Baby Shower

Saturday the 22nd of October was baby shower day! Since Menchie didn't want it to be an event just for women, it was decided sometime ago that men and children would also be invited to attend, to make it much more of a family event!

(Food) preparations started the evening before the shower, right after Pash and Ulviyya's wedding. Daniel, who works in the kitchen at the Bahá'í World Centre, came to our home, and did an excellent job in preparing some of the yummy food we would be eating the next day. Highlight of the evening was the "how-to-make-springroll/eggroll/lumpia-course" which we really enjoyed, and which is a skill that I am sure will come in handy in the future. After making about 25 springrolls, I've become quite the chef!! (I have said the same thing after Shingo's sushi class, but am definitely in need of a refresher course on that one... So, Shingo, when you read this, you'll know what to do! he he :)))

We had invited well over 40 guests to our house, and surprisingly, they all fit quite well! Barbeque was great, thanks to the great marinade Menchie had made the night before, and thanks to our wonderful b-b-q chefs, Kevin and Santana and all the food and desserts that were brought by our friends were equally delicious!


Highlight of the afternoon was a game we played where we all had to come up with images of what our baby will look like. The trick was to combine features from both of us, which were superimposed upon a baby's face... The results were HILARIOUS! And now we definitely know why we should leave all of this in God's hands :) Click here for some impressions of the event, and make sure you don't miss the wonderful picture at the end, which we have also included here!

It was a wonderful day, with lots of fun and in the end we had fun opening the wonderful gifts from our friends. We feel so blessed to have such a great community of dear ones here with us, specially since neither of us have our families very close by. We thank these friends for being our family...and for spending time with us in this special and memorable shower party!

Learning Infant Massage

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to learn how to do infant massage. We learned from our teacher Nancy White that infant massage makes the baby grow faster and develop better, and that bones will be much stronger. This is the group picture of that evening, from left to right: Kamran, Menchie, Parvaneh, Mouzhgan, Vida, Nancy, Fereshteh, John and Maarten. Our model who is not in the picture was Melody, the 3-month old daughter of Kamran and Parvaneh. Mouzhgan and Vida are also pregnant like Menchie, so it was really nice for us to learn some strokes and styles that we can use on our baby. Nancy and John are from New Zealand, but originally Nancy is from Fiji, where infant massage is common and well-known.

Experiment

I've been curious about how hard it would be to add video to one's blog as well, instead of only pictures. So, after only an hour and a half of fiddling around, I managed to come up with the following. Not bad, eh, for a rookie!?? Its a video clip of a song I've been trying to learn on guitar for the past couple of weeks... Next step will be to put our own video content, and not 'borrowed'... If you have any suggestions, let me know! :)

Weekend at Dor Beach

This last Saturday, we went to the beach and enjoyed the water, food and company of some friends. It was also Canan's birthday, our friend from Turkey. Her husband Arnold organized this party.
As you can see from these pictures, friends are happy, chatting and enjoying each other's company.







We had some barbecue...















...a relaxing afternoon, eating...

...Martijn and Maarten playing beach tennis and Arnold, like a little kid, fascinated by his new kite... he he :)

We really had a great time. The water was excellent (except for the tiny fishes nibbling and poking our feet all the time)!! Most of us got a tan so quickly as you can see from Maarten's rosy cheeks...
Here with us are Martijn and May, Canan (the birthday girl) and Arnold. We were about to leave this beautiful beach that is only 25 minutes away from Haifa (if Menchie drives only 15 minutes). We will surely come back at least once before the winter kicks in... Oh well, that's still some months away he he:)!

One Afternoon on the Balcony

Last Friday was a relaxing day indeed, as it was the first day of our weekend. We went to work in the morning, came home, and had lunch together on our beautiful balcony. Then Maarten started doing some gardening work. This is how our balcony and little garden look like now! The last two plants are the result of some experiments; they originally came from one plant, which was getting too long, so we decided to cut it and re-plant it in other pots. They are looking good, are growing and healthy!

Lunch with the Youth at the Teaching Centre

On Thursday, we had the privilege to be invited by the youth who work at the International Teaching Centre to have lunch with them at Giraffe Restaurant in the Merkaz. This was a great opportunity to spend time and get to know each other more, as our Department works closely with them. Unfortunately, not all the youth from the Teaching Centre were able to make it. Of course all of us in Stats made it there (since there are only 3 of us at the moment...he..he!)...
In this picture, (L-R), there's Menchie, Maarten, Jarrett, Jasmine, André (hidden), Faraz, Mitch, and Soraya. Next time will make sure everyone will be there! We tried the lemon chicken dish for the first time, and it was super lekker...! Other favourites of ours are the Afghan dish, the Malaysian dish and the Filippino dish (of course!).

Latest Pictures of Us...

These pictures were taken at home after our dinner with George, his brother Miron, and Quddus (the photographer), and the last three ones were taken at Horev Hospital.

Update on Menchie's Pregnancy

Twenty-four weeks have now passed, and so it was time for our major ultrasound test in the Rambam hospital in Haifa. Excited and also a little bit nervous (Maarten), we went to the hospital and were able to see our baby for the fourth time.... But this time, we could peek at baby for a little bit longer than during the other visits :) ...

It was so wonderful to see... the doctor took us on a tour of baby's head, arms, legs, and rest of its body! What a miracle to see the little hands and feet move, the heart beat and the mouth drink... It was very moving and left us truly in awe! Here are a few pictures of the event :) ...

Here you can see baby lying on its back, with the head on the left, its arms next to its body and the legs slightly up. Baby is now so flexible that the feet can almost touch the nose... :) ...

Baby is now 650 gram, almost 10 inches tall...and enjoying the space it still has to move around... Every day it is kicking and turning and basically developing its skills which may come in handy with playing football later :)...SO...that will leave you with something to ponder about whether the baby is actually a B or a G :) ...

The next picture is a closer look at baby's face. Now the baby's head is on the right and looking upward...

This is the update for now. We are very happy indeed with this development :)! ...

Santana's Birthday at Tatami Restaurant

Last Tuesday 26 July, some friends went to Tatami restaurant in Moriah St. to celebrate Santana's birthday, our Mexican friend who's wearing pink shirt beside his lovely wife Evelin in this group photo. This was our (Maarten and I) first visit to this Japanese restaurant. Not knowing the dishes on the menu, we relied a great deal on the help of our dear Mr. Japanese himself, Shingo. He recommended some really nice dishes to us, and we truly loved it!

In this picture to the right, Maarten was eating miso ramen. It was delicious, had egg, spinach, tofu on it. The picture below was full of sushis on top of a wooden designed boat. Shingo and Victor ordered these sushis, and it is reported that the boat sailed home with them afterwards... :) j/k.... Each one of us enjoyed the food and company. We will surely come back and try other dishes...he..he!

Maarten's Trip to Kenya

For the first time in two and half years marriage, we were going to be apart for a few days.... Menchie and Martijn took me to the airport, and Friday afternoon at 16.35 my flight left for Addis Ababa.

Just before boarding, I noticed someone with a "The Bahá'ís Magazine", and I asked her if she was a Bahá'í. She had just visited her brother Adib, who is serving at the World Centre, and was now leaving for Delhi. Her parents, on the same flight, were going home to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).

In Addis Ababa all of us were to spend the next six hours, and so we had some dinner, chatted, and dozed off on the benches in the waiting room. At almost 3.00 in the morning my flight left for Nairobi... After a two hour journey, I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya! My first trip to Africa!! It still felt a little bit unreal, but soon I was met by Joseph Gicheru, who used to serve at the World Centre a couple of years ago. Luckily I was able to sleep for just a few hours before the long meeting day was to start.

Representatives from five countries were in attendance at the meeting, and here you can see the group picture we took on the second day. It was really a very nice group with wonderful friends! From left to right are Willis, from Kenya, Asaph from Tanzania, Daniel from Ethiopia, Moses from Uganda, Kizito from Kenya, Juma from Tanzania, Aimé from Rwanda, and myself from Haifa.

The meeting was very fruitful, and was over all too soon... in just a few days I had gotten a taste of Africa, spent a wonderful time with the friends there, and am now back to Menchie and work in Haifa :)

Parenting Class

I have been wanting to post this picture of our marriage group here in Haifa, so here it is! This was taken last 31 May after our parenting class with Mrs. Bambi Betts, she is from the United Kingdom. We have been studying parenting for quite sometime now and in this evening, we were lucky to have Bambi as our guest of speaker. From left to right, standing: Victor, Bambi, Thomas, Jamak, Negeen, Amelia and meeh; sitting: Martijn, May, Evelin and Maarten (not in the picture are Shingo and Santana).

Cooking and Eating Filipino Dishes...

Last Saturday 2 July, some Filipino friends in Haifa organized a potluck lunch gathering. Corinne Padilla prepared her specialty of "Nilagang Baka" (boiled beef), Daniel Estrada (we also call him Amang) cooked his delicious "Paksiw na Pata" (pork trotters cooked in vinegar), Arnold Laroya made the famous "Lumpia" (Chinese-style eggroll), and I cooked "Menudo" (a stew dish of diced pork, potatoes, carrots with fish sauce and sometimes with sausage or liver) together with Amang. Willi Remollo brought his delicious vegie salad too.
It was a nice, calm, happy lunch time. Some of the friends who joined us were Neva, Corinne Paguidopon, Canan, Kurt, Mrs. Ramirez, Isra, Ria (a Filipina Bahá’í from London cluster who's visiting), Alison (a Bahá’í from Portugal), Anjali, and George who came later. My dear Maarten was not able to join us, but I brought him food at home and he said he liked it!

Maarten's Gardening at Home

Since we have moved to our new home in Hashmona'im in April, we have not taken care of our terrace. Through the help of Kurt in getting some plants and flowers from Yagur, now our terrace is so colorful, but still needs more work. In these pictures, Maarten and Kurt started the work, there we have the bougainvilla, roses, geranium, etc.
Maarten regularly waters the plants and he seems enjoying it a lot. We hope to get more plants soon to finish the work. But for now we are happy seeing nice plants and flowers blooming each day (...and not to forget the beautiful view of the bay!). Thanks for the continuous care of my beloved husband!