Herberg Molecaten

Today is a special brunch. Probably the most special brunch that Rihanna Gaga and I have ever attended together, since it is not just the two of us, but my entire family that is present. She's been looking forward to this for weeks. I'd only have to ask her: 'what are we going to do soon?' and she'd reply enthusiastically: 'Grandmother is making a party!' She has a drawing with her - she loves drawing and she's very good at it for a two years old, creating bodies with arms, paying special attention to noses (lines that tend to be so long that they leave the page) for her grandmother, her toys to share with her cousins, and her favourite doll - which she named Aya, after one of her friends at daycare.

Yesterday around four in the morning we left our house in Tunisia to take a cab to the airport, after which we took a Tunisair flight to Amsterdam. There, we boarded a train to Zwolle, where my mother and her partner live, as well as my girlfriend's parents. Her father was waiting for us behind the station and ten hours after we left our house we could put Rihanna Gaga to bed for an afternoon nap. She'd been incredibly sweet during the entire trip, only complaining (and doing so strongly) when I had to put her seatbelt on, which we could solve (but still with her grumbling about it) by having her on my lap with a baby seatbelt and reading stories to her during take off and landing. In the morning, I went to a children's clothes shop to by leggings (the weather was too cold for Rihanna Gaga to wear just her dress - a beautiful cotten dress with flower prints that she calls her 'party dress') for her and then we drove to Hattem, where my mother and her partner were celebrating their birthday in a place called Herberg Molecaten (Molecaten Inn).

Molecaten is a fancy place in a kind of rural chique that you find a lot around the Dutch countryside. Dark green, white and wooden colours dominate, with classic looking cutlery and plates. It's a place where people walking around the beautiful forest area that surrounds it will come for a drink, but it is especially a place where you'd have your wedding reception or other larger festivities - such as this birthday party. When we arrive, quite a few guests are there already. Rihanna Gaga shows no shyness. While she tends to cling to us when there are people around, she now moves about independently and goes her own way. She is very happy to see all of her grandparents again - my girlfriend's parents yesterday and now my mother and father, both with their partners - and mingles with her cousins which she offers to play with her toys. She often tries to establish contact in this way and is generous about sharing - yesterday at Carthage airport she was also quick to run up to a girl of about her age to offer her her toys - although the intention is not always understood. Confused, some of my nephes and nieces ask me if she means to give these toys to them.

Rihanna Gaga is one in a long line of grandchildren - in fact, she is number eight and followed by two more - and it is great to see almost all of them (with only one missing) playing along nicely. Well, not all of them are playing: the oldest grandson is already 19.

There's a small moment of shock when people sing a birthday song for my mother and her partner - Rihanna Gaga is taken by surprise and starts crying, complaining that it hurts her ears. She often says this when things are too loud, but she also enjoys music that she likes loudly, so I gues what she means is that it disturbs her. I realise this is a situation she is really not used to: with us living away from family, she almost never experiences these kind of larger gatherings. But later she cheers up again, enjoying the food - the pies and icecreams, of course, but also deliciously prepared chicken, shrimps, broccoli and potatoes, bacon and ham. Indeed, the buffet is very, very nice and I can see why my mother decided to have her party here. Our reception takes place in a large tent but is still outside, with a playground for the children and plenty of seats inside and outside the tent to sit and stand at. 

I myself relish being among family again. This is the first time all of us are gathered since many, many years, with one of my four brothers coming all the way from New York, where he lives with his wife, and us coming from Tunisia, and there just isn't time enough to speak to all of them as much as I'd like. Luckily, we decide to gather at my mother's place for some more time together after the reception at Molecaten has ended, but by then Rihanna Gaga is soundly asleep. In fact, she fell asleep only two minutes after we left the inn, staying fast asleep while her mother and I visit my girlfriend's grandmother's grave (which happens to be in Hattem as well) and continuing sleeping as we leave the car, take the elevator to the third floor where my mother lives and put her to bed in my mother's bed.