Finding Mercy or Sinterklaas?

Yesterday my brother phoned and asked me to accompany him to the film Finding Mercy at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa 2012). It's a film made by Robyn Paterson who grew up in Zimbabwe, it must have been about the time I grew up there too. Robyn moved to New Zealand and she starts to wonder what has happened to her friend Mercy. So she goes back to look for her. The history of Zimbabwe unfolds through Paterson's discoveries and encounters, and she is confronted with the decline of her homeland, the country she once loved so much. Robyn says: ""What I really wanted to do with this film was to engage viewers with the reality of what has happened in Zimbabwe. To provide a human face to the situation there."

Wow when my brother told me about the film I really wanted to see it. The only problem was that I had promised to take my daughter to the "intocht van Sinterklaas" (the arrival of Saint Nicolas in our town) today. So I had to choose, sometimes when you have promised a child something as a parent you have to just keep your promise. So in the cold we went to see Sinterklaas. Toady I will have to be satisfied with the trailer of the film Finding Mercy. I will share the trailer with you too.

Sinterklaas arrived by boat and them continued his way by horse and carriage. 

Related Posts:
To or not to do: celebrate Sinterklaas Abroad
Rachel Abroad: The Arrival of Sinterklaas in Utrecht
Cultural Identity Confusion and Third Culture Kids
Marit's tip: The book "Blood Brothers" all about their friendship in Liberia

Christmas around the world.

Sorry to say I don't have much inspiration today, but I do want to wish you all a happy Christmas. So I will start by doing that in several different languages. On this website you can even hear how some are pronounced. As a third culture kid I grew up multilingual and I still enjoy hearing different languages being spoken around me.

• Prettige kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuw jaar (that's in Dutch)
• Merry Christmas and a happy new year
• Noflike Krystdagen en folle lok en seine (Frisian, the language spoken in the North of the Netherlands. It's the language my grandparents spoke). It's my "father tongue".
• Joyeaux Noël et bonne année (French, the language I learned at school)
• Feliz Natal! Feliz Ano Novo! (Portuguese, the language my parents learned when they had passed the age of 50 years and were preparing to work in Angola).
• Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta (Finnish, just because the words look nice).
• Glædelig jul og godt nytår (Danish, it sounds nice) .

 Here is some interesting information about Christmas around the world: 

1. Did you know that the expats in Africa are most likely to make a call home at Christmas?
2. Want to read more about what Christmas looks like for third culture kids? Read Libby Stephens' post called: Christmas TCK style.
3. Did you know that: Christmas Day is just an ordinary day for most Chinese people. Sarah Crack is a teacher in Tianjin, China tells about it on the Telegraph website.
4. Want to know how Christmas is celebrated here in the Netherlands? Read about it on The Expatica website. 
5. For Dutch kids Sinterklaas is associated with getting presents. Read all about Sinterklaas on a previous blog post of mine.  
6. Do you want to see a fresh telling of the first Christmas (done by children)? Go over to the Third Culture Kids & company website. Enjoy.

Well as a third culture kid we celebrated Christmas many times in Malawi and Zimbabwe. My memories of those times are a mixture of English carol singing, church, pot luck meals (yummy! trifles and more), new made friends, swimming, eating, making music and of course a Christmas tree. Even though there was never snow!

• What are your Christmas memories? If you can say happy Christmas in an additional language please add it in the comments. Thanks.

To do or not to do: Celebrate Sinterklaas abroad?

Sinterklaas coming to town 2011, Nederland

It's the time of year in the Netherlands that all the children are excited. They are full of anticipation, they are expecting a bag full of presents. It's the time of year that "Sinterklaas" is celebrated. He arrived in the Netherlands on the 12th of November this year and since then there has been a daily Sinterklaas news show on television for the children. This is the Dutch website of het Sinterklaas journaal (the news). Here the Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports that Sinterklaas arrived safely in the Netherlands. This is an interesting fact: The arrival of Saint Nicholas #sinterklaasintocht even became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter for a while on Saturday.

I was talking to my brother-in-law last week and he told me that he enjoys hearing our stories and seeing the photos of our Sinterklaas celebrations in Malawi and Zimbabwe. He said "that is probably the most Dutch thing that you did when you lived there". For the Dutch community in Harare, Zimbabwe my dad was the Sinterklaas and as teenagers we dressed up as zwarte Piet (black Peter). I remember being stared at driving through the streets of Harare dressed up as zwarte Piet. I must admit I have fond memories of our Sinterklaas celebrations abroad.

On the InCulture website there is a blog post about St. Nicholas day. There a several countries in Europe where they celebrate a variation of Sinterklaas.

I met an expat here in the Netherlands and she has written several blog posts about Sinterklaas. I will add the links because sometimes it's good to have an objective description from an "outsider". To get into the feel of it. Here is Fourier Analyst her English Pepernoten recipe and her English recipe for Kruidnoten. Both pepernoten and kruidnoten are biscuits that are typical for Sinterklaas celebrations. Many schools and even daycare centres have the kids make these small biscuits as a fun activity. Here Fourier Analyst writes about the history of Sinterklaas. In the following posts she explains the traditions of adding poems to the presents and there is a lot more interesting information.
Who is coming to you house? part II
Who is coming to your house? part III
Who is coming to your house? part IV
Who is coming to you house? part V
Who is coming to your house? part VI

Did you know that half a billion chocolate coated pepernoten cookies are expected to be sold this holiday season?

There is a Dutch website for children abroad called Wereldkids. On their website you can see Sinterklaas in Madrid, Spain and in Singapore. There is even a photo competition for the best photo of a Sinterklaas celebration abroad. The winning photo's were made in Austria, Entebbe (Uganda) and Accra (Ghana), have a look.

This year for the first time in many years Sinterklaas did not officially arrive in Vancouver, Canada. The reason was that Zwarte Piet (black Peter) was not allowed to be part of the celebrations. There were accusations of racism. They decided that if Zwarte Piet was not allowed then the celebrations would be cancelled. So the question is to celebrate or not to celebrate Sinterklaas abroad? Do we teach our third culture kids abroad our home traditions or not? What do you think? What are your memories of celebrations abroad?