It is July, period six is nearly over and more and more countries are ‘turning yellow’. A lot of people are making holiday plans. I am too, and that’s why I was reminded of a moment during my internship last year when I got to accompany a farmer when he was recording the vegetation on his grassland. There were three of us that day: the field birds man, the plants man and me, the intern.
It was a long way to that farm but we had all had to work at home for weeks, so it was nice to talk to other people for a change. Entire life stories were exchanged. And that’s how we discovered that the plants man and I had been in the same region of Madagascar in the same couple of weeks in 2016. What a coincidence!
After more than two hours in the car, we turned off onto the farm. We had noticed a ‘Welcome to Groningen’ sign on our route and had therefore forgotten that this farm was just within the border of Drenthe province. ‘Well, it’s a long time since I was in Groningen,’ were the plants man’s first words. ‘Drenthe,’ the farmer corrected him, ‘You are in Drenthe, not in Groningen.’
Arnemuiden, Borculo or Monnickendam… I know nothing about them, I’ve never been there
I’ve known more relaxed introductions but hey, we were here for that grass. The farmer strode across his fields and we three ran after him. I don’t remember what prompted it, but at one point I said something to the plants man about our trips to Madagascar. The farmer heard us and turned swiftly on his heels: ‘Here you are talking about trips to faraway countries and you don’t even know which province you are in!’
Then there’s my French neighbour. He’s been here a few months now, on an exchange. He visits a different Dutch town every weekend with his French friends. And when he tells me he’s been to Arnemuiden, Borculo or Monnickendam, I have to admit every time that, no, I know nothing about the place, I’ve never been there. I’m already packing my bags for a trip abroad and I’m a little ashamed of myself. That farmer had a point: how well do I know my own country?
Vincent Oostvogels (25) is in the first year of his PhD research on biodiversity restoration in the dairy farming sector. He dreams of having a few cows of his own one day.
