A Journey Through My Life Experiences and Lessons

Dear friends and visitors,

Eric Smaling along the historic canals of Amsterdam.

Welcome to my website. It may be a bit weird to mount a personal website at the age of 68, as my demise is much closer than the start of my career. Being from The Netherlands where it is a virtue to be ‘normal since that is crazy enough’, it was never my plan but my Kenyan friends convinced me that my life has been sufficiently interesting to justify a website. And since I love them so much, I can of course not refuse. Without Emmanuel Bosire and his brother Isaac, this would never have materialized. So I hope you enjoy it, and leave feedback for me and also Emmanuel so we can improve further or make it (even) more interesting and lively.

It is nice to look back on your own life through this website, because that is actually how it feels. However there are so many people who played a role in my life or are still doing that who are not featuring in the stories and the gallery. All the close friends I have come to know through chess, for example, of basketball and football. And former colleagues from secondary school, Wageningen, PhD students, and projects in Africa.

I plan to write short stories here every few weeks about things that keep me busy, that worry me, and that make me happy. I hope you will stay tuned.