Sunday — Hänschen Klein
Today we’ve been at the hogsback. I feel I am very fortunate to be here in South Africa and to be part of such a great team. It’s been quite a long drive to Hogsback but we were using the time in the car to learn more about each other.
I found out that Tak (from Japan) can drive much faster then I do (Steffen, Tak and I were driving). What exactly that means you will need to find out by watching the video clip that I will upload a little later. In any case Tak is also a great negotiator (apart from it he’s a great eater).
We wanted to go hiking. So when we arrived at hogsback we started by stopping over in a very cozy restaurant. (It’s a pity I have lost most of my pictures from that day) … The restaurant provided an extraordinarily nice ambiance.
Beefed up with lot’s of energy from the coffee and crepes we went for hiking. On top of the hill we had a wonderful view sitting right beside the waterfall on hogsback looking down to the valley.
On our way back each of us were singing some songs from their home country. From a German point this included „Hänschen Klein“ and „Guter Mond, Du gehst so stille“. Priya sung beautiful Indian songs with romantic lyrics. And when we arrived home we actually felt that this was a very special day with lot’s of laughter and joy.
Monday – Feierabend
Our boss at RuLiv („The Prof.) has actually been living in Germany for 18 years. He speaks perfect German and knows and appreciates the German culture. After a very interesting interview with him (Melissa, I would love to have your skills!) we packed up to call it a day. There is a wonderful German word that we use when we call it a day and go home to spend a nice evening. It’s called „Feierabend“. We talked about that and the Prof. added to it. He said: „German language is very clear. There is no ambiguity in this language. If you say something it doesn’t have different meanings“ … What a good observation I thought! Maybe this explains why Germans are considered very orderly and punctual.
Anyways my colleagues love the word „Feierabend“. It’s now a buzz word for our lovely evenings.
Tuesday – Kartoffelsalat
Another wonderful day. We’ve done a lot of practical work at RuLiv. Melissa is a five star in communication, Anna is a five star in process and Anil is a five star in terms of integrating us as a team and with RuLiv. I am so happy to be part of this team. Sometimes it’s not so easy for me to follow all the conversations in English and I feel I am slow in picking up some of what’s been discussed. But my team colleagues are wonderful team players and make it easy for me to catch up.
Tonight the Germans were to cook the dinner. This means Steffen and I were onto making a potato salad (Kartoffelsalat), green salad and sausages. We started out yesterday with the cooking of the potatoes. We were peeling and cutting them and then pored hot water with vegetable spices over the potatoes. Then today we put a lot of salt, peeper, some cucumbers and mustard into it and steered it all up. Steffen kept asking me how much and what’s next and so on. I kind of got the feeling that we both had no clue about cooking. But we did it …
I am writing this blog right after our dinner and we are all very happy … so it seems it worked out :-). I must admit that the apple pie did contribute to the happiness a big time… So here the kudos go to Anna and Melissa.
Tomorrow is Patrick’s birthday … and we are going to the rural area Emalahleni… we might see and talk to some traditional leaders. So stay tuned for more stories.
