There was the name that was difficult to pronounce, and there was the country we barely have an idea about. But His Excellency Jaroslav Olša, Czech ambassador to the Philippines, did come to Naga City. He heard about the book, which is a translation to the Bikol language of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. He read about Kristian Sendon Cordero translating the said classic.
The visit of the ambassador, although not an official one, proved to be a very important and a heart-warming occasion. We not only got interested about the Czech Republic, we also learned about Czech humor.
We have to confess, we really did not know how to deal with an ambassador. What we simply know is that as any ambassador moves around, he is carrying with him the country, his territory. Ambassador Olša would laugh at this thought, and our idea of gravitas and diplomats.
He arrived via a plane from Manila. His driver took the land route with his car flying the Czech flag. We met up at the foot of the famed Four Pillars of the Ateneo de Naga, where I told him the building was made in the 1940s and taken over by the Japanese during the Pacific War.
We took him to see Fr. Jun Viray, SJ, president of the Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU). And over cups of coffee and local rice cakes, they discussed how the Philippines and his country are linked in some ways. Of particular interest to the Ateneo and the Jesuits were the Czech Jesuits who visited the Philippines in the 17th century. There was Fr. Georg Kamel, SJ, who is reputed to be the first to document the flora and fauna of the Philippines. Then there was Fr. Paul Klein, SJ, who held an important post among the Jesuits. The ambassador was well aware of one fact, too, that the Jesuit historian Fr. Rene Javellana is already looking into the works of these Czech missionaries.
Out of the blue, I relayed to the ambassador a question: Isn’t Ladislav Smoček a Czech? Yes, he is and, in the 1970s, he conducted workshops at the Philippine Educational.
During the launch of Kafka’s book, Metamorphosis, which is published by the Ateneo de Naga University Press, the ambassador relayed more information about the Czech contribution to the world, the term “robot” being one of them.
The morning of his arrival, the ambassador visited the animation department of the AdNU, which wins the national competition yearly. On our way up the building, I recalled what the ambassador said about his Czech scientists’ interest in botany. I then asked him to look back at the dormant volcano called Mount Isarog, looming over the university. “There it is, Mount Isarog,” and catching my breath, “hmm, shrouded in mist.” That was the only letdown in this short and charming visit of a Czech Ambassador to our city.
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