JOY, HARDSHIP AND BLESSINGS (page 3) by Harmina Dijk-Pesman (October 2000 ©) To the Wacol Camp From there we went to Wacol Camp and stayed there for six weeks. It was really a disappointment for us that we had to go to that camp, seeing we had been promised a house and work. But anyway, many people went through much harder times than we. So we arrived there and our home would be six weeks in a cabin with broken steps and newspaper for wallpaper on the wooden uneven planks and creaking iron beds. Our eldest daughter lay on one of them and cried her heart out with disappointment. I could not blame her and was very sad because of her. What a homecoming in our new country. But other migrants were in the same situations we realised. We had chosen to go; nobody had sent us away from the Netherlands. We faced the future and with God's help we made it! The food was good in the camp, with milk and breakfast - porridge tasted good and we made the best of it as a family. I thought, If I give up as a mother, the whole family will collapse. And they all were very brave. We made the cabin cosy with curtains for the little windows, etc., and after living there for six weeks we came through it alright. In the meantime, we were often asked out for lunch after church on Sundays. We appreciated that very much seeing it was not a small thing to have eight persons for lunch. The first Sunday my family went for lunch at the minister's place. I could not go because the first day in the camp I sprained my ankle on the broken steps. They went to church and there I sat at home, but I felt ok. They had a beautiful time with the big family of the Westeras. We became good friends and still are. We were so thankful for the love and friendship shown to us by the people of the Reformed Church. They were great! Our first car When we had bought a cleaning business it had also a car - a small brown van with broken mica windows but the motor was excellent. So there we went too church in that little ugly car with our youngest daughter sitting in the front with us and the other five ladies in the open ute, rain or shine. When we parked the car in a sidestreet close to the church a lady called out to her sons, Boys, come quickly. Here is the most ugly car with the most beautiful girls in it!. Later on they became our friends and told us the story of the ugly car and the beautiful girls. When we had that car I thought about a book that had the title "Cheaper by the Dozen" - a family who had a car like us with twelve children, a most enjoyable book. So we loved our ugly car. It brought us to new places. The people of our church thought we were brave to drive that old ugly car. Much later when we got a brand new Holden, everybody was happy for us... Hillie's imagEnation Homepage

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