A celebration of life

From Edgar and Tina

by Edgar and Tina

We will sorely miss Nguu…our OFPSES and SIKHAY meetings will not be the same without him. Together with Nguu and Elvie, Tito and Lou, we have all journeyed together since the early 2007 to start OFSPES in Rome and later in Manila which led to our starting the LSE program in Rome in 2008 for our migrants. Then when we all settled back in retirement in Manila a few years later, together with Te, Rome, Dodgie and Mai and Maris, we got introduced to the world of herbs that we had never before tasted or even heard of with such exotic names as rau ram, and kaffir lime – thanks to Nguu and Elvie through the cooking delights in their home where they always welcomed us. They got us all hooked into discovering this whole new world of enhancing our foods while benefiting from added health and nutrition. It also started us on our adventures into cooking and trying all sorts of recipes incorporating various herbs and veggies and then into transforming these into lovely calendars that we could sell and give away as gifts. Elvie was the chef among us all, and Nguu was the master gardener who made planting seem all so easy and which inspired us to start planting our herbs and veggies as well. He was always ready to share the seeds or seedlings that he had at home. Nguu was always the quiet one in the ever-boisterous group in our never-ending regular meetings that were more often excuses to partake of the Nguyens’ delicious concoctions than pursuing our objective of producing our not-so-annual calendars. It was Nguu however who was keen for the group to pursue and produce a cookbook and he would say that we need not be perfectionists about it but that we should just put it together as our group’s contribution to advocating more vegetable and herb consumption in the Filipino diet. Each time we would arrive in the Nguyen home, he would often already be waiting for us at the gate to welcome us with his warm smile. On behalf of OFSPES and Sikhay we will really miss Nguu and we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Elvie, Le Anh and Francesco and the kids, Le Kim and Trina and Le Mai and family. Incidentally I informed the FAO retirees in FB and some 31 (mixed nationalities) would like to extend their condolences as most of them remember Nguu’s writings in the FAO Staff Coop Gazette. So Nguu, Chin-chin, Salut, Cheers and Kampai.

Tina and Edgar