Christmas International House in San Antonio (1994)

Hello A and all,

I am very impressed and touched by A’s thoughtful and creative idea of creating such a great website. I also want to give A very special thanks for thinking about my current hard times. Death and separation of and from our loved ones can hurt and change lives in very deep ways. For sure A’s idea will bring a significant contribution towards healing for me and my Mom, I will share all this with her. But it is also good to know that thru love we can stay together no matter what, for distance and absence disappear when there is love. Just look at us, 12 years and a half after San Antonio and we continue to be in touch, we continue together somehow. Please let’s use A’s blog and support it, for sure it will be fun and it will strengthen what San Antonio provided to us as one of our best memories of life and a true, unique and unrepeatable treasure.

Also, please let’s try to include any one that is missing from our distribution list. I can see there are several of us missing, please help to find them again. I am adding Christophe Lamor’s email.

Enrique

Hello San Antonio Company,

The warmest welcome to Tony! I missed you, carino. I just visited Kumi in Nagoya last January 30, couple of months ago. I will tell all to you all about my trip to Japan. But first I get there, I need to tell everybody what has been happening to San Antonio Company. I owe this to everybody, specially to Margarete, Eric, Suchinda, A, Kaori, Kumi and Shinya whom I met personally in the last weeks.

I think we all owe also special thanks to one of us who made all this communication possible. That is Vlad. When I arrived last September in Malaysia I did not have any way to get to everybody, I just had his e-mail address, Maria’s and Carlos’. Vlad had Margarete’s mother’s address and phone. Maria and Carlos sent me some information about Margarete, but I was not able to find her with it, it was through Vlad’s latest information of Margarete, and after letters and many phone calls and some help from a colleague who talked in Tamil to Margarete’s mother that I was able to find her in Malaysia. Vlad also gave me the phone number of other San Antonio Company members: A and Kumi and Yuki and the other person whose help was also a key to find everybody: Shinya, therefore special thanks to Shinya, too, for providing the information of others like Hideo and Nami and Kaori and Eric. In general everybody has helped to find another member of SAC and the communication possible in one or another way. Through A we found Suchinda and Tan.

Now there are 16 members of the SAC in communication today. This has been a long process that after 8 years has lasted almost 7 more months from the time I got Vlad’s reply with the first phone numbers and the first replies from both Maria and Carlos to the moment few days ago when Eric found Tony.

Dearest San Antonio Company friends I am sure you will agree that we are a privileged group of human beings that have a story, a unique story. An unforgettable starting story in San Antonio and now after 8 years we have the great blessing and privilege to find each other again, and continue the story. The process to get 16 of us together again and to meet in person most of us is one of invaluable meaning and price. We are all excited about this encounter, this unique reunion across thousands of miles, around the world, literally-Malaysia and Thailand are exactly diametrically opposite to Costa Rica in the planet where I am now writing this. Let’s seize the day! Let’s seize our friendship, our ties, that from my point of view is one that anybody in the world would be so proud to be part of. I know already many people who would do anything to have what we have. To know people across the world, and furthermore, to have people in many places in the world who are dear to you and who, you know, also care about you. Let’s try to strength it through this wonderful internet and/or traditional snail mail and through our dream of meeting all of us, the 23 of us, in person face to face once again and many more times, and the dream that our children will continue this, and the children of our children, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The story of San Antonio Company is in our hearts and we can recall it at any time and re-live it by sharing what we remember. Now I want to share with you the greatest new events of the last 8 years. These wonderful events cannot be other than meeting and seeing once again the faces of Margarete, Eric, Suchinda, A, Kaori, Kumi and Shinya. Let me tell you about the days we shared together after several years of walking different roads. Although not so different! Please, let me start with the very first reunion. Again the story continues….

Saturday November 16, 2002

Arrived at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport around 9 am. Margarete saw me first. She looks pretty much the same, except that she has a different and very nice hair style.

And she was expecting a baby, her first baby! It was so nice to see her. We hugged. She said to me that I look the same except that a bit "bigger". Then she took me to where her husband was waiting. His name is Leon and he comes from Sidney, Australia. Actually they were leaving there for awhile, so it was an amazing happening that we found each other in the same place, don’t you think? And we left from the airport to their house around one hour of driving. Then after that we left my suitcase and I gave them the Dragon Balls, typical goody from Penang, we went to catch a train to go to Kuala Lumpur. My first time in the capital of Malaysia, simply a wonderful and beautiful and majestic city. A train ride of around 30 minutes going very fast.

Then we met Eric at the KLCC mall in front of the Petronas the highest building on Earth now. Eric, Margarete and Enrique together for the first time in 8 years! Even though Eric and Margarete live there in Malaysia they never saw each other again until this weekend. Leon did blend in with the three of us. But he was not the only spectator and witness of the happy and rare encounter. We had Eric’s cousin, Rebecca, and Eric’s colleague, Keng Fong Hui, and Eric’s friend, Dianna.

Actually here I want to ask all of you if you want to include in our mailing list all our friends and relatives and spouses who are in one way or another witnessing and starting to participate of our story, so do you want to include all non-SAC people? I think when one is so happy and proud about something one wants to show it and share it with everybody, so my side it will be good. Please let me know what you think about it.

So we were seven meeting for the first time that Saturday and none of us had been up to the towers. Unbelievable! Then we went to have lunch: chinese dim sum. The three of us were pretty much the only ones who talked. Then we went to the main entrance to the towers around 3 pm and there was no space for us, we were late! can you believe? They only allow 1282 people each day. So I tried to convince the lady, but no luck so we agreed on having Eric come on Sunday morning to pick up the tickets for the seven of us. So then we said bye and we went back to Margarete’s place. But before we stopped at this night market they call it. There we had some delicious juices and saw many things. I got a silver orchid for my Mom and a pair of jeans in 30 ringets, less than US $10, Levi’s by the way. Margarete is a great shopper, she helped me to bargain and from 39 ringets we got in 25 ringets, but the pants in general were 25 and since my size is bigger than the average then I actually had to pay more. We got home and took a nap. Then we went to buy some food at the Hawkers, and then we watched an interesting TV series, Seven Days. Then around 9:30 pm we went to a Pub, where I was amazed by this band The Escapade, who were singing some songs in Spanish, of course Shakira, Carlos Santana and Enrique Iglesias. I had a wine cooler, Margarete Lime Juice and Leon had a Tiger Beer. Funny uh? Leon is lion in Spanish and he had a tiger beer, hee hee. We ask for our favorite songs: Miss American Pie, of course, the one everybody sang in San Antonio, and they did not know it. But they knew the song of Alice, that I like so much since I was in high school then we went back and hit the sack.

Sunday I was awaken by Margarete around 10 am had a piece of roti canai with sardines, delicious! Then we went to the church. Very interesting homily or preaching about using our talents no matter what is going on around us, and that the main thing is not how successful we are while developing or multiplying our talents, but not to keep it hidden like the guy who had received one talent and hid it in that Parable of the Talents. So let’s use our talents fully with no fear. Then we went to have a lunch at the hawkers. Then we went to catch another train and met with the 4 at 2:30 pm just on time to go inside of the Petronas. We went into the lift or elevator where I went to first to go to the end to start signing my initials. Everybody was checked for weapons previously, but they forgot the keys so while the guide explained, I started to sign my initials in the hand rail of the elevator covering my hands with my back, but I could not see very well if I had done it well, so I had to try again in other place. He said only 10 minutes in the bridge that connects the two towers and then I asked for a picture and while the guide was taking the picture again I signed my initials in the hand rail of the bridge, but it was hard to see so I tried to leave the group, and went to the furthest end where I found two metalic columns at each side of the entrance so I tried in both, but it was hard to do it well because they could see me and  Eric did and called my attention do so I had to go, then I found the fourth bar of the frame of the crystals that was of a softer material so I tried for the fifth time, and this one was the best.

After that we only had time to go get my suitcase and go to the airport.

To be continued….