Nadja Ensink-Teich’s daughter was only 11-days-old when she received the news of the death of her husband, Dr Jeroen Ensink, who had not even met their daughter, Flear, at the time.
He was stabbed to death, a tragedy that would put a stop to their planned travel through Asia and Africa to continue her husband’s development projects for the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Six years later an advert for a fully equipped overlander Land Rover in Cape Town sparked the widower’s year-long quest to travel the south and east of Africa visiting projects and people her husband once worked with. She hopes the journey will also bring her daughter, now 6 years old, closer to the father she never knew.
“And, sometimes something pops up and you know you’ve got to go for it. So I bought it,” said Ensink.
The Land Rover, affectionately known as “Randy”, is fitted with tents, a kitchenette, solar panels, a water tank – everything needed for survival on the road. They will also be travelling with a female friend who is also bereaved and has worked in Africa before.
She and her daughter will begin their long and adventurous journey from Cape Town. Their travels will take them through Africa for a year as they make their way to Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, visiting some of her husband’s projects.
During their travels, she hopes to put the spotlight on the LSHTM Joroen Ensink Memorial Fund which aims to support students from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia who are committed to improving public health in developing countries and wish to undertake the MSc Public Health for Development course.
She says she will also be honouring a promise she made to herself when her husband died, to live life the best she can for her daughter as she knows life can stop at any second.
The mother and daughter duo are no strangers to adventure travelling, they spent months travelling in south-east Asia following the exhausting process of her husband’s inquest. It was during this time that she found the inner strength to confront her grief and overcome challenges. She also got very sick and had to rely on the help of strangers while debilitated in Cambodia, a moment that revived her trust in people.
Nadja has also written a book which will be published in September about her personal experience. The book is called ‘Dag lieverd, tot zo’ – which means “Bye love, see you soon” – a beautiful title considering that these were the last words to her husband before he was killed.
She says it was a very emotional journey which saw lots of tears. “I hope people can relate to it, so they too can see there is a life worth living.”
About her lockdown experience, she said it was frightening, “The support network I had after Jeroen died, which is crucial in the healing process, just melted away. You can’t see anyone, you can’t hug anyone.
Online tutoring during lockdown made it clear to her that her daughter, who speaks three languages would not be missing out on school. “I was stopping myself with all these excuses that I shouldn’t and couldn’t do this. And it came back to: ‘I’m going to stop thinking of obstacles, and think of opportunities’. Lockdown has shown just what is possible.”
According to Nadja, when Jeroen died he was facilitating a project in Malawi and the couple had plans to live there for a couple of years. This journey with her daughter is recreating that dream in her own way. “A year is ambitious, but that is the plan,” she said.
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Pictures: theguardian.com
