VINCENT 2001
My name is Vincent Patrick Veenbrink, and I was born the 13th of January
1992 in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. My story starts in the beginning of the
year 2001, when we had lived
already
for some months in Uzbekistan. Before, I already lived in Saudi Arabia, but
since I was just 2 years old when we left
that country, there is nothing I can remember. In between, I have lived in
the Netherlands.
In the picture above, you see the backside of my head and the head of my
Spanish friend Nicholas. We were playing Gameboy together.We had two
weeks of cold and snow. Our house was so cold, that we had to sleep with our
coats on. But it was fun to play outside with our sleds and make snowmen. In
Tashkent, people only clear the pavement at their front door so the snow
stays a long time.
Before we knew, the winter was already gone and a very long summer was
waiting for us. My mother did not work yet so we had lots of time to do nice
things together.That summer,
we had many friends over from the Netherlands, and we traveled all over
Uzbekistan
together. With Bas, Linda (ont he picture with us at the right hand side),
Karin en Wim we went to
Bukhara and
Khiva.
With Ingeborg and Anne, our friends from Norway, we went to
Ferghana and
Shakhimardon as well. If you click on
Shakhimardon, you can see how beautiful this place is. It is an enclave of
Uzbekistan within Kyrgyzstan, in the middle of the very high mountains that
are the last traces of the Himalaya. There are two lakes up there, the blue
and the white lake, and they actually have those colors. As you can see on
the picture, we are crossing the blue lake.
With Trea, Milco and Kirsten we also traveled all over the country and we
went to the
Tashkent lake together with
Gulya
,
our nanny, and her family,
to have picnic.
It was very very hot in those days, in the middle of summer.
Here you see me with my younger brother
Victor. He is a good friend of mine,
provided he listens to what I tell him. We are in German school together, I
am one grade higher than he, and
I
am one year and nine months older. The German school is a good place,
especially since the
lessons finish at 1.15.
So when I come home, I have time for doing things I really like. One of
those is reading Donald Duck magazines, which I am doing here. I am sitting
on the veranda of the little house that I,
Victor and
Elodie live in. My mother lives in a
separate house. She says, that like this we can make as much noise as we
want, and if we are cooled down we can come and sit with her.
