2011
***********
December 27TH , 2011.
Already a little tired from the Christmas my very dear
friends.
But here is the last post of 2011.
And I hope you all have enjoyed your Christmas and
still are enjoying your holiday.
We had our christmas without snow, but with my dear
family and friends…
I want to thank all my friends on this place for
everything you have meant to us in this past year.
Ofcourse the friends who I now know for longer, but I
also welcome my new friends who now also participate in the projects for the
orphan-children.
They had their yearly Christmas-Party and I hope to
show some pictures on this place later this year.
So I am happy to close this year: again a coma and a
long stay in the hospital in january.
But also a very good holiday in Thailand as well as in
England.
I hope you will all stay safe with the fireworks on
New Years Eve, enjoy the Champain and the food as we will, and I already want
to wish you good health, happiness and good luck for the new year to come:
2012 !!!
I will write here again around the 10TH of
january.
Until than, please take all good care of
yourself, your family, friends and all your loved-ones.
I thank you all again for being my friend in 2011 and
would say:
“Until next year!”
Stay well and take care,
René.
***********
December 12TH , 2011.
So now the time has come that every day is ‘D-Day’ for
the Euro.
But I have given up for the good news (No more Euro).
What can I say, it will end up that we will keep the Euro
and the export from the Euro-countries will be even more worse as it was.
The English, Swedish and Swiss –along with many
others- were right to keep their own currencies instead of letting them go down
with the help of countries like Italy, Spain and Greece.
That is all I say now about the Euro this time; the
value is climbing up, so all you outside the Euro-zone are not waiting to buy
from the Euro-countries because it is too expensive.
Big Men, Banks, Governments are talking evey day.
Making deals, downgrading the interests and China as laughing 3RD :
owning half of the World in a few years…..
But:
Hello again my very dear friends.
In the middle of the last month of this year, it is
time for me to wish you:
VERY HAPPY HOLIDAYS
AND A
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!
I wish you very beautiful days, along with family and
friends.
These are the days you have to see all the positive
things in life and be happy what you all have.
Maybe you have noticed that my pages changed a bit,
but it was time to make them a bit more professional. In the 7 years I have the
two pages, I just changed things and added things in my way. And as you may
know, I just had to learn it myself as a hobby. Which made them quite slow and
old.
6 Years before these pages I had the Dutchjoints-page,
so this is going to be the 13TH year for me in this business.
I am for sure not thinking about stopping this
service. Ofcourse sometimes there are people who have problems with communicating
in a normal way, but in all those years I can handle that very well.
I am greatful for the many friends I have, who are a
pleasure to communicate and understand my situation.
We are already busy prepairing the big Christmas
-Party for the orphans in Kampala.
It is going to be bigger than last year because the
group of children YOU and US are taking care of is growing and growing.
We bought a piece of land a few years ago, and they
are all working on it, growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables.
Just before the end of this year, I will write here
again; between Christmas and new years Eve.
After that post I will have to add another year above
this page…. It looks like my life story in short.
I never do, but I think I have to read all those years
for myself when I have the energy.
In those years I had good and bad times, so it will be
hard to read at some points.
So my very dear friends, until after Christmas, please
be kind to all your love-ones, stay well and take care,
René.
PS, I always was a fan of Microsoft, but since the
I-Pod, -Pad, -Phone I turned a bit to Steve Jobs.
Just a warning for people like me: Windows Vista is
not very great, but PLEASE: when you change into Windows 7 (with “live-mail” as
I did, and a totally useless e-mail-programm/ ), you can throw your laptop
away as I did!
***********
November 28TH , 2011.
And here we are again my very dear friends, still
‘suffering’ in the Euro-crisis and losingmore
faith in the Euro day by day.
Personally I would be happy to get the Dutch Guilder
back, but I suppose that is impossible…
Cold, windy and chilly weather, not realy my time of
the year. But we have to go through it by looking forward to the next spring.
Also this was the last Formula 1 weekend of the year, so
the winter has started for real.
We are looking to many Holidays the coming month, so
we will not be bored.
As soon as the first snow falls, I will take some
pictures to post here; because that is always so beautiful where I live.
Nothing special about the business, everything good
and going as it should go. We are already receiving ‘Christmas-orders’, so
those people can be sure they have their order on time.
I will stay in Holland for another 2 months, and
ofcourse I will keep you posted when I decide to go abroad.
A short post again, but nothing special happened,
everybody here is in good health and as usual I hope the same for you all.
Until the next time dear friends, stay warm and take
care,
René.
***********
November 13TH , 2011.
Hello my very dear friends,
I hope everyone of you is doing good and preparing for
the coming holidays.
A little more than 6 weeks to go and we will be in
2012!
Time realy goes fast, which brings me to the important
thing of this post:
If you are planning to order for the Christmas Holiday
and New Years Eve, please don’t wait too long.
Every year some people are dissapointed because their
order arrived after the holidays.
I have to explain that here in Holland, the mailsysten
is terrible with those holidays. Also from about December 22ND to
January 3RD there is no mail at all sometimes.
For now the mail will be alright for another 5 weeks,
so to get mail to me and our sendings out, we are getting closer to those
Holidays.
Please keep it in mind and everything will be oké!
We here in Holland are doing great, only I am not a
big fan of the cold weather. Anyway, it is healthy so they say….
So at the end of this month I will be writing here
again, I hope I will have some more news as now.
The guestbook is starting slowly but steady, so I want
to thank my friends who have already written something in it!
Until the next time again my very dear friends, please
stay well and take care,
René.
***********
October 31ST , 2011.
First of all: Happy Halloween to all of you !!
Hello my very dear friends, as you can see above, I
decided to put up a new guestbook.
I hope this is the place where you all can share some
things with my other friends.
Because the guestbook is public, I have to approve the
messages before they are published, I hope you understand.
So also don’t put your e-mailaddress or anything about
the products in it. That is the only way we can keep it safe and decent.
I already thank you very much!!
So at last the Mad Dog of Lybia is gone, I can only
say: “Who is next.”
I see Mladic here in Holland struggling with his
health, so he is a good candidate to be next. Although there are quite a few
more hanging around in Africa and the Middle East.
We are already starting to arrange everything for the
annual Christmas-party for the orphans in Kampala, Uganda. We hope to give them
the same as last year. It’s always such a plessure to see the pictures of those
happy children.
I also have the idea to go to Thailand the next year,
but not alone this time. I want to take my dear old mother with me to show her
the country I love so much.
We will stay a few days in Bangkok and after that we
go 800 kilometers to the east where my good friend lives. We will stay in that
countryside for about 10 days to give us rest and experience the country-life.
After that we will go back to Bangkok to meet some of
my friends (and ofcourse see all the beautiful places).
Just about 2 ½ weeks will be long enough for my 73
years old mother, but I am planning to give her the holiday of her life!
And ofcourse I also will have to visit
some places in Thailand.
When I see the pictures and hear the stories my friends in Thailand send me, I
am going to see if I can be of any help.
Houses are destroyed and they could not harver the rice.
It should get better soon in the big city of Bangkok, but in the countryside
the effects of the floods will stay for a long time.
Well my very dear friends, wintertime has started, so
we now have the dark days before the holidays ahead.
Lets all make the best of it by taking good care of
eachother.
Hoping some of you will write something in the
guestbook and I will be back on this place in a week or 2, please stay well and
take care,
René.
***********
October 17TH, 2011.
Hello again my very dear friends.
11 Days ago The World lost a great man; he changed so
many things in our lives.
Steve Jobs was really a man with visions; he exactly
understood what we wanted from telephones, computers and what to think about
the iPod.
He will be missed and I want to thank him from the
bottom of my heart.
Autumn has started here and indeed now the wind and
rain is here every day.
So it’s time for the central heating and not for long
sunny ‘walks’ anymore.
Maybe you have read about the strength of the
softdrugs here in Holland.
Our government has decided that the THC-level in de
weed and hash is not allowed to be higher as 15%.
The last year that level was up to 18% which makes it
a hard-drug in the new law.
I am not going to write here what the level of my
products is; all I can tell you is to be careful always….
In the coffeeshops the police is now doing tests every
now and than, but you may know I don’t get my products from coffeeshops, so I
don’t have a problem with that.
I told my suppliers that they have to look after it,
that the level is around 15%, not much higher because I want to keep this safe
for us all.
Still my products will be stronger as in the regular
coffeeshops.
The Euro-crisis is still going on, we normal people
can not do much about it but we feel that everything is getting more expensive.
Also the export is not easy as many of you will
understand when you look at the exchange-rate of the Euro against other
currencies.
I can not do anything about it, only hope the Euro
will go down like as it was 7 years ago: believe me, it would benefit us all.
Sometimes I get an e-mail from people who read
negative posts on the many messageboards around the internet.
I have written about this ‘problem’ already quite some
times, so just once more an explanation: all those negative posts are from ONE
person, who uses a hundreth different aliasses and e-mailaddresses. It seems it
is his ‘life’ to try put me in a dark corner.
A useless waste of time, which he has plenty leeching
from other people’s money.
Well, maybe in the future, I will put the guestbook
back, so REAL people can write their experiences and the TRUTH about this
humble service which I do for 12 ½ years now. Along with my home-address, which
never have given me and my friends any problems.
It is always good to look for information about a
place where you want to send money to, but please be warned that those
messageboards (which I never read) are not very trustworthy.
So I decided to put the links with the information
about him again on the idex-page:
We may not be the fastest, but you all have my word of
honor, that we will never take money without sending out the order.
One more thing: I answer all the e-mails for the menu
and address.
But questions about orders are sent to my friends who
deal with those orders. So the answers for those questions will or can take a
few days longer. I don’t have any files here on this computer for your safety,
so I hope you all understand.
In about 2 weeks I will write here again dear friends,
please stay well and take good care,
René.
***********
October 3RD, 2011.
And hello again my very dear friends.
A little later as I had planned, but normally this
time of the year we have autumn here in Holland: it should be raining the whole
day now.
But the global warming decided to give us (still) very
nice summer-weather:
Today, when I am writing this, people are sitting
outside and enjoying the sun.
Don’t get me wrong: I am as concerned about the
climate-change as you all.
But our winters are already so very long, that you don’t
hear us complain when we get 2 more warm weeks…
Everything is going well here, the cats are good and
so am I.
As promised, here are some pictures of my trip to
Wales, I hope to get there again soon.
Holland is a flat country and I love the hills and the
special coastlines.
Well my dear friends, the most important news ofcourse
is, that the business is running smoothly.
I heared there were some postings on the messageboards
about problems with the mail to Ireland, but I didn’t see much more than
normal.
Ofcourse every now and than an envelope gets missing,
but we always solve that.
As you will understand, I am now going to enjoy the
sun again and I will end this post with wishing you all a good week.
I will be back on this place in a week or two.
I hope you and your love-ones are good, please take
good care of yourself and stay well,
René.
***********
September 11TH, 2011.
10 YEARS AGO WAS SEPTEMBER 11, 2001.
LET US TODAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011, ALL BURN A CANDLE FOR ALL THE INNOCENT PEOPLE
WHO DIED THAT HORRIFIC DAY WHICH CHANGED THE ENTIRE WORLD.
WE CAN NEVER FORGET !!!
___________________________
Let me start by wishing all the people
in America much strength.
I can assure you, that the rest of the World is with you on this day.
I wished I could not write this post today my very dear friends.
I wished I was in New York to express my feelings.
But here I am, same as ten years ago, same home, different TV.
Today I am alone, but ten years ago I was just back from Thailand. I had my
(ex) girlfriend Da and her daughter brought with me for a holliday in Holland.
I was looking a political debate on TV and my mother was cleaning in my house.
The phone rang and my (late) father told me to put on CNN.
We went into a nightmare; we saw the second plane fly into Tower 2 while the
black smoke was already errupting from Tower 1.
I looked and remembered me standing on the roof of Tower 2, years before.
I cried and said words which I can not write here.
My sister called from her work and asked if she please could come to my home;
she was scared and could not work anymore.
The next hours we all sat there and we were totally numb.
Was this the start of Worldwar 3?
And we could never ever realize that day, how we were wittnessing one of the
blackest days in history.
The others went home or to bed and I didn't leave the TV for 16 hours.
Until now, there has not been a single day that I didn't think about 911.
And I am afraid it will stay that way.
And that is good, because we should NEVER forget.
___________________________
On this day, I don’t realy want to talk about anything
else my friends, I hope you understand.
Just something else, which I got from my friend Jeff,
please take a look:
http://www.antislavery.org/english/
http://productsofslavery.org/
Next time I will try to put the pictures of Wales on
this place; I hope I will manage because as you may have noticed –or will in
the coming time- my pages are being updated.
Please stay safe all of you, stay well and take care,
René.
***********
August 28TH, 2011.
Hello my very dear friends.
Just home after spending a week in the U.K. with my
best friend.
Actually I should say Wales, because that is the place
I have been and I almost had a fight when I told a man what a good place
England is…. He was not amused: “This is not England, this is Wales.” Was his
respond.
My friend has a beautiful house in a small town in the
countryside, very quiet and peacefully.
We had wonderful dinners, long, long talks, long walks
around the coast and the beautiful small towns and ofcourse we enjoyed a good
Pint.
I could realy live there, but after all both our
‘roots’ are in Thailand, which will be the next trip. I also decided to go to
the village in the East of Thailand again where my best friend has his other
house and family.
The next time I will post some pictures of the places
I have been, so clean and quiet with the beautiful hills; I miss that in the
place where I live.
So I am ready again and totally rested for the coming
weeks.
I was gone for 8 days, but as usual everything went on
without me and I took care of the e-mails being in Wales.
So it looks like the summer is ending, the sunlight is
3 minutes shorter every day and still a lot of rain. But we could still get
nice weather as we have seen in the past summers/falls.
The Kaddafi idiot has had his longest time. Now all
what’s left is to go look after all the money of that man, probably one of the
richest people in the World. At the cost of ‘his’ people.
Lets hope the rebels will make Lybia a better place.
The next time I will ofcourse be talking about new
York, but for now I want to wish my friends at the East coast of America much
strength with the earthquake and Irene.
Before I forget: I will not use the e-mailaddress ‘enjoy
at europe’ anymore. So I hope you want to delete that one when it is in your
addressbook.
Warm greetings from all of us here in Holland and I
will be back on this place in two weeks again my dear friends, until than: stay
well and take care,
René.
***********
August 14TH, 2011.
And Hello from Holland again my dear friends.
Well, they got their deal in the United States about
the debts. But after that the stockmarkets all over the World went crazy.
I personaly can still not understand that one rating-agency
like Standard & Poor’s can just downgrade the reliability of an enormous
economy like the United States, but anyway. (For me it is like a single
’food-critic’ who enters a restaurant and decides to write a bad report).
This was definately a very bad week for England.
What started with the death of Mark Duggan, shot by
the police, became real horror.
Ofcourse people wanted to express their feelings, but
after that it was taken over by young people –children- who just wanted to spend
some of their useless time on the streets. How will they ever get any respect
with taking goods out of the shops of hard-working people?
And those riots where nothing more than that; they had
nothing to do anymore with the death of Mark Duggan.
One more thing and I will write some less serious, I
promise.
What we all see in the north of Africa and the Middle
East, should have happened already a very long time ago.
ALL the governments in those countries are corrupt,
sick and backwards.
My hope is, that also the rest of Africa will follow,
with the help of the United Nations.
Throwing away those sick governments would in the end
make Africa not be the Third World anymore.
But I know that is a dream.
So that was my ‘sight’ on the news for this time my
friends. And I have to say this every now and than: please know that this is my
personal opinion; you realy don’t have to agree with it ofcourse.
Here everything goes smoothly, the mail is very slow,
so orders are on the way longer. And also we have been slower because many of
my friends have had their holidays. I am sorry about that, but I am sure you
will understand.
At this time everything is back to the normal life.
I would like to share this short report about my new
cat Yana. Just to get in the mood as I will visit my best friend in a few days.
Yana is everywhere in the house now.
She walks, as far as normal walking is possible for a
16 weeks old cat, but it looks like walking on a trampoline.
She jumps into everything, curtains, clothes, on the
beds, in my legs and one time I saw her jumping against the wall, stretching
her 18 nails and hanging in my wallpaper for about 5 seconds like a spider.
That was the time I cut her nails for the first time.
She has no control at all sometimes. She takes the
stairs in one second. We have carpet on the stairs and the sound is like she
takes 4 steps with all those nails in just a second.
Down goes the same way, although she sometimes crashes
into Lisa or Maya. But they just put out their legs and Yana is gone.
So going up is not the problem. But she found a good
compromise of going down: ‘controlled crash’ is how I call it. You see her
looking down, than she pulls her nails in and she just hopes for the best.
Well my friends, observing Yana is realy nice and makes
me quite relaxed. I can say that my health is very good these days!
So that was it for this time. Until the next time my
dear friends,
Stay well and take care,
René.
***********
July 31ST, 2011.
One single, crazy, lonely and disgusting terrorist
decided to end the lives of as many people as he could.
And destroy the lives of all their families.
A very black day for Utaya, Oslo, Norway and for
everybody living on this Planet.
Hello my very dear friends, and this time for my
Norwegian friends:
What a great example Norway is to the rest of the
World.
I wish you all much strength and give my deepest
respect for all of you.
It is so good to see that the deeds of this terrorist
(I am not going to waste 1 letter on the name; I wished the media would also do
that) did not achieve anything: just the opposite!
Great Norway!
Lets hope it will get more peaceful in The World,
which changed so terrible almost ten years ago.
You see what this World can do to the weakest living
in It.
(And ofcourse I mean the people and governments; not
the Planet).
A lot happens in just 2 weeks, like the
highspeed-train-accident in China which killed 40 people.
And to see the picture of a new train driving over the
same track within 12 hours. They were even still getting bodies out of the
wrecks laying under the track.
That must be the Chinese government; backwards as ever
and trying to hide it as always.
No offence to my Chinese friends, but I can write
about it safely because the Chinese government will block sites like this
–along with almost everything from the free West.
Amy Winehouse joined an impressive group of people.
She died at 27 after the music-world lost already very
great people like Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt
Cobain and many others at that same age.
This Tuesday will be D-Day for the economical World
when the Republicans and the Democrates in the U.S.A. have to decide about
their debts. People say they have to get a ‘deal’ because there is simply no other
solution.
Lets hope it will go as expected and if not: to be
continued.
And in the same 2 weeks many children have died again
on the ‘road of death’ in their escape from Somalia to north Kenya.
So my dear friends; that was it again for this time.
Here in the house and the place where I live, nothing
much happened.
Family and friends are or have been on their holidays.
Yana is still a fresh wind in the house; running,
playing, destoying. She makes me laugh; also in bad and sad times.
Ofcourse I will be back here again in 2 weeks. I wish
you all a good continue of the summer (I hope), stay well and take care,
René
***********
July 17TH, 2011.
Those were 2 weeks alright my dear friends, like we
have a tornado in the house.
The first night of Yana was a bit scary for her as you
can see:
After that, she almost took over the house.
It is unbelievable how much energy goes into something
small like that…
But after 2 weeks keeping her off the computers,
televisions, wallpaper, curtains and everything else, she is now accepted by
the other cats. Although Lisa and Maya put her ‘on her place’ every now and
than.
But it does me good; it is so funny to look how she is
moving and running without seeing any danger.
I will give her a long and happy life, that’s for
sure!
Just 1 day before this post, I was able to make a
‘family-picture’, ofcourse at the most important event of the day: dinner!
So time for some other thoughts out of my brain, a
week ago I saw Ratko Mladic in the same hall where I celebrated Santa Claus as
a kid when my father worked at the insurrance-company in that buiding. Those
days I had my doubts already about Santa, but now I have my doubts about the
brain of that individual; what a very sick thing!
Lets hope he will go the same way as Bin Laden
soon: for me May 2ND could
be an international holiday: the day The World became a bit cleaner without the
most disgusting creature.
I would like to share a beautiful song of Enigma. There
are other clips of it, but they are quite disturbing in my point of view, so
here is the normal clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdoLK7_1gKM
Because the business is running very smoothly, there
is not much to tell.
All I hope, is that in the East of Africa help will
get in time. Let it not become a second ‘Biafra”.
At this moment we here in Holland have
‘autumn-weather’, much rain and wind.
But we don’t complain when we hear about the bombings
in Mumbai, the riots in Belfast and all the problems in Greece, Portugal,
Ireland and Italy.
My personal thought is that we should never have
started the Euro with those big diffences between the countries in Europe.
(And lets hope those ‘people’ in Pamplona will grow a
brain soon. Sorry for my Spanish friends).
In about 8 weeks it will be 10 years ago.
The day nobody will ever forget, and the day the whole
World changed.
I wished I could be there:
I was there in 1980 and because it was too hot, I
spent a lot of time sitting between the 2 towers. I will never forget that.
So my dear friends, that was the ‘news’ for this time.
I wish you all well and will write here in 2 weeks. In
between I will always be there for your e-mails ofcourse.
Be well and take care,
René.
***********
July 2ND, 2011.
Hello again my very dear friends.
Tomorrow I will be getting a new family-member: Yana.
I look forward to that so much and am sure it will
give my life a new twist: I know it sounds quite silly when you are not a
cat-lover.
Everything with the business is going good, in the start
of june we paid the school-fees for all our children and we are now thinking
about paying for a party at the end of the summer.
Also the mail is going good for the first summer in
years. In the summer-holidays we had some struggles and I still have my doubts
about the horrible “Royal-Mail’ in the UK. But so far, so good.
When you scroll down this page and read the post of
january 8TH, you will see that we had a huge fire in a
chemical-factory in the start of this year.
Last week they arrested 4 of the “Top-people” of that
factory, under them the CEO and the manager of safety….
So we feel very safe here in Holland when we hear
those ‘humans’ didn’t follow the safety rules to save some money.
I don’t know if it is on the international news, but
here the government is talking about the strength of the Dutch weed.
It seems that the last years the weed is getting
stronger and stronger. Most types of weed and hash have a THC-level of 17%,
while it used to be around 10 or 12%.
So now some idea’s are there to scale those ‘very
strong’ types into the category ‘hard-drugs’, which would make them illegal in
Holland.
I talked with my suppliers about it and have decided
that the strains I sell now will stay on the menu. The only thing is, that the
THC-level will NOT get over 15%.
I know many of you want the strongest, but I don’t
want to be seen as a ‘hard-drugs-dealer’, I could not live with that.
So we will go on supply you the finest strong weed and
hash there is, and what you have been getting the past years.
Don’t worry; you will not get less strong supplies,
but the same quality as always.
Well my dear friends, there will be coming some busy
times for me.
In the next post I will tell you about the first 2
weeks of the life of Yana here in our house and how my other 2 sweeties Lisa
and Maya are dealing with it.
I wished I could already read my own post in 2 weeks
time……
I want to wish all my American friends a Very Happy
Independence Day !!!
Please stay well all of you, and take care,
René
***********
June 19TH, 2011.
Another year older and another year wiser (I hope) my
dear friends.
Time goes fast when you’re having fun.
The only side-effect is, that life also seems to go
fast.
You see everybody around you getting older and ofcourse
it happens also with yourself.
But that is life and the time we are on this Planet,
we have to make it good and as long as possible.
I wrote about the coffeeshops the last post, and it
seems there are realy some cities in Holland where they want to start making
the shops ‘private’, which means you need a membership-card to be able to buy
cannabis.
To become a member, you have to be a Dutch citizen.
It is not yet decided and will start with the
coffeeshops in the ‘border-aria’s’ with Germany and Belgium.
They just don’t seem to understand what it would do to
the economy and tourist-industry, aswell that the business will just go
underground and illegal.
And you all have to know the American and other media
are making it a big issue while nothing has decided yet: which can take years.
To be continued…
A little ‘inside-information’ about the war-criminal
Mladic: he is out of the isolation-part of the prison and he plays chess with
another criminal who’s name I didn’t get.
They took 6 teeth out of his mouth which were rotten
and he has had 2 brain-bleedings in the last years for which he didn’t get any
medical treatment (looks good….).
He is not allowed to have contact with Karadzic; the
other beast of the Balkan and his trial will restart in about 3 weeks.
I received some pictures of our children in Uganda.
You all know that YOU make these things possible.
So they had the whole Easter-Day “Open House”.
12 hours of cooking for the mothers and helpers while
the children had nice food and drinks:
They also had that with Christmas and they are looking
forward to the next party!
12 Days to go and than I will get Yana. I am very much
looking forward to that and will give him/her a very good life.
It also pushes me to take it easy and be more careful
in my life.
I have to be here for another 18 years !!
Here is Yana and on the other picture it is Lisa
trying the new bed:
So that is my news for this time again my dear
friends.
I hope you are all well, please stay well and take
care,
René.
***********
June 7TH, 2011.
Hello my very dear friends.
Time again for some news from Holland.
First I can start by telling that everything with my body
is alright again. I had another check-up in the hospital –which I have every 2
months- and it seems all good. So I am safe again for another 2 months –and
ofcourse longer !
I have a new neighbour again:
The “Butcher of the Balkan”, Ratko Mladic is sleeping
here quite close to my home.
This will be his last place on Earth and lets hope it
will not be a very long stay.
It is quite a big issue here in Holland. The place
where the 7000 men and boys were killed by Mladic and his other beasts was
supposed to be protected by Dutch U.N.-soldiers. They failed.
He now thinks about going on a ‘hunger-strike’; good,
we don’t have to feed that animal.
You may have heard on the news that our very
old-fashioned government want to change the laws about the coffeeshops. I have
seen on CNN they are scaring people (tourists) with the idea of closing the
coffeeshops for tourists.
Well, from my –almost- 52 years of experience with the
Dutch governments, I can already tell you that it will never will be like that.
Ofcourse you never know for sure, but I will keep you
updated on this place. For this moment eveything will remain totally the same,
so don’t worry and be free to visit Amsterdam.
First Germany, but now in other contries also, we all
are scared about the E-HEC (E-COLI) -outbreak. Lets all hope it will end soon
and I also hope you will all stay safe.
One funny thing: the World was waiting for the END a
few weeks ago, because some crazy old man told that… nothing happened.
So now he tells that the end of the world will be on
october 21st, well, I don’t know if I have time that day but it is
good timing: AFTER the summer-holidays…..
I wish you all a good continue of the summer, please
be well and stay well.
Until the next time in about 2 weeks, I just ate a nice
egg-roll with Taugee before hearing the news,
take care,
René.
***********
May 24TH, 2011.
And a BIG hello my very dear friends.
Back in Holland again and ready for a few months stay.
Everything with the business went smoothly as expected
while I was in Thailand, but I found out that most of you knew that already.
I had quite a holiday; the first 2 ½ weeks were great:
walking, looking the beautiful Thai girls, meeting an old friend and ofcourse
eating at the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok with an impressive view of the city
and the more beautiful Tempel “Wat Arun”:
And, just 4 days before my return to Holland I had a
“René”-Day….:
We went out for a good Thai meal, which gave me the
remaining days in the bathroom.
A little more bad was, when we were walking at the
side of the road, I was hit by a motorbike which twisted my foot.
Before I show another ‘horror-picture’ for my –
already too big- collection, I can just take the positive thing out of it that
it happened together.
So the last days I had to stumble between my bed and
the bathroom.
I also had to go on the airports in a wheelchair
(another old ‘friend’), but I can now walk again with not too much pain:
The last night I finally had a quite good night sleep,
eating is already no problem at all.
So that was it again my dear friends, life goes on as
usual and in 5 weeks my dear cats Lisa and Maya will get a new brother or
sister.
I will call him/her YANA, she is now only 2 ½ weeks
old so I have to be patient:
So that was it for this time my friends, I want to end
wishing my friends in the USA strength with the hurricanes and my heart is with
the people of Joplin.
Please stay well and SAFE my very dear friends, and I
will be writing here again in 2 weeks time, Take care,
René.
***********
May 8TH, 2011.
Hot in Bangkok.
Hello my very dear friends; relaxing and enjoying with
my dear friend Nong,
In 2 days we go to the beach in Hua Hin, so internet
can be a problem.
Everything in Holland goes well, so business is good.
I write here again when I am in Holland, still very
tired, but I sleep a lot.
I can not put pictures now, but I will do when I am
back in Holland.
I wish you all well and my heart is with you,
Stay well and take care,
René.
***********
April 27TH, 2011.
And hello from Holland again my very dear friends, in
48 hours I will be on the plane and have 3 weeks in my second homeland.
I look forward to take a quiet time to leave the last
difficult months behind me.
We are having already a warm summer in Holland for the
last weeks, so I will be ready for Thailand as I heared that it is very hot
right now.
Please know that this time of the year is always
filled with all kind of holidays in my country –Easter, Queensday, Labor Day
and the rememberences of the second World-war -, so keep in mind that the mail
can be slow.
I wish my English friends a very good merriage:
William and Kate….. and ofcourse also all my other friends.
Ofcourse –as you already know- I will be answering
your e-mails and my friends here in Holland are there to process your orders.
(And ofcourse send the ‘on its way’ e-mails).
I am in a very good mood, and this is a song from
Enigma what shows a bit of how I feel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PWzW4t0ns0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This is also the music I listen to when I am ready to go to sleep; very relaxing.
I also want to
share a few pictures with you:
While taking the
first picture, I wished Lisa had a nest when she was still young: I can not
imagine a sweeter mother.
(Except ofcourse
my own). The second photo she almost stole all the files……
And ofcourse my
other girl Maya, who is also always everywhere where I am:
We all miss
their brother Niki…..
…..who had to
leave us last year.
I will miss them
while being in Thailand, but in 3 weeks I will be back.
No big news from
this side at the moment, so I am sorry this is a short post.
But that is
always good news I suppose.
I wish you all a
good continue of the summer and I will write on this place when I am in Asia, I
think I will have internet most of the time.
Until about 2
weeks dear friends, please take good care of yourselves and your friends and
family,
René.
***********
April 14TH, 2011.
And hello from Holland again my very dear friends.
Everything very good here, and hopefully everything is
good with you all.
5 Days ago the Netherlands were in the news with our
first ‘shooting-incident’, ofcourse we have incidents here sometimes (like on
Queensday 2 years ago), but a 24 year old boy with a machinegun in a
shoppingmall was something we thought could never happen here.
A young –mentally ill- man decided he was tired of his
life and made the sick choice to take 6 other innocent people with him.
A nightmare and something which we will remember for a
long time to come.
There will be a big investigation, because the guy had
a license for 5 fire-arms, while 5 years ago he was 10 days in a mental
clinic…..
So now Fukushima is the same level as Tsjernobyl, or “slow-motion-Tsjernobyl”
as I heard on CNN. Also something we will talk about for a long time to come.
Well, I have been to quite a few concerts, but Roger
Waters concert of “The Wall” was without a doubt very impressive.
I tried to make a few pictures, but the quality is not
very good.
To see a nice song, you can look this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2QuGmwjKQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
It was good I had a seat in the back, so I had a total
overview of the stage:
In about 2 weeks I will be a bit slower with the
e-mails because I will be in Thailand instead of Holland.
Everything else with our service will be exactly the
same; nothing changes.
I am now only a small part of this service (my
choice), but ofcourse still the only one in charge and the one responsible for
everything, including the communication.
I will write here before the holiday and ofcourse when
I am in Thailand.
My friends are ready for it and I must say that the
past 3 months have taken quite a lot from my body, so I am definitely ready for
it as you will understand. I will make it a relaxing holiday, so it will only
be 2 days in Bangkok and the rest in the small town at the beach.
I want to
explain something which came to my attention in corresponding with a good old
friend.
Here in Holland
we have the Euro, that is where I buy the supplies, stamps, and
packing-materials with; all things which become more expensive every now and
than.
My prices have
not changed in 6 years, it is the Euro which got much more expensive.
8 Years ago I
exchanged 1000 Dollars and received 1100 Euro's. These days I get 650 Euro's
for the same 1000 Dollars; 1000 Pounds was 1500 Euro’s and is now almost equal
to the Euro.
I realy hope
that you understand that I don’t have control over the exchange-rates, and I
don’t even talk about the commissions I pay when I change the Dollars and
Pounds.
But I hope
friends who had their questions about my prices now know what is the cause.
I will write here again after Easter and just before I
am on my way to Thailand, so I wish you Very Happy Holidays, stay well and take
care,
René.
***********
April 2ND, 2011.
Hello from a beautiful springtime here in Holland my
very dear friends.
The last 2 weeks it seems my body is really improving
by the day: getting more strength and also my brain works clear again.
Still sleeping a lot, but perfectly capable of taking
care of myself again.
So knowing me, planning on going on a holiday, I hope
in a week or 5. It will be Thailand again as I know the way and the people and
it is ofcourse important to have friends there.
I will go for a shorter time (3 weeks) and ofcourse I
will let you know. Although everything with the business will go on as normal
because I will have internet there and my friends in Holland for the orders.
The difference for this holiday will be, that I am not
going to the village as they don’t need me there anymore.
So I will go to Korat with a very good girlfriend who
took great care of me the last time I was there and I want to spend 2 weeks on
the “Bounty-Beaches” of Hua Hin and Khao Lak.
I have been there 4 or 5 times now and it is my perfect
spot for a relaxing holiday with many books under the Palmtrees.
The first week I will ofcourse give English lessons on
the school and try to make a clip of that, so you can see the difference
between teenagers in the western World and in Asia, where I can handle 150
children without any problems. (Here in Holland I worked on a school and had
already problems to keep control over a class of 30 children…).
Maybe you heared about the
big rain in the south of Thailand, but I already have some experience with
that.
Still following the news in the Fukushima Power Plant, I suppose there is
alreeady much more damage than we know. So the World keeps waiting for the
truth.
Also ofcourse the Middle East and North Africa; Mad Dog Kadhafi still alive and
many other countries who also have their own Mad Dogs. Lets hope the people of
those countries will achieve their goal and get more freedom.
Although when I hear that the (…) CIA is now
involved in the war in Lybia; freedom is much further away.
To give my personal opinion about Uganda: the people there would love to see
president Museveni go, but they also know they will be killed when they even
dare talking about that.
You will not hear much of this in the regular news:
Mr. Museveni "bought and bribed" another 5 years of filling his and
his family wallets.
Well, in the end we will al see those destroyers back in The Hague!
I finaly seem to have managed to put a beautiful song
on my personal webpage.
The song is written, sung and played by Peter, the
brother of Aisha who is running the project in Uganda.
When you have my address, you also got the
webpage-address.
It is really worth listening to the song: it is in
Swahili but I put the lyrics in Swahili aswell as in English with it.
When I visit Africa, I will record a clip for the song
and put it on I-Tunes, for the project in Uganda.
So my dear friends, in 6 days I will be at the concert
of Roger Waters and will tell you all about it the next post on this page, for
now everything looks great for me, Aisha and my family and friends.
That is all I want to wish you too, please stay well
and take care,
René.
***********
March 23RD, 2011.
And hello again my very dear friends.
Yesterday I had another appointment with my doctors
about the future and the final results of the blood, pictures and gastroscopy.
I still have to be careful with everything, but with the limited energy that is
quite easy. In 2 months I have to come back again because there is still a
little bit infection in my stomach, my intestate and my right-lung.
Ofcourse the last 11 days watching CNN about the
situation in Japan; heartbraking.
And I have so very much respect for those people
working in the Fukushima power plant, who are working with the risk of their
own lives, just to trying save Japan and the rest of the World from a nuclear
disaster. Those heroes deserve a medal of honor for sure.
I just read a report in a newspaper that from the 300
people who are today working in the plant, 150 will die within a few years. I
can not even imagine the commitment of thosegreat human beings!
Also at last the bureaucrates of the UN and the EU
made a decision.
Ofcourse I understand it is not a matter of a few days
when you interfear into another country, but my idea would be sending those “talkers”
home with a disability-cheque so we would solve the economic problems in many
countries instead of wasting more money on their wages.
But it is the time to get rid of the Mad Dog Kadhafi.
Although I always talk negative about those
organisations, I must admit that Europol and other forces have now rescued many
children out of the hands of that sickening child-abuse organisation which had
its roots here in the Netherlands: not something to be proud of…
Everything here is very good, my biggest supplier had
some problems (which are already solved again), so a few of you may receive a
little different order as they ordered; but the same quality. I hope that will
not be a problem. Also last weekend I received new supplies, so everything in
that matter is also alright again.
My dear mother turned 73 yeasterday, still full of
energy and I am very lucky and happy with the hope to have her with us for a
long time to come.
I must say that customs are very quiet already a few
months with only a few envelopes ‘missing in action’, and that is the case
everywhere in the World. So lets hope it stays this way and they found other
–more important- priorities.
One last question is for my friend Jennille, I don’t
have her e-mail, so I hope she wants to contact me.
That is about it for this time my friends, enjoy your
spring-time and we will be in touch via e-mail and ofcourse I am back on this
place the next time, please stay safe, stay well and take care,
René.
***********
March 12TH, 2011.
Let me start with telling, my thoughts
are with all the victims of the disaster in Japan, and their family. I hope my
friends are alright.
Well my very dear friends, to keep it
short: I am safe.
The scar-tissue is hardened, but stable
and is not too close to organs (and tubes) to cause problems. I have to listen
to my body, but the doctors don’t forsee any problems in the near future.
A good reason to be HAPPY NOW, but as good readers already found out via my
last post, the last weeks have not been easy. I was not depressed, but
uncomfotable about my life and health.
One day I even caught myself looking (and listening) at this video.
It is called KOYAANISQATSI, which means in the Hopi language: "Life out of
balance".
A master-piece (But not quite exactly a
video to get your feelings more positive…) with music of Philip Glass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9YsU9iBXiA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Looking back at the past 3 1/2 years, I have been destroying my own body;
living unhealthy, make the wrong choices and
trying to save the whole World, which is an illusion, although I will
always keep that way of thinking.
It is strange that in those times only the bad things are the ones going
through your mind and that you seem to have forgotten the good times.
And with my traveling the whole World in the last 20 years, be sure that I have
seen both.
The only thing I have to do, is visit the children in Uganda. But for the rest,
I will go to NEW places.
This must be a turning point in my life (in 3 months 52 years old): a good
brain in an old and damaged body is difficult.
So I have to make choices and start a
more quiet life with less traveling and be there for my real close ones.
I will go on with this service, because I don't want to abandon my friends and
our children.
And please don't see this as I am complaining, because I think everybody has
such times in their lives.
The thing I will do, is get a bit harder, I should say: I don't bother to worry
anymore what other people (except my real friends) think about me.
I have not changed in 12 years and it
will stay this way.
Just doing my very best as always, and not care about 1 bad e-mail, while I get
30 positive messages the same day.
WELL, that is out of my heart now and we continue life as it should be.
I found something which I am very happy about. Although I found it looking back
at the past.
Many of my long-time friends will remember my sister; she helped me the first 6
years I was running this service.
In the early 80's she was part of a band, and I found a lot of their music and
even 2 video's of that band on YouTube.
I don't want to write it on this page, but you can find everything on my
personal webpage, which you got asking for my address.
(Just one song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Id93QaZZk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
).
This is 30 year’s old music, which is
timeless!
So my very dear friends, and I want to thank some of you especially for wishing
me strength, life looks a whole lot better.
We all keep helping others, but also think about ourselves and not waste time
with so called friends who try to hurt you and ONLY think about their own:
the new way!
Ofcourse I will write here in a week or 2 again.
And I promise that I will be in the 21nd century and not in the past,
stay well and take care,
René.
***********
February 28TH, 2011.
Counting the days my dear friends, that is about
everything I can do now.
Ofcourse the orders and e-mails, also this news-page,
but for the rest it is sleeping and eating to get strong. And long walks when
it is not raining…
I wanted to write here today, so I can focus on the
upcoming 2 days in the hospital. Also from today I have to stop ALL my
medications, so I have no idea what that will do to my body.
Ofcourse I will write here again when I have to
results of the tests. So that will be around march 15 or earlier I hope.
But when I see the Middle East and North Africa on
fire, my tiny problems are nothing.
So do not worry; I am behind the computer to get your
e-mails and Aisha, my mother and my best friend (and neighbour) Gerard are
taking good care of me.
I wish you all a good start of march and you will hear
from me with the news in about 2 weeks. And when something happens –although I
shouldn’t have no idea what- I will be on this place sooner.
This is a song I want to share with you, the coming
month it will be six years ago that my very first girlfriend died of cancer,
she was 44 years old.
The year we were together was 1975, I was 16 and
Judith was 15.
We both loved this song by Minnie Ripperton, who died
at the age of 31 of cancer six years after she sang that song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE0pwJ5PMDg
I also got another picture from the hospital (about 7
weeks ago), I was waking up but I can not remember anything of that anymore.
They had to keep my arms away from the tube in my
nose, which I seemed to try to get out all the time. Well, I leave it behind me
and I can assure you that I sleep a lot better now….
Until next time my friends, take good care of yourself
and family and friends,
Take care,
René.
***********
February 22ND, 2011.
Getting stronger my very dear friends, slowly, weak
and a little nervous for the tests in march, but I don’t have any pain.
Ofcourse I hope you are all fine and that you all know
that we are on full strength again with the service.
Yahoo is finished for me: I had 2 e-mail addresses at
that place, but they seemed to have deleted them both. So friends who have the
English address can delete it.
Just to let you know how Yahoo works these days; the
best is already to get another e-mail address as they just can throw you away
without even let you know.
I can not go on holiday yet, so I will stay in Holland
and ofcourse be there for you all until april.
But I am looking forward to be at the concert “The
Wall” of Roger Waters on april 8TH here in Holland:
As I grew up with
The Pink Floyd, I always kept following Waters when he went solo. His lyrics
and music are fenominal. And as a person Roger makes the picture complete for
me.
Nothing much
happened around here the last weeks; only everybody around me is taking very very
good care of me to get me stronger again as I lost almost 10 kilo’s in the 2
weeks hospital. And that is quite much when you know that I only have about 60
kilo’s….
Please stay well
and until next time.
I will write
here before the checkupsmarch 9TH and 10TH and ofcourse will let you know as soon as I
have the results; lets hope for the best because I have seen hospitals and
doctors enough for a while…
Take care,
René.
***********
February 12TH, 2011.
A lot better my very dear friends, trying to make a
bit of plans for the coming months: that was not in my mind the last time I
wrote here. So thinking about the future is realy a beautiful thing when you
can do that.
Although ‘getting up the stairs’ is still quite
tiresome –as many things-, I can tell that 4 weeks ago I was in a much worse
condition/situation.
Well, the pictures tell the whole story I suppose:
4 Weeks ago: My déjà vu of 2007.
So enough about that
experience and we go on with the normal life again.
I realy hope everything at
your end goes as well as it goes here; we are completelly even with all the
orders, although still a few of you will be waiting a week or so. But please
know that ALL orders are on their way.
Here in Holland, we are
smelling the springtime a little bit, so I realy hope that my friends in the
USA will get that feeling soon too.
I am not yet in the mood to
write political ‘personal brainstorms’ on this place, but it is starting to
work again (Mubarak giving ‘pocket-money’ to poor people to fight against the protesters,
Iran which is hanging about 3 people a day, etcetera).
I thank you again for your
patience and if it is up to me, I will only undergo the stomach-check-up and
than I DON’T want to see any hospital for a very long time!
Please stay well you all,,
take good care of yourself and I promise to do the same,
René.
PS:
- I heard that in some countries
the news is telling you, that all the coffeeshops will be closed in holland. Well,
no way; there are only 2 people in the (150 people) government who wished that.
There is an idea to give dutch people a member-card, but also that idea
will probably not make it; I will keep you posted. And if they succeed: THIS IS
HOLLAND ! So the dutch people will always make a way to let our tourists get
what they want.
- I have just been at the
hospital again, and I heard that they found a wound in my intestate again
because of the scar-tissue. They did a check-up in my intestate the first day I
arrived in the hospital (I don’t remember anything anymore of that) and the
tissue has become very hard and is now probably irritating. March 9th
and 10th I will hear if it is gone or that I have to face surgery
again.
- Please don’t hold your orders to
give me rest: first of all my friends process the orders and ofourse I want to
keep the projects up and running.
- I have received a beautiful
song –in Swahili- from the brother of Aisha and I want to ask if anybody
between you knows how to put it on the webpage of the project in Africa. If
possible, please without HTML, because I am not very good with that.
- If you want
to be sure you have all the webpage-addresses of the projects, please send me a
blank e-mail with the subject ADDRESS and you will get all the details.
***********
February 3RD, 2011.
Home Sweet Home again my dear friends.
I will not change anything in the last post, but you
can see from the way of writing, I was quite heavily medicated when I wrote that.
First I will need a few weeks to get stronger, but I have to get the
rest to keep you all posted.
No more travelling for a while for me, as I am not done yet.
Now I realize how bad I was, so even the people here at home were not
able to process orders, so PLEASE know that since yesterday everything started
to go back to normal.
I can say I am very sorry (and please know that I AM !!), but my health
is again not good.
I will try to post some pictures next time.
And since they now found out that the scar-tissue from the operations 3
½ years ago is bothering my stomach, I will get a full (2 days) check-up in
march.
For now, I am still under medication to get my strength back (as far as
possible) and I have to get my brain in order again. So I will need all the
rest I can get.
I think quite a few of you know it, but when you get off the Morphine,
you experience BIG and terrible hallucinations, which can affect your brain in
a very bad way.
I feel good now when I write this, because it makes me calm down that YOU
all know what is going on and what has happened again.
Please continue to be patient with me and everything will get back to
normal as my regular friends heared a few times already the past 3 ½ years.
I don’t know how many Guardian Angels a person gets when he/she is born,
but my shoulders must be very full !!!
This is ofcourse a very good and beautiful feeling, but to be honest: I
have about had it for now.
Ofcourse I will undergo the tests in 6 or 7 weeks –good news is, that
they are not in a hurry- but I have enough now: I am looking for rest for my
body as well as my brain.
In the hope I didn’t write senceless things in this post, I will write
here again in about 10 days, because I want to keep you updated as much as
possible and please be assured that the business is up and running with the
delays.
Please stay well my dear friends, and thanks again for sticking with me,
take care,
René.
***********
January 26TH, 2011.
Heartwarming and overwelming my dear griends, when I
see that I didn’t write here2 ½ weeks, many people start tro worry alredy.
Beautiful in the first place, but als still not the
real idea to make my mind at ease when I am ill.
And I have been ILL, at the moment I am still in the
hospital, but it looks I will be home before the weekend.
I will answer as usual: the menu’s and addresses, not
the personal ones.
I had quite a severe Lumonia and have been in a coma
again for 3 days ( you would almost say: “ans counting”), but I just go out for
the best that now I have had it for some years or longer.
All orders are ofcourse sent by my dear Aisha and
friends.
This is what I am looking at when I write this; the
view over Leiden en Den Haag en my own little “”paradise””.
Ofcourse there were moments, I wasn’t aware of anything,
but the few things which I remember (or heared later),
Were the big floods in Ausratlia, the also big Snow in
notheren USA.
Sudan
Our Government in Holland firee with the fire in
Moerdijke, also the factories and all bureaucratic organisations, let the
people know nothing
A polish president, who killed 100 people. Well, we
dutch know all about that with the tiran idiot Desi Bouterse from Surinam.
My very dear friend Gerard, who almost lost an eye;
but it will become better again in time (what a bunch are we……)
My dear friends, I hope to be back on this place more
positive, please have a few days patiencewith the e-mails and I also have to
think about my body (I normally already are like a pataoe-chip).
Stay well and take care, I will be back in about 20
days on this place,
YOUR FRIEND,
René
***********
January 8TH, 2011.
And hello again my very dear friends.
Before I tell you the best news in years, I just want
to explain, why I wrote the last time that I was happy to end 2010.
Ofcourse I (we)
lost some very dear friends.
But when I see myself back in the start of the past
year diagnosed with Rheumatism (the rest of my life in a wheel-chair), which
turned out to be a Rheumatic feaver, which is almost totally gone, 3 fractured
ribs – I can not complain. Although still a caugh (flu) and the ribs are not an
ideal combination…
This year started in a way I could never dream of.
I received a very large amount from a precious friend
who lives in Canada.
He left it up to me what to do with it, but I think
you know what I will do with it.
Because I have focussed on Asia the past year, I
deceided to reserve this money for the children in Uganda; the school-fees will
be paid for all our children and I will be able to do some extra (
school-books, medicines, food, clothes). And there are so many more children
waiting.
Aisha and me stay in control of the finances, because
it doesn’t work to send thousands of dollars at once to Africa, but you can
count on it, that every penny goes to the people (children) who realy needs it;
and that is NOT us !!
So I will try to do my best to visit Kampala and make
pictures of what we –and especially YOU-
all do for the children this year.
I also added some more letters of the children on the
“project-page”, so I think you will get an idea how thankful they all are and
how they stay so positive in the difficult life they are living.
Quite often, I have discussions about poverty in The
World.
The most interesting were always with my late father,
who didn’t get further out of Holland than one time Spain: “Yes, there are also
poor people in Europe.”
I always understood his way of thinking, because in
our “First World”, you are already poor when you can not go on holiday or have a
car.
This post would get too long, when I tell you where I
have been around The World. But just a few sights in the slams of Sao Paulo,
Rio, Nairobi, Phnom Phenh, Ho Chi Minh, Kampala, Caíro, Dar Es Salaam, Sri
Lanka and many other places…… Well, when I see 5 or 6 years old children
carrying 10 or 15 liters of water 3 times a day for 3 kilometers, children from
the letters, who dream about becoming a doctor…….(Hope? Illusion?)
And when you
see the water they fetch from the wells, brown, red……
And in our World we just push a button for light, open
a tap for water what we don’t have to boil before we can drink it, turn another
button to get the heater on. When we fall down on the street, we are helped
with an ambulance, brought to a hospital, while an uncle of Aisha was hit by a
car a few years ago, fell next to the
road into water and drowned.
NO !! We don’t have REAL poverty in the First World.
Again, this is my personal opinion and experience,
please be free to disagree with me, because I also realize people in our
countries are struggling.
And holidays, cars, houses can never compete with
health.
Two more things. Please realize that the past month
the mail has been a disaster, so the mail-system gave the Christmas-mail
priority and the rest had to wait until january 3rd, so I hope you
want to be patient and it is in some cases possible that envelopes we sent
december 15, went on their way just a week ago.
The other thing is, that we had the biggest fire in
the history of Holland last Tuesday.
A fire in a chemical factory which burned for 30
hours.
For my” trust”
in the government, it was another proof: after about 2 hours after the
fire started the major and the government made us feel “ comfortable” by
telling us people that there was “ no risks for the health of the people.”
Well, the factory had about 2000 different chemical
filled containers ( 20.000 liters per container), which all burned down and
went into the air. Almost half of them were chemicals which can cause cancer
(benzene etc.).
So the future will tell us the reality:
Please take good care of yourself first my dear friends; when you are not able
to take care of yourself, you can never
take care of others. That is what I learned Aisha who is doing such a great job
for “her” project in Kampala.
Stay well and until about 10 days or 2 weeks on this
same place,
René.
***********
January 2ND, 2011.
A new year and a new page my dear friends.
First of all, I hope you all had good holidays and
that you will have a healthy and happy start of 2011.
As you can see behind the link on the top of this
page, I wanted to share some of the letters with you from the children of our
Ugandan project.
I want you to know, that you ALL are a part of this
achievement with using this service.
I will add more letters later, because there are now
only a few of the many sweet and beautiful letters I get from Africa.
When you read them, please realize that they are not
only written to me and Aisha, but also to ALL of you !!!
At last, the mail-system is working normal again,
sorry if your order didn’t get at your end before the holidays, but I hope you
understand that I don’t have any control about the mail.
We had the first white Christmas in about 20 years in
the place where I live; the problem is, that I live so close to the sea that
snow is quite rare here.
I spent time with my family and I also can tell you
that the pain in my ribs is getting less.
I suppose we are all still tired of the eating and
drinking the last week, but lets make 2011 a beautiful year. Also for the
children who had a beautiful Christmas-dinner with chicken, rice and a lot of
soda.
I hope to get pictures of that soon, although that can
take a while.
Later this year I may visit Uganda and take the mail
and pictures back with me, because the African mail is totally untrustable.
But first in about a month, I will be in Thailand or
Cambodia again, I will keep you informed on this place ofcourse.
I realy hope you want to read the letters of the
children and I will tell it on this place as soon as I added more of them.
Until the next time dear friends, stay well and take
care,
René.
*************
*********************
FOR
ALWAYS IN MEMORIAM
MY
DEAREST 2 BROTHERS ATJE (AYRTON SENNA) AND NIKI (NIKI LAUDA) ARE BACK TOGETHER
AGAIN:
Atje:
november 2nd 1996 – march 9th 2000 /
Niki: nov. 2nd 1996 – april 19th 2010
For you, there'll be no more crying,
For you, the sun will be shining,
And I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right
To you, I'll give the World
to you, I'll never be cold
'Cause I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right.
And the songbirds are singing,
Like they know the score,
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before.
And I wish you all the love in the World,
But most of all, I wish it from myself.
And the songbirds keep singing,
Like they know the score,
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before, like never before.
like never before.”
CHRISTINE
MCVEE