::: From Joyce :::

Halewijn, I still remember the first day we met, gosh I found you so proud and so sure of yourself, only years later to discover that you thought the same about me. Never at one time did I ever think, we could have a life or family together. And yes, it did happen and 20 years of our life together have been the best I could ever have dreamt for. You have been and will always be the love of my life.

You were my teacher, my mentor and my hero. I have learned so much from you. You coached and guided me all these years and, you have made me who I am today. Your advices always came in handy when I needed them most.

I am not sure if I will ever find another you [Halewijn] on this planet because you were a very, very special person and will always be.

Ngalivia, Jalida and l know that, if we were given another chance, we would still choose you as a father and a husband. Our life is empty without you but we hope that your spirit will continue to guide us through these tough times ahead of us and in the future. There is so much we would have wanted to share with you, all the plans and the dreams...

You lived your life to the fullest, a life well lived. You loved being in the African bush, in nature, being with local people sharing yours and their life experience with them. You loved building boats and navigating through waters, building safari trucks among others and driving them too, to design safari programs and to guide/host, name it. You were a jack of all trades. What more would I have wished for you?

Meanwhile, I hope to continue to carry on with your/our charity work, to support children from underprivileged families realize their education, in their upkeep and so forth, here in Kenya and beyond our borders. I know very well that was your wish and I promise to do so.

Motorbikes will always remain something special in our lives. You travelled extensively through Africa and Europe and, we know you really, really loved those moments. Ngalivia and Jalida wish to carry on this mantle on your behalf as I guess I am a bit aged for this.

When the time is right and we have realized your dream book, we shall send it to you, so please remember to sms or email us your new postal address. We know, where you have gone, there is no pain, no sorrow, no hunger and so forth. We hope and anticipate meeting again, when we shall read and discuss this book together.

Halewijn, till we meet again, thank you for being in our lives, our hearts and our souls. We miss you dearly and will always love you.

Rest in peace, my love.

>::: From Jalida and Ngalivia:::

Thank you all for being here.

I am Jalida and here is my sister Ngalivia. Halewijn was my father and as we read this text we will refer to him as paps because that is how we called him.

When my sister told me over the phone that my father had passed away, all I could hear in my mind was a voice saying my papa was dead. What started coming to my mind and what I remembered, and the most scene that really really flashed was when I was 13 and my sister was 10 and my father was in Lake Turkana he would write to us letters and I have these letters here. He would write them by hand and he wrote two identical letters for my sister and I each time. I would see him sitting by the light of the torch with mosquitoes biting him as he wrote this letter to us. My Father, I and my sister all spoke in French and so these letters were written in French but I have translated it in English and I will read it to you. It was written on a Thursday evening in Kalokol.

“Dear Jalida and Ngalivia I have written a beautiful card. I am happy that you are on holiday and you are going to ciuciu and guka, learn all the Kikuyu. At the end of July you will come to Turkana for ten days to do a safari and then I will drop you to Longoloni. I am happy that you are on holiday.  Pap is very busy and mum also. We are working very hard so that we can have a better life together. Remember pap loves you very much. Big kiss. Bye bye. ps. Hug your mum really tight for me…”

Ngalivia - My sister and I have led a life different from most. When others would travel to Europe we traveled for 16 hours to see my father in Turkana to see my father. That is where paps thought he belonged and sharing with us made it special place. We spent our time traveling in desert as well as other places. One story come to mind, we were traveling through Mago park in Ethiopia and it was raining heavily, the roads were covered in black cotton soil. We kept skidding and sliding on this slimy muddy road yet he seemed to be so well in control and that moment I thought how it was amazing to have such a dad and at that moment he was my hero.

As we grew older we spend less and less time in Turkana and we saw him less and less as he was busy working hard to keep us in school. Yet whenever he was home we shared moments of laughter and happiness.  A funny story was when we were traveling from Turkana to Nairobi with him. My sister and I was still quite young. I had stopped him to go water the nation behind the bush as I walked back to the car he suddenly drove off and I was so scared and so confused and started crying. After waiting for two minutes, I decided to walk back to the road and there he was laughing and I was crying. It was so embarrassing but yet it was a memorable moment. 

As most of you knew my father could be stubborn and hard headed. I think sometimes he believed he knew everything. One story comes to mind. We had just bought a new boat and my father still believed he could sail after 30 years of lack of training and so my father and I went on a sailing spree on Lake Turkana It did not go as planned when a sudden gust of wind overturned the boat and the heavy mast sank under the water. My father had forgotten to tie a rope properly to the top of the mast. So we were floating in the middle of crocodiles while we waited for the wind to push the boat to the shore so we could lift it back up.  My father never sailed again but he always encouraged us to be as adventurous as he was and never to give up.

Most of all my father was a caring and a generous man, he always tried to help those in need. He tried to find the balance between tradition and the evolving world. I just want to say my mum and dad have given me the life I have ever dreamed off and I would never want anything to be any different. Even though in the last year I have been a kichwa ngumu (hard head) but I take the time to say "I love you paps and I would miss you dearly”.

Jalida - My father and I did not always actually get along. We were quite different had different philosophies on many things. But when he was in town he would ask me let’s go have coffee or lets go talk or let’s go watch a movie. This summer when I came to town my father and I went to have a coffee and we talked about many things, we talked about his youth, friends, parents and what I saw in my future. At that moment we had found peace and decided to stop fighting. Wherever he is I know he believes we had found peace.

We had shared many special moments with my father and we had the priviledge to travel with him discovering new worlds.  My father encouraged as to pursue our dreams and said what boys could do, so could girls. He always had away of speaking to us since we were a young age as though we were his equals. I cannot recall one moment pap laid a finger on us.

To help understand better I will tell you one story where my parents’ philosophy of raising my sister and I was different from other parents. Paps came to pick us from school and I and my sister had our bags full of candy and my father wanted to know where it came from.  We told him we had found the money on the floor. When we reached home our parents called us in the room and in the next hour we were to think what we had done. Our parents thought if they did not give us money, after that he gave us pocket money each week. There way of thinking was that “if we give our daughters money, chances are that they will not steal" They were such an example and we learned to be independent at a young age. But if ever we had a problem they were always there for us with an open my mind and never judging.

My father and showed a passion for books. It was a way of charging our batteries. I remember there was no subject he did not know about. When we could go to the movies, contrary to what one would think, it was my paps like an eager child little child who initiated the craving. One special moment was when I was 13, I broke my leg at school and my father had to take me to hospital. My father came to kneel in front of me and told me to hop on his back before getting into the car. I would never forget that moment; we have never bonded like that time. As difficult as my father was, he showed his gentle side and he loved to give hugs.

Wherever my father is he knows each moment we feel loss, the only way is to take each day as it comes when the future seems so bleak. He knows he will be missed but mostly you know how much we love you.

Bye bye pap.