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.

People who helped me ...

are everywhere in Vietnam. Today is a good example for that.
After a great breakfast at the Hotel (Vietnamese Soup, a rice dish and after that some fruits) I took a taxi to the office of the search Team and Mr. Vien.
The office is located in an unobstrusive Building in district 4.

The office building

I met Chau Thrinh, my interpreter, outside the building and we went up to the 5th floor. I was a bit nervous about the situation, I must admit. What could they tell me more in detail about their results?

Mr. Vien is a young man, he is with the search group for only six month, normally they do searches for soldiers from the Vietnam War and try to find out where they died and inform their families.

Mr. Vien in his office

I was so happy to have Chau Thrinh with me - the English of Mr. Vien is not the best, I couldn't understand a word. But Chau Thrinh speaks perfect German. No wonder: She studied German in Berlin and runs now a School to teach German language in Saigon.
We discussed a lot of facts and assumptions during the meeting. Vien gave me the exact adress of the farm in Nha Tran area. They believe it is the highest chance to find my sister in that area.
I am a bit disillusioned about that man who claims to remember my father from the farm. He is only in his fifties, so he was a child when my father lived there. Either he is lying or he can't remeber many things. But I will see when I go there in a few days.

After the meeting with the search team, I went with Chau Thrinh to see her school. There I met Tom, he gave me the advice to contact Chau Trin as an interpreter. We went out for lunch and they showed me a wonderful place you can't find in any tour guide. A Café or little restaurant, hidden in the backyard of a house, quiet, no noise from the streets. You feel like beeing in a wonderful garden. The food was wonderful too and we had two wonderful hours together.

Ein alter Brunnen im Eingangsbereich

Ein verträumter Buddha im Garten

Auf Steinwegen über den Fischteich geht es zu den Tischen

Auf der Terasse mit Chau Trinh und Tom

Chau Trinh and Tom

Unser wundervolles Essen

When going back to the Hotel I took a normal line bus back to the town center (cheap and easy).
Now it is raining outside, I am happy to sit inside and write my blog at the moment. Later I will go downtown again, this time to videotape some impressions from Saigon.

Thank you so much for helping me Mr. Vien, Chau Trinh and Tom. I wouldn't be that far without you!

Tomorrow I will leave Saigon and take the bus to Can Tho. There I will meet Julia Le and she will support me during my visit there. I will go to Rach Goi (The little hamlet where my father quoted to live there),I hope to see the Bishop of Can Tho and I will visit the orphanage Thien An of Sister Mary who helped me also.

On the first day ...

of my trip to Vietnam I started already the search for my unknown sister.

As many of you might have noticed: I also changed the main language in my blog from German to English.

This is caused by the many friends, supporter and readers I have from outside Germany. I try to make it a little bit easier for you to understand and follow me.

The journey itself was ok. I started at 9:00 am in the morning at our main station in Münster - as usual with a delay of the train so I had to change trains already to catch the flight at 2:00 pm in Frankfurt Airport.

The flight was fully booked and thanks to Deutsche Bahn I was among the last to check in and only catched a seat in a middle lane of the Boing 777-200.

Motorcyclist - The dominating species in Saigon

For a man of my size (or should I write "length"?) this was a horror trip and I could not sleep for a minute on the plane.

I took a taxi from the airport to the Au Lac II Hotel and I am sure the taxi driver was very happy to charge me 20 US$ for that trip.

My room - the chaos is already visible

The Hotel is absolutely wonderful and is located near the river and next to the famous market Ben Thann.

When I arrived in the Hotel I realised how stupid I can be: I forgot my wonderful Excel-Sheet with all the dedails of my trip including the list of contact data on my home PC. I hope that my wonderful wife will sent the list later today via mail to me.

After the check in at the Hotel I made a walk around the Hotel to get myself a first impression.

Saigon is as always: Loud with lots of motorcycles on the streets, a absoltely oversized offer of any kind of services (Hundreds of people asked me to drive me by car, on a mototbike or even a bycicle, I was offered to by anythng possilbe, get my shoes cleanded and many other things.) The people are really trying hard to make their living.

In the afternoon I went to the Cathedrial of Notre Dame to see Sister Theresa Hahn from the office of the cardinal. The offices are right next to the well known Church in the center of Saigon.

I asked a woman how to find Theresa Hahn in the big building, she could not understand my Englisch but organied a priest to come to the gate. Theresa Hahn moved some time ago to the US (a promotion I guess) and I now understand why she didn't answer my last two mails.

The priest was very friendly to me and succesed to try my best luck in meeting with the local Bishops in Can Tho and Nha Trang. Which I promised to do! :-)

So, witout any new informations I came back to the Hotel (totally tired) and wrote some mails and uploaded the first pictures to Facebook.

Tomorrow I will meet the people from the search team from the TV Station. I have many expectations about that meeting (At the end they found out where the farm was my father used to work on).

We have not fixed the exact hour which we will meet tomorow - but I thinks this is only strange to me cause I am a typical German. :-)

After I finished this post I desperedly need a nap, but I have to wait until my wife has sent the files with all the details. Otherwise I even would not now were exactly the meeting will happen tomorrow. And I would be really sorry not to attend on this assembly!

Please touch all wood for the meeting tomorrow!

Thanks.

Friedhelm

Here some other pictures I took today:

The Office building of the Catholic Churc next to Notre Dame

The well known Catholic Church "Notre Dame" in Saigon

The inside of Notre Dame in Saigon

 See all pictures at Piccasa Webalbums: 

Kein Einzelfall

In drei Wochen bin ich auf dem Weg nach Vietnam. Gestern erhielt ich eine neue Mail von einem Leser des Forum-Vietnam.de. Er hatte dort meinen ein Jahr alten Beitrag  über die Suche nach meiner Halbschwester gelesen und fragte, ob es noch aktuell sei.
Er hat eine Bekannte bei einer Sprachschule in Saigon. Ihre Eltern sind auch katholisch und kommen aus der Gegend südlich von Nha Trang wo auch mein Vater lebte.
Gerne habe ich deshalb Kontakt aufgenommen und heute schon Antwort erhalten.
Die freundliche Frau aus Saigon hat sich meinen Blog schon durchgelesen und mir u.a. von ihrem 61 jährigen Bekannten geschrieben: Auch er hat einen deutschen Vater, den er nie kennengelernt hat. Er war genau wie mein Vater Soldat der Fremdenlegion und hat das Land noch vor der Geburt des Sohnes verlassen. Seine Mutter hat alle Erinnerungen (Fotos) an ihn verbrannt. Für 60 Jahre wurde das Thema nicht angerührt und durch ihren Anruf wurde es wieder aktuell.
Wenn ich in Saigon bin, werde ich mich mit ihm treffen. Vielleicht können wir uns gegenseitig helfen. Er hilft mir in Vietnam und ich helfe ihm hier in Deutschland.
Je näher meine Abreise kommt um so näher geht mir auch die ganze Geschichte. Ich bin gespannt was ich in Vietnam erleben werde.