A family that produces two recruits who make it to the end of Camp Waes, one of them at the age of 21: that is intriguing. So the VRT sent a camera crew to Wilrijk for a special from ‘base camp’ Borstlap. None of the children actually live there at the moment, but three of the four make the trip home for the occasion. Dries and younger brother Lars study in Delft, Kaat in Wageningen. Sister Hanne, who is a twin with Lars, is at university in Virginia, America. For her it remains a video call.
READ ALSO. The family of Kaat and Dries Borstlap gets its own VRT special: “We want to show a different side”
The episode starts with a visit from Tom Waes to mother and father Borstlap. Katrien and Geert receive a ‘sorry’ package, including beers and a box of tissues. The presenter apologizes in advance for what the Borstlap family will see in the final. Kaat and Dries had to endure a tough time during a hostage situation that lasted no less than fifteen hours.
Waes asks how his recruits are doing today. According to Geert, they have recovered well from the adventure. “After they got home, they went into a coma,” the father remembers. “Dries woke up the next morning and said: ‘I’m going for a tour’. With my last fatherly authority I addressed him and said: ‘No, buddy. No way’.”
Top competition
Before the Borstlap family settles into their seats for the final, there is a look back. The people of Antwerp have a lot of cute video and photo material available for this. Dries is the eldest at home. When he was a year and a half old, he suddenly gained a brother and a sister. This meant that he had to quickly stand his ground and become mobile, Katrien and Geert remember. “He had to get out of the buggy because it was confiscated. We said: ‘Just walk, just do it, just crawl, because there are two others here with whom we have to continue’.”
Geert and Katrien talk about their children in Basecamp Borstlap. — © Frank Abbeloos
Another two and a half years later Kaat is here. As the youngest, she has to go along with the rest. “When she was two and a half years old, we taught her to cycle without wheels, because she had to go to school,” says mother Katrien. “She could do everything much faster than other children,” Geert adds.
“After they got home, they went into a coma. Dries woke up the next morning and said: ‘I’m going for a walk’. With my last fatherly authority I addressed him and said: ‘No, buddy. No way’””
Geert Borstlap
Father of Kaat and Dries
But in terms of self-confidence, Kaat is not at the same level as her brothers and sister. In Camp Waes she admitted that the competition within the family was not easy for her. An old family video shows the four children taking turns jumping over a puddle. Little Kate is the only one who needs encouragement. “We understood the context,” says mother Katrien about Kaat’s outpouring of her childhood. “But Kaat can also agree that she ultimately came out stronger.”
Although at the start of the adventure the parents had less confidence in their youngest than in Dries. “Kaat is still very young, easily injured… She is not the top athlete that Dries is. But we are equally big supporters of her.”
READ ALSO. This is how ‘prodigy’ Dries Borstlap from ‘Kamp Waes’ eats, trains and lives: “Sports gives me self-confidence”
“Every now and then I tried to say to myself: ‘It’s just a program, they’re not really going to shoot me,’” says Kaat. — © VRT1
Competition seems to be the family’s formula for success. “Everything is a competition, everything we do,” brother Lars agrees. “Down to the smallest detail.”
“Everything is a competition, everything we do. Down to the smallest details”
Lars Borstlap
Brother of Kaat and Dries
And the competition is there. Lars is number 178 in Belgium in tennis. “When I see how little he trains… He is really a very good tennis player,” says a proud mother. Sister Hanne is third in the Belgian rankings with her personal record of 4.18m in the pole vault.
Pain, cold and hunger
Time for the final of Kamp Waes. Father Geert found the previous episode difficult to watch, he admits. “They made a number of mistakes then.”
The atmosphere in the office remains giggly for a long time, until the moment that Dries and Kaat are played off against each other by the hostage takers. Dries admits that he had given up almost all information at that time. “When they put Kaat opposite me and made her suffer, I was closest to cracking.”
READ ALSO. The parents of ‘child prodigies’ Dries and Kaat Borstlap in ‘Kamp Waes’: “Our jaws also drop open at what Kaat has achieved”
Kaat was shivering from the cold for fifteen hours during the hostage situation. “Sometimes it felt like a liberation when they came to get me,” she says. “Then I could move a little and feel less cold.”
Even though she was shouted at, treated aggressively and threatened. “Every now and then I tried to say to myself: ‘It’s just a program, they’re not really going to shoot me.’ Even though they have threatened to do so twenty times. They can’t do that. But then again: you are in pain, you are cold, you are hungry. Whether it’s a TV show or not, it’s bad.”
“Dries took very good care of me,” Kaat said about the end of the hostage situation. — © VRT1
Brother Lars, who also wanted to participate, is impressed by the hostage situation. Especially when he sees fear in his big brother’s eyes. “Those men have gone further in torturing Dries than I have,” he laughs. “Happy. They deserve my compliments.”
Tears
When Kaat and Dries are freed, mother Katrien’s tears come. The reunion between brother and sister also makes Geert shed a tear. Waes’ tissues come in handy. “When you see that they immediately hold each other after the liberation, you as parents are proud.”
At the end of the special, Kaat and Dries talk about a beautiful moment that was not captured on camera. “Afterwards, after we had seen our family, Fly called us back into the tent to say a word,” Kaat remembers. “He addressed each of us individually.”
Fly had beautiful, personal words for each participant. “From the heart,” says Dries. “I wrote those words down afterwards and I will read them again very often,” Kaat concludes.
Basecamp Borstlap, now on VRT MAX.
2024-03-05 05:09:49
#Family #Borstlap #tears #hellish #final #Kamp #Waes #shoot