Jd Jakarta to Bloemendaal      By Elina

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Jd Jakarta 1954

Markus came back from his Dutch school that he loved so much and got the most heartbreaking news. He was moving again.
“Markus hurry up we have to go now” said his dad in a gruff voice.
“Why do we have to move again?” Markus questioned
getting ignored.

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While they were walking to the port they saw people holding signs saying Go home or Get out our country, Markus also heard people shouting.
“Go away” or “We don't want you here”.
Markus didn't know about this and was shocked, he had never seen the people being so aggressive towards them. He even saw one friend of his and was confused why would he turn backs on him, they had played together. Why were they doing this, why do they not like us Markus thought.

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Once they got on the huge boat Oranje Markus saw all the white Dutch people stuffed on the deck and was push into the crowd of people as well as more people got on. As he looked around he saw in the corner his best friend Adelbert, he remembered playing with him on the school field.

Markus stood there for hours and hours doing anything he could do to entertain himself, one thing he did was standing on one foot timing himself but he stopped after a couple waves tipped him over and got annoyed looks from the people near him.

Like all other days, Markus was bored and searching for something to do. He looked around the packed boat and got a glimpse of the blue sea sparkling under the shining, bright sun.
While looking at the sea he got a idea to hang from an open window so he could see the sea more closely. As he thought it was a splendid idea he proceeded, he found an open window and walked to it and hung onto the edge.
He thought wow this is such a great view, but as he was looking his fingers were slipping lower and lower and lower. As Markus was distracted by the great view he didn't notice he was slipping until only his fingers were holding him on. Suddenly he realised that if he fell, he will fall into the sea and be stuck in the middle of sea forever. So he quickly tried to climb back to the deck but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't climb back up. But, luckily, that instant his mom saw this from the upper deck and rushed through the crowd of people and swiftly grabbed Markus’s hand right before he was going to fall. 

“Why did you do that, you could have died” shouted Markus’s mom.
“But I didn't know it was that dangerous and I just wanted to get a closer look at the sea” Markus responded.
“Who would be so stupid to do that” Markus’s mom said
“Your own son” Markus said proudly.
He was proud of himself to come up with that.
“Don't try to play smart with me Markus and what I mean is just don't do that again” Markus’s mom said
“Fine I won't” Markus said in a low quiet voice.

After three weeks on the boat they had finally reached Holland and got off the boat. Markus thought is this where my parents were born and raised, it was beautiful!
As Markus took his first few steps on Holland he suddenly realized he doesn't know how to speak Dutch and it was going to be difficult to communicate to people. He only then realised all the challenges ahead of him.
First there was learning the language. His mom and dad already spoke Dutch, but he didn’t know a word. Plus, the pronunciation was super difficult. He worked really hard and at the end of the first year he could make friends on the playground.
Then his dad had a job but luckily his dad was a amazing engineer so his dad got a job.The De Vries still had little money so they got a small house boat. Now was the biggest challenge learning Dutch, he got lessons from his mom who also knew Dutch and Markus was a slow learner so it took him one year. That year was the most difficult year of Markus’s life.