NEXT EPISODE OF THE ADVENTURES AROUND THE WORLD, NOT FAR FROM 'HOME'

Thursday the 21st of July; Goodbye desk, computer screens and the Office job

The last day at my regular office job. Just a few hours, but not a real goodbye. I will be back for the real last few months of help. A few hours left to empty my temporary house, buying a camera and starting a 3 hour boring traintrip to the wonderful studentcity Groningen, at the other side of my home country. A warm welcome there with my old friend Nynke, good to see friends after many years.

Friday the 22nd of July; arrival in nowhereland at the Seal Rehabilitation and Rescue Center

After a long night I headed on to Pieterburen. A culture shock! Nothing here, just a few old houses, cows and wind mills. Even the public transport; a small bus and the only possibillity to pay is the good old 'strippenkaart'. Everybody knows eachother. It was fun, everywhere people are nice and friendly, good jokes and I wasn't even there. I arrived, my new homebase for a while; the SRRC. A voluntary project; working with seals. There was a so called campus, which is nothing more than a porto cabin for the mostly international volunteers. It's good that I brought my Spanish phrasebooks cause half the group is Spanish. After a short introduction I dropped my stuff outside the campus in my accomodation...we call it 'The Shed'. It's nothing more than a small wooden gardenhouse on a camp ground. Checkin' out Pieterburen wasn't necessary...they don't even have a small shop! A few beers at the local pub, meeting people from my hometown Rotterdam and sleeping before 12 is a bit of a change. But after one of the best Quinten Tarantino movies (Planet Terror) there is nothing to complain. Damn, that movie is hilariously sick!

Saturday the 23rd of July; start of the weekend? Nope, hard working!

06:30 wake-up! A short night in a full shed with Maria, Marcel, Richard and the German Sheppard Luca who helped us waking up :-) SInce my arrival it's pooring down, windy and the is lots of rain. A nice day to start outside in 'Kleine Badjes' feeding seals, cleaning pools, crawling through seal poo. They look so cute. 207 baby Common Seals, 5 adult Common Seals and 1 adult Grey Seal...this place is overloaded with seals! Thinking you have a break? Oh no, the newbies get extra tasks :-) Preparing fish, crushing frozen fish, making fish porridge, doing the dishes, cleaning outside. There are a lot of protocols, one of them is changing clothes, gloves, facemasks, hairnets, boots at every different pool/area. I said once before that I should never wear CROCS, well I'm wearing a bleu pair now. Not used to it and definately not on slippery surfaces. My ass is black now and my old body is feeling the pain hahaaa. In the afternoon we had to catch 5 big seals for returning them into the wild. Quite easy, with basketsand putting them into wooden boxes. They weight between 45 en 55 kg. A big crowd is watching and some adoptants can make some pictures of their seal. Better think how to get out of a deep empty pool before you get in :-) It was a bit hilarious, me hanging and stumbling on the edge of the pool just like a seal...and a crowd behind the glass is watching it and making pictures. More feedings and cleaning during the day, with other volunteers. All the time you work in a couple. Although I had some problems with the funnyItalian/English accent of Tafsit. Everyday all the volunteers eat together in the campus, mostly it's something with coush coush or rice. I will loose some weight here. No more cake and candies at the office job ;-) But the Dutchies know me here. Eating some delicious ice creams at one of the 3 restaurants here. And they still think they are doing forced feedings, but with rum & coke this time. Our mini paper umbrella's didn't really help agains the non-stop rain outside.

Sunday the 24th of July; it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining...NOT!

Early shifts all week. Same tasks today. I like the job, even though the weather conditions for working outside and not the best. I'm meeting new people every day, it's wonderful to see how dedicated everyone is with working with seals. Everyday is party day for the seals...not only pool party, but also poo party. Yep, they like to roll around in their own shit, making us happy rolling with them in our overalls. And because they don't want to get bored, they try to throw their fresh shit against the walls and ceiling. Funny creatures and quite a challange. Many of the volunteers are leaving, so there was a sort of goodbye party. I fell asleep in the shed, but waking up late in the evening wasn't a reason not to have a few drinks with everyone. And leaving the group of volunteers means YOU'LL GET WET ON YOUR LOST DAY! And they did. Well, after a chill night with everyone it was time for a few hours of sleep...

Monday the 25th of July; the big movement

Wow, first time there is nobody in the campus for breakfast! I can imagine after last night. The faces in the morning were a bit sleepy. Today was the day of moving a lot of seals to different pools. Changing groups, puttings micro chips in some seals, weight them. And it still didn't stop raining. Well, changing clothes many times a day means that sometimes there is not enough. Lucky me there were no overalls and sweaters anymore, so just were a scrub t-shirt outside. It wasn't cold, just wet. It's so cute to see how a bunch of seals welcome a new baby seal in their group/pool. And you can see with weighting how fast they grow in just 2 days. Good night seals, I will walk back with my bare feet in the mud and through the darkness to my lovely little wooden cabin. Good night.

Tuesday the 26th of July; weekend in coming!

Last day of work before the weekend. Well weekend, but then during the week. Lot's of the same stuff; feeding, cleaning. It goes faster and faster, I know my way around the area now. Answering visitors questions. But were is Lenie?! I've seen her once, just passing by with some special visitors and that's it. Well, 5 o'clock the job is done. Surprisingly enough there is a very good meal today. But I'm off to Groningen to meet my travelbuddy from Laos; Roland. Locals are so relaxed here, they even let you in the bus for free. Finally the sun, some good fun, pizza's, large German beers on De Grote Markt. And damn I love this city! Alive every day of the week, crowded bars all night long. Yep, time to do some Couch Surfing tonight.

Wednesday the 27th of July; more Couch Surfing!

Unfortunately other people have to work during the week. Roland offered me his kitchen for the morning, thanks buddy ;-) Always nice to have some friends around if you are new somewhere. After catching up some sleep I enjoyed the summer in the North. Perfect, after 5 days of showers it was summer like it has to be. So another afternoon and evening on the terraces of Groningen. Good food, nice drinks. Nynke and Scott were my friends for today. The sun, the pumping tunes...we wanna party! Tonight I'm Couch Surfing at Nynke's place. Snacks, bottles of wine, a balcony to chill out...life is beautiful Grunn!

Thursday the 28th of July; back to base

Sleep in, healthy brunch. Nynke had some appointments, so I could arrange some important stuff and learn something more about the protocols at the SRRC. Yeah, I'm busy with my job even when I'm off duty. Another amazing summer day. It's a pitty to say goodbye again, such a good time. Maybe I stay and live here ... Back at the SRRC base, everyone is going out tonight, guess where? Groningen!!! I'm not going, they will be back around 7 AM, when I have to start my shift...not a good idea for me I guess :-)

Friday the 29th of July, start of week 2; the new breed and living in a girl campus

I could bore everyone with useless stories about every day, but no. The sort work is almost the same every day, only in different areas. And the seal puppy population in the SRRC is still growing; 216! I'm getting used to all of them, of course I have some favorite seals. It's fun to feed them by myself now. But always be careful when you're sitting in the middle of them, they like to bite in asses :-) We have a special seal guest this week, a bit lost, he should float around on a iceberg near Greenland. The Ringseal is a cute funny fatboy, but suspicious. He will attack out of nowhere and can jump pretty high. One of the puppies in Engelse Hoek didn't really like his unit and escaped. Just hopping around the tent in the morning. The summer is coming, but it also means giving the seals a sweat shower in some of the Leger units. 30+ degrees inside. Time for some bucket showers! The late shifts in the kitchen are hilarious, not only water fights, also fish fights and stuff. LET'S GET DIRTY!

This week we have a whole bunch of new volunteers, all nice people. I moved in into the campus. Not realising that I was living in a house full of girls (12) for a long time. But after a week the girls finally got what the wanted; a Brasilian guy :-) I'm good friends with one of the the feeders now, that means good breakfast every day. Thanks Carolien ;-)

And what about the weekends? Weekend for me is every Wednesday and Thursday. So no more festivals for a long time. It's sad, but I don't earn any money, so I can't spend any. This weekend I spend mostly in Groningen again. Good summer. Eating, drinking, making new friends, drinking more. The hot days are for walking around the villages here, getting one of the bikes from campus, stopped by some sheep, being amazed by a huge field of hemp!!! Times flies by... already 2 weeks, it just feels like 2 days...

Weedk 3 to 6; the worst summer with the cutest things ever

Well, again I can tell something about every single day, but I won't. To much and maybe to boring to tell . But what a fantastic time here.And theDutch summer is the worst ever. We had the dryest month ever in the beginning and the coldest and wettest summer since 1906...I think before they didn't even measured it. Although that part is shit, the experiences here are amazing. Working really hard and long without earning any money. It's a strange feeling to be back on the Office job again in a few weeks. But I have to save some cash again for the next step in this never ending adventure; the sequel of the trip around the world!

And about the big boss here. Many people think she already retired and is earning a lot of money. She's not. Lenie 't Hart is still walking around most days and she is still the director. She's earning a normal wage like most people. And one of my first meetings with her was one to remember... One day I walked into the girls changing room and shower (I know, life isn't that bad here LOL). And this funny screaming little woman starts to yell at me and kicked me out. 'Uhm hello Lenie? Where am I supposed to take a shower if the seales are in every fucking corner of this place? The sick seals are even in the men's shower and changing room!' So after this we were friends :-) Welcome to the SRRC!

Of course a lot of other funny things happen. One of the last fase pools is 'Golfbad'. Working at this pool can be a laugh. Not only the edge of the plateau, also cleaning the windows in front of the visitors can give you just that extra bit of attention. Falling into the pool is very easy. Also the feeding here is an experience because it's the only place without nets against the Seaguls. During daylight these annoying birds like to steel the fish out of the water. If you're not that ugly, they will also try to steel from you. They attack seals and steel the fish out of their mouth. Most Seaguls swallow a fish straight away, some of them try to fly away with it. And those ones are just stupid. Stupid enough to fly against the long steel of the fish net, fall on the ground and drop the fish on a visitor's head. Other Seaguls just loose the fish and drop it on a baby in a pram. Just hilarious. There is a trick to keep them busy; just give them a bunch of frozen fish, it will take some time.

Working with some feeders here can be even more hilarious. Tafsit for example. Nobody can understand here English with this strange Italian pronounciation. Sometimes she mixes even 3 languages. But that's not the most rememberable about her... The stupid actions WOW. Falling constantly, tripping over a hose with loads of stuff in her hands, giving you dozens of unexpected showers because she can't even hold a garden hose and the best of all; We received new round pools with a small plateau on one side. There were 3 heavy seals relaxing together on the small plateau. But Taf was not thinking about what would happen if she also steps onto the plateau... Use your imagination... It happened just 2 meters in front of the visitors. The pool was out of balance and rolled over to the visitors side. All the seals and screaming Tafsit were on top of each other. Everyone was okay, but I couldn't stop laughing.

And seals, do they get bored here? Believe it or not, they can even escape out of seperate Quarantaine rooms, pass 5 heavy doors, meet eachother in the visistor's centre and hump around together having fun. Leaving a lot of poo and just enjoy life...RESPECT TO THE SEAL PUPS!

It's a come and go of volunteers. In my 7 weeks here I have seen a lot. Even people that stay for just a few days or a week. But we need more. The amount of seals is crazy this year. At some point we had more than 240 seals in the house! Normally there should be around 90 this period of the year. Everyday it's a challange to manage all the 3, 4 or 5 feedings. So this means that you don't have to expect that you finish your shift in time. Working 2 hours longer every day is normal. Even if you have your day(s) off, try to escape the campus! The people will find you for some tasks.

What kind of tasks? Well imagine a hot summer day (Yeah even in this horrible summer). Around 30 degrees outside. A small wooden building for necropsies. A large freezer room with bins full of dead seals and seal body parts. Then try to think what happens if that freezer room is not working since the last 3 weeks. Luckily I watch a lot of horror movies and I was used to dirty smells already. Some people had to clean the whole building. The smell was absolutely disgusting. Maggots all over the place. Millions crawling on the floor, in the cupboards, on the walls, on the doors, on the ceiling. And opening the freezer room...AWESOME!!!! So this is how dead smells in real. Another funny task; taking the rotting seals and body parts out of the bins. Take them out of the plastic bags. Everything was flaoting in black fluid. Blood and dead body fluids. NICE! Michael and me were the 'gravediggers'. Using gas masks and stuff. Even a step into your boots...woohoo, filled with maggots too! What a perfect summer day.

Because of the huge amount of sick seals, there was also a huge amount of dead seals. One week around 10 seals found their way to the necropsy room. A strange unknown virus. One of the things you have to do here is joining necropsies. Guess what, also on my day off. 3 seals took around 4 hours. Cutting the seals open, taking samples, taking pictures, making a report, cleaning the whole place again. Our first corpse was one filled with lung worms. It started in the heart. And from there we found them everywhere. Still alive, even the seal was dead for 2 days. Now it's easy to imagine how bad the seal feels when they have lung worms. And very strange that a Common Seal puppy has this already in the beginning of August.

Free time, filled with making large nets in frame to get the seals out of the pools, show around people and new volunteers, cleaning the campus (impossible). And what about sports and the gym? We don't have a gym in this village. So just do your run every week, take a bike for a long ride (but be aware you are always cycling against the wind in this part of Holland) and not to forget; unloading the frozen fish from the truck. Every package weighs 25 kg. You just have to find some strong people (mostly visitors) to make a train of people and bring them to the freezer room. Sometimes you are lucky when your standing in the truck sweating and half naked and they bring only good looking girls to help you during a nice summer day. It makes the job a lot easier :-)

One of the things that I wanted to do here in this part of the country is 'Wadlopen'. It means walking in the mud during low tide. You can do it with walking tours every day. Sometimes you can even walk between the islands in the North Sea. I signed up with Carolien. 9.45 AM time to start. It was 'Keiweek', that's the introduction week for the 1st year students in Groningen. So that means a lot of hangover students (mostly girls) that have to join the mudwalking. Wicked! Just buy a pair of fake high Allstarts somewhere for 5 - 10 euro's and start. The cheapest tour is around 11 euro's and takes about 3 hours. We did the tour behind the second dike near Pieterburen / Westernieland. First you walk through the green fields, cows, sheep and mud. Followed by the first deep steps in the mud. You will find a lot of eatable veggies on the track and play with shells (Kokkels), see birdlife, fight with huge crabs, play with worms, throw Carolien in the water and mud sometimes, laugh about other people that get stuck in the mud. The sky looked dark, the heavy rainfall could start any minute. It just started at the mainland and not on 'De Wadden'. If you do this and you are dirty even in you hair...why don't you take a swim in the sea? So I did. Not many people joined and some even thought that they saw a seal swimming...Uhm it was my face...not a seal! Further on the track there were some sand banks where you could actually spot the real seals. Sometimes they came a bit closer for a swim. What a day!

Waking up with again some sun (why am I complaining about this summer???). And someone tells me that there is a seal release on my day off. Perfect, I will join. But same as last time, no more free space in the cars. Fuck off, not again. I joined the guy of the pharmacy and we went the 'De Dollard' near the 'Eemshaven' at the German border. An 1 hour drive from Pieterburen. 6 seals to release and no adoptants. So that means the volunteers had to open the boxes, just like the commercial from 'It's a beautiful day'. It was low tide, but this time a bit to low. We couldn't see the water in the distance. There was only a small stream of water coming out of the dike. The seals liked it. They humped out of the wooden box, took a slide from the mud slide they found. And bumped onto eachother. They played in the small stream for an hour before we left. With high tide they will find the other seals in the wild. They have to get used to this freedom and catching fish that is swiming away from them. What a beautiful day, good day for the seals.

I can get used to this place, although my old body can't handle all the strange positions every day including the weight lifting with frozen fish and heavy seals. When the seals arrive they weigh around 8-10 kg, when they leave around 40 kg or more. A surprise,I even found a special farm girl here whaha. Yeah, it's not only the love for the seals here at the SRRC, also the workers and volunteers love each other. Many couples at the creche. I'm gonna miss those people and I wil definately come back. There is not much to do in this place and sometimes it's hard when you can't be with you old friends. I missed a long festival season, but most festivals were mudpools anyway. The 'biggest' event here was the weekend fair in Eenrum. Just as I expected, too small, heaps of farmers, bad (Dutch) music and the fair only had bumping cars (where we spend hours), a giant wheel and 1 other attraction. Not my thing. Some people can not get used to this place. It's nice to see cute seals, but they can also be very sick and die. They can be very difficult to handle, but alsoextremely funny. You can have loads of fun here, but sometimes feel a bit lonely. Some people can't handle it. We had a German girl with a really nice oldtimer. Just driving the old Opel Rekord with red leather seats to the dike, watch a stunning sunset with a couple of beers and ciders and just enjoy the life. Vera was playing her guitar and people had to sing the songs. Surprisingly enough she was gone after 3 days...

It's my last week now. Waiting for my showerday. But since I'm here people not only receive showers when it's their last day. If people are going on holiday or when it's their birthday...they will get wet! Carolien also knows. I even put her in a seal basket and we put the hose on her. Yeah her birthday. Can anyone tell me next time when I buy 180 baloons that you have to use a baloon pump?! These anoying baloons were so hard to blow up with your own breath. It took me more then 2 hours on my day off to load the whole room with baloons! Let's see what happens on my last day... I think some people want to give me a pay back for what a did to others :-) Ice water, fish, a fire hose, a big brush in the face while sitting in a bucket with water...

Tuesday the 6th of September; my last working day

After a night with Carolien that was working on my nerves, damn that chick can be anoying on a funny way :-) Last early shift. The last 2 days were great. Worked in all the places, carried many fat seals, fed a lot of them. Good to see that they grow fast and don't die that easy anymore. Yesterday some people even named me a chef cook. Damn, I cooked a massive dinner (3 huge oven veggie pies, apples with cinnamon and sugar, beans with pesto...yummie!). Thanks to Ozzie Mark for all the pastry experience. I am impressed about the fact I can finally cook for 25 people in a short time.

And I was expecting a lot of showers on Tuesday...only 1 !?!?! They could do better. So no real showers and in those 2 months I haven't been bitten by a seal WHOOP WHOOP!

I will stay for another few days before I go back to Rotterdam. Just to have some more information about fundraising and running a place like this. One of my dreams.

Let's see if we survive tonight at the SRRC, there is a huge storm at the moment...

C U all somewhere!

... NEWSFLASH ... Surprises the extra last days!

I didn't leave the 7th of September. Nope, I learned more of Fundraising from Danielle and more about Research from Nynke. Had another interesting chat with Leslie. Just can;t leave.

On my supposed to be last morning a was sleeping when Hans walked into the room at 7AM. Richard and Matt were still in bed and din't want to get up. They had enough of seals all of a sudden. Guys in love? So they just said 'No we not gonna work now, we are planning to leave'. LEAVE NOW, Hans was pissed :-) I felt bad, sleeping and doing nothing, while the feeders are missing at least 3 people this shift. So wanna become Hero of the Day? Yeah, why not :-)

The day after was a great surpise. New director Simone arranged that I could join a very exclusive seal release with 'Ministerie van Rijkswaterstaat'. A release of 6 seals with no adoptants. Just a Government boat, a cool stuff with the 4 year old girl Lieke. She wants to become an elephant when she is older and she is even steering the ship! On of the other crew members is from the famous Dutch program 'Boer zoekt vrouw'. What a trip, the Waddensea is a huge National Park. I didn't know that this part of Holland was so nice. And the birdlife and the seals everywhere...no words. Crossing a few islands and sand banks, we found a good spot to release them. Just taking the small dingy and bring the wooden boxes to the small sand bank. Time to open the boxes and the clouds gave us a big treat: HEAPS OF WATER! The seals enjoyed, although my seal was on the wrong side of the box. Dummie, get out and swim into the sea! They enjoyed the freedom. Their natural habitat, this is why we do this. Saving more than 450 seals already this year. The total population in the Waddensea is around 6.000 seals. This day was unforgettable. Nynke left Barbara, Lijsje and me with that old army truck and nobody knows ho to get back to Pieterburen! Great :-)

Staying days longer. I still have to thick one more thing off my 'to-do' list...an epic last party night in Groningen... Bea, Aleisha, Nofar, Isabelle, Vicky and me. A small group, but damn, what an eventful night :-) Arriving at Groningen with a huge thunderstorm and rain. Suddenly we hear loud party music on the street. 2 small party tents and a lot of funny dancing people with umbrella's. A clothing shop was haveing a private party, but nobody stopped us joining them. Nofar collected some bottles of sparkling rose, red wine and Beerenburg for free. What a start! And not to forget the dancing with the girl with the squeegy HAHAHAAAA. The walk to Grote Markt uhm...we ended up in a washing machine in the middle of the road. Nofar told me later that I tried to put her in the washing machine. Sorry for being a bit violent ;-) I wasn't that clear anymore, so I just pulled the washing machine like I was taking a dog out. The first bar; more drinks?!?!? How did we get the bottles inside??!?! It seems that I stopped drinking Tequila becauise it was so disgusting...from that point I lost my colleagues for the rest of the night, I had some weird experiences along the night in Groningen and ended up at my friends place at 5 AM in the morning. Thanks Nynke, for letting me crash on your couch again. I just told some people a few days ago, when it's Full Moon, always something crazy happens. Guess what it was last night?...

Sunday afternoon, I really had to leave. Start working at the Office again tomorrow. Goodbye everyone. I will probably see you all next weekend or somewhere on this planet!

Many thanks to this wonderful team: Alba, Alex, Aleisha, Bea, Benne, Cristina, David, Mark, Marc, Manon, Lisa, Liselotte, Louke, Lijsje, Marcel, Hans, Iris, Karin, Simone, Leslie, Hanneke, Andre, Isabelle, Iva, Vera, Melanie, Marlies, Fernando, Richard, Matt, Victoria, Stuart, Myrian, Carolien, Maria, Meindert, Marga, Martha, Nataly, Michael, John, Tafsit, Celine, Guillermo, Anna, Janneke, Laura D, Laura O, Lucia, Allessandra, Ivanna, Cecilia, Beate, Nynke, Danielle, Martijn...and all the other ones I forgot