The Story of Jane

Jane comes in front of Newman Center every Tuesday, after afternoon mass, to hand out some flyers. This time she was decked out in an immaculate white dress, a white headscarf and white socks and shoes. She wore three strings of rosary beads around her neck, had cross earrings and wore a cross on the forehead where Hindu folk would wear a bindi. She had a sweet smile and had a distant look in her eyes, because her eyesight was failing. People who come out of church after mass generally gave her a wide berth, but I decided to get a flyer from her to find out what it was about.

Curiously enough, the first thing Jane noticed about me was that I was wearing the Iceland shirt. "You've been to Iceland!" she exclaimed, "how was it there?" Jane was curious about what it was like in that country and whether it was cold, like how you would think about a country that was named Iceland. I explained that I went in the summer, and it wasn't that cold at all. Next she asked if I was from Wenzhou. I wasn't, but I've met people who come from there and were Catholic, and so has Jane. Jane recounted some of the Asians whom she had met. She taught art in the capital to Asian kids, mostly South Korean children who she found so intelligent and charming.

Jane stopped teaching art because of eye problems, and an accident far back left her with foot problems, so she couldn't stand for too long, so I suggested that she should rest. But she looked determined to persevere.

The Story of Iceland

I was in Iceland from 6 to 10 June 2013 with some of the other Singaporean exchange students at EPFL. It was a large island for three hundred thousand people and looked empty much everywhere except in Reykjavik.

This is basically how it looks like in the summer. Also depicted above is a silly habit which we developed along the way, namely trying to stack cairns as high as we possibly could.
Iceland was awesome. I should go to more detail about it in a future entry.

The Story of Wenzhou Catholics

Photo: Ke Yichen

The Chinese RCIA in my parish, Holy Cross, had a visitor in February. His name is Chen Xu, and his trade was physics. He was on a visit to my school to do as much research as he could for (two months?). One of the parishoners gave him lodging and he came for class on Wednesday nights, which was where the rest of us met him. He had been baptised with the name Peter. He might have been baptised also on a few other occasions, but the circumstances of those baptisms were extremely murky. He came from the country around Wenzhou, where the Catholic tradition had its stronghold. In the city where he went to school, however, there's hardly a church to be seen. Such is life in China, I guess.

He joined us for a retreat and then had to leave us for home too soon. He is a nice guy. Such is life.

The Story of Jane's Pamphlet

The stuff that Jane is dishing out to unsuspecting passers-by is quite interesting, even a little unhinged. Here's what it says near the end:

"Wear a rosary for best influences so you won't be effected by subliminals or nano/stemcells. Put honey on face with oil so others think you are sweet. So you don't masturbate and self inflict or form a child wear garlic in pockets or rosary in undies with cross outside waist band. Because of cussing on TV throw out TV, flag poles & put white crosses on entry ways, on top of page, on windows so you don't get gasses, on ground and head of bed for better care. Lick clay for any disease, drug or tainting. Get a log lock on door & rosary for door knob. Don't eat beef or lamb: prion detector machine was taken down."