REPORT FROM THE BAKTRUPPEN CAMP KORTRIJK UNCOVER OPERATION(BACKUNCOP) 
21.08. - 07.09. 2002:
August 20th, 2002: Baktruppen arrives the battle ground of Kortrijk, Belgium, near the old theatres of World War I, II, etc. A military camp is established behind the cathedral, right in the centre of the city. From here Baktruppen will find and identify the Enemy.
The BACKUNCOP tent contains a kitchen unit, sleeping equipment and everything needed for the sanitary service.
The Enemy may be all around and deep inside. With this in mind Baktruppen wear camouflage, keep a 24h. watch on the site, and continously dig trenches; 1m deep, 60cm wide, with earthen barricades in front. By September 7th, 2002, 50m. are dug.
A lot of objects are found in the soil and brought into daylight. Covering 2000 years of war and peace, these objects are exhibited on the site.
Objects uncovered:
Human bones from the cemetery, 1203 - 1784.
Animal bones.
4 pipes. 1 app. 1650, 3 from 18th. -19th. century.
Red wares, produced locally, most of them from 16th. - 19th. century.
Slipwares from Flanders, Netherlands and Rhine Valley, 16th. - 19th. century.
Floor tile with slip, could be 14th. or 15th. century.
White faiance tiles (industrial examples), 19th. century.
Porcelain from China, 1680.
Majolica, dishes from Antwerp, 2 ex., 1575 - 1625.
Faiance, after 1620, mostly from 17th. and 18th. century.
Leien, from Meuse valley.
Leien, from Northern France, perhaps from the region of Beauvais, 1 ex., 18th. century.
Pottery, 18th. century (mangaan - oxyde glazur).
Late medieval pottery, greywares, 1250 - 1580.
Stoneware, (imported pottery),
- Langerwehe (near Cologne), 14th. or 15th. century.
- 2 ex. from Siegburg (near Bonn), 14th. - 15th. century.
- Raeren (near Aachen), 1500 - 1600.
- Westerwald, (near Coblenz), grey and kobolt blau, 1580 - 1750.
- 1 piece (mangaan), produced after 1670.
Belga x 2, coins melted together, 1830.
Jewellery; ceramic pearl.
Nails and hooks; iron.
Glass; from bottles and glasses.
Oyster shells; presumably used as toilet paper.
Column; stone, mid 19th century, height 80 cm.
Tin can.
Iron box; 40 x 30 x 30 cm, time period not yet defined.
(Dated and described mostly by M. Philippe Despriet at the historical museum in Kortrijk.)
Local civilians of all ages visit the camp at all hours. They are encouraged to support the BACKUNCOP by reporting any suspicious activity in order to identify the Enemy.
Seven times a week Baktruppen do military parades and demonstrations of discipline along with updated reports to the local civilians. European battles and highlights from the BACKUNCOP are reconstructed.
Battles reconstructed:
23.08.: The battle of Culloden, 1745, England vs. Scotland.
23.08.: The battle of Somme, 1916, Britain / France vs. Germany (1st. version).
23.08.: The battle at Stamford Bridge, 1066, the Norse vs. England.
24.08.: The battle of Argesul, 1916, Austria / Germ vs Romania.
24.08.: The battle of Azincourt, 1415, England vs. France.
27.08.: The battle of Dynekil, 1714, Denmark / Norway vs. Poland.
28.08.: The battle of Ulm, 1805, France / Bavaria vs. Britain, Russia, Austria.
29.08.: The battle of Zorndorf, 1758, Russia vs. Prussia.
30.08.: The battle of Norderhov, 1716, Norway vs. Sweden.
31.08.: The battle of Cannae, 216 BC, Carthago vs. Rome.
03.09.: The battle of Somme, 1916, Britain / France vs. Germany (2nd. version).
04.09.: The 3rd. battle of Kosovo, 1999, NATO vs. Serbia .
05.09.: The battle of Austerlitz, 1805, Austria / Russia vs. France.
06.09.: The battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43, USSR vs. Germany.
07.09.: The battle of 3rd. Ypres (Passchendaele), 1917, Allied vs. Germany.
07.09.: The battle of the Spurs, 1302, Flemish vs. French.
The Baktruppen Camp Kortrijk Troop:
India Hotel - Field Commander.
Whiskey Whiskey - Field Marshal.
Oscar Bravo - Private, Sanity.
Juliet Kilo, Private - Logistics.
Echo Bravo - Private, Liaison.
Tango Foxtrot Juliet - Private, Kitchen.
General status:
An overwhelming amount of suspicious objects, persons, situations and language have been observed and are registered in the BACKUNCOP log book. The Enemy is here. The Enemy is there. The Enemy may be invisible, but never seems to disappear.
The log:
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 1. AUGUST 21, 2002.
ON DUTY: THE BACKTROOP
Move from "school", the tower of horror, to the Hotel Damier.
15.45 - Lunch.
16.30 - Tent arrives.
17.30 - Tent is up.
17.40 - Measuring and marking of trenches.
17.50 - The digging start. Items found: ceramic pieces, glass, m.m.
18.30 - The duty is finished.
18.45 - Dinner at Limelight.
20.05 - Duty list is set.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 2. AUGUST 22, 2002.
DAYSHIFT: THE BACKTROOP
10.30 - Baktroop arrive the camp.
11.15 - Start the digging.
11.15 - Sandbags arrive.
11.45 - More sandbags arrive.
11.30 - water, fruit, biscuits and juice arrive.
13.20 - and 16.00 - more supplies arrive
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: TANGO FOXTROT JULIET / OSCAR BRAVO
Kevin got here with carpets, sleeping bags and Nepalese Whiskey (tasty malt, a little bit like Jack Daniels - same wooden aftertaste (Kevin)). Due to the war on drugs, no more mention of drugs.
He told us to be carefull with the sleepingbags, but we didn't need to care so much about the blankes.
Exit, Kevin 00.54:
At that time it was quiet . With the exeption of a drunken driver.
Afterwards: Large intakes of hot . Flaggermus. We hope to spot the white owles. It's something on the warm water. Tango soaks her teabag into it to identify it as friend or foe. We wonder if this is the Enemy.
03.:49 -Still no white owls in sight. Probably because the suspect we're the enemy.
04:00 - Still quiet, no disturbances, nothing suspiscious.
04:30 - THE MIRACLE:
through the golden leaves.
in the tiny space
right in the middle
The full moon!
Asking for permition to reconstruct, sir!
05:20 -The very first beep of the very first bird.
The cars strarts whining.
Stange activities, all around, increasing.
05:26 - Dog disipline, suspected man beating wife, in the park north east.
Identified as underdog, around 60, shouting in rude french to his mauve and black dogs of unknown genetical substance. The crueler he the frensh, the less the dogs care.
05:45 -We see through the kamouflage.
It isn't there.
Again and again.
The traffic. The engines must be getting warmer, their sound less whining.
05:52 - Strange city noise. Baktruppen keep quiet as only the enemy can, while preparing for peace. Experience: Humidity is the best friend of our foes.
Father, father, why did you let me out of the eggbox?
06:10 - The cars are getting so close that they puffs like tractors.
06:13 - We rise on all four, and observe the sun or sunrays or something like that from under underneath the eastern wall. Tango almost goes to sleep again and again. She has just checked out the calendar. First night it says for today.
06:20 - Tango moves the clock over to her bed to keep an eye time while sleeping.
06:29 - The pigeons take off. What reacently appeared tractorlike and closeby, is now nothing but muted cries in the hands of the enemy in this grey light. I don't no wheater I should put the prettiest carpet on top of or under me, I don't even know wheather they like each other or if they are enemies with me in between. Tango disappeared in a parantheses, which is bigger than estimated while establishing the camp. In the meantime I keep my eyes wide open.
06:44 - The pigeons think they rule the world. But then they forgot about us who cannot fly.
And someone is even doing the grass in the park north east.
The yellow feathered just came down now. They try to overshadow us, but we don't say a beep back.
We just let them fly up there and think they are teh enemy.
They don't fool us. The birds won't ever get us in their bull's eye.
The day won the battle of the light, but it is going to lose in the battle of the dark(ness).
This does not reduce the joy a morning like this day - I woke up as clear as coo-coo, and even before turning into sleep, the sun slipped out of the sleeping bag, and it got cold as hell.
The wings of the pigeans beat more heavely now, since light fell on them.
07:00 - Church bells chime a cheerful tune from olden times.If the enemy is laughing like that, I laugh like that, too. The shadows are creaping closer now when they are gone.
I cannot understand how something which is not a bird can cry like that.
A biker on the highway tries to pass a sparrow here inside our camp, but he will never make it as long as we're on duty.
It's Tango and I, Oscar, who are the citycentre now. Maybe because she is sleeping with pigeons flying in the sky above.
If the anti-mosquito stickck doesn't function I must smell corpse. The enemy won't come for me.
There are more birds
than there are robins in the sky
but there ain't no robin
who doesn't have a robin love
07:15 - Goatheaded sceletons dance across the sky, away from where the moon faced us.
Something tries to cheat us with a ticking sound, but I reveal a sparrow knocking its beak against some metal.
Probably because it has got something in its beak.
Several men has passed by in white trousers. It might be the enemy who weants us to believe that we are not them.
The enemy is always quite concrete, we have been told. I cannot come up with anything more concrete than my wellbeing just now.
Every old lady cannot ride a river made of blue light, and I feel sympathy for those who don't, of course, but I doubt the heaven they ride is the enemy.
It's told that the less we sleep, the stupider we get. If I can only keep awake, I will forget the enemy, although I don't believe the enemy is so chicken as to trap us in our sleep. At least when I'm looking at Tango, it's obvious that she's not trapped yet (07.39).
The enemy eats chockolate now, the sun forgot some of its light inside the head of those brains. That might be a major blunder, now that the pigeons float lighter on the hot air steaming up from the ground.They don't think we don't know who we are - we neither. This might be our force.
The enemy don't just shut up, but underlines the silence by not talking.
Every bird sings with the beak it has got.
Hooked on the wings.
The enemy ought to be a little more articulated than this.
08.07 - First Mercedes out. Ha!
That's definatly not the enemy.
Now the finges rest on our tent.
08:10 - Old lady in 3rd floor straight north/east beneath the sun, opens the balcony door and waves with a blue towel; a sign to the enemy that she finished her morning bath. Important: Ought to be observed to confirm wheather it it is more to it than this! (I'm happy it isn't me who have to fight the sight of her towel tomorrow morning as well). It might help to move my bed beside the bed of Tango, but then again we wouldn't be able to watch the door from either side:
Tango at the south side, me, Oscar, watching the north. And every single time I try to move the door, the the tent follows.
08.23 - The helicopter tells me that the enemy is here to stay awake.
Still unable to trace any activity in the neighbour building. It is possible that all this kindergarten business is a undercover operation for the previous generation and its second hand kids.
08:30 - One of this beautiful, big long taled metallic, helicopterlike insect tries to mate with someone under the rubber camuflage which still isn't there - it doesn't fly so merrily back to the enemy base all though they are getting numerous now, because our camuflage makes them unable to find eachother.
Duene etter kristtornkart
dagens første veps og trillebag holder nok kontakt
09:00 - We are not disturbed by the fact that the spynest called "kindergarten" is filled up with new, alert eyes. Tango setter seg i glaninga på dem og begynner å rense neglene. jeg skriver utilsløret
men ikke før FI skjønner at de er luft for oss kan vi puste friere.
09.09 - Tango fjerner kamuflasjen. Jeg skal si de får store øyne rundtomkring. Dette må v ære den triumfen han skreiv om han som jeg aldri hunsker navnet på!
09.11 - Tango fjerna ikke kamuflasjen likevel! Hun bare danderte'n! Det hadde Fi aldri funnet på! Jeg tror vi har dem nå!
Tango arbeider med en mer åpenbar usynlighet enn den kamuflerte: en usynlighet som hele tida er på marsj, tror jeg trygt vi kan regne med
09.18 - På grenen rett over meg
vipper en troststjert,
viker jeg unna i frykt?
Ånei! Jeg ligger under og gaper
FI tør ikke slippe en fjert
09.21 - Nå er det så lyst at skygggene har krøpet ut av oss igjen
for å prøve å falle oss i ryggen
de er så dumme at det er faen ikke sant!
09.24 - Jeg ber om tillatelse til å spise ei brødskive, men oppdager at befalshavende ikke er til stede. Aha! Enda godt jeg merka det i tide.
09.29 - Heller ut vinslanten til Tango. Den var full av FI. Hvis det høres FI-aktig krasling bak teltet kan det være dem, men de kan også ha fått forsterkninger. FI kan ha tatt oss i bakhold flere ganger uten at vi engang har merket at det kom til kamp.
09.43 - FI har nok ikke så mange jern i ilden som de hadde før natta falt på, på den annen side kan vi ha undervurdert dem kraftig i går.
09.59 - Det ser ut til å bli en veldig fin dag. Ingen ting kan vel være et værre faresignal enn akkurat det! Vi gleder oss til vaktskifte og holder motet oppe med patriotiske sysler som ikke er til å skillle fra FI's. Slik øker vi, med lav ressursbruk forvirringa deres: om de ikke har visst hvem vi var før så veit vi det ihvertfall ikke nå!
10.05 - Marsjaktige støveltramp. Borte ved kjerka: FI prøver å ta oss på det med religionen! Vet de ikke at vi ikke har sett Jesus? Eller er det akkurat det de vil ha oss til å tro? I områder som har med religion å gjøre, gjelder det å trå varsomt.
10.11 - Bilalarmtrickset. Lurer ikke fletta av en dau rallykjører engang! Veit de ikke hvem de må hamle opp med? Tror de ikke vi skjønner at de vil vi skal gå fem på (og ta en av oss i live) og undervurdere dem fatalt?
10.16 - De sitter med kvister i nebbet som om vi tror de bygger reir nå i august!
10.22 - Tango jevner jorda under Indias tønne. Det avføder fortvilte varselskrik.
10.30 - Årvåkenheten har nå blitt så stor at selv når jeg ligger stille og spriker med tærne
sniker jeg med innpå dem bakfra, og jeg kjenner hvordan tærne krummer seg i angst!
Dette skulle FI ha kjent! Unnskyld. Jeg ble nok litt for revet med.
10.34 - Stilletthæler under en så usannsynlig vraltende rompe at enhver idiot kunne se at det var en agent.
10.36 - Vi stålsetter oss, ikke bare mot FI, men også mot India som er i anmarsj, akkurat som ventet og da kan vi puste lettet ut mot evt. soldathumor fra våre gode kameraters side.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 3. AUGUST 23, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: WHISKEY WHISKEY / INDIA HOTEL
11.09 - Echo Bravo arrives in sandals! Reports that sivilian doctor had to be called in the night due to a foot infection!
11.45 - saw, nails, plyars, crowbar, steel wire, meter measure and three big wooden sticks arrives.
11.57 - We get information about tonights invasions. The times are: 20.30, 21.05 and 22.40.
12.30. Echo Bravo reports that the toilet is dug.
12.35 - Clearly suspicious person arrrives on a bike and shouts; Çbut you are not workingÈ. We are not tricked by this and the camp is calm.
13.06 - Blue man with 2 soldiers in skirts seems to attack with a broom.
13.14 - Todays first pottery.
13.26 - Arrival of bricks from container to be used in drenation of trenches.
13.38 - Flipboard arrives with friendly woman sivilian. The flipboard also looks OK.
We get paper and pots.
13.39 - Making the trench floor.
13.45 - Toiletinspection. Two faults: the lack of a spade and toiletpaper.
14.06 - 4 small individuals are observed ÇlookingÈ from the ÇkindergardenÈ
14.15 - 2 persons with a pathetic disguise as cameraman and reporter arrives and try to stire the troop a bit. We make friendly remarks, and the 4 man strong troop gather on a line and answer the questionsfrom the local TV station in a woolen way.
15.01 - arrive: gloves, pump, new saw, microphone.
15.17 - The nightshift Tango Foxtrot and Oscar Bravo return to camp. The troop is complete.
16.05 - Two old boxes, possible refrigerators?, arrives. A bomb?
17.30 - Joost arrives with Black and White photo of the troop. We look strong.
17.39 - Sirenes in the distance. Enemy losses?
19.00 - Dinner. 1 fish, 4 vegetarians, both mostly disguised in mashed potatoes.
20.30 - 1st. presentation of the camp, the log and the Battle of Culloden reconstructed by Echo Bravo.
21.05 - 2nd.presentation of the camp, the log and The Battle of Somme 1916 reconstructed by Juliet Kilo.
21.40 - 3rd. presentation of the camp, the log and The Battle at Stamford Bridge 1066 reconstructed by India Hotel.
During these three presentations about 90 individuals come to the camp.
22.35 - Lucas' yougest son Matthijs come to release the troop from duty for a couple of hours, to go to the premiere party tent. Juliet Kilo and Echo Bravo will come to the party tent also, even though their nightshift has started. India Hotel, troop commander.
23.30 - Well, I think that the enemy is going to sleep and my front buddy's are to a little party. Everything is very calm.
The security Matthijs.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / ECHO BRAVO
23.40 - Quiet on the site. Juliet alone. Echo is back at the party. Made my bed ready and nice. Looking forward to the night here. Just found the first killed near the trench. I found it under a piece of wood.
24.00 - Arriving the nightshift Echo Bravo.
01.00 - Juliet says goodnight.
01.30 - A young couple on a nachspiel inspect the trenches.
01.45 - Sleeping and snoring. Making it easy for the enemy to locate us.
02.50 - Juliet Kilo constructs contra sound system against snoring. Echo suggests reading.
03.00 - Waking up at the sound of war (Echo). Like at the battlefield loud close to my ear. Decide to stay awake and wait for the enemy to withdraw, and for dawn.
04.00 - Mumbling person very close to the canvas. Maybe doing something ritual. I decide it is a civilian.
06.00 - Some civilian car activity.
07.00 - Churchbells and pigeons. Rain. Juliet moves Oscar Bravo's clothes and the picture inside.
07.30 - The snoring machine is back.
07.40 - Suspicious man in a white shirt sirkulates in the area. Trenches filled with water.
07.45 - The rain increases.
08.00-08.20 - Looking for the woman on the fourth floor, - negativ.
09.20 - The birds sing on a new tune and the snoring changes to more of a cheeplike sound.
09.35 - Suspicious woman in a white, green and black jacket wanders around the area.
09.45 - The same person shows up at the exhibition and offers us a bag of sweets. She tells us that she just decided to stop eating sweets, and she offers us the bag for free.
10.30 - India Hotel arrives the camp.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 4. AUGUST 24, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: TANGO FOXTROT JULIET / INDIA HOTEL
11.00 - Dayshift starts. Tango Foxtrot and India Hotel on duty. Tango and India start to make new order in the camp. India lift the camuflage in front of the tent so that it is easier to keep a sharp eye on the area also from inside the tent. It is still raing a bit. Inside the tent is now in order, we move the table and the benches, and try to get as much as possible of the equipment up from the ground and away from the enemy humidity and the bugs. We do the kitchen. We put 2 candles on the table and keep the halogenlamps on. We are in temporarily control of the situation.
12.11 - Our poster is stolen! A man has seen it in the container near the church. We are puzzled. There are enemies in the night. Tango simply fetches the poster and puts it back.
12.15 - Tango leaves the camp to get some supplies for the kitchen.
12.27 - Two of the big fat dowes try to invade or take back the place? One flies away immediately. The other stay, but in the outskirts. It's just a smaller one, I can see that now, but suddenly others join. They are five now, and I am here alone, -but ready.
12.30 - While walking back from trhe supermarked I met three crewcutted young men. When I got closer I could easily identfy them as americans. I smiled. They looked strange at me-probably trying to figure me out. But I was quicker an concluded that they probably belonged to the Nato base in Brussels. And that they got suspicious and insecure about the sight of a woman wearing an american desert storm uniform in Kortrijk. I passed them and could feel their eyes in my back.
12.36 - Tango Foxtrot arrives with water, chocolade, coca cola, grapes, candles, paprika, nuts, tea and 2 couple of soles.
12.53 - A young couple stop by the camp and have strange smiles on their faces.
13.02 - Elderly couple passes and stops. They might know what war is?
13.06 - Drumms in the distance.
14.17 - Strange looking man stands with a sigarett behind a tree and tightens his belt. He then walks over to the camp and start asking questions, then says they will start shooting at three o'clock. The stranger has blue hair - is it camuflage? I couldn't tell, he said he would shoot Dr. Caligari at 21.30 this evening accompanied by a live orchestra.
14.34 - India removes enemy shit from the camp area.
14.30 - The artist from the towers of secret garden arrives with unknown woman. Is she his girlfriend or the enemy? Joost arrives with 15 local civilian. We meet them with politeness and respect. India Hotel shows them our archeological foundings. I, Tango, serve chocolate and nuts. The strangers seem curious and unsuspicious, except one man appr.45, who first says no to chocolate and then takes a nut.
14.52 Exit 15 strangers.
14.58 - Boy, appr. 7 years old, comes back with his mother and asks for permission to enter the tent. His eyes are sparkling while inside the tent. Charmed by this, India gives him one of our waterbottles.
15.03 - Patrick Delges arrives and has a friendly chat with India while she washes new foundings.
15.09 - Exit Patrick
15.20 - India went to get water from the earlier mentioned ÇkindergardenÈ - now they call themselves Çcultural centreÈ and offers free water. It might be poisened, so we won't drink it.
16.32 - 4 young men enter the area, one of them in army boots and pants. They ask in loud manner about our equipment. India is reluctant in giving this to them, since they seem very suspicious. The army one asks if I'm alone. I say I'm never alone. Then he wants to identify himself. He shows me his army ID; he is Andy, almost 18. India decides she won't answer any more questions. Exit Andy and his troop.
16.42 - Lucas arrives with big wooden pieces.
16.51 - Very drunk and sad truck driver arr’ves. Talks a bit with India. Then exits, even though he wanted to stay. A trooper, but a bit too unstable at the moment.
17.20 - A white haired old man came by and told us we would get reumatism in 20 years from sleeping in the camp. He had two sons in the USA, but had never visited them. He suggested we should go to have a look at the soldiers graves, then he said Çall È an00">d went away.
17.30 - Juliet Kilo arrives.
17.55 - Leaves to fetch dinner.
18.15 - Juliet and dinner arrives. Juliet, Tango and India eat.
18.30 - Oscar Bravo arrives. He starts digging immediately.
20.36 - 1st.presentation of camp, log and The battle of Argezul 1916.
21.15 - 2nd. presentation of the camp, log and The Battle of Azincourt 1415.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: WHISKEY WHISKEY / INDIA HOTEL
22.58 - Tango, Oscar, Echo and Juliet leave. I, India, am here alone. Waiting for Whiskey Whiskey who shall arrive in one minute. Lot's of sounds in the city. I remember it's saturday night.
23.01 - Quiet, still no Whiskey Whiskey. Only Satie sounding pianomusic somewhere. Nothing seems threatening. This might be the biggest danger.
23.05 - Whiskey Whiskey arrives with wine, beer and whiskey.
23.26 - A man between two women have a loud explanation of the LImelight poster and of the project. He has a good eye to both of them. They will go and make a threesome. Exit
0.17 - It's completely quiet. What is happening?
0.19 - Sudden storm of sounds. LIke thunder, very close. Sounds like big, heavy and sharp things are being dropped. We wait. It does not come closer. Quiet again.
0.31 - Drums. Airplane over the camp, southeast of ÇlittlebearÈ. The sky is clear, but a vespa disturbes the new won peace.
0.54 - India has killed 5 insects. Whiskey has killed two. We can't see insects anymore.
01.15 - Whiskey is outside and makes a drawing of a beautiful thought. India is in resting position. A burp from the road is the only threat. ok
01.25 - Some loud ones passes, ending with a bang. Hear no more.
01.30 - Grote Markt clock, car leaves the parking lot. Whiskey is making a drawing of the church at night, but has forgotten the black colour... Drawing is finished at 01.45
01.45 - Outdoor inspection with camera.
01.30 - Tower dings twice, a bike with two persons on the road, man with a dog, car drove, a window in NW with lights, otherwise everything is dark, all quiet, a dog barking in the distance, motorbike on the road with music..
02.15 - A few bangs and the completely quiet.
09.45 - India gets up. I have slept like a baby. Quiet the whole night, at least I was not touched by anything.
09.50 - I India starts to remove the camuflage and the can trap around the tent. Two tourist looking men enter. The one man says he lives in the neighbourhood and asks me if I've found anything in the ground. I say yes. He tells that when they renovated the church and the area they found a whole layor of bones here. From the plague. They both look at the items. They leave, but then stop and ask if they can take a picture. The neighbourhood man says his friend is visiting from Peru. It's still war in Peru, and the Peruvian man finds this very stupid. He returns to the camp, stands besides me, and the picture is taken. Exit the two friends.
10.15 - An old beautiful looking woman enters. She goes directly to the found items and picks up a few things. She shows India a ceramic piece which is only glazed on one of the sides and says it's roman. Whiskey finds cimilar ceramic, and she says yes, this is roman too. She explains in french and a little bit of english that she works with ceramic and glass, and especially with glazing. She looks very happy about our findings. Then she also talks about the plague, and that they buried the dead one with their belongings. She is puzzled about the oister shells. She has never found any herself. She points at a stone, the tooth and the pipe, and finds this BON!, then exits.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 5. AUGUST 25, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO / ECHO BRAVO
11.00 - The Bravo brothers arrive camp for duty.
11.02 - The old woman returns with a plastic bag. We all great her warmly. She takes out of the plastic bags big pieces of pottery and then pulls out something wrapped in cotton and plastic: two small and unbroken jars which was used possibly for medical ingredient as oils a.s.o. She lets us hold them, and we are very careful. She says the plague was in 1560. An old man joins the old woman and they have a talk. Man exits.
11.20 - The old woman exits, but leaves behind the contents of the plastic bag. We are overwhelmed.
11.25 - The Bravo brothers starts reorganizing and washing the items.
11.55 - Oscar starts digging.
12.00 - India leaves the camp.
12.50 - One of the blues: human, blue shirt, darker blue trousers, blue cap, staring a long time. Walks slowly away.
12.53 - Two specimens appear. Man, around 45, slim, tattood, Female, the same age, both drunk, talk a lot in french. He's been a sergeant in the army, but looks friendly. They want to dig, too, but find it too dirty. Then they walk arouind and find lot's of things, which they give to Oscar. Exit around 13.20, when two younger one interrupt our talk. The new ones talk english, and play theater too, they say. Both Bravos believe them. Are we being too naive. They look young and innocent. Makes theater about Çmid life crisisÈ, they say. When the Bravos declare theirr ages (43 and 49) and say that they don't understand that term ending with ÇcrisisÈ, those native ones laugh and give no further explanation of the phenomenon.
Exit natives 13.51.
12.50 - A maroccan woman is circling in the area. She is beautifully dresses in national clothing. She is very secret, but makes motions that looks like taking food and mumbling Çmang È. Then after a few rounds she dissapears.
13.00 - The headmaster of the building next to us comes and assures us that if we have any problems with the electricity like short cicuit we can contact him. He tellls me, Echo, excacctly where he lives. His name is Matelaar. He will help changing fuses and likes. It is nice that they like that we are here..
14.45 - Strict man, ca. 60 came pretending to give us some keys he had found near our poster, but since they weren't ours he brought them with him.
15.10 - Male, around 80 years, pushing UHO disguised in a chair-on-wheels(4) to study us closely until Oscar looks up, thus making it clear that they are observed, too. When realizing this, the man hurridly pushes her away, in westwards direction, apparently to give us an impression of Çold copuple on a sunday stroll now going to have a coffee and a beer in the city centreÈ We are not fooled though.
15.21 - So far no mormons in sight. Don't know if this is suspicious, highly suspicious or merely norrmal in Belgium.
15.30 -. So far Oscar has found around 60 items, Echo is carpenter and good at it. Small UHO's one(dark hair on top of ÇheadÈ) like a boy, the other (blonde, longer hair on top of ÇheadÈ) like a girl. Grown-up native follows them, asks intriguing questions in english. Immeddiately they leave really in a hurry when Tango Foxtrot enters the camp. She has been so kind to buy water and beer for the Bravos. Why Tango scares them this much, is diffiicult to say. Of course they could be mormons, but I think maybe they are not. If Echo had had his camera ready, we could have taped them unaware.
16.10 - One redheaded native and one russian and one pakistan, all loud-talking asked us if we had beer. As they were already drunk we didn't give them any, but talked positively.
16.55 - Two young females came. Very interested and they will come back thursday.
16.55 - Echo has drained the trench.
16.59 - Oscar has pierced the stones and set them on a string.
17.03 - Attacked by enemy, but because of inner conflicts they gave up.
17.53 - Three individuals,boys, come to gather information. We give them what they came for. They want more. They call our trenches ÇcoolÈ and stress the expression by putting the right thumb in the air. They ask for permission to study our defence work. Permission granted by Oscar. They ask for permission to dig. Permission granted by Oscar. They find strange tthings. Exit 19.30.
19.20 - India and tango are so nice, they arrive with food. Echo + Oscar eat. Afterwards they feel tired and fall asleep. Around this time a yellow enemy balloon tries to fly straight over our camp, but they are blown away by wind being friendly to us.
While resting a man shouts ÇBaktruppen, h¿yre om!È from the parking lot. Believed to be an enemy artist.
21.45 - Heavy shooting in the area. We are not involved. Could be firecrackers.
22.25 - Echo goes off duty, in company with Juliet: Oscar is sure he won't desert the troop. A picture (photo) of Geir Jensen is looking straight at Oscar with one of his eyes. Oscar moves. Suddenly remember the shots 45 minutes ago. Hopes it was no execution. It didn't sound like an execution, but these days you never know. Executions might be perfromed as ballets in the church. I have even attended such an happening when the executed one stood up afterwards and shouted ÇfireÈ until most of the audience drew their guns and made new holes in him. Disgusting. Why think about this when it is war. The mind is a puzzling thoughtlessness.
22.56 - Two young guys visiting the tent. Tango arrives.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO / TANGO FOXTROT JULIET
23.30 - Yom arrives with 6 bottles of beer and a bottle of Liebfraumlich. Everybody free to feel good. He lives around the corner, but comes from Portugal, but is black, but is not african, but would like to go to Oslo. Is the enemy a foreigner , or is it us? Are the Belgian foreigners to us?
00.36 - Suspicious light in tthe sky -object moving away from us. Oscar goes to bed, so will I, Tango. Oscar immediately started to snore and kept on for app. 4 hours, then he started to cough. He coughed for about 45 minutes, and then started to snore again. Later there was a silent period of 1 hour and then snoring again until it's morning and I get up at 8.30.His cough sounded sore - I wonder if it could be bronkit. Anyway, he is in sanity, so he should be able to cure himself. I don't feel well eighter except foor the lack of sleep, cold in my body, -trying to get in charge - but I will resist this enemy from inside. If I could only get myself a cup of tea, or maybe a nutricious soup. Juliet, master of the logistics: I demand that you fix this today: a water heater and some kind of stove to boil food on. And one big pan. At least a water heater.The weather is fine, it's very humid, but the sun is up to dry it. No suspicious moves in sight.
10.45 - Lucas came by with a waterboiler. That guy is a genius. Definately no enemy. I will finally get myself a nice cup of tea. Juliet arrives for his 24 h. shift.
11.05 - India arrives with her camera.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 6. AUGUST 26, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / INDIA HOTEL
11.30 - Juliet an India leaves the camp to fetch wooden pieces for the trenches. This is considered safe since Oscar and Tango is still in the camp.
11.45 - Lucas come by with lamps and cables. Juliet is working with the pump, and India is doing the dishes after fetching 2 buckets of water in the Çcultural centreÈ. The building seemed empty, so I sneaked in. We can not relax with such a place around.
12.10 - Lucas comes back with a belgian wool army coat. We discuss the items. The name of the person who is an expert is Desprait, but I, India, am not sure about this man. He might turn out to be a real enemy. I will wait and check him out first.
13.35 - India finishes a sawing bench and Juliet returns with food supplies. We eat lunch, only disturbed by three individulas on bikes.
15.02 - India returns from the newly established watching point in the big tree N/E of the camp. A ladder is hidden in the bushes. Three sivilians discovered India in the tree and started to sing ÇWhat shall we do with the drunken sailorÈ. I don't know why they did that.
15.13 - Tried to flatten an enemy with the LOG-book. It was not successful, which at the moment is the biggest danger around.
15.15 - Boy in a military green T-shirt stands very cclose to Juliet Kilo while he is digging.
16.28 - An old couple and some celebrating theatre people with a musician who spoke norwegian and had a norrwegian father from Kongsberg. Nice ccnversation. Exit 16.45
17.15 - Our russian boy helpers are back. Three of them, and one girl in clean white and pale blue clothes. The boys dig, she brings the items carefully from the trenches to the washing bucket. Washes them carefully.
19.10 - Exit russian children, after finding lot's of bones.
19.30 - Oscar reports for the dayshift who are occupied with other things: CARILLION, bell music from the tower. The Enemy tries to soften us with an hour of beautiful, heavenly music that makes us think of our dear ones back home, something which actually doesn't work because it strenghtens the moral for further fights.
21.54 - Heavy artillery fire. Followed by sound of snipers. Might be the audience from the Carillion concert who had to listen to us singing, - or maybe dog owners who have lost their dog toilet. The heavy firing continuos, and we consider getting into the trenches, but we wait. We are no cowards. At 22.07 it stops.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / INDIA HOTEL
23.04- Nightshift is on. Juliet an India are still here. Oscar just left after keeping us companied since around 18.00. Tango left a little while ago. We go to bed in the tent. Most mosquitos killed on the 1000W halogen. It's calm.
01.00 - 03.00 - We are under heavy attacks from the agressive mosquitos. The heat is driving us crazy, but after taking off some clothes, things starts to improve. The mosquitos keep on their agression the whole night.
03.00 - A man talking with his telephone is starting his car and evaporates. India and Juliet make strategy plans.
08.45 - Two blue men inspect the area.
10.30 - Joost arrives with a group of people to see the project. More people follows. Approx. 20 people in each group.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 7. AUGUST 27, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: ECHO BRAVO / OSCAR BRAVO
11.05 - Echo arrives.
12.30 - The trench is drained. The floor is repaired. The russians are here, digging, searching, and washing.
14.36 - We have been digging for 2, 5 h., together with the three spazibas. A native has told us to shut up about what we find, unless the authorities will stop us from digging. We have found bones, bones, bones. Some of them slender and fine, some of them heavy, like stones.
14.40 - Echo had been to the druggist's. Comes back with a big smile on his face. It should be kept there, for the enemy to see.
15.55 - Oscar finds a beautiful canine tooth, from the bite of a dog, it's time flies and the three spazibas get tired of digging, they start playing the old russian vampire game, after played by the tsar with his peasants, and they use the newly found tooth as their secret police. When, after some time, Oscar asks them where the dog tooth is, it has disappeared, as the secret police always do.
22.05 - Whiskey Whiskey arrives without wallet, maybe enemy thiefs has stolen itt? No, or yes, if they have they have just put if back in the Whiskey Whiskey pocket of the Whiskey Whiskey jacket. It has been one performance with Oscar reconstructing the battle of Dynekilen between Karl XII of Sweden and the guerillia warrior of Tordenskiold. Now, in the night, Karl XII is still standing out here, but he lost his mouth during the battle. Echo threatens Whiskey saying that although it is thunder far away, he snores when it thunders too. But he won't sleep when Whiskey is around.
22.17 - Instructions in how to prepare a pleasant night. Tango is the expert.
22.50 - Echo is an esthetician ber alles, but not in Belgium, Tango THINKS?
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: WHISKEY WHISKEY / ECHO BRAVO
00.10 - Whiskey Whiskey takes a round in the camp. Warm wind and quiet.
01.15 - Visitor wanted to know what it all means, 16 years old, wanting to be an ingenier and Whiskey thinks he is very, very beautiful.
01.14 - Echo inspected the camp. Quiet. Very special loudspeaker(!).
03.15 - The wind is blowing in the trees. Echo Bravo takes another round. Still quiet.
03.30 - One pling.
03.40 - Inspection. Discovers one mosquito.
04.05 - The wind is stilll blowing.
04.15 - The wind.
11.00 - Echo Bravo annd Whiskey Whiskey awake. The tree cameras are gone.. Big fuzz. But Tango and Juliet are responsible for the theft.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 8. AUGUST 28, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / WHISKEY WHISKEY
12.00 - The russian kids arrive and play around the camp, also do some digging. They are six now.
16.35 - Guided tour in the camp.
17..30 - Three craftmen asks if we have some beer in the tent. They were thirsty. We couldn't help them. Earlier the same day a man told us that another man earlier found crusifixes and more in the area towards the wall. He recommanded us to dig in that area.
20.30 - Presentation. Echo reconstruct the battle of Ulm. The russian children has played a lot. We still find old pottery; a chalkpipe, iron peaces a.s.o.
23.10 - Whiskey Whiskey feels good, during the day he did not. He says good night. Whiskey Whiskey and Juliet Kilo are off duty. Enjoy a glass of wine and a beer.
23.30 - A lot of door slam.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: INDIA FOXTROT JULIET / INDIA HOTEL
23.44 - India and Tango on duty. Oscar, Juliet and Whiskey keep us accompanied. Remote air raid, warning alarm heard, later identified as motocycles. Marching and greeting routines are discussed, demonstrated and improved. Fish. Smoked halibot is highly recommanded by Juliet. Tomorrow is another day.
23.57 - The sound of a flock of geese, which seem to be in the air right above us. The enemy will not fool us with this cheap trick - in August!
06.30 - Everything is quiet and very humid. It's like sleeping in a steam sauna, except from the heat. Crows and sparrows and a few pidgeons are heard, they are programmed to make sound at this time. A few persons pass by on bicycles or on foot, probably on their way to work. Identification, friend or foe? I don't know. I don't know whether it's the digging, the mosquitos, the humidity or if it's the troop itself, but my brain seem to get more and more empty each day. Am I a victim of biological warfare or is it the nano technology - as earlier mentioned, I don't know. But what if the enemy knows, from using my brain, and without my notice, turning my brain against me. Over my dead body! I will use the last of my thinking ability to confuse the enemy with the strangest ideas I can come up with. From now on the remains of my brain will act sick.
08.57 - A tall dark haired french speaking man appears. He wears beige trousers and a conservative blue and white shirt with a tie. Immaculate! He asks a few questions about the trenches and the foundings, says Bon! and leaves. I feel like a desexualized coughing machine in totally unelegant mens wear. However camuflated, I feel dirty and ugly and poor.
Anyway, breakfast tasts great. I bought som nice croissants, cheese, fruit and vegetables and prepared a nice ÇtableÈ outside. Inside India still sleeps. Is this really another day?
On my way to the french bakery i met a blind nun in an electric wheel chair with her white stick sticking out in the front. Definately a disguise. I followed her, and she drove into the church. To get a closer look at Çthe nunÈ I ÇhelpedÈ her opening the door. She sais something, probably nonsense, and I said ÇjaÈ, playing her game. I never saw her leave the church again, at least not as a Çblind nun in a wheelchairÈ - can you imagine?
10.15 - India is up and counts her mosquito bites. Left hand: 15 bites. Right hand: 18 bites.
These were from previos nights, because this night we slept in mosquito nets.
11.00 Kevin and Lucas come by and have a coffee with us.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 9. AUGUST 29, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: ECHO BRAVO / WHISKEY WHISKEY
11.05 - Echo Bravo arrrives.
11.39 - Whiskey Whiskey has not yet arrived for his dayshift. Kevin and Lucas leave, so do Tango and India. Echo Bravo is left alone. Is Whiskey Whiskey taken by the enemy? We go to check at the Hotel Damier.
12.15 - The trench is drained.
12.18 - Whiskey Whiskey arrives.
12.50 - Suspicious person inspecting the camp. Looks like an interrailer. Probably a disguise. Uses no language.
14.08 - Juliet Kilo comes with two army chairs. Great success.
14.50 - Aeroplane over the camp.
14.52 - Another aeroplane over the camp.
14.55 - Lady with white hair arrives, very interested in our camp and our stay here. Other artists has told her to visit us. Comes back tomorrow evening.
15.05 - Russian boys and a blue boy with glasses arrive.They have new soldier dolls with them. They begin playing in the trenches.
15.25 - Sudden concert in the neighbourhood. I,Whiskey, continuos laying wooden floor in the trenches.
16.06 - Superman arrives. He is thinner and younger than I, Echo Bravo, thought, and he came with his mother from Crypton. They only wanted to inspect the camp, and left after ten minutes.
17.02 - Flying ants observed. This might be a problem tonight, as they only have wings one day a year and they want to use them. We try to prepare for the attack.
17.05 - Juliet leaves the camp disguised as a brown african.
18.00 - Tango and Oscar arrives. Juliet is back and goes to fetch food at the Limelight kitchen. Whiskey Whiskey wants other kind of food and is given permission to go eating.
17.30 - We get four visitors from hell. All dressed in black, but as nice as lambs. They are very interested and ask a lot of questions. They then go. Maybe to blow their minds out with heavy metal music at home.
18.20 - The bells are ringing until 18.30. Say whatever about the belgians, but they love their bells.
22.00 - The presentation is over. We had quite a lot of visitors, but the enemy held a disco concert nearby and disturbed us. We don't give up easily, and we fought the battle trough. Juliet led The Battle of Zorndorf 1758 with military precision.
22.10 - The artist and musician Pierre comes visiting with his family. He is concerned with the sound from the disco enemy. The troup is licking their wounds, drinking wine and beer, preparing for a new night and a new day. A social evening and night is impossible due to the disco enemy.
23.00 - The camp is now in the hands of Whiskey Whiskey and Oscar Bravo.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO / WHISKEY WHISKEY
23.30 - Two youngsters arrive. They ask for permission to sit down and ask strange questions. Oscar gives them permission and answer the questions.
24.00 (appr.) - Kevin and Annelies come, bringing eight beers. They are surprised that Oscar is alone with the two youngsters. But they really lightens up when they see our whisky. Whiskey Whiskey is now back on duty. Kevin drinks more whisky than the rest of us and leaves, walking in all directions at the same time. Annelies has now got a finnish language tool, made by Whiskey and Oscar, and she brings the tool with her when she leaves together with Oscar's sweather. Maybe it will smell from the enemy tomorrow? No guards believe it will, when she leaves around 02.30.
07.07 - The sheets of the beds of our next to nearest neighboors are aired again and again while the pigeons are making noises as if mocking the enemy sheets. We feel very comfortable, knowing that we must have given the enemy a very sweaty night.
08.40 - Whiskey Whiskey puts on coffee. It's a wet morning, without rain. We have been talking all night. Maybe the enemy is sleep? We don't know, but if the enemy is sleep we will take the enemy quite soon.
09.00 - We cut the IIIII IIIIIth mark in the tree. Start digging. Dig until 10.30. Stop because we sweat a lot.
10.45 - Juliet arrives with pictures of our african allies, which he met in Uganda the week before we went to Kortrijk. Now they are wearing our clothes.
11.00 - Tango arrives. Everything is perfect, but the bells in the church makes an unpleasant noise. During the night we have oriented ourselves by identifying the star constellations and finding the North Star. We now agree about NSEW, which is good.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 10. AUGUST 30, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / TANGO FOXTROT JULIET
11.40 - Juliet and Tango arrived on time and got a fully report from the previous night from Whiskey Whiskey and Oscar Bravo. The conclusion they came to after a long night with no sleep is that they are real men. Juliet and Tango confirmed and the two real men went to have breakfast.
15.50 - Lucas arrives with the message that Kevin is found with a broken nose. Nobody knows how it happened. He doesn't speak.
14.00 - A woman has lost her keys to the red car on the parking place. She might have left them in the keyhole of the door, or somewhere else. Founders can report to the guardian troopers.
17.45 - Whiskey arrive camp. People have visited the whole day. Too many to mention each, but we are aware that everybody can be a spy of the enemy.
19.00 - Food time, today mousaka
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: TANGO FOXTROT JULIET / ECHO BRAVO
00.20 - While watching The big wagon and the North Star we suddenly saw the white owl flying above us in the direction north to south into the Sint Martin church.
Back in Norway Papa Hotel and his woman are going to have a Brava Alpha Bravo Yankee.
A small, cameralike red light on the wall of the ÇkindergardenÈ observed by Whiskey Whiskey. Oscar and Juliet immediately do research on ladder. Is it a camera, or are we just paranoid? We are paranoid, Juliet concludes - it's a day light trigger. This has to do with the turning off and on the street lights. Tomorrow, in daylight, we will check if it's a L.D.E. -Light Emmitance Edeon? Juliet and Oscar want to find out now. There was a delay. Juliet tries to confuse it with a torch, -the indicator went off. Spooky. Whiskey Whiskey is celebrated for his alert observation, but the troop decides to let it be.
01.18 - Oscar suddenly recalls he saw a car key while crawling up the hill earlier this evening. The Backtroup Camp Kortrijk Operation put two and two together and quickly comes to the conclusion that this was the missing key of the woman with the red car! We all search and finally Oscar found it. Ten seconds earlier Juliet mumbled: It's not that key. And he was right. It was a bicycle key. Psychic. Juliet gets a kick although it wasn't the car key.
01.35 - Whiskey Whiskey and Juliet leave the camp. Echo talks about getting to bed, but doesn't move.
10.10 - Finally morning. Tango has been sleeping outside, well camuflated. It was the best night for quite some days. Echo was inside, fighting the enemy also in his sleep - a very admirable attitude. He woke up at 09.45, and together we enjoyed a nice breakfast with an english newspaper, eggs and cheese. Outside it's raining. But no cats or dogs in sight.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 11. AUGUST 31, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO / INDIA HOTEL
11.17 - Oscar arrived on time. India not yet here. Echo dismisses. Tango starts digging.
12.15 - A male in blue arrives and asks intriguing questions about the valuable things we have dug out from the earth. He asks about our relationship to Monsieur Desprait. We make it clear that M. Desprait is not the enemy.
14.00 - Tango leaves. She has been digging until now. India makes a new shelve for our exhibition. She has got the soldiers cough, and wonder whether the enemy is attacking her from the within. She doesn't smoke so much, and still it seems as the enemy has conquered most of her lungs.
15.10 - Juliet Kilo arrives with the news that our fellow Backtrooper in Oslo, Papa Hotel has got a little girl this night at 02.05. This is great. The new generation of fighting troopers are growing.
16.15 - Suddenly, as out of nowhere, India observes that one of the old Backtroop fighters has arrived bringing with him the whole L&O Amsterdam. They are definitely not the enemy. With a new fighter born in Oslo, and old friends coming by here, it will be very difficult for us to spot the enemy tonight. The worst fight will be fought against ourselves tonight, and at the same time Oscar has found a big piece of human scull.
18.20 - The same old suspicious man with the brooms and the two small soldiers shouts about Çthe archelological policeÈ that supposively are hiding in the area. ÇBe awareÈ, he shouts again, ÇI would get arrested if I did thatÈ. This make us wonder.
18.36 - Echo Bravo arrives.
18.32 - Suspicious looking 2 sivilians disguised in pig coats stroll into the camp, then reconized as the old friends.
22.48 -Something sticky is smeared onto the pen. Will my hands stop exsisting now? It also could be anthrax, and the pen just popped in by itself. ÇWe can't go on together, with suspicious mindsÈ, Tango sings. Elvis is not dead. Whiskey Whiskey arrives for his nightshift. And I, India, must remark that the birds are getting closer every day.
23.04 - Oscar and India are off duty.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / WHISKEY WHISKEY
23.00 - India Hotel and Oscar Bravo are off duty. But are still here with Juliet and Whiskey and a glass of wine and go through the day. Talk about a man in a blue shirt, who might be the renown Monsieur Desprait. He asked to have a part of the railings, he was a collector of railings. He was earlier observed by India while watching the church wall!! Perhaps a cover operation.
23.55 - The lights on the church went off, only one light is left on a part of the tower.
12.00 - Pling from the tower at Grote Markt.
00.10 - Lucas on bike arrives.
00.30 - Whiskey has had a round. Nothing to report. The sky is clear. We think it will get colder.
01.10 - Juliet Kilo looked around the camp. It looks OK. Hotel Papa Delta is still here, and this is his poem: ÇUp is green, deep is deep, you are green and I weep. War is always shit.È
wheat, we said.
02.00 - The moon is very little in the N/E tree. We, Tango Foxtrot, India Hotel, Oscar Bravo, Juliet Kilo, Whiskey Whiskey, Hotel Papa Delta are in the tent alive.
03.00 - Good night.
10.45 - Good morning
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 12. SEPTEMBER 1, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / WHISKEY WHISKEY
11.00 - The church bellls from three churches are attacking our ears.
11.15 - Oscar, Tango and India arrive looking for Echo. We have not seen him.
11.45 - The first visitors arrive. Look interested at the exhibition.
17.00 - Whiskey Whiskey goes to eat a soup. Kilo keep on digging. We see a circle emerging.
17.30 - An Irishman tells me that there used to be an barber during WW2. He had a trap door, and killed people and tinned them. Sold it as human food.
18.00 - Kilo goes to eat at the Limelight.
20.00 - A map over the trenches are ready. I, Whiskey, made the map.
21.00 - Whiskey Whiskey and Juliet Kilo has left the camp. I, Tango, step in in great gratefulness, as they, especially Juliet, did my turn today. Tango is overwhelmed by the days development of the trenches, but also by homesickness. 7 postcards written to the dear ones back home. Tango brought some canvas and iron from the trip to the trenches in Dijkmuide.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO / INDIA HOTEL
23.00 - Oscar Bravo and India Hotel are on duty. The camp is empty and all is quiet. A bat just flew, -bat must be short for battle in this case. The enemy is blowing in the wind and threatens the candle. The North Star and the other star constellations are in their usual positions.
24.00 - Whiskey Whiskey arrives, straight from a gay bar which was too stuffed with lesbians. India and Whiskey discuss where to find a firewire. Firewires don't talk. Whiskey has observed though, that all the gays talk flemish, while the lesbians talk french.
01.10 - Whiskey remembers that he has forgotten to write about an episode during the daywatch. Here it comes:
An elder M. comes to see the camp at about 15.00. He was especially interested in the trenches and the tent, and our dressing. I told we were here because of the Secret Garden project. He told me he was an old soldier from the 2nd. world war, and showed me a picture in his wallet of himself from his time in war. Medals, a beret in burgundy, blue unifiorm and proud. Today he was 86 years old.
01.59 - Whiskey leaves the camp. Two loudspeakers pass, slowly rolling their bikes.
09.29 - In Oscar's head somebody has been showing movies for at least two hours now. Strange movies, which maybe tell a lot about the enemy, cause they don't really tell what is going on here. Strange.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 13. SEPTEMBER 2, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO / ECHO BRAVO
13.59 - Our blankets and matresses which are hanging on a string towards the kindergarden ( in which we so far haven't been able to identify any of our own five children), are suddenly used as a target for enemy bullets blowing in the wind, and with a soft, puffing sound, they all fall to the ground. We are baffled once again! (We, the Bravo brothers, and India, who has brought us lunch). Oscar hangs the string up, and puts the sleeping gear to airblown hanging.
14.19 - The same thing happens again! All the time - so far - we have had no visitors. Only these two attacks from invisible forces, and a man with a big and heavy r cksa00">ck. He's going to the front to stay there more or less forever, shouting ÇGoddag!È to us, in perfect norwegian. It seems they try to fall us in the back from all sides now. But how can invisibles beat us, with our moral equipment?
14.37 - Just as Oscar hangs it up anew, they attack again, and Oscar tries to fight them all alone once more. If this, - my dear forbid it! -should be the Oscar's last entry, you should know that he died without fear, and true to our cause till the unbearable endd. Love to everyone.
Oscar Bravo.
15.59 - A man calling us ÇartistsÈ fighting the war. I am waiting. Being an artist is a lot of waiting. Maybe the enemy attack comes this autumn or in the winter. I would like them to show their cards now.
22.15 - Great railing grown up in one piece: a trophy won from the enemy. The enemy will be crying tomorrow.
22.55 - Tango arrives. Juliet is already here, applauding our catch from the enemy.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: TANGO FOXTROT JULIET / JULIET KILO
23.30 - Both the lighter and the wine opener has disappeared. Is it stolen by the enemy?
00.30 - We think that we must be more precise in labeling the exhibition.
03.00 - A man with a dog comes by . Speaks Norwegian and has lived in Gjøvik.
04.45 - Good night Juliet. Oscar, Tango and Echo stays outside guarding the area for a while. Then Oscar and Echo leaves for the Hotel Damier.
05.00 - Tango good night.
10.30 - Juliet good morning.
10.45 - Tango good morning. India arrives with a smile.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 14. SEPTEMBER 3, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: OSCAR BRAVO AND INDIA HOTEL.
12.35 - Lucas comes by and announce his entrance with Çhere comes the enemyÈ, but we have classified him as friend a long time ago.
17.20 - Juliet Kilo arrives and starts digging, as Oscar Bravo leaves to wash his clothes after heavy digging for hours. Tango and I, India, have been trying to fight off the cold enemy, but today the enemy is the strongest. Still we are working to fiinish a report for the outside world about the operation. We hope to get it through this afternoon if we are not under attack.
18.55 - Oscar has dug up a horse jaw, an iron box and a lot of other items.
19.30 - Tango make complaints about her burning breast. This must be biological warfare against us, or even nature is attacking.
22.15 - We have a guest. An irishman, earlier mentioned. He talks slowly and quietly of big issues. We all get a bit tired. Is this enemy activity?
22.49 - Echo Bravo arrives for his nightshift.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: INDIA HOTEL / ECHO BRAVO.
23.05 - Oscar Bravo leaves camp.
00.20 - The irishman leaves, but says he might be back for an open air camping since he forgot his keys and might not get in. I say everyone who enters the camp while we are asleep will be considered an enemy.
00.22 - Echo Bravo announces that he will go to bed to NOT sleep.
00.51 - Echo bravo is in deep sleep. No snoring sounds or other ones. I, India, am tired, but don't want to sleep. I feel like watching the area. I feel alone. Me and a few mosquitos. A man on a bicycle drives by on the road, then comes back to have a look at the trenches. He then spots me, jumps over the trenches, and starts talking to me in russian. It's an attack of non communication, I understand maybe 5% of what he is saying, but this doesn't seem to bother Micha, who continuos to tell a bit of a sad story, some fishing politics, and making complaints about the Belgian ÇnormalityÈ. He doesn't leave until 01.43. I find it safest to keep him in a good mood since Echo, my fellow warrior is snoring heavily inside the tent, and doesn't seem to be ready for any sort of night operation.
01.48 - It's nice to have the brick wall in my back. Good strategy. I don't think I should sleep. Not until Echo is awake or it's morninglight. I drink a bit of Echo's whiskey. Enemy is everywhere.
02.06 - It's too cold. I seek inside the tent to join with my sleeping bag. Someone has just turned off all enemy sounds. It might have been the whisky.
03.00 - The snoring machine is on. Only one nightshift to go now.
07.30 - Good morning. Echo is up. Quiet, but a lot of bird activity. One albino pidgeon observed.
09.00 - The bellls tells of a funeral.
10.00 - The bells call another funeral. India is awake.
10.50 - Juliet Kilo arrives.
11.00 - A precise Whiskey Whiskey arrives.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 15. SEPTEMBER 4, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / WHISKEY WHISKEY.
11.00 - A sunny summerday.
12.15 - Lucas comes with plastic bags for bottles and boxes and tell us what to do with the garbage. He gets a cup of coffee. He will come with a wok, to use on the gas stowe at the saturday night party - The Trench Party.
12.30 - Two persons running through the area. Is he trying to escape her. Is help needed?
13.00 - The account is ok.
15.00 - Guided daytour - very interested people from Ghent. Stayed for 15 minutes.
15.45 - A class of appr. 10 years old children came to the camp with their teacher (his first day he says, what did he do before?) and were told to make drawings. Most of them made drawings of the tent. The drawings were documented by Whiskey Whiskey.
16.00 - Still lot's of people.
18.00 - Food for Kilo.
18.45 - Food for Whiskey.
19.00 - A young man on a bicycle, maybe 12-15 years old, falls down the hill. We rush to help him, but he seems ok. Telling that he's drunk (that seems right). We mend his bike and tell him to not bicycle when being drunk. And that he is too young to drink that much.
20.30 - Nice and interested people on the presentation tonight. In the background was a choir, practising Mendel's Christmas oratorie, which gave a special atmosphere in the camp.
22.30 - The sky is clear, and the stars are shining at us as usual, -no moon at this moment.
22.35 - A nice looking woman with a man is passing. May be an enemy (the man that is).
22.40 - A cat is passing.
23.00 - Lucas pass by checking our garbage, we have a nice conversation, then goodnight Lucas.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / OSCAR BRAVO
23.45 - Whiskey Whiskey leaves.
24.00 - Juliet and Oscar prepare to go to bed, and go to bed.
05.00 - The chiming bells are back.
06.00 - A man walking his dog starts to whistle.
09.20 - Nothing.
09.40 - Nothing new.
09.41 - Oscar has been dreaming about a girl he was in love with 30 years ago. That is too silly, Juliet has got bats in his jaw. These are no real threats to our firm determination to keep on to keep on.
09.50 - Burial bells.
10.43 - Burial bells. Too many burials, just like in peacetime.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 16. SEPTEMBER 5, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: TANGO FOXTROT JULIET / OSCAR BRAVO
10.44 - Tango Foxtrot Juliet arrives after 38 hours of absence. Nobody noticed, at least nobody reported. Anyway, still not fully recovered from a hostile cold, I'm back on duty.
Oscar went with Lucas/ Lima to get some nails and flowerseeds for the trench barricades. Comes back and eagerly starts to wash objects recently found. Tango and Oscar admires the big piece of pottery found by Juliet yesterday.
A group of German talking people observed on the street. They look at us, and talk about us, but do not come closer. Anyway, we do not suspect the enemy to be German -not this time.
India Hotel arrives and puts on coffee.
14.00 - Oscar builds an entrance to the tent that will trap the enemy. While the friend will have good laugh, the enemy will laugh his head off. A better trap will be hard to find.
14.45 - Juliet arrives with a baguette.
15.05 - Juliet leaves without the baguette.
15.06 - India arrives with croissants.
15.28 - India leaves with some of the found items. Brings them to the museum for analysis. Leaves the croissants for Tango.
15.46 - The American President Golf Whiskey Bravo is stepping up his war aginst terrorism.
15.47 - Oscar arrives together with Lucas / Lima, and 100 fatherlandertjes. Lucas tells that Kevin is better, it wasn't his nose that was broken, it was his jaw or cheek.
16.00 - With Lucas, on the road to the factory of vaterlentjes, Oscar observed small flocks of enemy lamas and ostriches. The last ones will probably be used to stick their heads in the trenches, and knock us on our heads when we try to pass, and the lamas will spit us in the eyes when we try to flee. This can be avoided by wearing helmets and gasmasks at all times, from now on. The enemy had also closed the wine and spirits shop, and this may be our gravest problem so far.
17.30 - Lucas arrives and tells us about a possible sabotage at the Limelight kitchen. It was a little fire. Now it smells bad.
20.30 - Presentation and reconstruction of The Battle at Stalingrad 1942-43. The reconstruction was in command of Echo Bravo.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: INDIA HOTEL / WHISKEY WHISKEY
23.00 - India Hotel - Whiskey Whiskey take over.
23.20 - Lucas and Mariann leave the camp after a nice talk. The sky is clear and the stars are shining. Not many mosquitos.
23.40 - Running woman sylfide running from east to west on the road in the south. Beautiful between the trees in the silent night.
23.50 - A Vespa making it's sounds on the road, noise in the silence.
23.55 - Pussycat in the camp have an inspection of the trenches. The look of Pussycats area is totally changed in three weeks, but Pussycat is still not angry at us.
00.02 - The Enemy Hour. Whiskey Whiskey remembers earlier enemies from his childhood time in choir when he was very small and still put in the back because making choir enemy sounds.
00.31 - A couple kissing. Second couple today in heavy kissing. Many people are kissing in Kortrijk. They must be part of the Çmoral destroy operationÈ of the enemy. My body is strong, but my heart is weak.
00.45 - Silence. India and Oscar take a sight in the area around. I, Whiskey Whiskey are left here with a whisky and a beer. Listen to the very few noises from the trees. A bat and not so much more. One kastanje just fell down.
00.55 - India and Oscar are back. Everything around in order.
01.00 - Pling in the tower. India clears up the evening glasses, bottles, cans etc. Oscar has left.
02.30 - We must insist, it's very quiet tonight. And it's like the camp is getting bigger, it's eating, no evolving into the neighbourhood, maybe like a tornado. In the middle of a tornado it will be this quiet.
02.51 - A biker. He's very quick, but our senses still see him without seeing.
02.57 - Not even a bat.
03.05 - Sound of snipers in the area. Nothing. India put down the camouflage.
03.20 - Aeroplane high up in the sky with propellas.
03.30 - Black and white cat. Seems friendly, nice looking, but Whiskey Whiskey scares it away. No cats in the camp, he says. No cats in the tent. We must be careful.
03.34 - Whiskey Whiskey having a pee. The smell of pee is strong tonight, and sudden, even when digging there are sudden smells of shit and pee, might also be the death we are digging in, or of course the normal bad smell enemy trick.
04.01 - Goodnight India and Whiskey. Whiskey in the tent, India outside, under the tree.
04.11 - The trees are friendly. They look so nice at this time. Tall. Many.
04.32 - ÇLittle BearÈ between the branches of my tree which is watching me. Confirmation of Çlight makes tree greenÈ. Snoring sound from the tent.
04.41 - Can't see ÇLittleBearÈ anymore. Mysterious how I'm just here in my army bed not moving, and that a buch of stars suddenly can move out og fight. Can the sky be a fake?
04.45 - All is quiet. I will sleep now. Tree tall and straight.
04.53 - Must report that stars are not moving now, I've kept an eye on them. I must, just killed a little one on this page, put the desert storm hat on top and sleep. I believe are mosquitos are killed, or that they have become cowards. I am without any protection.
09.04 - Good morning. Woken by fresh women voices in the Begijnhof.
09.16 - Man in beige trousers and white shirt walks into the camp even though I'm still in my bed.
09.26 - Another man enters the camp. It must be a brave morning. It is a brave morning. The man turns out to be the one and only famous several times spoken about M. Philippe Despriet. He is in blue, he smiles, his hair is dark and parted in the middle. He starts talking a lot immediately. India Hotel and Whiskey Whiskey are still in their beds. WW not awake at all, and India is somehow awake. Despriet very awake, and India in the beginning doesn't know who he is, but from the knowledge and the Çwe'sÈ he puts up I understand, and ask. Then he has already spoken a lot, and this information will be kept hidden in Indias sleeping-brain. But this is what is written in Indias hand: 700-1784 Josef II, 1677, a dump 12th.C-1784, 1377 Edward III treasure found in the neighbourhood. WW woke when the year 1677 was spoken very loud, so we both believe this to be important.Whiskey Whiskey asked about the sculls, and M. Despriet told us this was a dumping place (so we got the Ça dumpÈ sorted out)
10.26 - Bomb from above. Tree attack from a bird, in the form of four wet pieces of shit, landed just half a meter from India's and Whiskey's bodies. We are still alive. India took a picture of Despriet, and he liked that.
10.34 - Whiskey Whiskey and India are a bit numb after the morning attacks. Remember M. Despriet saying we have done something very illegal. It is not legal to dig trenches in Belgium, -not without the right papers from the authorities. If they knew, we might get a huge fine. M. Despriet says with a smile.
10.38 - WW tries to pour India another cup of something he calls coffee, but India refuses after already having two cups of the poison when still in shock condision.
Information about a few of our found items, notation made in Whiskey Whiskey's sketchbook:
Pipes, from Netherland; van Beveren, the little white one from 1650, the others 17-1800.
Coins, Belgian Belga's (=1 Euro)X 2, melted together, late 1820.
Big old piece of glass, from the 17th.century.
Our supposively roman pieces are from the mideaval, 1250 and younger (produced in Lille Street).
Some stoneware from Germany 17th. - 18th. century.
Faiance from Achen / Cologne 17th. century.
10.45 - The bell in the church repeat a very sad melody over and over ffor the last 15 minutes. I, Whiskey Whiskey, mark a new trenchline in the east, hopefully in the inside of the town walls (which we were unable to dig through the day before).
10.52 - Tango Foxtrot Juliet comes. India and Whiskey Whiskey say goodbye.
10.53 - Echo Bravo comes.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 17. SEPTEMBER 6, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: TANGO FOXTROT JULIET / ECHO BRAVO
11.00 - M. Despriet arrives again. The churchbells are constantly playing the sad, sad funeral tunes. Monsiour Despriet writes down what we have and make certain corrections, not to say a fully lesson on ceramics, pottery and bones. While he is talking, three men in working clothes with a huge drill appears. They start to drill holes in the ground, and put something into the holes. We ask, and they point at a tree and say it's the oldest tree in Kortrijk, a buxus, and they feed it every year. With what, we ask - with something organic.
Back to M. Despriet: After cathegorizing our whole collection, he leaves by telling there is a viking settlement in the town centre, and that it is believed that european fortifications are buildt on the model of the vikings, but then it was discovered that the european are 1 century older, and that it is the vikings who have copied. Then he complained a lot about all the historical destructions in this area, and mentioned something about 52 occupations and 19 wars, before he went away for lunch. This man is addicted to old stuff.
12.08 - The church bells chime sad, sad, sad, sad. Again a branch fell down from a tree.
15.30 - A German woman living in Kortrijk,but coming from Switzerland arrives. We have a nice conversation behind the Belgium backs. She tells that the belgians are suspicous people and are introvert and repressed by the catholic church's heavy burden. She says the Belgians don't want to show themselves and like Baktruppen wear camuflage. (Beige)
16.17 - Visited by a camuflaged Belgian.
16.19 - Whiskey Whiskey visites and also Oscar arrives. Whiskey Whiskey looks nice in new clothes.
16.22 - The enemy arrives with a dixieland band.
16.26 - ÇI really love art but swedes make me sickÈ
16.28 - Whiskey Whiskey shows his new collection.
17.40 - M. Despriet was here with wonderful news - he took with him one of the pipes, the brown one, because it was stamped, and a humble kind of nothing piece, which he obviously
found interesting. The rest is ours, he said. Hurrah!
18.21 - A man and his two sons stops at the road, takes a look at the camp, then goes straight to the bushes and pees - right in front of my eyes. Sometimes I think I'm too well camuflated.
18.00 - A police man was here with a scary dog. He was very friendly, and talked about his oldest son who is going to study in England. He said Çnice workÈ about the trenches, and I, Tango, ask myself: What is wrong with us? Everybody seem to love us, old people, children, mosquitos M. Despriet - even the police! At day 17, the enemy seem more remote than ever!
21.50 - Enemy is shooting. Whiskey Whiskey is cool. I, Echo, also takes it easy.
22.43 - Oscar arrives between two lesbians. They are interested in the items. They leave satisfied.
NIGHTSHIFT FROM 23.00 TO 11.00.
ON DUTY: ECHO BRAVO / OSCAR BRAVO
23:30 - Two men and one woman with four kids visit the ? They are wonderfully surprized by what they see here.
00:00 - The bell talls, Mysterious, angelic singing suddenly starts again. Both Bravos agree about the identification of the music piece. Stravinsky's ÇSymphony of PsalmsÈ. But why? And only inn fragments? we are puzzled.
01:30 - Three young men. Scouts. Friends of Anelies. They talk a lot and ask wheather Echo's snoring is natural or man-made.
07:05 - With 10 to 15 fresh mosquito bites itching, Oscar is sure about one thing: India's monologues about have won the fight against the mosquito enemy, is bullshit in each and every word, although she repeats it in all the performances at night. If, Oscar suddenly sees, she lies about that, she may laugh about all other enemy business too. Maybe she is. In that case, mosquitos are our real friends, as opposed to India.
-- GOTO TOP --
DAY 18. SEPTEMBER 7, 2002.
DAYSHIFT FROM 11.00 TO 23.00.
ON DUTY: JULIET KILO / TANGO FOXTROT JULIET
12:15 - A woman faints on top of the hill. People come to help and. Juliet.
One of the helpers looks competent, so Kilo don't shout for doctor Bravo.
13:00 - The Russian kids and friends join digging. Found a lot of pottery and bones.
14:15 - The kids went away. Quiet in the camp. Tango Foxtrot is sleeping.
15:00 - Juliet buys some CDs for the party. Whiskey leaves when he tries out the trench music.
15:50 - It starts to rain.
15:51 - Lucas arrives with a wok. One can kill a man with a wok.
16:30 - We are again invaded by the Russian Children's Army. While we are getting old,
and are set back by certain health problems, they have got fresh reinforcements fit for anything, it seems. They dig, scream, jump, turn and move in totally unpredictable ways, and our strategies of order and discipline are of little value confronted with this overwhelming energy. The rest of the town is taken over by the market and their allies, yesterday's pop music and jazz from the 1920s. Killing fields. Even I, Tango, got trapped on my way to the camp earlier today - I had to stop and have a look, and suddenly my Visa-card was in the card terminal, and a red cardigan was in a plastic bag in my hand. They made me believe it was a fair exchange, but I knew they had won, and I had lost.
17:10 - The Backtroup Camp Kortrijk Operation has now 7 more hours left to trace down
the Enemy. Due to the ever increasing rain, there is not a soul in sight, the only obvious threat is the weather itself. but I'm not that na•v - the jazz music is still playing, the church bells chime, the earth is full of sculls and teeth and worms and mosquitos are reproducing just as fast as euros change hands. My nose is full of snot, the enemy is definately everywhere. There is no peace in Kortrijk.
22:50 - Mission completed - we have done our last battles, have been to the hotel for well needed showers and baths. Now back at the camp, Lucas and his collegues have prepared for a party. The troupers are picking bones and pottery from the BACKINCOP collection.
People will soon arrive for partying.
Everything is calm.
Burt Bacharach on the stereo.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
-- GOTO TOP --
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