On this sunny day, the second week of lent, I received this beautiful spring bouquet of field flowers. It’s on my desk and I would like to offer it to all those who are feeling lonely or sad!

Today was the beauty day for senior citizens. Very often students from hairdressing and cosmetics come and “practice” on our senior citizens. It’s fun really for all of them: they have their hair and nails done and the general atmosphere is very relaxing.

Enjoy the pictures:

The baby hamsters now are 14 days old and as you can see they’re all 5 white, unlike their brown mother who’s nursing them on these pictures. They’re so cute. I already found foster homes for the five of them. I am amazed how the mother’s instinct is developed. She really takes good care of them.

Yesterday was a real bad day. First I heard that one of our kids enrolled in the Art classes, had been hospitalized. Then I was told that another girl Joy had passed away at the age of 3 from a heart disease. This little girl had been admitted at the hospital previously but needed in fact much more care than the parents were able to provide for financially.

The picture here below is that of Nathalia at the hospital:

My beautiful hamsters have now babies since last week. It is so difficult to see those tiny creatures because the mother is so good at hiding them till they are 14 days old.  I do not know yet how many she has because I can not touch them since the mother will then eat them, thinking that the babies do not belong to her because they have human scent on them and not hers. This is the first time she’s having babies but she’s really good at taking care of them.

The children enrolled in the ballet classes were tremendously happy last week when they received from a donor their costumes including ballerines. The view certainly changes as you can see on this picture:

Drawing classes continue with lots of enthusiasm as the children and youth started oil painting:

This is what the BBC states:

Several other vehicles were badly damaged by the blasts

Two bombs have exploded minutes apart near the Lebanese capital, killing three people and wounding 20 others. The casualties were travelling on two buses near Bikfaya, a mainly Christian town in the hills north of Beirut.

Initial reports said 12 people had died. Investigators sealed off the area to collect evidence from the wrecks.

The bombings come at a time of acute political tension in Lebanon, and a day before the second anniversary of the killing of former PM Rafik Hariri.

Organisers of a mass rally planned in downtown Beirut on Wednesday to mark the Hariri assassination said there were no plans to cancel it.

Lebanese radio said the buses were passing through the village of Ain Alaq, just south of Bikfaya.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says this clearly well-planned attack, involving considerable organisation, will reinforce fears of many Lebanese that hidden hands are at work trying to stir up civil strife.

Tension

Officials said the first bus exploded, causing damage and casualties, and as people rushed to the scene, a second explosion ripped through the second bus as it drove up behind it.

The death toll was initially reported as much higher, but the Lebanese Red Cross said its workers had only delivered three bodies to hospitals.

Bikfaya is the ancestral home of the Gemayels, one of the most prominent Christian families in Lebanese politics.

Pierre Gemayel, a member of Lebanon’s western-backed, anti-Syrian coalition government, was gunned down by unknown attackers in East Beirut last November.

With what kind of photo? Famous Lebanon!!!

The international jury of the 50th annual World Press Photo Contest selected a color image of the US photographer Spencer Platt of Getty Images as World Press Photo of the Year 2006. The picture shows a group of young Lebanese driving through a South Beirut neighborhood devastated by Israeli bombings. The picture was taken on 15 August 2006, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah when thousands of Lebanese started returning to their homes.World Press Photo jury chair Michele McNally describes the winning image: “It’s a picture you can keep looking at. It has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious.” This year 4,460 professional photographers from 124 countries entered 78,083 images in the most prestigious annual international competition in press photography. The judging sessions took place in Amsterdam from 27 January to 8 February. The jury gave prizes in 10 theme categories to 58 photographers of 23 nationalities from: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Palestinian Territories, People’s Republic of China, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA.

Spencer Platt, the author of the World Press Photo of the Year 2006, will receive his award and a cash prize of 10,000 euro at the awards ceremony in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, on Sunday 22 April 2007. In addition, Canon will donate Platt a Canon Pro SLR camera.The awards ceremony is preceded by a three-day program of lectures, discussions and screenings of photography. Three exhibitions will be shown at the Oude Kerk: the annual award-winning pictures, a special selection of Platt’s work and a theme exhibition about climate change in Africa, documented by African photojournalists. The exhibitions are open to the public from 24 April to 17 June and the annual exhibition will subsequently visit over 85 locations around the world. For a provisional exhibition schedule see: www.worldpressphoto.nl/exhibitions. World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon and TNT.

Yesterday night I went to the Citymall - Geant at Nahr El Mot - Beirut.

I like to go there and do my shopping. When I arrived at the stand of olives and “kabis” and those kinds of dried fruits, nobody was there so I waited till the salesman came. Till then another person was waiting with me. The salesman served the one having arrived before me and it then was supposedly my turn but no, he turned over to another client served him and wanted to serve a third one. So I said: “Mr. mish bi dawr?” Meaning, it’s my turn now. He looked and said: eeeehhhh! with a very unpleasant facial expression. So I didn’t say anything anymore but left and went to the costumers’ service. There I waited for my turn and the nice young lady immediately went with me to him in order to make a confrontation and give me the opportunity to buy the olives I wanted. But to my astonishment, he was as unpleasant with her as he was with me. So she spoke with his supervisor.

I don’t know how they can leave such an unpleasant person as an employee. If he talks like that with me, with the one who’s his supervisor…well…then there’s definitely something wrong.

This is the first bad experience I have with the salesmen at the Geant, but it certainly harms their client-friendly face! And I won’t buy from him again!

Is it because we’re all quite tense, given the circumstances we live in with the whole of uncertainty or what is it?

Look at those 2 girls coming back from school. Remark their frail figure and the heavy load on their back. They are only second graders. What will they carry when they are 12? What can be done to relieve them? Sometimes I see mothers carrying the schoolbags of their kids. But mostly I see small kids like those struggling to go home.

We are then surprised to find out that they suffer from back problems!

Shocked I was yesterday while watching Euronews. A Belgian - apparently Flemish speaking - couple, refuses to be married at the municipality of Sint-Niklaas by a dark-colored alderman. Apparently they are not the only couple. This is outrageous and pure racism. I believe they were told to choose between not getting married or moving to another place. Imagine this now in our 21th century.

The behavior of this couple is just ridiculous and very impolite, goes against every human reasoning.

This is what the Flemish Volkskrant writes:

Paren willen niet huwen bij zwarte Vlaamse wethouder

Van onze correspondent Bart Dirks

BRUSSEL - Hij spreekt onversneden Vlaams en zijn naam, Wouter Van Bellingen, is alles behalve exotisch. Maar zijn donkere huidskleur stuitte minstens drie aanstaande echtparen tegen de borst in Sint-Niklaas, een stadje met 70 duizend inwoners in de provincie Oost-Vlaanderen. Ze weigerden zich te laten trouwen door de onlangs aangestelde zwarte schepen (wethouder) van Burgerlijke Stand, die als kind werd geadopteerd door Vlamingen.