A few weeks ago I wrote about a hike by the students and staff of St. Fidelis Seminary into the mountains to the village of Halopa.  This was to honor the feast of St. Jean Vianney, the patron saint of priests.  You can read that post here.

I promised then to post some video of that time with the villagers of Halopa.  I had to re-edit this after my first attempt to upload to Vimeo because I hit some size limit on the file.

I wanted to share as much of this as I could with you, to give you a sense of what it was like to be guests of the village and what the Mass, especially the music, was like.  I ended up splitting the video into two parts, which you will see embedded below.

Papua New Guineans are very proud of their culture, and the unique culture of their village.  You’ll see this expressed throughout.  Some people may roll their eyes at the dress of the people, and the processions during the Mass, but I’ve come to appreciate how important some of these things are to bridging the gap between very different cultures.

The hike up and down the mountain to Halopa was very tough, but the time spent in the village was really great. I’m happy to share it with you here.

Vianney Day – Halopa – Part 1

 

Vianney Day – Halopa – Part 1 from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

 

Vianney Day – Halopa – Part 2

Vianney Day – Halopa – Part 2 from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

Br. Jim and Br. Alois are back with another tree cutting job at St. Fidelis Seminary.  The friary’s cook, Marcus, started to be concerned about a large mango tree hovering over his family’s house.  Large trees, especially very old and very large mango trees, fall frequently and without warning in the thin soils along the PNG coast.

Br. Jim and Br. Alois decided to tackle the problem and to bring the tree down safely, before it fell down and caused real problems.

The tree, like almost every tree in PNG, was infested with my Formic nemeses – the infamous red/yellow coconut tree ants.  As Br. Alois put it, “There were millions and trillions and billions of ants.” He wasn’t too far off in my opinion.

And they were not happy when their towering demesne came crashing down.

Mango i go from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

What is a typical day like at St. Fidelis?  Well, here’s a montage of video clips that might help give you an idea.

Let me know what you think!

 

A Day @ St. Fidelis Seminary from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

I finally have some access to high speed internet again and was able to upload the rest of my long awaited Holy Week videos.  OK, may be not long awaited, but you may find them interesting.

I’m not real happy with the quality of the video or the editing.  It was difficult to shoot much video because we were in the middle of a 3-day power outage and I had to be judicious in what I shot in order to save battery for all the long liturgies.

Here are parts 2, 3, and 4 of Holy Week at St. Fidelis Seminary.  You can find Part 1 here.

 

Part 2 – Stations of the Cross, Good Friday

 

Holy Week – Part 2 from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

Part 3 – Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Thursday) & Veneration of the Cross (Good Friday)

 

Holy Week – Part 3 from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

Part 4 – Easter Vigil Mass

Holy Week – Part 4 from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

Thanks to the good folks at Divine Word University, I was able to plug into real, fast internet yesterday.  What a pleasure it was to update all the software that was out of date, restore my iphone which was acting hinky, and download 50 out of 87 app updates.  (I know it sounds a bit OCD, but I feel better knowing things are up to date.)

I was also able to update the first part of my Holy Week video.  There’s more to come, but the additional segments will have to wait until my next encounter with fast internet.

I hope you like this little snippet from Palm Sunday and the archdiocesan Chrism Mass.

 

Holy Week Part 1 from Steve Nelson on Vimeo.

A couple of days ago, Br. Jim decided that 5 of the coconut trees near the high water tank on the campus needed to be cut down.  He’s been worried that a high wind or storm may cause one of the top-heavy trees to fall, crashing into this very important tank.

A man named Max from the nearby village of Rempi was hired to climb the trees and attach a rope near the top, so that some of the brothers could control which way the trees would fall when cut.

Br. Jim, with his trusty chainsaw, did the actual cutting, a task he’s obviously skilled at.  Each tree fell with a mighty WHUMP!, sending coconuts and friars scrambling and leaving a noticeable dent in the ground.  It also dislodged a few hundred thousand of those pesky ants that I wrote about before.

I shot some video of this ersatz lumberjacking process and posted it on YouTube.  I know Jim Fox will particularly appreciate it.  Maybe you will too.

 

[youtube http://youtu.be/f1mZ6LdLhAA]

 

This is my first little video project using my new camera. I still have to learn a few things about it.  What do you think?  Please leave a comment below.    The video resolution may be a bit low, but even at this reduced size, it took almost 3 hours to upload.

Oh, leave a comment too if you have some ideas about other things you’d like to see from the environs of St. Fidelis.  I’ll see what I can do.

The photo attached to this post?  That’s kulau, the coconut water inside the young coconuts (not coconut milk).  This is a clear water-like substance inside the coconut that is very drinkable, full of electrolytes, and quite tasty.  It has a tang to it and reminded me a little of Sprite.  Not at all like coconut.