Happy Naw-Ruz!

Some photos taken at the Naw-Ruz Celebration at the World Centre:

Family picture



















...with baby Rocco and daddy Santana














...with baby Carmel and mommy Sarah














...with Youngmin from Korea














Also, here are some photos of the Naw-Ruz party we attended with the Filipino friends and other guests:

Playing games at the party: Match that Face and Pass the Message.

Friday Morning in the Family Bed

On the occassion of Enna-Marie's three-month birthday, here's a hello to all of you from the family bed...

The Fast

From the evening of March 1st until the evening of March 20th, is the Bahá'í month of Fasting. During this month, Bahá'ís abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset.

During one of the mornings of the Fast I was watching the sunrise from our balcony, and was quite in awe about the majesty of this phenomenon. The first video below conveys the sense of expectation, the stirrings in all of creation, just seconds before the sun appears over the mountains on the horizon. The second video shows how, once it has made its appearance, it instantly exerts a powerful influence and quickly gathers in strength and momentum.... (unfortunately I didn't capture the exact moment the sun appeared... perhaps during one of the remaining mornings...)

First Ayyám-i-Há Party...

Before the beginning of the month of Fasting, there are a number of intercalary days in the Bahá'í Calendar. These days are referred to as the Days of Há, or the Ayyám-i-Há. These days are devoted to spiritual preparation for the Fast, the giving of gifts, hospitality and charity! Here are two pictures taken on 28 February at the Ayyám-i-Há Party of some mothers with their babies here in Haifa.


Group picture


Zein Rosen and Enna-Marie (Zein is two weeks older than Enna-Marie).

Ailsa Is In Town...

Our friend Ailsa Leftwich from Canada is in Haifa, she was invited to come as a consultant in the Archives Office where she used to serve for some years. Last Monday, we invited her over for dinner and catch up with her life in Saskatchewan and the coming of her baby.

C U T E ! ! ! !

Another Trip to Africa...

At the end of February, I went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to facilitate a training for a number of Central African countries on a software program developed by the Department of Statistics at the World Centre. After the training I had the privilege of attending an institutional meeting in Kinshasa where friends from all over the Congo gathered to consult on the new Five Year Plan. So Menchie and Enna-Marie were husband-and-daddy-less for a week. It was a wonderful trip, and it was wonderful to meet so many new friends.

Some of the wonderful friends I met were Susan and Jason Sheper, who have been pioneers in the Congo for over twenty years, Ali and Sylvie Sereshghi and their two daughters of seven and four years old Karen and Yasmine (I stayed with them for the duration of the trip), Mrs. Behin Newport from Congo Brazzaville, with whose son Navid I used to live for a couple of months in Akka (back in the days) and Gity Raoufi from Lubumbashi, who also stayed at Sylvie and Ali's place, and some of the friends who were singing in the Congo choir during the May 2001 Inauguration of the Terraces on Mount Carmel (Menchie was singing in the Bahá'í World Centre Choir at the time and knows some of these friends as well).


The first picture is of the Area Teaching Committee of the Salman cluster in Kinshasa, a cluster which will launch an intensive programme of growth on the 19th of March.

The second picture was taken at the statistics training in the National Office in Kinshasa. With so many laptops around, this office had never looked more high-tech than during this meeting :)

Group picture with the friends participating in the training, coming from virtually every province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as from Central African Republic, Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville.

Playing a game with Ali (who took the picture), Karen and Yasmine during one of the relaxing evenings at home...

In the garden of Ali and Sylvie's home in Kinshasa, with, from left to right, Gity, Sylvie, Mrs. Behin Newport and myself...

An ad-hoc choir, that performed during one of the breaks of the institutional meeting...

A group of friends performing an improvised dance during another break...

Colourful display when friends from the Kinshasa community gathered at the end of the meeting....

With Mrs. Ndegwa and a member of the National Spiritual Assembly...



Ali enjoying the afternoon program of the institutional meeting...

Susan and Jason having a conversation...
And this is a typical scene on Kinshasa's busy roads :)

A r c TTRACTIONS...

Maarten and I would like to share with you our ArcTTRACTIONS project, which was our contribution to the Annual Arts and Crafts Show that is held every year in February at the Bahá'í World Centre. The Arts and Crafts Show provides an opportunity for the staff here to share their artistic talents with the rest of the World Centre community. Many friends submit paintings, photographs, and other crafts such as ceramics, leather prayer book cases, home-made soaps, bookmarks, greeting cards, jewelries, etc. Some of these are just on display, while others are for sale. The proceeds of the sale all go to the Bahá'í International Fund. Our project consists of a collection of detailed photos we took in and around the buildings and gardens on the Arc here at the World Centre. Maarten also contributed a home-made cheesecake for the Bake Sale this year... Enjoy!

Detailed pictures of objects around the Arc...














Bookmarks & cards...














Registering the items two days before the Show...














The day of the Show...














Display of cards, bookmarks and miscellaneous items...














...And babies in the Arts Café...