Touring the Beemster polder
A few weeks ago Arjan (on left in the photo), IFOR's Accountant and a friend of mine, took three of us volunteers from the office in his car for a tour of an area in 'Noord Holland' where he grew up. We stopped first along the way to show Pauline and Aktuigun, two young interns that were here from Africa and Asia for six weeks to work with our WPP program, several large windmills on the polders (low areas surrounded by dikes and pumped dry of water). Then we went on to visit three nearby, historic, small towns (de Rijp, Graft, and Volendam) and de Beemster polder . De Beemster polder is well-known world-wide and is where all that famously exported Gouda cheese is produced, the cheese sometimes displayed in food-stores in the shape of large, yellow wheels. While in the area, we also met Arjan's parents, who live in the village of MiddenBeemster. Wonderful people, kind and thoughtful, they were so welcoming and had much to tell us about their lives in the village. Arj