STAN'S BLOGS

The Saturday before last, Sinterklaas visited us! He was here last year, as well, but I was in Germany and missed the whole thing. So this was all new for me, and I would have to say another "incredible" Dutch tradition to experience... The tradition of St. Nicholas (our Santa Claus) came to North America via Netherlands Protestant Settlers in New Amsterdam, now New York. It all started back in the 4th Century when a Bishop in Turkey named St. Nicholas became widely known for his good deed with poor children in Europe. His feast day became known as the Celebration of "Sinterklaas" and was held on December 6. St. Nicholas is also known as the patron saint of Amsterdam. I'll let you read more about Sinterklaas on your own, if you want. All I want to add is that Sinterklaas is assisted by many mischievous helpers with black faces and colourful outfits. These helpers are called Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) in Dutch, and there is nothing like them. According to tradi

Had the strangest dream: I'm standing in the white, graveled driveway of our house in Cedar Grove. Those bright red, double garage doors at my back and our old, dark green, mid-1950's Buick Century in front of me with the hood open, and there's Dad standing right next to it... (If any of you remember, back then the "old Buick" had been set aside when Mom and Dad bought Otto and Lydia Frisk's newer model Chrysler. I got the idea one day, when I was around 17 or 18, that it would be cool if the Buick was my car. Dad said ok, and we spent the better part of an afternoon one summer trying to get it started. The battery was dead, of course, so Dad pushed me in the Buick with his Ford pickup for miles down Mace Road, attempted to push-start the engine. Well it never happened... we ended up having to push the old Buick all the way back home, and there it sat 'til we moved to Placerville.) ...So, back to the dream. There's the old Buick sitting there with the

I received this photo that was taken at our Berlin retreat by our BVS Director Kristin... We were staying just outside of Berlin in a resort area called Kladow, right on the Wannsee River (more like a lake) at Haus Kreisau . Haus Kreisau is a youth training/seminar center named after the “Kreisau Circle,” a group of church people in resistance during World War II (the place where they met in Poland, and the location of a former BVS project). We also toured Berlin for a day and a half, went on one commercial tour and later up into the dome of the Reichstag (the German capitol building, and the one Hitler tried to destroyed before WWII). Visited many of the more popular sights like the Brandenburg Gate , 'the wall,' stood on top of Hitler's bunker, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews.

I've been seeing one concert or theatrical event after another for over a month (sometimes 4-5 a weekend). I might have mentioned there's quite a music scene right here in Alkmaar, with roots going back to 'the early rock en' roll days of Europe,' and it's happening just a few blocks away. Zomer op het Plein runs all summer, with free music, street theater, art programs and activities for kids. A few of the acts I've seen are: Erik van Muiswinkel & Omnibuzz, well known for his imitations of famous people; Candy Dulfer, regular guest of international pop stars such as Prince, ArethaFranklin, Van Morrison and Pink Floyd; Hilaria/Teatro Pavana, street theater with realistic marine tank, dolphins and a mermaid; Teatro Pavana, life-size giraffes by professional stiltwalkers (the kids went crazy); and Amsterdam Klezmer Band, mix of Eastern European styles and some of the most energetic music I've ever heard. 'Yesterday' Popfoto's of Nico van d

Several weeks ago I found a bright-green flyer in our mailbox, obviously hand delivered and stating that there would be another Wijkfeest Spoorbuurt this year on Saturday, June 14. The flyer was packed with information about the 12 hour event -- in Dutch, of course, so it took days for me to figure out just what was happening and where. Turns out it was our annual neighborhood ( Spoorbuurt ) get-together, held at a primary school called Bello a few blocks away on Snaarmanslaan. The activities included: the Opzoomeren, including the passing of the Vergulde Tuinkabouter (golden garden gnome), a BBQ, snuffelmarkt (flea market), stratenvolleybaltoernooi and in the evening an open-air concert called Single Tunes (local musicians, singers, dancers and actors). My neighbors Mereik, Irene, Rus, Jong, Jon and Annaliese talked me into joining the volleyball tournament (6 games in all). Later, the "wisselbeker" (trophy) was awarded, Spoorstraat had won the tournament last year but

On Thursday, thanks to WPP 's Educational Director, myself and four of my colleagues traveled to Den Haag (The Hague) to sit-in on the Trial of Charles Taylor , at one time Taylor was the President of Liberia. The trial is taking place at the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) and Taylor is accused of aiding the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone. These guys are purported to have killed and raped civilians, cutting off arms, legs, ears or noses, and burned their homes. Albert Hindowa Saidu, an RUF rebel fighter, was being questioned about a brutal attack on a town; we sat just 10' away from him. Saidu was a college student at Bunumbu in his finalyear, pursuing a teacher's certificate when he was abducted in 1991. He stay with the RUF right until the final disarmament in 2001. Child abductions are a common form of recruitment for rebel forces, something our organization hopes to have an impact on. After witnessing the ICC testimony we left to visit an orga

Saturday before last, my friend John and I biked over 50 kilometer, to Egmond aan Zee (5 miles away) and on up through the Schoorl Duin (dunes). John took his son Willem with us on the back of his bike. Willem is a lot of fun to have around, we've spent hours together here at the office (have a big stack of drawings of dinosaurs and monsters). I'm getting quite close to his family, that has really been a blessing. Last weekend was the "60's & 70's" music swap at our Stedelijk Museum. I met the guy who owns the Beatles Museum in Alkmaar. His name is Azing Moltmaker , and I talked with him for quite a while about how he got stated. He had some mock Beatle's jackets with him (the originals are in museums) and two Beatles dresses that girls in the Netherlands wore to concerts back then. He also owns George Harrison's jacket that George wore in the famous Abbey Road photo on the Beatles' White album. Azing said he has the largest collection of Bea

I had quite a laugh when several days ago I was surprised by this photo of Marion Schreiber, Françoise Pétremand and I, while thumbing through the Alkmaars Weekblad (a local weekly I pick up at our library). Marion is a retired English teacher from Austria and Françoise was the mayor of her hometown in France for 50 years. They were both here last week for our organization's annual three day European FOR conference, where I met both of them for the first time. The evening that Marion arrived the three of us went out for dinner to a "gezellig" restaurant in the centrum called Sumangali (Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine). The owner came over to our table soon after we were seated and asked us if we would mind having our picture taken, as he "sometimes likes to use the photos for newspaper ads." Of course, I never thought I would really ever see the photo that the restaurateur took of us that evening and, as such, just forgot about the incident... until now, h

A couple of things I think are really cool here are the “vrije uitloop eieren” (free-range eggs) sold at Albert Heijn -- it's kind of like a Dutch Raley's -- and “Echinacea toothpaste.” All large supermarkets in the Netherlands now carry eggs from poultry farms raising birds in open barns or in free-range systems. The toothpaste is just something I have been using ever since I arrived. I like the stuff a lot, although it's not cheap, and I haven't seen it marketed in The States. Another thing I have found fascinating are the views from my apartment and flat windows over the last two years. My apartment and flats have always been up high enough to see out over the roof tops. This occasional contemplation has spurred me to write this poem... Clocks and water déjà vu I can see the hands of a large clock in a tower from my living room in Alkmaar. I could see the hands of a large clock in a tower from my living room in Minden. I could see the hands of a large clock in a tow

In Alkmaar it's a tradition that on Christmas Eve crowds of people gather at Grote Sint Laurenskerk, a huge, 15th century French Gothic style church just a few blocks away. There was a stage setup inside and groups of people moving in and out all evening as each performance changed. The floor is composed of large, black stone slabs with beautiful art carvings in most of them, and two world-famous organs, the Van Covelens (also known as Koororgel, 1511) and the Van Hagerbeer or Big Schnitger (1636), were played during the service. Hundreds joined in on 12 songs during the service, with readings and a long sermon by a priest/pastor spaced in between the singing. The entire service was in the native language, so we were singing classics like "Silent Night" in Dutch, ha! A friendly guy with his son sat next to me. He couldn't speak English and I'm still not speaking a whole lot of Dutch, yet we actually enjoyed a great conversation and each others company. The whole t