September 10th: The Big Day
Good day. Today is September 10th. The big day has arrived: time to pick up the Land Cruiser again. For that, my friend Rene from my Suriname time was invited to lunch in Groningen and he took me up on that. That meant he had to drive me from Zwolle to Groningen first. Fortunately, everything worked out like a charm. Rene and I have traveled quite a bit together.
Lunch in Groningen
Once we made it to Groningen, we had lunch and picked up all the conversations about the upcoming big event on Saturday, September 20th. This reunion is with the Suriname crew, of which we were both part. It’s part of the Trist, the Truppen in Suriname moving forward.
Reflecting on Suriname
November 25th will mark 50 years since Suriname became independent. Interestingly, that is also the day Rene, I, and the rest of the group left Suriname because our job was completed. The Netherlands was no longer responsible for protecting Suriname, as we had trained them to do it themselves. Suriname is about 4–5 times the size of the Netherlands, roughly the same size as Washington State, but mostly covered in jungle.
This history explains why one of the tabs at the top of the website is called Suriname. It links to a YouTube video I made in 1974–75, which is one hour and 38 minutes long. The video is in Dutch, with limited spoken words and plenty of background music. It has an old look, naturally, since it’s 50 years old.
Picking Up the Land Cruiser
Rene dropped me off at the Gerarjevant Norden, where the Land Cruiser has been stored since I dropped it off in late April. The team there has completed the necessary repairs and preparations diligently. They’ve done an amazing job so far. I also got all new tires, so I won’t need to order them in Africa. I might still need one or two in the future, but that’s manageable ahead of time.
Planning Camper Modifications
I made my way to Grotehost, a small town west of Groningen, to meet with a contact who builds campers. They weren’t available to help me directly, but they allowed me to use their tools to make modifications myself. In a way, that’s even better. I’ll be reporting back in the next episode on how that’s progressing.
Closing Thoughts
Thanks for following along with my journey. Stay tuned for the next update!
