On the way home from Europe, where Lieke, Liva and Joop got delayed for 22 hours in Aden, they met a guy from Egypt that was very kind to the kids. He is here to work on some programming work for one of the mobile providers and we met up with him last week where Lieke and the kids took him to the old city.
After a well deserved holiday in Europe the whole family is now back in Yemen. Lieke and the kids got quite a delay on the way back as a plane had skipped off the runway in Sana’a and their plane therefore got rerouted to Aden where they spent almost 24 hours in the airport and later at a hotel. So they have not quite recovered yet. We have returned to the last draws of the monsoon season in Sana’a and an invasion of locust. Parts of Yemen is suffering quite a bit and the situation is complicated further by lack of action due to concerns for the honey production. So right now the grasshoppers are allowed to roam free as insecticides would kill off the bees as well. The citizens of Sana’a are happy though as they eat the grasshoppers – it is considered a delicacy and is called the “flying scrimp”. Anyway, I just wanted to make a short update with the promise that I one of the coming days will upload some pictures from our summer holiday. Thanks for everything while we were in Europe.
Here in Sana’a the rainy season has arrived and the traffic therefore also develops to a totally chaotic state at times. With the main part of taxis, and many private cars being more than 25 years old it doesn’t take much for them to stall when it rains and it only takes a few before we have a jam. Yesterday, we had a very bad downpour and the resulting flashflood tested the Saila’s capability as the main “drain” of Sana’a. The people that have visited us down here will know that the Saila is normally used as a main thoroughfare in Sana’a but that it also doubles as a Wadi and therefore will turn into a river when the rain comes. Monday many cars got caught up in the Saila as the rain came very fast. Rescuers managed to save people from 7 cars that was either stuck or drifted down the river and three people that was caught under the rubble in a collapsed building in the old city. As you can see on the picture the water came quite high in the Saila.
From Liva and Joop Lieke got a frame with some drawings and paintings that they had produced themselves. On the picture they are trying to look totally natural in front of the frame
Lieke is turning 40 today, so she has been celebrated with presents and hugs and kisses.
Here is a picture that we took yesterday of the three beautiful girls
At the Children's Konninginnedag there were a lot of different games. Here Liva is at the ballon Obstacle course and as it can be seen she is taking it very serious.
For the special children’s Konninginnedag Joop found it most appropriate to dress up as a princess
As Liva had her birthday while we were in China and Lieke and the kids needed to return from the Netherlands before we could celebrate Liva in Yemen, it has taken a while for us to get our act together and have the birthday party. But this weekend we finally had the party. As it has been a tradition since we were in Mexico, we had a Piñata and on the picture above the Liva and Joop are in the middle of filling it with candy. The party was great with 31 kids and their parents.
Back in the Hotel Liva got celebrated with a cake that her mom had bought in the Hotel Bakery
In the morning we had Dim Sum for brakefast in the chinese restaurant in the white swan
While we were in China Liva turned 5, and she talked to Oma and Opa on Chris' phone.
While in Guangzhou we stayed at the White Swan Hotel and we grew quite attached to the "function rooms" of the Chinese restaurant as they gave us a possibility to be "alone" with the kids. This is from the best of the "function rooms", which not only had a table but also two sofas and a television.
We are in Hong Kong these weeks and of course had to go to the newly opened Hong Kong Disneyland. The kids had a wonderful day with their Hong Kong based cusins.
A few posts back I talked about the wonders of Google Earth. If you have downloaded Google Earth and want to take a small trip around the world to visit all the places were we have lived and worked, all you have to do is to click on the link below.
Download Google Earth file
When you have downloaded the file, all you have to do is go to the "Temp. Places" folder in Google Earth, open the file and press the "play" button.
After Joop's birthday it was off to the Netherlands and Oma and Opa for Lieke and kids.
