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.
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