The rugged mountains, wadis and desert sand of the UAE’s eastern coast is a far cry from Holland’s canals, windmills and tulip fields. But after living in the UAE for 55 years, Fujairah is where Wilhelmina van de Weg calls home. See the full story on gulfnews.com: http://bit.ly/2Zw40wm
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Maryam, what are we doing here?
00:12Well, Ahmed, today we're in Fujairah to meet Wilhelmina van der Wey, an 87-year-old Dutch
00:19woman who lives right here in Fujairah.
00:22She's helped deliver at least one baby for every family here in Fujairah, even Kalba,
00:28Khorfakan, Masafi, and people back in the 1960s used to come as far from Oman and Iran
00:35to come and deliver their babies here.
00:37And what is she doing now?
00:39Well, nowadays you won't find her idly sitting at home, as Wilhelmina, or as she fondly likes
00:44to be known as, Minnie, likes to paraglide in the waters of Fujairah, and even zipline
00:51across the mountains in Ras Al Khaimah.
00:53So why don't we go and meet this exciting woman?
01:00There was a man, an Irish man in Al Ain who worked there, and he had written home and
01:11said, there's a great need here.
01:14You can come.
01:16And that Irish man that was the cause that we came, he went to talk to this old sheikh,
01:22Sheikh Mohammed, the father of our present sheikh.
01:26And oh yes, he wanted us very much, and so he gave us, they had two rows of white houses
01:33here.
01:34They were empty.
01:35We got a house to work in, and a house to live in.
01:38Has it ever felt homesick that you wanted to say, I give up, I want to?
01:45In the very early days when it was a difficult life, I just, I'll tell you funny, I said
01:54to God, God, you've made a mistake, I don't belong here, I want to go home.
02:01And then I said, well, if you want me here, you have to help.
02:04Because all kinds of things cropped up here that we weren't.
02:08We came as midwives, and they came with diarrhea, they came with cuts, and we had to stitch.
02:15They came with sore teeth, they came with everything.
02:18Because there was no other doctor or hospital, so we had to learn all kinds of things.
02:22And we weren't prepared for it.
02:25So but anyway, we learned, and apart from the heat, which we had to go for about one
02:34and a half, two months in the summer, we stayed here and liked it here.
02:39Now it's my home.
02:40Yeah.
02:41So you're planning to then retire here?
02:45To die here.
02:49What shall I say?
02:50I have more people I know here than at home.
02:52I can at home walk through streets and nobody knows me.
02:55I can fall down and faint, nobody will know.
03:00So in here, everyone knows me, hello, I'm alone.
03:03So this is so nice.
03:05So what is the secret of keeping so young?
03:08Young?
03:09Tell us, yes?
03:10Young in spirit, but not in body.
03:12Oh, Mashallah, you're very active also in body.
03:17I loved going to the beach and collect shells, so I've got a beautiful collection of shells.
03:23And we like to go to wadis.
03:26And so when we came and there was lots of water in the wadi, we had to get out of the
03:29car to see if the car would go on.
03:32So we came through the desert, and we had driven an hour and we felt very proud.
03:38And we came back to the same spot we started.
03:41So after that, we carried stones or empty milk tins and put it at certain places so
03:47that we recognize the road and we got used to it.
03:51If you see the two women who are stuck, you have to help them.
03:56So that was very nice.
03:58I have kind of been anywhere and everywhere.
04:01So I just liked to see nature and see different things and people.
04:07Nauseousness, adventurous spirit, I don't know.
04:09I just wanted to see, you know, the world.
04:14And so the patient said, you come from Nahua.
04:16Oh, he said, where is Nahua?
04:18So then we had to go one day to Nahua, you know, find it.
04:21I've done all kinds of silly things.
04:23I collected shells, I collected stones, I have collected old things.
04:29Yes, I've got things that I could give to the museum that the museum didn't have.
04:34Because we wandered around in the mountains and people had left their houses and left
04:37some of the old things behind.
04:40But anything special, no.
04:42I'm just an ordinary person.
04:44And I remember one time, we were so tired.
04:49Joan says, in the beginning we had no electricity, but at that time we had electricity.
04:56Close the gate, switch the bell off.
04:58And we did.
05:00But the people didn't give us rest.
05:01They took stones and threw them on our roof.
05:04The roof was chinko, you know, chinko, aluminium.
05:07And I was so glad I went.
05:08It was a lady and she had twins.
05:10So actually all this going out was later on in my time here in the beginning.
05:14Work, work, work.
05:17Kerosene that you heat, well, we had to have two burners next to each other.
05:22And then a big bowl.
05:24We had to boil a big bowl like that on it.
05:29And then we had to put the sheets up and down and up and down to wash them.
05:34So we dripped from the perspiration into the water and added to it because we were so wet.
05:41No, nowadays I'm too old.
05:46I'm very sad.
05:47My spirit wants it, but my body can't go so much.
05:51So I rest a lot.
05:52I sit a lot.
05:53I love to go out.
05:54I love to go out, but I can't walk.
05:57So you had four generations and the great-grandmother was 60, but then you had 60, 45.
06:04And so you can go on.
06:05So you had four generations.
06:07See, this is all 10.
06:12If you see here, that is Wadi Worea, where they've made a nature reserve now.
06:19It's a beautiful wadi.
06:21It was Heidi and her friends, they gave me a treat for my birthday on a boat, but I had
06:26always been seasick and I couldn't go on a boat.
06:29But I found out that with a speedboat, I'm not seasick.
06:35So we went on a speedboat and then it stopped and it said, we'll stop here because there
06:41were lots of people who wanted to dive.
06:44I had heart trouble and other things.
06:47I couldn't do that.
06:48They talked about it and I thought, well, you talk, I'll go.
06:53And so I jumped in the water and went ashore.
06:57And later on, we stopped again.
06:59Mother of pearls, yes, pearls were in and I would go collect lots.
07:05And so things like that were to me, lovely and interesting.
07:08Then you saw this beautiful formation of rock, a trip like that you enjoy thoroughly.
07:16We went into wadis and I've had flash floods, little ants shooting up and coming up the
07:23mountains.
07:24So we said, what's up?
07:25Oh, hurry, hurry.
07:27But we were on a high point, wadi was coming.
07:30I'd never seen it, but that was like a flash flood.
07:33And while we stood there, we heard, and there a big stream came pushing.
07:41You saw that water coming literally like a wall.
07:45And then this wall went forward, forward, pushed everything forward.
07:48If a car had been there, the car would have gone.
07:50And things like that you see when you go out.
07:53You see there are people in the bay and they've never seen this coast.
07:57They all see more, more, more.
08:00And there is so much to see here.
08:01There is sea, there is mountain, there is sand.
08:04Well, I like to explore and find out.
08:07I got that glide as a birthday gift for 87.
08:12That was very nice.
08:13I'd seen it often and I said, oh, that would be nice.
08:16But then others did it and I said, oh, I would have liked.
08:20They said, would you really?
08:21I said, yes, of course.
08:22Paragliding, speed boat, going to Ghassab, Ghassab on a boat, going to Jebel Akhdar,
08:32Jebel Shams.
08:33Yeah, you need to be yourself.
08:36And if something looks interesting and you want to find out, do it.
08:42Do what everyone does.
08:44Everything is so interesting in the bay and the harbour and all that.
08:48So if you are young, you need to go out and discover things.