Author: johannekekroesbergen

I am an anthropologist of religion and photographer, currently living in Pretoria, South Africa. I wrote my PhD-thesis on narratives about Satanism in Zambia. Currently I am preparing a new research project that uses photography as an ethnographic method. In my free time, I love hiking, safaris and enjoying nature through photography.

Texel

In October last year (you see I’m a bit behind with my photo editing…), we visited the island of Texel off the coast of North Holland. We planned to hike the first two stages of the Noord Hollandpad – a trail that winds through the whole province.

The first stage starts near the dunes and moves inland to the village of De Waal in the island’s center. It seemed a pity to be on an island and not see the sea, so we detoured to include the lighthouse and the beach. That of course meant that the already long stage became even longer…

Touring the inland of an island may be interesting when you are already familiar with all the things that make an island special, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you are new to the place, as we were. After kilometers and kilometers of dikes full of sheep (and what sheep leave behind), we were done with the trail (or trial), after a total of 24 km.

The next day my hip was so painful that we quit after 8 kilometers in the lovely town of Oudeschild. The museum and the lunchroom opposite the road were great to spend some time, and it was easy to arrange a taxi/bus to bring us back to the ferry.

Not quite the holiday we had hoped for but we had a good time!

In Touch

The more intimate the contact, the fewer handshakes – that’s what I was used to. Here, things are different. We often see people holding each other’s hands: two cleaners in the mall when one asks the other a question, or two pastors before the church service starts.

One day, shortly after we arrived in Zambia, I was in my office when a man stopped by. ‘How are you?’ he asked. I got up and greeted him with the African handshake: a handshake, then moving the palm up to hook thumbs, then down again for another handshake. ‘Are you getting used to the Zambian weather?’ he asked. ‘It’s nice and warm,’ I said, ‘It’s very different from the Netherlands.’ ‘How is the weather there?’ ‘Well, my parents just sent me a picture of the snow in their garden.’ The man laughs with surprise and shakes my hand again. ‘How are you settling in?’ I tell him that it’s strange that it’s almost Christmas and everything is green when I’m used to a cold Christmas with bare trees. He takes my hand again. After a few more words he says goodbye w ith a final handshake. 

A brief conversation – not even five minutes – but we touched each other four times. And it felt good! It made feel like my words touched him and it brought us closer together. Let’s stay in touch!

Bucket list

As we start the preparations for our move to the Amsterdam region, we also are thinking about what we will miss once we leave. So we’ve started a bucket list of things to do while we are still around. Number one for me was a visit to my favorite forest pool on the St Jansberg in Plasmolen. It never disappoints!

Other items on the list:

  • Lunch at the newly renovated castle Jachtslot Mookerheide
  • Dinner at the Plasmolense Hof
  • A visit to the Oriëntalis museum about Middle Eastern history and culture
  • A visit to the landscape museum in Berg en Dal

Painting Africa

In December last year, I hatched a crazy plan: to paint my experiences in Africa in a kind of journal style text & image paintings. I hadn’t painted in 10 years but suddenly it was like an urge to do this. Since then, I’ve been painting whenever I find time for it. It’s nowhere near perfect, but I do see improvement from the first paintings to now. Looking forward to where this journey will take me!