Chapter 55 - Aap Noot Mies
The next morning Martin and Louisa were startled from their pleasant dreams by a crying baby. Their reaction was understandable, because it sounded so different! Plus, James rarely woke up crying, he usually just woke up quietly and started to babble with his toys. At about the same time, Louisa and Martin realized that it was not their son who was crying, but Martinus' and Lisa's son Harry.
They looked at each other and smiled, while stating that indeed, James was happily cooing and exercising his voice. Martin reached for his watch and saw that it was six thirty in the morning. He turned around and took his lovely wife in his arms for a cuddle.
"Louisa, are you happy with the plans for today? Feeling confident about leaving James in the hands of Martinus' aunt?, he asked her softly.
"Oh yes, Martin, she looks like a quite capable woman, just like your own Aunt Ruth. You never feel worried when she is looking after James, do you?
"Nooo, of course not, she has perfectly learnt how to take care of James and he likes being with her.."
"Well don't worry about Martha then.. She will manage. And anyway, you'll be at the surgery, so you'll be there should there be a problem.. Which won't be the case, with our well behaved healthy son. Let's just enjoy the day and the company of our friends".
After a couple of minutes, Louisa said, "As for the plans of the afternoon, I guess we'll have to see if we really want to go to the castle. I think I'd prefer to see the mill. We can't do both, so what's your preference, Martin?".
Martin nodded in agreement, he also preferred to see the mill, although it would mean that they should leave the car of James longer in the hands of their friends. "If we go during James' naptime, it would be good to go and see the mill", he concluded.
They enjoyed their quiet moment together and listened silently to their son's happy sounds for a while. Then Louisa said a bit hesitantly,
"You know Martin… I have loved these holidays together with you and James and so much has happened. I feel that we have really come so much closer… We have really become a family now, haven't we?"
She looked at Martin questioningly and saw what she saw more and more often, his softened look in an open face, stripped of its usual frown. Martin stroke her cheek with the back of his hand and simply answered, "yes".
Louisa continued, "I believe that I am saturated now, I don't think I could handle much more cultural novelties. I'm glad we are going home tomorrow. Although there are many other places in this country that I would love to see, like Delft with its blue China, Gouda famous for the cheeses and candles, Utrecht and its lovely surroundings, Den Haag… But for now it's enough. If it were for me, I would love to go straight home tomorrow and not do an overnight stop after the ferry.. I start missing our village, our home and our friends there…".
Martin didn't reply immediately. He still could hardly imagine that one would look forward to the moronic bunch of villagers, but he had learnt that he shouldn't say that out loud.
"Let's see how the journey progresses tomorrow, shall we? If James can handle it, we could go straight home, if that makes you happy. But safety first, so if we get too tired to drive alternately, then we will stop somewhere half way between Dover and Port Isaac."
The smile his wife gave him was enough to conclude that it would make her happy indeed. He pulled her a bit closer and kissed her to seal the deal. Then, he freed himself from her embrace to get ready for the day. He looked forward to the strong espresso that Martinus had promised him.
About thirty minutes later, the whole little family came down the stairs to join their hosts in the kitchen for breakfast.
Both Martin and Louisa saw that, compared to their own strict early morning routines, the Elzenbosch family still seemed to be in the chaotic phase the Ellinghams had overcome in the last few months, after Martin's therapy and Louisa's engagement to adjust a bit more to their mutual needs.
Louisa was right, Martin thought, we did come closer together these past two weeks. Not only on an intellectual and emotional level, but also in our daily routines. He hoped that it would sustain, that they wouldn't slide back into the stress and disorderly chaotic mornings they had before. He resolved to make sure that Louisa would get up on time and go to work well before the start of the school. He knew by now that Louisa didn't mind him cleaning up her things lying around, provided he didn't lecture her on hygiene and tidiness after doing so. He also knew that in a household with a small child, things couldn't be as sterile as he might have liked, since there would always be toys and other baby things around and he had to accept that as well.
The smell of freshly brewed strong coffee announced a good start of their last full day in the Netherlands and Martin was looking forward to join his confrere in his morning surgery. Louisa was similarly excited about her participating in the morning class at the local primary school.
They enjoyed a typical Dutch breakfast with bread and cheese and jam and a delicious fresh fruit salad that Martinus had prepared. Martin missed his soft boiled egg and soldiers, but he understood that it wasn't part of the local culture to breakfast with eggs and toast on a week day. It appeared to be reserved for the quiet Sunday morning family breakfast. Anyway, Martin contented himself with the hot strong espresso that Martinus had prepared in exactly the way he liked it.
"Ready to meet the villagers, Martin?", Martinus asked. "I am pretty sure that the waiting room will be packed during the walk-in consultation hours".
"Do you mean that they can come to you without an appointment?", Martin returned the question.
"Yes, between eight and nine", Martinus answered. "A lot of surgeries don't do this anymore, but I believe that if you give the patients the opportunity to walk in, they seem to understand better the need of making an appointment at other timeframes of the day. Especially people reluctant to make appointments because they have to call the surgery, come more easily without an appointment… with the positive side effect that they come to see me before the medical situation gets too bad to be treated."
Martin was intrigued, and inquired "I saw on the surgery door that you have a restricted number of opening hours. How can you manage to give all medical support, if the GP isn't available for them twenty-four seven?"
"Are you available day and night, Martin? When do you spend time with your lovely family then?", Martinus teased him, but he added quickly "They still bang at my door at evenings and nights here too. And of course we have a duty of care, so I will help them if there really is a medical emergency. But most of the villagers know that they have to call the so called 'huisartsenpost', the GP-support at the hospital in Raalte when the local surgery is closed. The GPs in the region, including myself, take part in the evening and weekend shifts. It's a system that works well. But don't forget that the distances between villages and towns here in the Netherlands are much smaller than it is in the United Kingdom, so maybe such a system could only work in the bigger urban areas, in your country."
While discussing, the two men stood up from the breakfast table and walked to the surgery downstairs. Martinus had been right, the waiting room was packed with villagers. Martin thought they were quite similar to the ones in Portwenn. He could distinguish a person like Bert, another one looked like a similar pretender as Chippie Miller and even a lady with a neck brace had shown up.
With a synic "Nou we zijn behoorlijk populair vandaag! Allemaal weer last van een mysterieus buikgriep virus? Weer met vuil bronwater bezig geweest, Bert?" *), Martinus greeted the crowd.
"This is Dr Martin Ellingham, he is joining me today in the surgery. Everybody who isn't afraid of getting a double diagnosis can stay. All others, especially all persons without a genuine medical complaint, get out! NOW!" Martin and Martinus stood next to each other at the entrance of the examination room.
Kim, the receptionist, stifled a laugh. The two grumpy faces were too funny. She regretted that she hadn't her cell phone ready to make a quick snapshot, but Tinus was very strict, no use of a private cell phone was allowed… She had to conclude that that was her own fault.. He instituted the measure after she had taken a picture of her employer, sleeping on the kitchen floor, with a local stray dog in his arms..
Half of the crowd stood up and left the waiting room and the surgery. After all, they had seen enough of the other doc. If they were honest, that one looked even more stern and grumpy than their own Tinus. Best not to get in his way…
Martinus invited the first patient to come through. As formally required, he first asked if it was OK that his English colleague would assist to the consultation. The patient agreed by shrugging his shoulders, thinking that the English guy wouldn't understand a word of what he would be telling the doc anyway.
Martinus asked the patient a few questions and was about to make his diagnosis regarding the red rash he had around his waist.
"Shingles", Martin spoke out loud. "Probably had a very mild degree of chicken-pox when he was small".
"Exactly!", Martinus said, a little astonished by the quick and accurate diagnosis done by his friend. The patient nearly fell from his chair. "Hoe kan hij dat weten, spreekt hij soms Nederlands?" **)
Martinus simply explained, that observing a patient was just as important as listening to them. Then he wrote him a prescription for a soothing cream and advised the patient to go home and rest. "Volgende patient!" ***)
The rest of the morning consultations were processed in a similar way. Sometimes the two doctors discussed briefly about a case. Patient after patient came out of the examination room telling Kim that it was really weird to see those two doctors working together. "It's like they are twins", one of them remarked.
All in all, Martin had a very interesting morning. He and Martinus were even able to discuss the feasibility of Martin's plans to reorganise his own surgery, by combining his practice with the one in Delabole. Martinus thought that the way he was working currently with the other doctors in the area, had been born from a similar idea to join forces and to have proper shifts at nights and in the weekends, so he encouraged his British friend to go on with that plan.
"I'm sure it will work out Martin. Your training and coaching skills have always been acclaimed in all medical journals, so your locum, Dr. Brown will get the opportunity to become a very good doctor, in this process!"
Martin's ear tips reddened, he still wasn't good at receiving compliments. "Well.. we'll see", was all he could think of as an answer.
In the meantime at "Basisschool Aap Noot Mies", Lisa inaugurated Louisa in the Dutch school system. The name of the school referred to an old learning method in the Netherlands.
At the time, children were initiated into reading, with the help of a wooden board on which seventeen images were printed. It came with a small box with different letters. The pupils had to form the words underneath the images with them. Several generations have learnt how to read, with the "aap, noot, mies"-board.
In the early eighties of last century a new method has been developed. From then on, the first words you learnt were "maan, roos, vis", moon, rose fish..
In the hallway of the school, a poster of the old reading-board could be found. Louisa soon understood that aap means monkey, noot stood for walnut and mies must have been the name of the cat used in the reading method. Lisa confirmed her theory. She told Louisa, that the board was the start of a complete method. After practically learning by heart the words on the board, the system consisted of several books of increasing difficulty. It would lead the children until year five or six until they would have had all stories about the three children, Wim, Jet and their little sister Zus. The new method was totally different and gave the teachers more opportunities to teach the children to read with several different themes and storylines, which Lisa considered way more motivating.
They had come to the school a bit earlier than Lisa usually did, because she wanted to give her friend a tour around the school. The class rooms looked nice, with a lot of light and nicely decorated with drawings, paintings and crafts in the theme of the Season, Spring. It was captivating to see that with the same theme, the kindergarten kids expressed themselves with simple water coloured undefined drawings, whereas some of the older children had made real pieces of art. It was clearly an important part of the education.
In one of the classrooms, there had been a totally different approach. There, the children had built beautiful Spring scenes out of Lego bricks. Louisa was thrilled when she saw it. Lisa explained that the school had subscribed to a program called Lego Educations and the team had even followed a workshop on how to work with the material.
"The children are stimulated to use their imagination, but they also acquire knowledge about how to build a strong construction. Learning how to share and how to work together is also part of the project. I am really glad we could free the budget to buy the boxes". Louisa took plenty of notes and asked Lisa to send her relevant links to the websites, because she thought it could be a good project for Portwenn's Primary as well.
"The material is strong, it can be used many, many times without breaking and it is also an opportunity for children of parents with a smaller budget to enjoy the marvel of the Lego brick system", Lisa added.
A bit before eight thirty, the school's hallway got more and more crowded. Louisa was astonished to see so many mothers and also fathers accompanying their offspring into the class room. Although much less, there were even a few mothers bringing their children into the class room of Lisa's year eight.
"Wow", Louisa said, "Frankly, I am glad that we don't have the parents in the school building at rush-hour every morning! I would be afraid of not getting rid of them when the bell rings.."
Lisa laughed and replied,
"Well, I think that a certain visitor brought some extra attraction to the parents of year eight, Louisa. Normally the children of this age don't want their parents to come with them anymore. And that's good, because they are in the last year of primary school. Some of them will need to bike to Gorinchem or Raalte next year on their own, to go to secondary school. In the Netherlands, no one ever brings his or her child to secondary school. And I know from a friend who has lived in Belgium that there, it is perfectly normal to bring your son or daughter to school, even if they are approaching their finals!"
"Different country, different culture indeed", Louisa replied and then she joined Lisa in greeting the kids, which, according to the local habits, was done by means of a handshake and "Goedemorgen, juf" ****).
Year eight had a very pleasant morning, nearly entirely spent with an extraordinary English lesson. Louisa was positively surprised by the level of English these children already mastered.
"They start at the age of 4 with the "Early bird" program", Lisa explained, "So they have English lessons right from the start. Once they are able to read well, they can follow movies and television series in the original language, because everything is subtitled here and not dubbed".
"But don't you think they have more difficulties in learning their own language, Dutch? Aren't they mixing things up?", Louisa wanted to know.
"Well, maybe, but it is a little bit too early to know what the consequences are on the long term. This program started maybe ten years ago, so the children that started with it, are probably still finalizing their education. The positive effect is that they lose the fear of expressing themselves in a foreign language".
Louisa agreed with that and told her about the two young children they had earlier in their holidays. "I think they were even younger than your pupils here", she said, "but I think they were benefitting from a lot of extra information given by their parents and grandparents. Which, like we have been told at university, is so good for children's development, but which sadly can't be given by all parents".
The children asked her all about England and about her own class back in Cornwall. The boys wanted to know all about sports and football clubs, whereas the girls were more interested in the local pop-groups and music idols. Louisa also asked them about their hobbies and favourite music, because she was sure that her own class would also be curious about the Dutch peers.
At noon, the class was dismissed for the lunch break. Some of them went home and were expected to be back at one thirty, but most of them stayed at school and were soon taking out their lunch boxes. It was another new experience for Louisa to see that the children were eating in the classroom. "Canteens aren't part of our culture", said Lisa. On Louisa's question who was looking after them while they were having their lunch, Lisa answered "Usually, I am eating my lunch together with them and after that we go outside for some playtime and exercise in the school yard. But today, I asked one of the volunteering mothers to take care of it. Let's get home and have lunch!".
Louisa agreed and after having thanked the children for the entertaining morning, they both left the classroom under a loud "Goodbye miss!" from the entire class.
To be continued – hope you enjoyed it
In the Netherlands, the primary school systems consist of 8 years. You start on your 4th birthday (or soon after that) in group 1 and you end at 12 in group 8. Group 1 and 2 are the equivalent of pre-school classes in other countries. Children start reading and writing etc. in group 3, when they are 6 years old.
*) Well we're pretty popular today! Do you all suffer from another mysterious stomach flu virus? Been busy with dirty spring water again, Bert?
**) How can he know that, does he understand Dutch?
***) Next patient!
****) Good morning, miss!