Before the weekend starts...

I have a long to-do list today. Lots to finish off before I can leave the office. Leaving earlier today because we're off to Paris for the weekend! We're going to visit Ania, Marek and Kacper..
Ania is a friend I met in Geneva while working at WHO. She became our neighbour and partner in crime on the Geneva and Rue de Lyon social scene. And now our friendship has evolved, with husbands and kids in tow. Looking forward to letting the kids play together and catching up over a glass of wine...

Other things happening right now:

-Jeroen has a throat infection, same as I did two weeks ago. He is going to do a lot of sleeping in Paris!

- I've finally booked our tickets to India next year. Mira, baby #2 and I will go 28 May to 14 July, Jeroen comes 22 June and back with us. Yippee!

- With all this being unwell, we need to get moving on our christmas present for Mira... sanding, filing, putting it together, varnishing... its going to take some work in the next week.

- My cousin Sarika is planning to visit us in February. Finally! Fun times coming up...

- Jeroen's brother Manu is planning a holiday to India with his girlfriend. They want to buy bicycles there and bike around northern India for five weeks. You can imagine what the Indians have to say about that!

- We're going to Latvia in two weeks. Holidays! With real snow, and hopefully no rain...

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas is celebrated on 6 December by all children in Belgium. What Christmas eve and stockings are for children in the Anglo Saxon world, is what Sinterklaas is for Belgian kids.

So in the tradition, Mira left one shoe under the chimney (well, on a table in the living room then) with a carrot for Sint's horse, and a beer for his assistant Zwarte Piet.

By the time Mira discovers this blog, she'll be old enough to know the reality behind Sinterklaas, so I can say now that Jeroen and I had been working for a few weeks beforehand to have Mira's gifts ready. She is at the right age for a doll of her own and pretend play, so I made her a doll (with help from friends- thanks Greet and Megan!) and Jeroen fashioned a bed out of an orange crate, with a mattress, pillow and sheets.

In the morning, Mira was most excited to find a clementine in her shoe (tradition) but is since permanently atatched to her doll, taking her to bed each night... Mira's doll is called Gudia, has her own diaper and bib, which is very important for Mira right now- she regularly checks the diaper to see if its wet :-)

Next project: Christmas present. We're making something along the lines of this. Aaah, the joys of parenting!

Throat ache and still no government

Finding a compromise about the state reform seems difficult, but that doesn't mean the country is about to fall apart. More worrying is the cold and wet weather and the many throat infections. Parul has been suffering from one ever since she got over her morning sickness.

Mira werd anderhalf jaar op 20 november. Ze is een deugniet, die allerlei woordjes begint te vormen, waaronder mijn favoriet: "APPELTHEE".

Hieronder enkele foto's:

1,5 years old

In memoriam Dadaji

I took this picture in January 2007, when Dadaji, Parul's grandfather, met his great granddaughter for the first time. It was a happy moment.
22 November 2007 he passed away peacefully in the afternoon. He was ready to leave, but we'll miss him, his humor, his pragmatic advice and his progressive mind.
Jeroen

Bel me terug als het gesprek uitvalt

Een week terug sta ik in het recyclage park en gooi met een worp een kapotte plastieken kuip over de rand van een container. Mijn GSM valt uit mijn jaszak op de grond en het schermpje loopt traag vol met een vaste vloeistof. Dit was de laatste val die geen blijvende schade berokkende. Wat nu, we zijn bezig met een low impact project en proberen om geen nieuwe spullen meer te kopen. In de winkel nemen ze deze GSM nog terug en krijg ik er 10 euro voor als ik een nieuwe koop. Niet echt low impact maar wel recyclage, of toch het gevoel dat je iets goeds doet. Intussen kan ik nog wel bellen met de GSM, maar als een blinde. Ik zie niet wie me belt en kan de SMSjes niet lezen.

Ik besluit wat rond te vragen en mijn collega heeft nog een oude GSM (een nieuwer model van NOKIA dan dat ik had) van zijn zus. Voor 10 euro is hij van mij. Ik ben er extra blij mee, het koste me weinig en het werkt prima. Tot de batterij op ongelegen momenten begint uit te vallen. Had ik toch maar iets nieuws gekocht, alhoewel, misschien kan ik ergens een batterij vinden van iemand die zijn GSM ook liet vallen, of misschien is het wel een slecht contact dat te repareren valt. Ik houd hem nog even bij en zie wat ik kan vinden.

TOEVOEGING:
na eens een nachte lang met de oplader te hebben geslapen doet ie het prima!

Toys

There's been a lot in the news about unsafe toys in the last few months. I won't recap that, but details are available here , here and here. At work we deal with this issue everyday now. Aqua dots are still being sold in shops in Belgium, despite the recall and press publicity last week.

This makes me reconsider all the toys at home as well. Plastic was never a favourite, and now there is more reason to boycott it. But cheap wooden toys also run the risk of lead paint, so the key perhaps is quality over quantity! I don't want to be all snobbish about this, as most consumer goods are made in China, and European superiority and workmanship is overrated in some cases. However, what isn't overrated is product safety and market surveillance, which is seriously lacking and under-resourced in China.
What this means for us is no plastic toys (definitely no plastic for the new baby to chew on), and good quality wooden or cardboard toys and books.
Thus, my appeal also to family and friends who might want to surprise Mira in the upcoming festive season - please go for wood, paper or cloth :-)
I am making a doll for Mira for sinterklaas, and Jeroen and I are crafting a play stand for her for Christmas. We would also like to collect these nativity toys for the kids every Christmas, any contributions would be most welcome...

Green tip- save paper

Next time you're at the ATM- decline a receipt. Simple!

Cool idea

While reading blogs by other people trying to go low impact, I came across this cool idea ...

"Soup Kitchen - When my husband and I were engaged, we took many of our friends and family members to a soup kitchen to volunteer. It was a bonding experience that meant more to me than a party..." Source: http://andamom.com/

Not directly low impact, but could be turned into one. For example- instead of a heavy, many coursed christmas dinner! Will surely cut down the costs and up the feel good factor :-) I think I'll investigate the options in our area and see if the family is open to something like this!

LOW IMPACT

Its been ages since I blogged. But yesterday, while reading some blogs on the internet, I had an "a-ha" moment, which I then excitedly shared with J and now it's a joint project we are going to try and implement starting tomorrow.

Let me backtrack a little bit here. We've been talking about moving next year sometime, and working in development for a few years. This made me start thinking of the practical side as well, including what we would need to leave behind packed up, and what we could take with us. And with this came the realisation that we have sooo much stuff!
We're not the most commercial or material of families. Some might also think of us as slightly crunchy :-) However, we enjoy the luxury of two incomes, and budgeting hasn't really been a necessity. A cute new T-shirt for Mira here, a new handbag for a change, a new release book that was recently reviewed... they all seem to quickly find a place through our wallets into our house!

So what is low impact? Low impact is an attempt to reduce the amount and impact of our consuming habits. What this will mean in practice:
1. For the next four months, we will not buy anything new! (Of course there are exceptions, which include health/safety/food/ personal care purchases)
2. For food products, we'll buy packaging free as far as possible
3. If we need something new, we'll explore the second-hand, borrow or create avenues first!
4. In general, we'll try to minimise bringing more plastic into our house

So there you are... four simple rules to stick by for the next four months.

Will this be easy? No way. Specially with Christmas, birthdays, and a holiday to Latvia. We'll have to be inventive with Christmas presents. J and I already have an idea for Mira's gift. It will be a woodwork project, new for both of us, but hopefully fun and satisfying. Our gifts to each other could be something handmade too, or an experience, not necessarily wrapped in paper. In Latvia, we'll try to buy souvenirs from markets or cooperatives, instead of a souvenir shop. Or bring back something edible...

Starting tomorrow, we are also part of a "climate neighbourhood" project (Klimaatwijk), which looks at reducing your energy consumption without a change in comfort. We need to record our meter readings, and get helpful hints and specific suggestions from energy experts... The goal is to reduce energy consumption by 8% in the next six months. Our low impact project will fit well with this.

I'll post regular updates about this, and be honest about our attempts!

We don't expect our family and friends to do the same of course, but we hope they will be understanding and supportive :-)

flandersnews.be - Life for Hans Van Themsche

flandersnews.be - Life for Hans Van Themsche

This trial received massive media attention in Belgium over the last weeks. Rightly so, a young boy randomly shot some people in the centre of Antwerp (usually a safe place) last year. A young white girl (2 years old), her black nanny and a Belgian with Turkish background all got hit, only the Belgian lady survived. The three biggest communities of Antwerp were affected and a big debate about violence and racism among youth is still going on. The parents are relieved, as far as you can be after losing your child.

Our daily bread - Home - Geyrhalterfilm

Our daily bread - Home - Geyrhalterfilm



Mira is asleep and I am watching Our daily bread while tidying up old newspapers. I am really shocked by these simple images of our food industry. Is that the way the chicken and pork is handled before landing on my plate? It makes you wonder about industrialization, because it is more than just farming on a large scale.

BTW, the Meatrix II deals with a similar issue but is so much fun to watch (if you know the Matrix of course). American's tend to get similar messages across in a very different way than Europeans. I also saw Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and immediately put the pledge button on this blog, because it is worth seeing, even though you think you know what it is about! What are we doing about it, we live in a Klimaatwijk (climate neighborhood).

30 worden, turning 30, weekendje in Bras bas

Bras weekendje

No escape, adulthood is knocking on the door in the form of a round number, 30.

Thanks for the good company on this weekend and thanks for all the nice postcards of those who weren't there.

Jeroen

BBC NEWS | The Reporters | Mark Mardell

BBC NEWS | The Reporters | Mark Mardell

BBC Blogger Mark Mardell is trying to make sense of the Belgian flags outside his window on his euroblog. A nice analysis about Belgium though very British, it is not such a big deal, there is a political compromise in the making and normal people are not divided! Funny to read the British comments on his article. Is shows that international media only follow the francophone press and not the Flemish papers. Since the Francophone press tends likes to depict the Flemish as separatists (even though this is a small minority), the problem is aggravated for no reason. Anyhow, Brussels cannot be divided and a lot of BRUSSELAARS do not identify with Walloons but only with Brussels. Anyhow, even without love for surrealism, Belgium does not need to be separated, just needs a new government and we are almost there I believe.

a Belgian

End of summer

We went camping with some friends from Parul's choir in Opoeteren beginning of August. After that there was some time at home, I went climbing in Arolla (Switzerland)for a week, while Parul was coping with difficult pregnancy symptoms. Yes we do have some news for March! and Dan visited us from Australia.

August album

Meanwhile, people are back at school here and politicians are still trying to form a new government while satisfying both the Flemish and Wallonian negotiators. Mira started walking beginning of this month, (while handing DVDs to Parul at Dorien's place). Since then, she's become a very stable toddler who loves running around. Next week we 're off to the Ardennes to celebrate my 30th, I 'll have to start behaving like a real adult...









J

Why use a spoon?

A holiday near Calais (and a few first steps)

Oye Plage

Our holiday for the last two weeks was basically reading and relaxing in the old fisherman's house of my uncle near Calais, with lots of nice visitors. The North of France bears many traces of World War one and is a primitive area, even though new neighborhoods are popping up everywhere.

We thought Mira was going to start walking on the beach, but she only did the night we came back at Dorien's place, while reaching out for a few DVDs. She loves walking in the water but still is a little wary of sand and grass, maybe that's why she preferred Dorien's wooden floor for a few first excited steps (not in the pictures).

Happy birthday Nani!

Dear Nani,

Today papa took lots of photos, I wish I could be there with you, but instead here I am with my laugh, my curls, my teeth and all my love. Happy birthday!
Mira

Mira & Lemoni

While we went to Robin's birthdayparty (op het eilandje), Mira stayed over at Lemoni's place. She decided to push her around in her cart.

(Bedankt Jeroen en Caroline voor de leuke video en de sleepover).

Another rearward facing video

This one slightly more technical... tackles common myths about car seats, plus crash test footage again.
Please pass it on!

Child Car Seat Safety

A somewhat emotional presentation put together by a mum- what's really scary is the crash test footage about half way into the presentation. Can't argue with that- Mira's definitely staying in the rearward facing car seat for a while.

Ribs!

Last weekend we ate with Sarah, Kris and Grace (from Sydney!) at Amadeus, all-you-can-eat ribs.

Yummy food, highly recommended, though its best enjoyed if you skip lunch on the day.

And the potatoes with fat butter are heavenly...

Mira showed her animal instincts and devoured a rib!

What will happen if you don't vote for the green party this time

This posting is not related to the federal elections of 10/6/2007.
I just like this movie, simple yet to the point. Watch the ice bear...

Mira's birthday picnic

One year has flown by, I still remember my parents, Parul's mum and sister (her dad on the phone) and my siblings awing at the tiny little baby on a mattress in our living room. Now Mira can stand up, walk with the support of a cart and crawl like crazy. She is a lovely daughter! We had a great pic nic for her birthday with lots of nice pressies. TXs
Jeroen (papa)

Mira, dat is nu al 4 seizoenen dat je bij ons bent, lachend en grimassend, mensen noemen je een zonnetje, een duimelotje, een bezeke en een blij madameke. Ik vind het heerlijk dat je nu al kan knuffelen en heel soms, enkel als je dat zelf wil, druk je je hard tegen me aan met beide armpjes rond mijn borst. Heerlijk!

London trip (Mira is standing and almost walking)

Back from a nice weekend in London, Mira is getting ready to stand alone. Click here for the album.

London is not a very child friendly city, especially if you are taking ancient stairs in the tube carrying a pram and luggage plus baby. When asking for a lift the tube people politely answer "I am afraid there is none, so you 'll have to cope with the stairs". However, traffic eased with the driving tax in the center and with the super warm April weather we were actually outside a lot. Angela and Simon's wedding (the main goal of our visit) was really nice.

Mira is scared of grass

Mira at the Zoo and in Limburg

10 - 11 months

Time flies. Jeroen was away for work in Laos and Angola two weeks in total. Mira is a strong girl now, we have an album of the last month.

A Mira time capsule

Dear Mira,

You are now nine months old, but like all babies, you are growing and changing very fast... Not long ago, you were tiny, fragile and immobile, and look at you now!
I want to record the things about you that I really enjoy now, another month and the list will be completely different...

• You want to pull yourself up to stand against everything- a coffee table, the clothes drying stand, my trousers or my skirt
• You've got this fake teethy smile going- its cute, and sometimes silly
  
• Sometimes when you are hungry or just need some mummy time, you come crawling to me like a little puppy, saying "ummmummumm" and sit at my feet looking up at me with big, innocent, pleading eyes
  
• Remember when you were lying in bed with us one morning and you started playing peekaboo with the duvet? That was impressive!
• As is the fact that when I read a story to you, you can turn the pages of a (cardboard) book all by yourself
• And that you're slowly getting the hang of turning light switches off and on, and what that does to the room.
• Your favourite finger food is a pear, cut in long slices, you love eating it all by yourself, and do a pretty good job of it too
• Today another baby was here to play, a couple of months younger than you, and suddenly you became interested in ALL your toys, specially the ones he was playing with! That was not very nice, but I guess all kids do that. Sharing is cool, Mira!
  

As I write this, you are quietly playing on the floor, systematically emptying the toy box, one toy at a time :-) Time to cook your dinner.
I love you.

Your mamma

fotookes

Een kus van de mama

Een cadeautje van de peter.

De papa doet Mira haar warm pakje dicht.

Comment on the new album about January and February, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/jeroen.wvh/MiraJanFeb

taxi in Bombay

Mira and her dad in a taxi in Bombay. After 1,5 weeks at home with the flu, I found the strength to put these last photos from our India trip online (click below). The album below starts in Delhi, via Bombay, (where we stayed at Parul's friend Puuja's place), and Istanbul to Belgium. The main bit shows Bombay, which is a happy place with an amazing energy, I was happy to get to know it better, including a nice sunset at salt water grill. When I see movies about Bombay now I recognise much more. Last we saw Munna Bhai, a great comedy with a serious message too. I never laughed so much with a Hindi movie :)

I am slowly getting better, recovering from this flu. Mira is asleep and healthy and Parul is working at the ANEC annual report.

Bombay transit album

Tiring bike ride

On Sunday we went to my parents place for a reunion, my youngest brother Bram is back from 5 months in Italy. We biked over after installing Mira's bike seat. She was singing at the beginning but ended up falling asleep. Bram hadn't seen Mira since September and really liked her earrings. He took the picture of her in sepia.

Mira chasing

A silent movie in which Mira shows off her crawling skills chasing a balloon. When motivated she is quite good, if there is nothing to chase she prefers to try and pull herself up to stand.

Ik vraag het aan

bi- or trilingual?

Many people ask us what language we speak with Mira. We both speak our mother tongue, Dutch and Hindi. We sometimes also speak English to each other, a language she is bound to pick up.

Apparently babies learn to distinguish between the sounds they need to know for their mother tongue. More on the matter in the article itself.

Zondagslunch in Wattman na de lichtmis

Lichtmis is celebrated 40 days after Jesus`s birth, his parents brought him to the temple for blessings so we did the same with Mira, our princess. Mira's Belgian grandparents came too and after the mass everyone had pancakes, very social.

The priest in Zurenborg (where Mira was baptised in June) was happy to see Mira and remembered her Australian grandmother with happiness.

life goes on

Jeroen here, life goes on without too much time to write about it. It is worth sharing some things though, especially Mira's latest development, so let me try.

Now that Mira is 8 months old she loves crawling around. During our three weeks in India crawling was still new and her technique didn't allow her to shuffle off and try and eat plugs, wires, plants or other things. But soon after we got back she started moving around on both knees really fast. We didn't even need to look up the guide "How to make your baby crawl in 6 steps" available on the web :)

We are changing the house around a bit so she can't access too many dangerous things. I really love the way she silently plays and observes all these new objects. Observing is the wrong verb since she will always taste it, chew is and if it is good chew it some more.

I am back at work at Handicap International and we have our New Year's party tonight (even though it's Feb). I like doing communications for an NGO and with some luck we can push some states to ratify an international ban on cluster munitions this year. Israel has recently apologised for having used these weapons in Lebanon, weapons that mainly hit civilians. Peres admitted yesterday to Al Jazeera that it was a mistake to use them. You can help too by signing the petition online. You can check on the website whether you know any of the famous Frenchmen or others who have already signed for a ban on these weapons.

Meanwhile other battles continue, like the one for our second-hand car, which is under warranty repair at a garage that closed down two weeks ago. He probably closed his business before officially going bankrupt and we will not see much more than the unrepaired car. Lawyers advise me to forget the warranty and the repair costs and to be happy with the vehicle itself. Lawyers giving me lessons in resignation, I like that.

Parul has a new boss who has a Narnia cupboard in his office, but I 'll let her write an update too. I am afraid that will have to wait until our sleeping experiment with Mira is over. We are trying to make her sleep through the night and teach her how to fall asleep on her own in her own bed. We adults can all do it, but it is really hard to teach someone how to do it . Hence the reason for very little blog traffic.

take care and keep commenting, tips are welcome!
Jeroen

EU debating banning the Swastika, originally an Indian Symbol

Hindus opposing EU swastika ban

Hindus in Europe have joined forces against a German proposal to ban the display of the swastika across the European Union, a Hindu leader said.


Source BBC



Parul was interviewed about the topic by Inne from De Standaard. Here is the article with a reference to Mira's mundan that we did two weeks ago in India.

donderdag 18 januari 2007

Hindoes verzetten zich tegen Europees verbod swastika

Voor hindoes en boeddhisten staat het hakenkruis al duizenden jaren symbool voor vrede en geluk.

Duitsland wil als EU-voorzitter het Duitse verbod op de ontkenning van de Holocaust in de hele Unie proberen in te voeren. Ook het verbod op het afbeelden van de swastika of het hakenkruis, dat de nazi's gebruikten als symbool van het Derde Rijk, zou tot het pakket maatregelen behoren dat Duitsland in de Unie wil invoeren.

Hindoes uit België, Nederland, Italië en Groot-Brittannië zien zo'n verbod absoluut niet zitten. Ze willen campagne voeren om het oeroude symbool niet uit de Unie te bannen.

De swastika, een woord uit het Sanskriet dat ,,geluksbrenger'' betekent, is inderdaad het heiligste symbool van het hindoeïsme en het Jaïnisme, en het komt ook in het boeddhisme voor (zie tweede foto). Maar het symbool bleef zeker niet tot de oosterse cultuur en religie beperkt. In Egypte en Zweden zijn swastika's gevonden van minstens veertienduizend jaar oud. Het Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Keulen telt verschillende Romeinse swastika-mozaïeken (derde foto). En op het Griekse eiland Kreta kwam de swastika al rond 3.500 voor Christus voor.

Sinds de Tweede Wereldoorlog kampt de swastika in het Westen echter met een gigantisch imagoprobleem. De swastika draagt sinds het nazi-tijdperk een duistere connotatie van haat, racisme en dood. Moet het symbool daarom in de hele EU worden verboden?

,,Je kunt dan net zo goed het kruis verbieden omdat de Ku-Klux-Klan het ook gebruikte'', zegt Parul Goel, een Indiase uit Antwerpen. ,,De swastika is een vredessymbool dat misbruikt wordt. Het hakenkruis nu verbieden biedt geen oplossing. We moeten eerder van die negatieve connotatie af en iedereen aan de oorspronkelijke betekenis van de swastika herinneren.''

In het Oosten wordt vooral het spiegelbeeld van de Duitse swastika gebruikt, maar het kruis wordt in beide richtingen afgebeeld. In India verwijzen de twee verschillende swastika's naar de zonsopgang en -ondergang. De swastika die de wijzers van de klok volgt, symboliseert vooruitgang.

Het dagelijkse leven in India is doordrongen van de swastika, zegt Parul Goel: ,,Als je een nieuwe auto koopt of in een nieuw huis trekt, wordt de swastika als geluksbrenger ergens op getekend. En een bedrijfsleider tekent met nieuwjaar een swastika op de eerste pagina van het jaarboek.''

Onlangs hielden Parul en haar Belgische man in India een hindoe-geboorteceremonie voor hun dochtertje. ,,Daarbij werd haar hoofdje kaalgeschoren, als een soort zuiveringritueel. Toen ik mijn grootvader vroeg wat hindoes nog meer doen, zei hij dat we met rood poeder een swastika op haar kaalgeschoren hoofdje moesten tekenen. Maar zo lang konden wij ons dochtertje niet rustig houden. Het had anders wel een geweldige foto opgeleverd.'' (lacht)

Van onze redactrice Ine Roox

back from meeting family and travelling in India

Mortsel-Istanbul transit

We had a nice pre-Xmas dinner in Belgium and on the 23d we left for India via Istanbul.

We spent 3 weeks in India, the first week at Parul's cousin's wedding in Pune (close to Bombay). Mira was an attraction for the whole family.

Kedar and Urmila's wedding (India trip 0607

In between the various functions at the wedding I (Jeroen) had the chance to visit a Tata power dam with my kaaka (uncle). Tata runs a few social projects for the local villagers, I was very impressed. Did you know that Tata Steel, for example, began the eight-hour work day for employees in 1912, long before the US or Europe, and a year after Britain accepted the 12-hour day. Read the article about Tata, integral part of Indian life.

Tata Power visit PUNE

Happy 2007