Driving below sea level (possibly living there too)

One of the very unique parts of living in Holland is the fact that much, if not most, of the country is land that has been stolen from the sea. They call it re-claimed land, but it you can’t reclaim something that never belonged to you in the first place, which is actually what they’ve accomplished in doing. This is a fact that I’ve been aware of since my living here, probably even before that. It’s very interesting. But even in knowing that fact of life it’s very easy to forget it or let it slip the mind because you don’t necessarily see the evidence of it, besides the many canals and sloots, but even that is easy evidence to overlook.

Last weekend I went to Friesland, the northernmost part of the country. It is a very different province from all of the other provinces because Friesland has its own language and culture. The houses may look like typically Dutch farmhouses, but it’s the inside, the people that are very different. Dutch people are very stubborn people. Friesian people are about ten times more stubborn. It is quite amazing. And for all my Berlin/Canadian people, the best way to describe the relationship that Friesland has with Holland, I believe, is to compare it to the relationship between Quebec and Canada. If that is an unfair comparison I’m sure that Benjamin will let us all know.

Despite the stubborn quality of the Friesians I enjoy their company very much. Maybe I enjoy it because of their stubborn quality. Of course, to not enjoy their company would cause me to not enjoy life because I live with a Friesian, Benjamin’s mother is Friesian, and I’m often in family get-togethers that are well populated by Friesians. If I’m not careful, I might begin to adopt the Friesian habits, along with the Dutch ones.

Anyway, back to the evidence of the land stolen from the sea by the Dutch peoples. I went to Friesland and was able to see clearly that evidence. It started out with the flat land. Of course, the entire country is pretty darn flat. But the land that we were driving through on the way to Jack’s parents was incredibly flat. And there were very few trees. And all the trees that were there were in perfectly straight lines. I know that generally you can see forests that have two straight rows of trees to hide the chaos behind, but it wasn’t like that where we were driving through. ALL of the trees were in straight and tidy rows. It was also easy to see that the land was intentionally well spaced and divided between the farms there. It was quite nice.

The most impressive evidence started out as a dike, causing me to be able to see absolutely nothing to the left of our vehicle. I stared at it for a long time hoping to catch a glimpse of what was on the other side but finally had to give up. I asked Danielle what was there and she said, “water”. Hmmm…interesting. Who’d have thought that water would be on the other side of a dike? Well, I waited patiently to see if I’d be able to eventually see it (not that I had a huge choice in that because we were sitting in a car, going at high speeds on the highway, and I was definitely well wedged between two children’s seats containing the twins). My mandatory patience paid off when we had to head up an overpass, which ended up being higher than the dike and afforded us a breath-taking view.

There I was, looking over a very tall dike. And I saw water! She was right. There was water, and a lot of it. And on the water were hundreds of sailboats (this is not an exaggeration). Looking to the right side I also saw more water and still more sailboats, likely numbering in the hundreds, also. It was beautiful. And then, surrounding the water was land (I couldn’t see the land on the side furthest away from me, but just over the bridge was obviously going to be land…amazing, isn’t it?). And then beyond the land was a canal. It was a good-sized canal. And then I noticed that the water in the canal was higher then the farmland on the other side of the dike that holds the water in the canal. What a funny sight! Water higher than the land around it! Evidence of the Dutch thievery that gave them enough room for them all to live!

This evidence was, and is, actually very amazing to me. I think it’s wonderful how God gave human beings the ability to think up these extraordinary ways to shape what’s around them so that they can have room to survive. Yes, the Dutch are an impressive people. Everybody should meet at least one Dutch person (though more than one Dutch acquaintance at a time might be a little much for some. Hee hee).