrote him a mail) he thought at the beginning that he could not do much more today. But as we discussed we found out, that they searched for a Vietnamese name in the church books and not for the christian name Karin (I don't know which name the searched) and they agreed to look again and they will also inform the priest in Rach Goi to support the search. Bishop Tri Buu Tien thinks they might not be any information about activities that Bishop Dien did after his return to Can Tho from Rom. He was in Rome much longer then expected and was ordinated to Arch Bishop of Hue six month after he returned.
We ended the meeting again with many thanks for the support so far and I am sure: If in Rach Goi and in the Diocese Can Tho at any time someone will remember my father or his wife and daughter: They will remember me and our visit today and forward this information to me.
That is all I can say at the moment.
After we returned to my hotel I really felt that my battery was empty for that day. I decided to go to Nha Trang tomorrow. I will take the bus back to Saigon and then I will try to catch a train to Nha Trang, if not possible I will take a flight to Nha Trang.
There I will have a rest and make some days 'just holidays' to relax a bit before I start the next part of my journey for my sister.

A day to travel

This morning I left Saigon.

Since I want to travel as near as possible like the Vietnamese people, I decided to take the bus to Can Tho.

First I had to take a City bus from the famous Ben-Thanh market to the western bus station. This bus station is really huge. More then a hundred buses are waiting to bring the people only to the western and southern areas from Saigon. There is another station to serve the north and eastern parts.

Ein Teil des riesigen Busbahnhofs

I was a bit early so I walked a bit around the station, had a drink at at small service point. The bus was wonderful, Air Conditioning !

Aha da kommt ja mein Bus schon.

It took nearly 3 1/2 hours to reach Can Tho. During the journey we had heavy rain and I was a bit worried about my situation in Can Tho.

Regenzeit im Mekong-Delta. Da bleibe ich lieber im Bus.

This time I even used the big new bridge crossing the river Mekong - the biggest bridge in South-East Asia.

At the bus station Julia Le waited for me - she is my supporter and interpreter here in Can Tho. She showed me the hotel and we had lunch together.

Later the evening we went on a boat trip on the Mekong with a big ship, full of hungry people. :-) We had live Music from a band and a magician showed his tricks.

It was wonderful, the weather was good, no rain in the evening.

From the mails that Juli and I exchanged I know that she is a fan of the German soccer team. So I brought her a jersey of the womens national Soccer team. I think she was very happy about it.

When the ship returned to the kay, Julia drove me back to the hotel.

Julia Le

Did I mention before, that she has a small motorbike (like most Vietnamese) and I had to sit on the passenger seat? The traffic is much easier here that it is in Saigon and Julia is a good and cautios driver. I felt very comfortable with her.

Tomorrow we will start early (8:00 am) our trip to Rach Goi. I hope really to find people, who remember anything about my father, his wife and daughter.