Kiting on the Beach

Yesterday late afternoon Anne Sophie and I went for our favourite walk through the dunes of Wassenaar to the beach north of The Hague/Scheveningen. It was about 5 o'clock, and most beach goers already left, as it started to cool down after the hot and stuffy day.

It takes us 15 minutes to drive to the Meijendel Farm and another 25-30 minutes to walk the 2km trail through the woods and dunes to the beach. It should of course take less time, but Anne Sophie likes running around  and playing all kinds of games that she makes up along the way. This time I was supposed to be a calf and she a goat kid :) And then she started to draw crosses on the path with a stick to warn people not to walk there. And then we would draw the letters of her name, one letter every 20 meters or so. And then we were throwing the ball forward and trying to get to the ball first. When you walk like that, time really flies.

From Kiting on the Beach of Meijendel!

The sun was shining and the dunes were majestic. We hardly ever met anyone along the way, except (what a coincidence) some of our good friends Nadya, Volodya and Sergey, who were returning from the beach! Anne Sophie took Volodya's hand, even though she hadn't seen him for a couple of years, and started telling him stories from her school life. (To tell the truth, I am amazed how she trusts people that she hardly knows. I think it's a fine quality, even if some people may find it dagerous.) Sergey told of their trip to Mont St. Michel in Normandy, France. On Friday, he and Nadya and another friend were driving on the motorway, and then they thought they'd go to Brugge in Belgium. They had nothing with them except money, not even a tooth brush. But they thought what the heck! When close to Brugge, they missed the exit and decided to go on to France. They got home late Saturday night. That's a real adventure!

Except for a couple of walkers, the beach was virtually empty when we got there. It was sunny, but there was a cool breeze from the sea. Because of the haze we could neither see The Hague in the south nor Katwijk in the north. It felt like we were on some distant stretch of beach away from civilization.

And then we assembled our first kite that we bought on Queen's Day this April for a couple of Euros. It is a simple but beautiful triangular kite in rainbow colors. It is easy to get and keep flying in the wind, but it doesn't give you much steering control. We were running up and down the beach for almost 2 hours, and I must say I fell in love with kiting! What an intense felling of joy and freedom! I hope to be back soon with a more professional kite!

The sea water was very cold, but we did play Anne Sophie's favourite game of running away from the waves! And we would also draw on the sand. We drew Anne Sophie's name in Dutch and Russian (Аннушка) and also the word "Papa".

And then we got hungry and it was time to go home. We walked back through the dunes, and after Anne Sophie scratched her ankle and got really tired I carried her the rest of the way on my back. On the way back we called on Roderick to borrow his extension ladder so that Luda can paint the window frames tomorrow :)

It was a beautiful evening, something to cherish and remember for a long time!

School Camp and Free Olympic Games

Monday through Wednesday this week Anne Sophie went to her first school camp! And I went with her! We were both quite excited. She was excited about the camp, because she had no idea what it was. Anne Sophie at her age of 4 is the youngest child at her school, so I was excited about how she would cope for 3 days away from home and from mama. I was also looking forward to getting to better know other children, parents and facilitators from our school De Vrije Ruimte (a democratic school for natural learning).

The camp took place at a wonderful location in the woods outside Eindhoven. We were lucky to get a room for the two of us with a bunk bed, and Anne Sophie immediately claimed the upper bed, which she would climb up and down multiple times.

The camp theme was the Olympic Games, and the kids called it De Vrije Spelen (The Free Games) and designed a logo for the camp that combined the school logo with the Olympic Games logo. So you can imagine that we had 3 days of games and sports, interspersed with creative activities, a disco, a film, meals, camp fires, guitar playing and plenty of leisure time. The location had everything one needs for a sports weekend: footbal fields, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, a big children's playground, and a huge open air climbing facility!

The sports instructors team (Karin, Willem, Bram & Tamara, all physical training students) did a great job facilitating the sports activities. They brought the whole inventory of ball, rackets, bats, sticks, ropes, and even a slack line! We played football, basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis, cricket, hockey. There was also athletics (long and high jumping and running), and newspaper-running and sack-racing, and much more. Kids higher than 1.30m did the open air climbing parkours in the trees in the rain. There was so much to choose from, and there was so much freedom to do what you wanted or not do anything special! Anne Sophie was enjoying the camp so much during these 3 days that she hardly ever remembered her mama :)

Anne Sophie kept practicing her jumping and even got a gold medal in the age group of 4-5 years old :) Watch here the video:

It was fun watching how the kids played and interacted with each other. I really felt that education through freedom works. Everybody seemed so at ease and relaxed and accepted and accepting of other people. Everybody could be completely themselves!

I was also impressed by Anne Sophie, by how she interacted with other, often much older children, how she trusted her friends and would do things I wouldn't even imagine she could because of that trust, how brave she is talking to different people and even talking publicly in a large group setting. I am very happy we sent her to this very special, small and unconventional school!

Tribute to Aunt Musya Levin

My late father's dear aunt Musya Levin passed away yesterday in New York City at the age of 90. In June 1941 she essentially saved my grandfather Aron's family by rushing to Vitebsk from the burning Minsk and putting her sister Berta, brother Aron, Aron's wife Hannah and their small children Moisei (my father) and Polina on one of the last trains to the East.

Within a few days all of the present-day Belarus was flooded by the Nazis. Almost none of the remaining Jews survived the war. Among the victims were many dear members of our family, including Musya and Aron's parents Simche and Chaya, their brother Moisei, his wife Fanya and their 2 little children, their sister Dasha and her 3 small children.

Musya, Berta and Aron's family settled in a small village of Yurgamysh, Kurgan region, east of the Ural mountains. Aron drafted into the army and was killed in action in 1942 at the Volkhov/Leningrad Front. When they returned to Minsk in 1944, Musya and her late husband Zalman Lelchuk (as well as her sister Berta and brother Samuil) took good care of Aron's family. She was a unifying force in the family, a warm, caring person, always ready to help. In the early 2000's she emigrated to the US, where she died yesterday.

Deep gratitude and respect. And may she rest in peace.

To read more about those events, please visit http://www.levins.info

Musya Levin and her husband Zalman Lelchuk
Minsk, 1969

Levin-Lelchuk family, Minsk, 1987
Musya Levin is 3rd from the right

Here follows in Russian a tribute to Musya's life from her children Anna and Arkady and from her niece Sofa Kozlova, daughter of Berta Levin:

Дорогие родные !

С глубокой печалью сообщаем, что  любимая  всеми Муся Симховна Левина закончила свой жизненный путь 5 мая 2012 года  в Нью Йорке не дожив  месяца до  91 года.

Трудно найти слова, чтобы отдать дань  глубокого уважения этой энергичной,красивой, жизнерадостной женщине, преданной матери и жене,  труженице, лидеру большой и дружной мишпохи Левиных и Лельчуков.

Ее готовность  помочь  близким и неблизким людям являет редкий образец  доброты.

Она  в 20 лет ушла из горящего Минска и добралась до Витебска, где жила семья брата Арона и сестра Берта, и заставила их эвакуироваться.

Она вместе с мужем помогала встать на ноги Мише и Полине, была всегда рядом с сестрой Бертой , Софой, Максимом и Любой.

Вместе с Залманом Ароновичем  вырастили отзывчивых, дружных детей,радовались внукам.

 У каждого из нас в памяти много примеров ее заботы, добра и  отзывчивости.

Светлая память !

Аркадий Лельчук

Aннa Лельчук

София Козлова