Easy going

Thursday (03/11): the journey to Laren to meet the grandpa of Johan (the father of Michiel). It was a very nice morning, with good weather (7 degrees), that was good weather for me to handle. We visited a flowershop because we had to go with some flowers for grandpa to wish him happy birthday, being 90 years the day before. It was nice to see the flowershop with really very beautiful flowers, and once again we were warmly welcomed in this shop. Yes, I must say that people are really very friendly. We drove very fast to see grandpa, because we told him we would be at his place at 11:00. We made it and it was nice to meet him for the first time. To my surprise at his age of 90 he could speak very good English. He showed us his room and offered us some coffee. It was also nice to see that at his age he was quite active still. We talked and got to know him much more better. Also wonderful that he could still drive a car at his age. He showed us the place that was specially made for older people who were scientists and artists that were retired. Very nice artwork pictures at the walls. He also showed us the very nice theatre-hall. It gave me a very positive feeling about the aged seperated from the families. That wasn't a bad idea as I expected from stories I heard in Ghana from the Dutch people. They are given special care.
He offered us lunch in a very nice restaurant, in the outskirts of Laren, near Hilversum, with a lot of walking place through the forest. It was nice to see. We had a very good meal, and we drove through Laren to see some farms and nature. We finally went back to his place again, and made some pictures. It was difficult to say goodbye, once again time was an ennemy.
We drove through the new made land (Flevoland), it was really very nice to see the land that has been carved out from the sea. A lot of construction is going on. So we drove back to Zwolle and had our dinner.
On friday (03/12) Johan drove me to mr Kruize, who lives in Emmercompascuum close to the border with Germany. This is the man who wants to support us with solar panels for the Karimenga Project. I was happy we could talk to him and he was quite positive about helping to get these panels to Ghana. After a long talk he drove us a few kilometres into Germany where we placed an order for dinner. He also showed us a piece of land for his new geothermic project. We drove back to his home again and looked at some pictures of the Karimenga Project. Together with his wife we went back to Germany again to have dinner. It was funny that we had spoken three languages during dinner! It was getting late so we said goodbye and drove back to Holland again. That was it for that day, we were back around 8 o'clock.
Saturday (03/13) the all important day I was waiting for: that was to visit a farmer, so we could share the experiences of farming in both countries. Believe me, farmers love each other very much, especially when they are coming from different geographical areas. We took this moment trying to do quite a lot of comparing. That was a very good experience for both of us. This is a farmer (Henk van der Pol, and also his wife and his son) who has 35 dairy cows. He has a farm with corn (mais), onions, potatoes, and he also has some sheep. Interesting was the machinery, quite different from what we have in Africa. Also the milking of the cows, quite different and I appreciate that method of milking the cows. It makes the milk safe and very clean. He gave me the opportunity to milk the cows, to help clean and also to feed them. This I missed for quite some time. Then after I was showed the foodbank for the animals, he also explained how to prepare their food and also how to store the food for a very long time. This was a great thing I really learned. I think we spend about 4 hours at the farm, so we drove back to Zwolle, so I could pick up my new lenses from the optical shop before closingtime. It was possible for me to take a picture with the optician, which I liked very much. After we drove back home.
It was my last evening here at home in Zwolle, so we had dinner and Mariëtte also joined us and we had a long, long talk. It was nice to see her once again. Then after I took a walk with Johan and Boike (the dog), around just to stretch ourselves and feel good. Finally I had to go to bed 00:30.