Last week and this week

Moi! Alles goud? Lekker guhsloap'n...? I had a guest over last week. From Winsum, Groningen, of all places. He was here for a week to built a new sort of Portacabin that one of our sister companies is developing. Basically the concept is a regular Portacabin stucture, but the walls and ceiling are made of EPS; Styrofoam oftewel, piepschuim. More energy efficient because of high the isolation value. Anyway, Romke was here and he stayed in my appartment since I have a two bedroom appartment. It was very interesting to have a Dutch guy over in the house for a week. Very different from me; it was good to have some companionship. His remarks on things like burka's and arranged marriage here were very interesting. Personally I can easily accept those things here because it is not my country and not my culture. Although in my own life I would not approve of it I guess. I mean, not that I am going to run around in a Burka, but you know, if that would happen in my family ... Anyway Romke, he couldn't accept it which led to interesting situations. He for instance was really shocked when he saw a lady in a totally covered burka, the ones that veil the fase entirely so also the eyes. “dat is toch niet normoal! Dat ken toch neit!” Also he learned that it is hard to work with Indian laborers. No intrinsic motivation, only work when there is a supervisor. They did not even start building the framework needed for his work. It gave a three day delay. And that while he was only here for a week. Anyhow, we visited some sites in the area here and last Friday he went back to Holland.

Speaking of Holland, today I missed Holland. I wanted just to go there and spend time with my beloved friends and familiy. Visit Wicher in Rotterdam, Roel Henk Jelmer en David in Groningen and of course my family in Overrijssel. Ik mis jullie om me heen. On the other hand. I am happy that I am here. The weather is gorgeous now. Like 28 degrees celcius and a nice breeze. Perfect beach weather. My apartment is nice. And I am well taken care off.

And of course, which you probably don't know, it is Eid holiday here. A week off! Hooray. No work. This is the second eid after the ramadan and starts about 70 days after the end of the ramadan. The first eid, Eir al Fitr, is directly after the ramadan. This eid is called Eid ul-Adha and is the Festival of Sacrifice. I believe the origin of the name is related to Ibrahim in the Quran (Abraham in the Holy Bibe) who was willing to sacrifice his son. In the Quran version of this story it is not Isaac btw, but Ismael that fulfills this role. On this eid muslims traditionally slaughter a goat I believe it is, and eat it with the family. I don't exactly know though.

So during eid, actually this Saturday, I will go with my colleague Naseem and his family to visit Abdullah, who lives like 3 hours from here and have lunch with him and his family. And on Sunday I will be going to Sur, you know that place where I was treated as a royal guest before, to stay a couple of days at Mr. Khalids family house. No idea what is going to happen, but I bet it is going to be a good time. And then after there I will go to Badar. He comes from a Bedouin family and I will spend some days there. In the middle of nowhere. A big adventure also. And then probably the week will be about over after that and work will start again.

Ow and of course my plans for around new years eve I will be in the States to celebrate the reunion with my friends from GMS. I am so pumped about this and cannot wait for this to happen. I am lucky that they gave me off at work. So I can stay there for about 10 days.

So after eid I will definitely post some pictures and have great lenghty stories to tell.

Ma-salaam!