Trip to Paris
I had clear instructions from the International HQ in Paris.
I first had to leave Hong Kong and arrive in Sri Lanka to obtain my visa to France. In addition to that, I had to obtain a Benelux (a joint visa then issued for Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) visa. I arrived in Colombo on the 10th December. Although I had a letter written in French by Jean-Francois Bickel, the Secretary General of IYCS, inviting me to come to Paris for a meeting, the visa process had some issues. Fr. Chrispin let me know that the French Embassy has blacklisted YCS members in Sri Lanka (from obtaining a visa). This was due to the fact that one of our YCS members was recommended by Fr. Chrispin in 1986 to go to the Taize community in France. We did not know he had his mother and family in France and was looking for an opportunity there. He went and applied for asylum. Since, French Embassy in Colombo was not issuing visas for any student representing Catholic student groups. Bearing the warning in my head, I went to the French Embassy and applied for the visa in early January. They issued the visa on the 5th January. Soon after that, I went to the honorary consulate of Belgium to get my Benelux visa. I had no idea why I was getting these visas for then.
And on the 8th January 1989, I left Colombo for Paris by an Air Lanka flight. That was my longest flight till that time. Katunayake to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
One of the highlights of the Paris trip was I was going to meet this guy called Victor. I have heard a lot about Victor from Zita and Lek. But I have never met him, so I did not know what kind of a person he was. Only thing I knew was that I am going to work and live with this person. And Fr. Joe Naliath was supposed to come together with him from Calcutta.
When I arrived on the 8th January at CDG in Paris, it was gloomy and cold. I had a grey colour cheap winter jacket. I remember those long escalators going through long glass tunnels at CDG connecting one terminal to another. I went through a couple of those and went through immigration without an incident. Bernado Espinoza, a Chilean medical doctor was there to receive me. I met Bernardo about 5 months ago and he was not a stranger to me. I was happy to see a familiar face at the airport. He welcomed me with a broad and warm smile and then took the train RER first and the Paris metro to famous Montparnasse station to arrive at the International Office of IYCS at 5 rue de Rennes. Victor and Joe Naliath were already there. JN was usually JN, shook my hand and hugged me in an awkward way. But meeting Victor was a kind of a shock. Although I have heard about him, I did not expect this Victor. He almost jumped on me and hugged me with the loudest greeting anyone has conveyed to me. He was like as if he knew me for years. In a way, it was a good feeling. I knew right away this is good and honest guy. But how am I going to deal with his ultra-extrovert personality (later to be christened by Joe Naliath as “immature!”).
We first met at 5 rue du rennes on the 3rd floor, dining hall… the lunch was some baguette, cheese, brie, and redwine. You were sitting next to Antione, I was sitting next to Joe, in between Bernardo, Jean Francoise, and God knows who else. I was unnecessarily happy to be served red wine.
That afternoon, Fr. Antoine suggested he would take us on a walking tour in Paris. There was Victor, JN, me and Habib Beau Nafeh, from Lebanon (Vic, anyone else?) Rory and Cabello from South Africa. Antoine took us from parks to monuments to churches describing history and anecdotal fun facts like no other historian in thick French accent. He rarely smiled and when he sometimes described a funny anecdote, he would smirk and then we would know he was saying something funny. But Antoine was super-prepared! He has studied diligently about every place he took us and was full of information you may not find in Encyclopedia Britannica. Of course, he was French.
At the end of this first day, I was totally exhausted and possibly jet lagged–those days I did not know what jet lag was and knew there was this weird headache like feeling at times. If I remember well, I was taken to the apartment of Jean Francois. JF was from Switzerland and he looked very strange. He would talk to you but his eyes would be directed at the ceiling or the sidewalls. He looked like a nerdy intellectual. He was sharing his apartment with the secretary/administrator of IMCS, Gemma Rossel from Catalonia (we then learned Catalans did not like to call themselves Spanish!). That was our entry to Paris and we would soon travel by train to Luxembourg to catch one of the longest flights I have ever taken, a 21-hour flight from Luxembourg to Lima with three stopovers in between–Shannon in Ireland, Gander in Newfoundland, Canada and Havana in Cuba!