7 quick takes from Hartmut
This week the seven quick takes
are not written by me but by Hartmut. Enjoy reading about our life from his
perspective!
- I always knew that working at Zulunkhuni would only be a season and that I would end up in the engineering sector again. I do not regret the change of scenery that we chose for one moment and I strongly believe that it has benefited and grown me in every way possible even as an engineer. So now that I am back at a ‘real job’, I am very motivated to work on the solar project. The part of the team that I met so far is amazing. The people in the team are really caring and want the best for you, very international with Malawians, Chinese, Dutch and Spanish. It will be a very tough project as it already delayed and the contractor is not very experienced. My job is to represent the owner of the project and in that job I will be expected to go many extra miles and guide the contractor to where we want them to go. Fortunately I enjoy challenges and the team I will tackle the challenge with is great and experienced. For now I am motivated but maybe ask me in 4 months again J.
- As a father, I am learning loads from my daughters. Here is just one example I want to share with you. “I am so forgetful”, laughs Doris at the dinner table after she wanted to tell us a story and then forgot what she wanted to say. “If I were to be a mother, I would forget to put the lights off at night and forget to make food!” Thanks my dear Doris for the reminder to not take ourselves too serious, laugh about ourselves and live with less regret. Doris is so content with who she is and what she can do that she never feels like she needs to proof herself. Even so much that, once she knows that she can do something, she doesn’t necessarily want to do it again unless she really has to. For example; she seldom wants to put on her underpants herself, claiming that it is too much work. She just shrugs off our complaint that most girls of her age do it by themselves, saying that she does not really mind and it is easier if we do it. It simply does not matter what others think of her. Let it be a reminder to us that FOMO steals our joy.
- I often wonder what animal describes me the best. When it comes to sport I would be a Fox Terrier which did give me my nickname “Foxi” during my primary school. I am not the most skillful soccer player but I make up for it by making my opponent’s life hard. In the field, I would always mark the best player and almost literally stand on his feet to hinder him from getting his freedom with the ball. I think this is still true and even in my work life I find this characteristic still seeping through. Again, I struggle with pioneering things, but excel in getting my head stuck in it and work until I get a solution. I will pester people and colleagues until I have the answer I need. When it comes to interacting with people, I often think of myself as a chameleon. I always aim to see the world through the eyes of other people and enjoy blending in and experiencing the world as the other person does. This of course cannot ever work 100% as my culture, upbringing and convictions will not go away, but I do enjoy making the effort. So there you have it; I guess I am a terrier that can change colour. Pretty cool if you ask me. J
- “Matwinsi?”, asks the young man and the kids scream “What is your name?”. Even here at the Southern part of the lake where the population density is much higher than in the North and poverty and malnutrition are much more evident, we are seldom asked for money or food as we stroll through the homesteads on our way to the market. There are way too many people to make a living of the lake and the surrounding land is barren, allowing very little cultivation during the extremely dry period from around April to November. That peaceful moving through the community changes in an instant when we comfortable sit in the big white double cab Toyota pickup that work has provided for us, the kind of car that is synonymous to “a huge pile of driving gold” around here. Such cars are only driven by NGOs, government aid funds and the wealthy. Immediately, the interaction changes from the casual greeting to “Give me money” or “I am hungry”. The tomatoes on the side of the road have suddenly experienced a quadruple inflation overnight and the street vendors are fiercer than ever. I found that successfully navigating between the different spheres of life is very emotional and tiresome. The car is needed for my work and my job allows for my family to stay in a beautiful house rather than in temporary construction site accommodation and I do enjoy having more freedom in deciding where and when we go somewhere. But I do ask myself often how do I connect with the people from inside an expensive car? Does it really matter if I own it or just driving a company vehicle, since it’s the same for the person looking at you? You can act humbly and justly, but the rules of interaction have changed and will remain as they are. So we will keep the mode of transport of the walks to the market and along the beach by foot.
- I enjoy people, easily make friends with the common person and love to just observe and be. The latter I particularly learned to appreciate during my time at Zulunkhuni. The same goes for connecting with the people on our ferry, the Ilala which was our only real transport to and from the lodge. When we wanted to find out some information about the ferry a few weeks ago, I realised that I did not any contact details of any of the captains or first officers, the ones who could give me more reliable information. Rather I only had the contacts of the cleaners, waiters and ticket personnel. I had not spend time drinking with the captains as people do in order to connect with the important people, rather I sat in ticket office and the restaurant and chatted with the personnel while there were getting on with their jobs. I will miss this connection with those people now that I won’t use public transport anymore and automatically move around in a wealthier layer of society. This this is the same for my work, where I will be the one inspecting the works and the mistakes and ask the workers to correct it. I will miss that life which is much rougher and rawer, but often more exciting and fulfilling. But am also very excited and eager for this new adventure.
- The more places I move to, the stronger my conviction grows that ‘People make a Place’. The memory of the white beaches and great food will soon fade, but the connection with the people remains for a very long time, possibly for the rest of my life. Namibia, Germany, The Netherlands, Cape Town, Zulunkhuni, Likoma Island, Nkwichi Lodge and now Senga Bay remain and will remain memorable because of its people; amazing or annoying as they may be. One of my favorite things to do is to look back at my past life stages and seasons and I often wonder what has happened with the people who featured in those past episodes. Some I still have contact with, most I have no contact with anymore. I find it intriguing how the seasons, people and life experiences are connected and marvel at how God connects the dots. Even though I treasure friendships immensely, I don’t have many people I communicate on a frequent basis. And that often makes we wonder. Is it just a guy thing that you don’t keep in contact like many women do or is it me not investing as much as required to keep the communication going. Or is it perhaps because I have moved places so much? I don’t know but I do miss the regular contact with so many people whom I share so much in common.
- I really enjoy the plot our house is built on and the neighbours which come with it. There is a retired couple which comes out every second weekend. The husband is a Scotchman, but lived in Malawi for most of his life and is very chatty. I love hanging out with them or going for sail with him. It was my first time ever and I really enjoyed it. And when we spend time with them, we inevitably get to know the history of Malalwi better. He served as a high government official under the late president Banda and has very interesting stories about that time. And then there is the couple who own this plot and from whom we rent this house. He is also always up for a chat and has basically build this place with his own hands. He is in his 80s and still planes the doors, cuts with a manual saw and operates his power tools. An impressive man and he has lots of tools, which I am often after J.
