Getting back to work… almost

(Image of Bro Tom Mass and Fr Joseph Nguyen-Duc-Thinh at St Francis, Watsonville)

Yesterday afternoon one of my students, Joseph Nguyen, arrived from Watsonville with the first three chapters of his thesis. The two of us spent over an hour going over the details of these chapters in the evening after supper. He is at a good stage, and he and I are both hopeful that he'll be able to hand in his work by the middle of the month.

Meanwhile, yesterday I also completed correcting all the research papers for the Church History course that I taught during the Fall Semester at GTU for the DSPT. Today I went back to my office at the school and registered my grades after going through all the papers one more time. The procedure took me nearly three hours, but I'm happy that I've been thorough in the correction. Hopefully it will be of some use to the students, even if they have already completed the course. Anyway, grades are due in two days, so I've ended with plenty of time.

After lunch I was able to bring Fr Rafael Borges around the GTU and for a visit to DSPT. Rafale is on the pastoral team of the Salesian Regional Ongoing Formation Center (CRFP) of Quito. I've known Rafael for 9 years, and have met him on different occasions at Salesian meetings of the Interamerica Region. I also had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with him during the month I stayed in his home province of Venezuela (July 2001). Now he is interested in renewing contact between CRFP Quito and ISS Berkeley. Happily, I was able to introduce him to Michael Sweeney, president of DSPT, as well as to Scott Connolly and Pete McLeod who both work on the administration and planning core of the school. The visit was quick, friendly… and now we are planning a more intense visit and exchange next July.

Interesting stuff for the first day back at work, eh?