- Contributed by听
- ODYSSEY
- Article ID:听
- A2794557
- Contributed on:听
- 30 June 2004
After my trip to Eindhoven and sign up to go to the Dutch Indies via Australia time just crawled. Not going to work was strange.During the 3 years of training we really worked hard:No 8 hr. shift ,no lunch hour.Days off??Only when staffing was sufficient in the unit one worked in.
So most of the time at D's I packed and unpacked my few belongings.We would get uniforms so our uniforms threadbare as they were,were not necessary.My civilian clothes were still hanging in shreds on the rafters of the house we were billeted in.(I had a very favourite evening dress:not much left.Oh well..we probably would not need that.)
My friend and I studied THE TRIP:via the Atlantic,through Panama Canal and then the long haul over the Pacific to Sydney.Her father was Rector of the Gymnasiumt( a sort of Headmaster? )He had lots of books to look through:" Flora and Fauna" of Down Under:Exciting!!Finally we were called up.I braved Cerberus for the last time and said good-bye to my friends-still in sickbay -and off I went for the last time to D's house who had been so nice to me.She gave me a very small crucifix made out of mother of pearl as talisman.It is still hanging on the wall between the kitchen and the living room.
In Eindhoven we were billeted with a famiy whose father worked for Philips.We gave them our rationcards of course.
After the weekend we were called up one by one to be interrogated By the British Secret Sevice,by the Dutch Secret sevice and if I remember correctly we had a second round.
A few girls did not show up:this was the first"culling".
Sinterklaas Dec 5 arrived(.The weather was cold and we had snow,we hoped for a White Xmas. ) St. Nick was the holiday we exchanged presents_Not Xmas_The grown ups had a special celebration where we could tease each other. If I knew of someone who had a bad habit f.i. of picking his nose I would make a large nose out of cardboard fastened some "Goodies" inside(let your imagination work!)and that person had to read out loud the" Poem" I had made for that occasion.We had a a nun who taught german;When it was a sad poem she started to cry.She got a half a sheet as handkerchief + poem HOW NOT TO CRY.
The people who got a "surprise" also got a nice present hidden in it.
In the second year of nurses'training I was chosen to be Pieter,the MOOR:Called Zwarte Piet in Holland.My face was blackened,I was given a Moorish costume-I still have a picture of that night-and....I had "carte blanche" with the medical staff and the Management.FUN!!!And I could not be punished.
But in Eindhoven the children of the adopted family were all good.We gave them goodies and made small presents.They were not spoilt.
When Christmas came we had 2 Holidays;The first day we went to church.On the second day we would have visited family and friends.( I remember a few times where the "vinum bonum" caused some people to stagger home.) We were told to stay "home". I think we were kept on a short leash because of security.
The day came when we had to say good bye to "our family", we had started to really like. We kept contact for a while.I wished I knew what happened to them.
We were on the verge of a new adventure.
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Message 1 - A real Joker.
Dear Josephine,
Switched on after three hectic days and found the new story. Wonderful, you must have been a real joker in your time. Nothing wrong with a sense of humour it gets you over some bad times more easily.
The end of the month and the accounts to do, a pile of personal e-mails to answer and messages from the Council asking my advice. I am one of the advisors to the Town council as they like to get public opinion on every thing including whether they should go to the toilet. I sometimes think they should not bother coming out of there some of the stupid decisions they make.
Looking after my Grandson Matthew three and taking rubbish to the tip Benji to the Vet and shopping took care of the rest of the week, there are not enough hours in my day.
Enjoyed the story and looking forward to the rest, you are not forgotten,
Regards Frank.
听
Message 2 - A real Joker.
Posted on: 01 July 2004 by ODYSSEY
Dear Frank,Just back from the vet with Hickory.He had a lot of shots,was not very happy.
You running behind your own tail it seems.
Yesterday I copied the stories I had.Tomorrow I've to go to the library to print the last 3 stories.
I don't know whether I should continue writing since who would be intersted in our stay in London?And then on to the troop ship:some wild stories there,but I don't know whether I would be allowed to tell them.(it is about a guy who was sent to the brig because of me).
Well I have to think about it and prime my "writing pump".I talked to my lawyer and he is going to file.HURRAH!!
But I'm going to write him a long letter about my so called "progress".If he is going to fight with that woman's insurance Co.I'm sure he would like to know.
I'll send you my progress report.IF you have time keep dropping me a line now and then.
A 3 year old keeps you hopping,but it is fun and he is lucky to have a grandfather to talk with.Many kids here even don't know their grandparents,kind of sad.
The" tip"is that a recycling staion??My best , till the next
scribble.We might get some rain!!!I am sure you are wildly intersted in that weather news,but it has been superdry and warm.Can't wait for fall.J.
听
Message 3 - A real Joker.
Dear Josephine,
Poor Hickory, who likes needles? they have to drag me to the surgery for my yearly Flu jab so give him a pat from me.
The Tip is a recycle area. We can load our cars up and take the rubbish we cannot put in the weekly bin. Benji is well known by the lads working there and I get my car unloaded while they talk to him, it is only ten minutes away so it is easy for me.
Right Josephine lecture time.
A story is a continuous Saga and writing it down as only what you think the exciting bits makes it disjointed.
We need to know how you got from Holland to Australia as a continuous thread so that is the way you must go.
I have just realised that I have not told the part of my story that was the biggest change in my life so when the weather is bad I will start again.
It is for the record of what it was like at that time not for personal glory we write. People do read it as I get mail months after a story was posted.
Write the London bit just leave out names or use only a forename. As to the Troopship, been there done that so know of what you speak.
Chasing my tail is exactly what I am doing these days. Walking Benji the other morning I met a chap we know and he said "I will not stop you as you always march along too fast for my old bones" I happen to know he is at least five years younger than me. If I did not move fast my tail would catch me up.
Get those stories down on paper Josephine, the staff will "Blue Pencil" anything they dont like. Do not put in German or indeed any foreign words as that gets instantly put up against a wall and shot. Peter has just run up against that one and is spitting blood just now. Its all good fun, I love it.
Regards Frank. <blacksheep> <run>
Message 1 - Ah! Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet!
Posted on: 05 July 2004 by anak-bandung
Do you know, Josephine, we are still wrapping up our presents as surprises each year, although we have shifted the venue to Christmas. A couple of years ago we were with six people and each of us made a surprise (pronounced as 'surpreesa') for each person. There was hardly any room for us to sit, two thirds of the room was taken up with extravagent oeuvres plus their compulsory poem of course.
The trick is to think of new ones each year!
Rob
听
Message 2 - Ah! Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet!
Posted on: 05 July 2004 by ODYSSEY
Rob, That sounds like a lot of fun.Do you make the surprises for British people??
I always loved that celebration:Lots of fun. Last year,when in Holland,I was told that Sinterklaas was hardly celebrated anymore.Xmas is the big thing :Buy,buy buy included.I am really disappointed especially for the liitle children,looking forward to a visit of Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet.I remember putting my shoe under the" Chimney" we did not have in Bandung of course and a visiting Sinterklaas with his big book wherein everything was written:whether we had been good or bad.And whether Sinterklaas had received our wishlist.Sinterklaas his horse got carrots available in Bandung.Keep it up.Traditions are important.Josephine.
听
Message 3 - Ah! Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet!
Posted on: 05 July 2004 by anak-bandung
Josephine,
I have to start this reply again - suddenly, what I had written disappeared! Weird.
Yes, I think it is very sad that Holland is slowly losing that tradition of Sinterklaas celebrations. It is a different feeling from Santa Claus, that jolly fellow. Sinterklaas instilled awe and respect and then that delicious feeling of being scared when Zwarte Piet arrives, even after you stopped believing. He did instill that thrill and you knew that you had done something wrong some time or other and whether you detected some missed area near the ears - still pink amongst all that black - you did not want to hedge your bets....
It is so important that a country retains its cultural identity. That's why I do love Britain so. Some of the traditions may be quaint and seem slightly ludricous, but once they have gone... you become a grey, uniform country. I am afraid this may happen if we ever become just a state in Europe.
I did celebrate Sinterklaas with my students during the time I taught Dutch and they did love it. Now we only do it within the family with one faithful friend taking part each year. I think he would be most upset if he ever would not be invited!
I am never a good poet, but around 5 December that poetic vein starts flowing profusely! All sorts of items are eyed critically, such as empty toilet rolls, interesting lids or boxes or whatever, to form part of outer wrappings. Lovely time
Time to go to sleep soon.
Welterusten
Rob
听
Message 4 - Ah! Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet!
Posted on: 09 July 2004 by ODYSSEY
Rob. I just found your last reply.I am so glad to find a kindred soul.Your writing disappeared without any reason WHY.That happened to me last nite.I'll tell you about that later.
Yes, our poetic vein started gushing around that time and it was s贸 much fun we would never tire of that celebration.When we(my husband and 2 sons) were living in the different cities:the last one was Semarang we had Sinterklaas coming to our house and Zwarte Piet too of course.I still have pictures of wide eyed kids,scared but they did not want us to notice it.And the big book that Sint had and he knew Everything!
You are lucky to live in a country that cherishes traditions.I find very few here.For a while the kids put their shoe near the fireplace but it fizzled when they grew older.One reason was that I went back to Nursing again:I wanted to find out myself what hospitals here were all about,I'll tell you one thing:When I took care of patients in Batavia without things like bloodpressure cuffs, stethoscopes etc.:We learned NURSING! we learned to observe the patients and use different parameters that told us what was wrong with them and how to correct it .We had more freedom than nurses in the so called civilized countries .We were allowed to order blood for patients,I started intravenous lines we were in charge of wound treatment,could use what we thought was necessary.
There was a shortage of MD's and after they observed us and finding us to be capable of making the right decisions when a patient went "sour", we were on our own.I learned an awfull lot in a short time.It was compared to 16 century nursing-because we did not have advanced "tools"enough of this.
I was going to ask you about your learning Modern Greek.Fantastic!! I had 5 years of the old Greek:Homer,Plato etc I wished I had kept up with it but the war prevented that.For a while I read the New Testament in Greek ,espsecially when we had a dull.long sermon.
You took all kind of jobs: variation is the spice of life.Good for you.
In the beginning of this letter I was going to tell you something.Last nite i read an article written by Charles Whitehead.He wrote under the name of Javaprisnor
I started writing twice about things I did not agree with and I thought it should be corrected in a nice way and twice my story disappeared So I quit for the nite,I might write him again.One thing I did not agree with was that his father stated that the natives were s贸 poor that they even used the kali for"bodily functions"They always did it and always will;a few other things I wanted to write about that I thought were not correct.I don't know how long his father lived in Indi毛.Read it and see what you think.
My morning started out sad. I got a note from a researcher I had a long correspondence with.I learned a lot and it was wonderfull to have somebody to talk to.He has been removed because he wrote about things that happened to people after the war ended and some one thought only stories during the war were acceptable.I don't agree:a lot happened to people after the war was over and they should not be forgotten either.Think about all the guys who lost arms,legs,eysight.
It is about 3 a.m in your time.I'm going to stop.Write again if and when you feel like it,Josephine.
Foreign words are not allowed I read somewhere.
听
Message 5 - Ah! Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet!
Posted on: 09 July 2004 by ODYSSEY
Rob. I just found your last reply.I am so glad to find a kindred soul.Your writing disappeared without any reason WHY.That happened to me last nite.I'll tell you about that later.
Yes, our poetic vein started gushing around that time and it was s贸 much fun we would never tire of that celebration.When we(my husband and 2 sons) were living in the different cities:the last one was Semarang we had Sinterklaas coming to our house and Zwarte Piet too of course.I still have pictures of wide eyed kids,scared but they did not want us to notice it.And the big book that Sint had and he knew Everything!
You are lucky to live in a country that cherishes traditions.I find very few here.For a while the kids put their shoe near the fireplace but it fizzled when they grew older.One reason was that I went back to Nursing again:I wanted to find out myself what hospitals here were all about,I'll tell you one thing:When I took care of patients in Batavia without things like bloodpressure cuffs, stethoscopes etc.:We learned NURSING! we learned to observe the patients and use different parameters that told us what was wrong with them and how to correct it .We had more freedom than nurses in the so called civilized countries .We were allowed to order blood for patients,I started intravenous lines we were in charge of wound treatment,could use what we thought was necessary.
There was a shortage of MD's and after they observed us and finding us to be capable of making the right decisions when a patient went "sour", we were on our own.I learned an awfull lot in a short time.It was compared to 16 century nursing-because we did not have advanced "tools"enough of this.
I was going to ask you about your learning Modern Greek.Fantastic!! I had 5 years of the old Greek:Homer,Plato etc I wished I had kept up with it but the war prevented that.For a while I read the New Testament in Greek ,espsecially when we had a dull.long sermon.
You took all kind of jobs: variation is the spice of life.Good for you.
In the beginning of this letter I was going to tell you something.Last nite i read an article written by Charles Whitehead.He wrote under the name of Javaprisnor
I started writing twice about things I did not agree with and I thought it should be corrected in a nice way and twice my story disappeared So I quit for the nite,I might write him again.One thing I did not agree with was that his father stated that the natives were s贸 poor that they even used the kali for"bodily functions"They always did it and always will;a few other things I wanted to write about that I thought were not correct.I don't know how long his father lived in Indi毛.Read it and see what you think.
My morning started out sad. I got a note from a researcher I had a long correspondence with.I learned a lot and it was wonderfull to have somebody to talk to.He has been removed because he wrote about things that happened to people after the war ended- since he was about 17 when the war ended- he did not have any war experience and some one thought only stories during the war were acceptable.I don't agree:a lot happened to people after the war was over and they should not be forgotten either.Think about all the guys who lost arms,legs,eysight.
It is about 3 a.m in your time.I'm going to stop.Write again if and when you feel like it,Josephine.
Foreign words are not allowed I read somewhere.
听
Message 6 - Hands-on nursing
Posted on: 09 July 2004 by anak-bandung
Hi Josephine
Your post about your nursing in Batavia intrigued me. It must have been soooo frustrating not having the correct tools and possibly enough medication for your patients - must have been like Florence Nightingale. At the same time it must have been quite satisfying when you manage to make them 'turn the corner'by your own wits and skills.
Nowadays nursing is, like so many other professions, taken over by administration. Of course you need to account for what you are doing, but having to write everything down in triplicate or even more is taking you away from the key job. I see it happening now with the GP's (General Practitioners) who, from being ordinary doctors, have to start being businessmen and women, meeting targets and account for many audits. And then they wonder why they are becoming so stressed and the patients complain they do not spend time enough on them?
I read Javaprisnor about his father Charles and found it a good story. I agree that the kali was and still is used for all purposes, even the bodily functions, though they always make sure they do these off stream from the other functions, like laundry, washing themselves and washing vegetables. I expect when you are only going to a country to fight or even on holiday for a short time, you are not always aware why the native population does certain things. In the West we always have preconceived ideas, which are not always correct!
Have you read one of the latest stories yet, by Cousinann - story is 'Ann, dear', about her mother and herself just when the Japs entered Burma. Very well written. It made me think how strong and brave the mothers of very small children had to be, like my mum; and how sheltered a live I have been living!
About foreign words not being allowed: I had quite a few Malayan words in my three stories, but they are immediately followed by a translation. Sometimes these are a must to get the flavour of the story, I think, or to enrich it.
Maybe it is not allowed in the correspondence, like the few sentences in Dutch we have written. I expect they want to make sure that everything could be seen by everybody and that no inappropriate things are being written. They have to be careful after all.
About not being able to write about after the war - some of the stories would be very relevant, especially how the war had probably affected people, like the horrible nightmares my mother had for years and years. She once had to see a dentist and he gave her laughing gas and when she was coming to he said to her: 'komt u maar'.
She kept on shaking her head violently and saying 'no, no!' Apparently in her mind she was back in a queue waiting to have a tooth pulled in the camp (without any anaesthetics) and when the next person's turn came they were saying: 'komt u maar'.
Any loud noise startles my mother inordinately, also a leftover from the war.
I expect they have to draw the line somewhere. They have not removed everything this researcher has written, surely? That would be sad.
I had better finish now, another volume written!! By the way, your previous reply was received twice!!
Bye for now
regards
Rob
听
Message 7 - Hands-on nursing
Posted on: 23 July 2004 by ODYSSEY
Rob, I just found a letter from you that I never knew existed.
You write about all the paper work iinvolved in nursing( M.D.'s too) It is the same in Holland.We say the hospital is run by managers and the more meetings the better.It is the same here but I think there is a tendency to change it.My daughter in law is in a "new"profession :"Nurse Practitioner", she does about the same work as an M.D. even can write prescriptions,admit patients to a hospital etc.It was fought tooth and nail by many M.D.'s but when they hire aN.Pr. they see what a good thing it is and they come around.
You read Javaprisnor.
No, I have not read the story by Cousinann.I'm often stumped:How to find all the stories.
I just read a story from Frank about our Queen.It was to Hans Gramps????dated 14 April.
I just found it.
I also discovered that the correspondance we had stopped being printed after #20??-I believe-.Can't figure out what is going on.If you have more info,please let me know.
Love Josephine.
听
Message 8 -
Posted on: 24 July 2004 by anak-bandung
Hi Josephine, see my reply re the 'missing' messages under 'anak bandung!!'. It gets a bit confusing all these different posts!
love, Rob
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