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.