Week 11

Week 11

Building works.......

With  some good help from our work experience lad.. (Jelmer)

Inching slowly upwards....(oh dear, is that tautology?).

Only took me two weeks!! (and 89kms recorded just walking, working and up and down ladders!)

Ben

At Ben's hotel/residence they organised a "Dare To Taste" night...

with Buffaloworm (larvae of the buffalo beetle), grasshoppers, meelworm (another beetle larvae), frogs legs, snails, haggis?, crocodile and more.

There was also "Hare's blood", which turned out to be beetroot juice. Ben's group won first prize of "VIP treatment at the opening of the new Rooftop (Drinking) Terrace in May".

Local Council Corruption

A councillor came up with the great idea of running a "pilot" program for a "care farm" (like ours) and organised a "grant" from the council of €25000. Sounds ok, except that it was for his wife's care farm and no others were asked. A representative of another political party asked Janny if we had been approached... "no, never heard of it". "Aha, I know enough", came the reply.
Having been exposed, the councillor has stepped down but the "inquiry" continues. I don't know how they work here, but my first question would be "who said yes and why"? (that's two questions). We shall see....
One of our volunteers made the observation" how do they think they can get away with it in this day and age"?.

Our request (Local Council request for us to house refugees) in the local newspaper....

This gives people a certain amount of time to object (and/or) complain.... but at least the wheels are moving.....

Ours is Wijnjewoude - 2 apartments in a Groups Accommodation to be used as temporary housing of "status holders" (i.e. refugees who have achieved resident status in the process) - the "families" part was our request so that we didn't have a whole lot of young people - and it might soften any objections that people might have. The idea is that (hopefully) permanent housing will become available (in our local government area) very soon; and that we will have a turnover of people going through our place. So, only having 2 families means that only 2 houses have to be "found" in the first instance. Public housing vs private or free market is very complex here.... I confess that I have no idea how it works. I hear snippets about "Housing Corporations", for example, but what they actually do......? Then there is the matter of "assistance" - one of our residents was able to claim a benefit that was actually more than what was paid to us in rent. We also had someone come out and measure up one of the apartments to see if it satisfied requirements - ie that it was totally independent and that we weren't rorting the system by living together and still getting single benefits.

(My To Do List just got much BIGGER).

Toilets and other unsavoury matters

From the newspaper:

Groningen hospital are working on a smartphone app for people to test their own faeces. It can be added to a fluid, mixed and then applied to special paper which is then tested with the app.

More than 20 years ago, when I first came here, I was bemused by the toilets with "inspection" surfaces. They seemed to be old-fashioned - we still have quite a few of them here. I have often wondered if the Dutch mastery of water had something to do with it - ie is it more efficient to have the water flowing over the surface for cleaning, for example? I'm having trouble describing it, so maybe a photo will help.... aha! I've even discovered what they are called! a "vlakspoeler" or "surface flusher". (after all these years).

 a "vlakspoeler"

Now, on a serious note. We have to provide two toilets in the new apartment; by special request from Janny's parents, there will be a "vlakspoeler" in the en-suite, for inspection (health) purposes. So, I have been put in my place after all my years of derisory comments about "inspection" WC's.

More from the newspaper 

Mata Hari (from Leeuwarden) jewellery to go on auction in Amsterdam.  Since 1922 it has been "on temporary consignment".  It was originally paid by Mata Hari to an artist who painted her portrait.

Refugees

2015     58,880 people sought asylum in the Netherlands. almost twice as many as 2014. Of those from 2015,  27,700 came from Syria and 8,400 from Eritrea..
Almost a quarter of the requests have come from the Balkans: Albania, Serbia, Kosovo. All seen as "safe" countries by the Netherlands, as are Morocco and Mongolia which are also represented. The requests from "safe" countries will more than likely be rejected.

And more of Ben...

Another modelling job at Wijk aan Zee.  "Neighbourhood on the Sea". (my rough translation)

Seems to be so much more running through my mind... but it IS Sunday morning so that's it for this week!
Oh, there was something - a tragedy in the village. The eldest son of 6 kids killed himself in a motorbike accident. A broken family, with Mum living in Canada with some of the other kids. My reason for including it here is just to make the observation that it is so noticeable in a small village how the people gather around in support. Counselling for kids in his "group", the Church, mourning and arrangements to be made - Mum and a couple of the kids will be staying at our place until the funeral on Tuesday. I mentioned to son Paul - who tells me that there have been more than 25 motorcycle deaths in Victoria alone in January and February this year.