User:Barend Nieuwoudt

Barend Jacobus Nieuwoudt
B.J. Nieuwoudt was born on 18 December 1990 in the small town of Carolina in South-Africa to his parents, Rene' and Thuenis Nieuwoudt. He was named after his grandfather on his fathers side and is the 5th barend in his family line to date. He lived in a small farm house since he was 2 weeks old.

His father bought the farm next to his father's which belonged to Barend's Great-Gandfather, Thuenis Gerhardus Josias Nieuwoudt, back in the early 1900's. The farm is around 800 hectares in size and has a big old Victorian style house built in 1927 on it. The house was built by Barend grandfather's uncle who lived there for a while. He built the house next to one of the first Afrikaans' Schools in the Transvaal (One of the old provinces of the Union of South Africa.) The farm is called "Nooitgedagcht", which translates to "Never thought". It was called this because of an accident that happened to the Original Nieuwoudt family after they came to the district and one of thier children fell of the "ossewae" (ox-wagen) and died.

Barend Nieuwoudt, Ben, started pre-school at the age of 4 and has been at school ever since. he spent three years in prep-school which was almost like a kindergarden except the children learnt how to read and colour in. He then started school at the age of 6 (the chilrden had to go to school in the year which they turn 7) This would be the start of his schooling career that gave his such a big foot hold in life. Year 1 was the only year which he was not the best acedemic student in his class up to Year 10. He wasn't really a sporty personbut somehow always managed to get into the Rugby-, Cricket- and Athletic team. He is a great Chess player and recieved numerous trofees and awards for being one of the bset in the school. In Year 7 he got voted Headboy. This experience was the first for him to actually get a taste for politics and he hated it from the start. Year 8 started the usaul way at Volkskool Carolina, the innitiation into the Highschool came at its normal costs. one time they were told to go onto the Rugby field and look for a smalllittle Gnombe, and afterwards told to run around the School Builing onece. When they returned they found tht all of their shoe's have been thrown together so they had to sort it out amonst themselves. The crawling was very painful and most of the students got huge blisters on their knees from it, but it was all seen in a good light and everything passed as being accepteble. Not that Ben complained, he actually liked the idea of being tried and tmepered against the otheres in his class. this was a perfect learning place for his future career.

The start of Year 9 for Ben brought many changes. First, him and his family moved to Australia. Second, he couldn't speak Enlgish very well and the Ausiie accent didn't help at all, and third, he knew nobody except him and Ashley. Ashley was a friend of the familiy's. Ashley's dad and ben's dad met while they were serving in the South-African Army and has been friend every since. She would play a mojor part in his life in the next few years.

Apart form the language and cultural barier, Ben got along fine with all the others. They were all firnedly and kind to him. Soon Vincent Diez and Kelvin Kumangai became good firned with him. This would be a friendship that would last the test of time nomatter what come infront of them. Ben was in the school for only 2 weeks and then the school decided to make him a student leader. They saw the potensial and quickly tried to teach him how to use it.