I'm now in Den Haag again enjoying the hospitality of my sister Mia and her boyfriend Jan Peter. I have the house all to myself because they're busy with working on their new house. Last week I was in A'dam and in Zaandam visitin some old friends. My dear friend Aafke had a baby girl. Her name is Yahrah Naughingi and she is named after an ancient african queen.


                                            Aafke and Yahrah

In Zaandam I was quite lucky because there was some squatting action and I went along to help. It was like in the old days again when I used to live there. We squatted two houses and it all went well, the police didn't give us a hard time. The houses were in quite good condition and now there are people happily living in them. I also made a nice biking trip on a sunny sunday along the Zaan river from Zaaandam to Wormerveer. It was nostalgic to see all the zaanse green houses and windmills again.

            
                                 windmill in Koog aan de Zaan

This week there was supposed to be the four day marches in Nijmegen, which is in the eastern part of the Netherlands. In this event people walk 40km everyday for four days, so total is little over 160km. I have participated succesfully in this event six times before. Tuesday 18.7. was the first marching day. We started walking at 4.45 in the morning. The weather was extremely hot all day, more than 30 degrees. Drinking enough water was the most important thing. I didn't have any problems until we reached 30km. After that I started to get blisters and heat rash all over my feet. I had the red cross tape my feet so that I could continue.  Not everyone survived the walk as well as my group did. From the 48 000 participants 2 died, 50 were hospitalized and 300 were treated because of the heat. Because of the extreme conditions the organization of the marches decided to cancel the whole event. I guess it was the wisest decision considering the circumstances.