Goedhartlaan. Part of the concrete and steel Cebu City Bridge forms a tunnel, but mainly it goes over the mainriver, Hoofdvaart. The importance of this absolutely vital river cannot be overestimated. Haarlemmermeer, as the rest of the Netherlands is below sea level. Thus, excess water is pumped into Hoofdvaart, which through a series of water level controls, continues on to exit into the sea. Hoofdvaart is a given factor of Haarlemmermeer's system for keeping itself dry.
The people of Haarlemmermeer have all heard about Cebu City. In fact, 85% of the people of Haarlemmermeer know of the sisterhood between our cities and could even mention some projects. It is about time the Cebuanos learn the depthness by which they embrace our city. The Vereniging Haarlemmermeer Cebu impressively shines as an example surviving solely on voluntary personal services and donations. Thus, it must have required countless hours of dedication and heartfelt commitment on the part of the people of Haarlemmermeer to continue the worthy projects and provide us their support in the past ten years! Plans are already underway for them to pay us a visit again this coming January.
Does the sisterhood between our cities sound like an ideal setup? Yes, it is indeed worth pursuing. Do we truly have the spirit of sisterhood? On the contrary, some donations and aids provided us by a far country across the seas only makes the sisterhood half real. Our right to claim sisterhood in this case should depend on the number of volunteers either offering financial donations or providing effort and time which help to form the quick local organizational support in the wink of an eye.
The sisterhood journey has not been entirely smooth. Still, it doggedly continues with its projects despite some difficulties in finding the local counterpart sponsors and organizations.
Since we are the beneficiaries don't we have the obligation to live up to their commitment?