Visiting Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez

We spent a relaxing Friday afternoon with the Ramirez'es. Kuya Fred is in town for a few weeks, and we went to have lunch with them. Also Kuya Willi joined us for dinner later on. It was nice to be out of the home for a change, and spend some restful time with them.

My Friend Leah and Me...

"Just the other day, my friend Leah and me were taking a nap in one of the bombshelters of the building in which daddy works... I was sleeping so deeply, that I didn't notice that mommy took a picture of me. But my friend Leah, she actually woke up and curiously looked into the camera. By the way, Leah's parents are both from Mauritius, I heard it's a nice place for holiday".

New Boss in Daddy's Office...

That's right :), pretty soon my dad will be out of work..he he...!

Enna-Marie at seven months...

This is such a cute video that I could not resist putting it on our blog! Enjoy!!

Reading time with Daddy...

Excitedly listening (and talking...)!

Attentively listening to daddy

Daddy I want some more stories please...

The Situation Here...

Despite the situation in the country at the moment, we are doing fine. Enna-Marie is blissfully unaware of what is going on around her, and feels quite secure with either of her parents close by. We hope that the country will quickly return to calm. We request for your prayers.

Farewell Brunch for the Villa's...

Sadly, our dear friends Evelin and Santana have left the World Centre, after almost four years of service. We got our 'marriage group' together one last time at least to say goodbye which was nice. They are now in Estonia, they called us this afternoon to tell us they arrived safely. We miss them already, and hope it won't be long before we will see them again.

We had a farewell brunch for them at Negeen and Victor's place, with OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD blueberry pancakes made by the unstoppable Italian Pasta Chef Victor, OUTSTANDING muffins by Luxembourg's pastry-queen Jamak, DEVELISH Devils-Eggs by Dutchamacallit Martijn (or was he just taking credit for what May actually made??), MOUTHWATERING crackers and cheese by the Japanese/Australian Sushi emperor and empress Shingo and Amelia, and THE-BEST-EVER scrambled eggs by our very own Filipina "Adobolicious" mama Menchie!

May and Shingos' Birthdays...

Our dear friend May recently celebrated her birthday at the beach. Her hubbie Martijn organized a surprise b-b-q party for her. A lot of friends came, and even her sister Shirin, who used to serve here a few years ago, was visiting from South Africa. We had a great evening, and OH, the food was delicious!

The three sisters, Yas, May and Shirin...
Dutch - Brazilian connection with Kirsten, Ana-Gerda, and Melissa... (remember, this is right after the World Cup, where both Holland and Brazil were untimely eliminated...)
Sarah, Carmel, Evelin and Rocco, with Victor in the background...
GROUP-PHOTO!! It seems we have to take one of these at every BWC gathering :)
Kerstens and Schoots...












Another dear friend, Shingo, also celebrated his birthday in STYLE with an afternoon full of games, thanks to Amelia! Friends and family came over to enjoy the day with him. We had a great time!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAY AND SHINGO. Hope we will enjoy many more birthdays with you guys!

Rocco is about to wreck what Amelia had so carefully constructed...
Playing 'For Sale', a simple yet very nice game that Maarten just could not win...

Highlights: every womans dream!

Enna-Marie has a disctint feature (for the moment at least) that makes her the envy of many women: natural highlights ::)). She was born with a few golden streaks in her hair, and they became more pronounced after two or three months. We don't know if they will last, but we're enjoying it for now on her behalf, as she is blissfully unaware of them! Here are two pictures of her hair, this is the best we could do:


Photo without flash:

And one with flash:

Some more visitors...

The Ardjomandi family visited us recently. Khodadad and Veira (and son Ruhullah) from Moldova were visiting their parents Jamshid and Soeki who are serving here at the World Centre. Last year they were also in town, but we could not have them over at our place due to busy schedules. This time we didn't want to miss them, so it was nice to catch up with them and we hope to see them again next time with a new addition to their family..:-)!

Edwin Edpalina and wife Rizalita were also in town recently for pilgrimage. They are originally from the Philippines, but are now pioneering in China. Edwin, who is an old friend of Menchie, is a very talented music teacher. He has been travelling in Asia for several years now, and all the while has been involved in recording Baha'i songs in different languages. During the last gathering with the Filipino friends, he presented to us his travels, showing photos and sharing songs from his albums. Menchie remembered many of these songs (English and Tagalog) from her own children's classes and various gatherings back home in the Philippines. She can't wait to have a copy of these songs to start teaching Enna-Marie!!

FilmLoops

Here's a cool new feature we're trying out. Its called FilmLoop, and it displays sets of up to 30 pictures as a filmstrip in your blog... The first one below is taking the images directly from Flickr, the second one is a loop of selected pictures from our computer...