The missing Dutch girls in Panama
On March 15, 2014, Dutch students Kris Kremers (21) and Lisanne Froon (22) boarded a plane from Amsterdam to Costa Rica. They made a stopover in Houston. From San José, Costa Rica, they travelled by bus to Bocas del Toro, Panama. A boat took them to the Panamanian island Isla Colon in the Bocas del Toro archipelago. Lisanne; tall, 184 cm, athletic and just graduated from her university studies in Applied Psychology. She was born on September 24th 1991 and said to be thoughtful, intelligent, empathetic and a little bit shy. She loved the music of Coldplay and kept a diary, which she also brought along to Panama. Lisanne's brother Martijn has read passages from her diary aloud in a Dutch TV program called Break Free (if you are interested in viewing this program, scroll further down this post for an upload with added English subtitles. If you want to read the diaries, go to part 3 of this blog series). Kris, a middle child with an older brother Sjors and a younger brother Tijn, was less tall than her friend, measuring 167 cm. She had just completed her studies in cultural social education and the University of Utrecht. She had decided to study art history when she came back from Panama. She had previously done work in psychiatry, dealing with people with severe addiction diagnoses. Born on August 9th 1992, she was sparkling and extroverted; cheerful, intelligent, spontaneous and outspoken, with striking red/strawberry blonde hair, she loved theater and the artistic world. She also enjoyed festivals and music from Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She had a boyfriend in the Netherlands and kept a diary, just like Lisanne. The two friends had saved for a long time for this trip, which was supposed to be part of a gap year. They knew each other from their work in cafe/restaurant 'In den Kleinen Hap' in Amersfoort and the girls also both rented rooms in the same student house - Lisanne had in fact only started living on her own several weeks before her trip to Panama. They planned to not only sight-see around Panama, but to also do volunteer work in a local children's school* (also named a nursery or a daycare center in the media, but I will call it a children's school in this blog) and to learn Spanish. They didn't just want to go on one long holiday, but also do something for local children. In Holland they gathered money from friends and family to buy children's toys for the Panamanian kids they would teach. They would return home on April 21st. (*Kris' brother Sjors always mentioned April 29th though). Kris developed a love for South-America after a holiday in Peru with her parents. Lisanne had never travelled further than southern Germany with her parents. - [*I call kris and Lisanne often 'girls' in this blog, even though they were young women of course. But in Dutch we'd call them 'meiden', which is somewhere in between women and girls I suppose and it is a term of endearment for young women. Here I translate it as 'girls'].
Continue reading here,
where the main story continues
No comments:
Post a Comment
scarletrosacea@gmail.com