17 June 2010

It was another normal day, but the only difference was I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to start off with some pending office work and the regular morning activities. A strong coffee kept me going through the early morning hours. It was around 7:30 AM when I decided to start my regular journey of travelling from Zeist,Netherlands to Amersfoort,Netherlands by my bicycle. Zeist is where I live in an first floor appartment and Amersfoort is where I work.The distance is around 12 kilometers approx. I was ready with my bicycle shorts and T-shirt. I have travelled the stretch for more than 2 months only with the exception that I have been starting early to office that particular week.

In Netherlands, there is a specific red coloured cycle path where big motor vehicles are not allowed and it is exclusive for cyclists and very light motor vehicles. At times when there is a intersection/crossing needed between heavy motor vehicles and cyclists etc, there is a 'haaitand' literally translated as shark tooth ( a triangular white coloured sign) which suggests which sided vehicle has 'voorrang'(preference/priority). Normally the cyclists, who are vulnerable have preference and almost all the motoroists wait for the cyclist to cross before the cyclist sometimes shows a thumbs up sign or a wave as a friendly attitiude for giving voorrang. I am not used to this voorrang system in india, so whenever I saw big vehicles, irrespective of any voorrang I used to stop intially when I was getting used to the NL system, but then the big vehicles always stopped and asked me to pass through first. As time went by I also got used to the voorrang system.

It was around 8:15 AM and I was at the Van Lodenstein college, 3 km from Amersfoort. I see that there is also another entrance to it ( if I am not wrong ) next to a Hotel called Tulip Inn. Its a very small path to the college. I was climbing a steep slope and so there was some some extra energy needed to pedal the steep slope upwards. I saw a bus standing parallel to the cycle path ahead of me, carrying school students and it was waiting to turn right to get across to the college. It was waiting and was giving voorrang as well. There were 2 cyclists at the same time coming in the opposite direction and I was also about to cross. As soon as the 2 cyclists crossed, the driver immediately turned to the right with a bit of pace , and did not see on the right side where I was there in front . Seeing the driver turn, in a shock and to avoid a head on, I turned as well to the right . My cycle was caught in the front wheel and I was run over and thrown to the back.

The front wheel probably ran over my right thigh, my hips, surrouding areas and caused bleeding in my stomach according to the surgeons. I was fully concious and in great pain. Sometimes in great pain there are very few precious words that come out, for me it was "Jesus, I cannot bear this".

The bus came to a halt and I was under the bus and dragged myself out to find fresh air to breathe. My eyes where closed and there was a lady(may be a teacher/parent/a passer by) who put my head in her lap and made me breathe and be calm. The ambulance was called and in not more than 5 minutes I was in the first ambulance being transported to a UMC ( Universitair Medisch Centrum) Utrecht,Netherlands. The first ambulance had a flat tire and in some time I was transferred to another ambulance. I was told that in the hospital I would encounter lots of people and hence I should be prepared and not shocked. True to that, when my stretcher was brought in there were close to 30 people around me examining each part of my body and what I had broken. In some time, I was in the operation theater and introduced to the surgeon and I heard that I spoke with 2 minutes to the surgeon and fell unconcisous on my own. The first couple of days I was operated on stopping my internal bleeding in my stomach and to set my hip bones.After couple of days, was operated again to stitch my thigh muscles back , a term the surgeon called deglovement. The surgeons said they were zeer tevreden ( very satisfied) in how the operations were carried out.

Its been a month after the accident and I am recovering in de Revalidatiecentrum in Hoogstraat. I am able to be mobile in a wheelchair. I am advised not to stress my legs or stand till August 4th and after that I can begin to stand and learn walking again. My bladder and its parts are damaged as well.

I can be greatful to God in a lot of things after this accident. The stories I hear from the people who saw me first and the surgeons tell me in how much critical state I was in after the accident. I hope to recover fast and have enough patience during the time my body gets healed.

I am thankful to all the people who helped me during the accidet. The women who helped me stay calm and breathe at first, the ambulance personnel, the surgeons who operated, the doctors, the verpleegsters(nurses).

The prayers, support and the encouragement recieved during the time from the church(es) Bethel gemeente and xrds, colleagues from ASR and Infy, friends from India and Netherlands. My parents have come over and its really great. I still need to recover and its quite a long way but I am working a step everyday to be at my feet again. Life has changed completely and continue praying for me.

Living in Zeist !

Zeist is a town in the central part of Netherlands having more than 60,000 residents ( source from wikipedia ) and this is the town I am living for more than a month now.

This town is a typical dutch environment wherein you hardly see foreigners. This fact is really interesting to experience the culture and also a chance to practice talking dutch. Zeist is beautiful with many traditional churches, having a fresh atmosphere, spectacular nature with the forests and its surroundings.

I have been going to a Dutch church called "Nieuwe Kerk"for the past two weeks .It can be translated as "New Church" in English. It was a very special experience for two reasons. One was the love of God which was attractive, as always and the second one was the first time I was in an Dutch setting to hear everything in the local language. The pastor spoke slowly and thus it was easier to follow the preaching. It actually is better if the topic is quite familiar because you can relate to the topic even if there are some words that are not understandable. I was also familiar with the Biblical terminology like grace, love, compassion, sin, repentance, heaven, Lord, Cross, Creator in dutch so that helped me to connect easily with the sermon. I also carried a Dutch-English dictionary which was handy at times during the service. The best part was the evening service last week where the church was singing opwekking songs ( 'opwekking' is a commonly followed dutch gospel song collection, a lot of which are translated from well known english ones). You can google from utube and get a lot of them. Most of the songs were familiar as I have them in my iPod. It was definitely a great experience to connect and praise God there.

I am living in an apartment on the first floor in an area which is predominantly a shopping centre. My house owner who has a cloathing store below speaks only dutch. I remember having a tough time trying to explain the correct word for electric fire lighter over the telephone. It was also because my vocabulary is not that good in dutch. I used a different dutch word "brand" and started the conversation which is used for an emergency fire situation and we had a good laugh after he understood exactly what I was trying to tell him.

I am using a bicycle to travel to office as the weather is getting beautiful. I usually go to office wearing my shorts and T-shirts and take a bath at the office campus. Trust me, a lot of dutch people come to office by bycycle ( some travelling 50 kms everyday). I had fun fixing my flat tyre on a couple of occasions as well.

My work is going on good. I was selected for this project mainly because I speak a bit of dutch. It is indeed a requirement in my current project as I am projected as a dutch speaking employee :-) However I am doing my best everyday to learn it better. Everyday when I try to watch the news, dutch programs or read the bible I feel that my vocabulary is not very good enough. Practising dutch can be very tricky because a faint wierd accent or a language hiccup from your side can make the dutch try to switch in English because they want to practise it. So sometimes you find me as an Indian talking in dutch whereas a dutch person would reply back to me in English . An outsider looking at the the conversation would be confused as to who is the dutch or Indian among the two ;-)

So as the dutch say "It doesn't hurt to try" (Baat het niet dan schaadt het niet) , I keep going on...

Nou doe maar gewoon, dan doe je gek genoeg ( Just act normal, then you are acting smart enough ) explains a whole lot of dutch culture !

Wonen in Zeist !

Het is inderdaad leuk om weer terug in Nederland te zijn. Het is meer dan een maand nu dat ik hier ben.

Op dit moment woon ik in zeist en ik vind dat heel mooi. Het is niet internationaal( weinig buitenlanders) en daarom is het ook heel bijzonder om een typische Nederlands omgeving te ervaren. Zeist is prachtig met veel kerken, frisse sfeer,mooi natuur en bossen dat vind ik heel speciaal.

Afgelopen twee weken heb ik naar een Nederlandse kerk geweest. Het heette Nieuwe kerk te Zeist. Hoe kan ik nou zeggen ? 'een heel prachtige ervaring' . Allereerste was dat ik hou zoveel van God en de tweede was dat het was mijn eerste keer in een Nederlandse kerkdienst. Het dominee praat langzaam en Ik begreep meestel van de preek. Ik vind dat het beter is te volgen als de thema vrij bekend is. Nou ik weet ook de christelijke terminologie b.v. genade,liefde,ontferming,zonde,bekering,hemel,Heer,Kruis,schepper. Ik nam ook een Nederlands-Engels woordenboek mee en het zeker was handig. En het leukste was de kerkdienst afgelopen zondagavond waar opwekking liedjes waren gezongen. Ik kende meestel van de liedjes en daarom was ik heel blij mee om God te aanbidden.

Ik woon in een bovenwoning appartement en mijn verhuurder spreekt allen Nederlands. Omdat mijn woordenschat niet zo goed is,vind ik het moeilijk soms te uitleggen. Een keer ik had moeite over een vuuraansteker te praten, i.p.v vuur ik had de woord brand gebruikt en hij was verbijsterd :-) Ik kan lekker fietsen naar Amersfoort voor mijn werk en genieten van Gods liefde.

Let op: Dit is mijn eerste Nederlandse blog. Excuses als daar zit nogal wat typefouten of grammaticafouten.