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...

Short Trip to Kyrgyzstan...

Last week I was fortunate to spend a few days in Kyrgyzstan during another work-related trip. It's a very beautiful country with very high mountains - which I only got to see from a distance - and very warm and friendly people. I met up with Zeinab and Seid, who both used to serve at the Bahá'í World Centre, and made some wonderful new friends as well!

Here are some impressions of the country and the friends I met...

This picture was taken after the first day of the training I facilitated. It is in the backyard of the National Bahá'í Centre. From right to left are Akaki from Georgia, Seper from Uzbekistan, Counsellor Nassimova from Kyrgyzstan, Mahnoz from Tajikistan and myself.
This picture is of the Popovs family, in whose guesthouse I stayed. They are a very nice family, and their daughter, Luda (on the right side), has actually been living in Holland for the last four years or so. She speaks fluent Dutch, and we were able to have a nice conversation about the Faith.
Who would have thought this guy would still be around?? Yes, Mr. Lenin himself, still standing in front of the polytechnic university of Bishkek where one of the meetings was held.
Victoria, who took the time to show me around Bishkek for a few hours and Zeinab who happened to be visiting Bishkek from Kazakhstan.During lunch in a restaurant with a few friends, including Seid who is sitting to my right and Roy sitting accross from me, Counsellor Rouhani, Mahnoz, Akaki and Seper.

The Three Little Ones...

Rocco, Shiori and Enna-Marie were together playing last Thursday. We just want to post these pictures of the three little ones whom we love so dearly. Look how they have grown, Rocco turned 10 months old today, Shiori is 9 months old, while Enna-Marie turned 6 months yesterday.

Half a year!

Today is Enna-Marie's half a year birthday! It is hard to believe that she has been with us already for six months, yet on the other hand the days that there were just two of us also seem quite a long time ago now... We went to Bahji this afternoon, but probably because of the heat Enna-Marie didn't last very long. Here are two pictures we took afterwards in the Visitors' Centre where there is wonderful airconditioning!

















Today is also the first time that she is standing up without our help (but not without the help of the couch!). What an achievement!!

Holland - Ivory Coast 2-1

The Netherlands beat the Ivory Coast this evening, 2-1. The victory was hardly deserved, Ivory Coast was better at times, but leaves the World Cup empty-handed... We watched the game at our newly-wed friends Quddus and Samarih's house. Quddus' Dutch uncle Behrouz - who by the way looks exactly like Guus Hiddink - brought two Holland jerseys as a wedding gift for Quddus and Samarih. Although Samarih is Brazilian, she was quite the support this evening wearing an orange shirt and cheering for the Dutch! Nicholas (who was supporting the Ivory Coast, as the English are obviously less fond of the Dutch than the Brazilians) was also there, and Martijn came over for the second half.

Enna-Marie was dressed in orange for the occassion. She already had orange pants, and this afternoon we bought her an orange shirt as well! At least we've made it to the second round... Lets hope the team's game play will improve in their next match against Argentina! That's going to be a tough one!

Visit of our Friends Marpha and Mario

Marpha and Mario were recently here on Pilgrimage, they come from Cambodia their pioneering post, but Marpha is originally from the Philippines, while Mario is from Malaysia. They have a five year old son named Danesh whom they have left back home with Lola Nena, Marpha's mom.

Trip to the Philippine Embassy

On Thursday we went to the Philippines Embassy in Tel Aviv to get a Filipino passport for Enna-Marie. It took a little over an hour before we were outside again with her passport in hand! To compare: about five weeks ago we went to the Dutch Consulate in Haifa to apply for a Dutch passport, and we're still waiting to pick it up! Menchie also got a new passport in the process and she is now also officially Mrs. Schoot! Afterwards, we went to IKEA and bought some stuff for home.

Here are couple of pictures of the Embassy at its new location by the Yarkon river in Tel Aviv and some shots of the Schoot family shopping.

Recent Visitors...

Nanay Alice Train from the Philippines is here visiting her daughter Vanesa. Back home in Manila, she was Mommy Ping's buddy in teaching activities, they went and visited the communities together...and now that she is in town, it is just nice to see and be with her at our place. Here is a picture of us together...
















Also the Kersten's from the Netherlands visited, they were all here on pilgrimage, and one evening we had them over for dinner in our home. The night before they left, we were able to see them again and bid goodbye..."tot ziens!"

Peekaboo...

Enna-Marie has discovered the wonderful world of peekaboo... The game every parent likes to play with their child after a few months! She gets very excited after daddy hides under the chair and then suddenly re-emerges... Enjoy the video!

First Solid Food...

Baby Enna-Marie started her first solid food last week. We saw some signs that she's ready for it and so we gave it a try. As a start, we gave her rice cereal and she likes it a lot as you can see from the photos.

Hmmm, yummy!














I want some more...!














Resting...














Thirsty...














Oopps, what a mess!

Mother Goose on the Loose...

"Mother Goose on the Loose" is a nursery rhymes class held once a week here at the World Centre, our friend Katharine is doing this class. This monday we had a pretty good attendance and I'm glad Enna-Marie and myself went, not only we were able to learn some songs but also met the lovely moms with their babies.

Talkative baby...

Enna-Marie is greatly enjoying practising her talking, and with mommy and daddy as a captivated audience, she has the stage all to herself here...



This video is of Enna-Marie practising sitting on the couch! She also takes great delight in trying to stretch her legs and stand, but for now managing to sit and stay seated is a challenge that must be overcome first :)

Sudoku and Word Mojo

Ever since Shingo and Shradha introduced me to a game of Sudoku just a couple of days ago, I have become hooked on this entertaining game. Menchie, on the other hand, is an avid Word Mojo fan! If you want to give either game a try for yourself, just click on one of the images below.