Inyas Blog

Between work, lions and once-in-lifetime experiences

bjoern — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:08:28 +0000

Now it´s almost three months that I arrived back to Southern Africa – to this amazing continent full of extrems: amazing people and hospitality – chaotic and ineffective organisation … incredible landscapes – poverty and health problems … lots of work – but also great short-time holidays. Even if my pictures speak different languages and showcase only the holiday-part I am actually working and enjoy it a lot. At GTZ and our partner, SADC, I am responsible to further develop their “Monitoring and Evaluation” systems to report, what our projects are doing with German tax-payer money and what impact they have in the SADC region. Besides I am involved in different public relation projects (like the Southern African Water Wire), lately also one to the World Cup as you see here with SADC 2010 and I am supporting activities for donor harmonisation.

In addition I also managed to fully arrive in Gaborone – with own house, car and ‘weekend-get-aways’. As you see in the pictures I am not only driving an own car again – after ten years – with the wheel on the steering-wrong side but I also live in a small house in the suburbs of Gaborone. These are quite some changes from the small room in Singapore with its great public transport to this new adventure. But as you know I like challenges and especially if I have to adapt myselfs to new settings – that keeps fresh and was exactly what I was looking for. After these first weeks I feel also well introduced to the life of Gaborone with its braai-parties, cinemas, game drives and even theatre-performances (see article about No 1 Ladies theatre). In the end of this month the adventure is getting even more exiting, as Susi will join me here, and so I am looking forward for more great months to see and experience a piece of Africa together.

Rain in Mapungubwe

bjoern — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:13:04 +0000

Rain, rain, rain – these were the first impressions that Jona got, when he finally arrived on 22nd April from Germany in Johannesburg. As this time of the year in Southern Africa the short autumn starts and will be followed by winter in June and July – it is getting pretty cold in the morning (around 2-3 degress) and the rain is doing us very well. He started his Africa trip from South Africa, through Botswana and later on Zimbabwe and Mozambique – so we used the weekend to visit the Mapungubwe park. This game reserve is situated in the north-east of South Africa and famous for is ancient history as well as the scenic red rocks. Especially the Mapungubwe Hill was a great experience, as this “UNESCO World Heritage” was the base for some far developed African civilisations between 1200 and 1270 AD. These kingdoms became rich through trade with faraway places like Egypt, India and China – so you see, that globalization is not only a child of our age. This “Lost City of Gold” is the place where archeologists excavated the famous golden rhino and other evidence of a wealthy African kingdom.

Despite the rain and the long distances to drive – the whole weekend around 3.000km – we enjoyed our time a lot and were fascinated by giraffs, anthilops and the magic of nature sounds, while camping during the night. After our return to Gaborone Jona went on to the “Victoria”-falls and later on Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Namibia: Stunning Desert and Mountains

bjoern — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:01:43 +0000

Shortly before Easter my car, Toyota RAV4, arrived and so I therefore decided to spend these days with friends in Namibia. That was mainly an adventure for the car and me, as we didn´t know each others at all before we departed for this 3.000km journey from Gaborone to Windhoek, from there to Sossusvlei and back to Gaborone. But it went amazing well and it was an incredible trip to the “German” Windhoek where it feels like you´re back in Germany, as a lot of culture and language is still present. Together with Martin and Kana, both working for UN agencies in Namibia, we departed after my 10hours drive from Windhoek to the desert – to the famous Sossusvlei. And we simply had stunning views, amazing sunrises, nice braais and could wash the dust away afterwards in the natural pools at the Naukluft-mountains. It is amazing how much different landscapes and cultures are coming together here in Southern Africa and I am happy to dive into them deeper in the next months.

New York – my love!

bjoern — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:37:00 +0000

I was finally back to the “city that never sleeps” and what should I say? There are some days in your life, that take your breath away – and we had almost a whole week of them in this amazing world-capital: a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience. It was great seeing Susi finally back after two month of her Southern American adventure and my Southern Africa life. Together we were happy to experience these days Jochen, Tini & Bene from Germany, who came all the way to celebrate her birthday in “Big Apple”. And we started big with an evening at the “Metropolitan Opera”, where Anna Netrebko fighted back my jet-leg and suceeded. And the cultural highlights went on with visits to MoMa, a Lang Lang Benefiz-concert for Haiti at the Carnegie-Hall but as well lovely street-art in Williamsburg with view on Manhattan on Sundays. Besides we spend our time in charming coffee-bars, roof-top bars and cute restaurants, shopping at the 5th Avenue or cheering for the NY Knicks at the basketball-stadium.

And New York must also loved us a lot and presented only sun and blue sky, which was extraordinary cause sun started only when we arrived and rain came back when we departed… And besides all this luck we had a nice hotel in the middle of Manhattan called “Hotel Indigo”, which created its own story and reminds us to the good-old-idea of an European lifestyle-magazine. I hope the pictures are speaking for themselves cause the great spring-feeling in New York is hard to describe, when you feel at home but at the same time part of strange multi-cultural world-mix… when you experience the financial district and minutes later poverty at the streets… when you sit in the Carnegie-Hall with famous artists and next day you share your breakfast at the deli with small-town-gangster from the streets. It was simply an amazing time and I hope being back some day soon. While flying back I heard the song “Empire State of Mind” and believe they came close to what we experienced…

Botswana (almost) in football-fever

bjoern — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:32:21 +0000

It is very exiting to realise once again, that the world is very small and that also Botswana makes no exception. That why I wasn´t very surprised receiving Jonas visit for this weekend, as we were working together in European youthmedia – he for Sweden, me for Germany. Together we used the weekend for an extensive get-to-know of Gaborone and its beautiful surroundings and attended as well my first game-drive in Mokolodi Nature Reserve, after coming back.

But the most interesting part was the football-game Botswana (Zebras) against South Africa (Bafana Bafana), that we attended on Saturday evening. Both teams were playing for the qualification to the African Cup of Nations and for 90min the Zebras were dominating but unfortunately did not scored any goal against Bafana Bafana and the game ended 0:0. For this reason it was good to know that their real A-team is currently in Brazil for serious training, otherwise it would have been too easy for the other teams beating them in their home-country in 80 days during the World Cup. I already booked tickets to attend three games and I am really exited as the spirit is really great – whom ever you ask in Botswana or around. (credits to Jonas for the pictures)

Happy to be back in Botswana

bjoern — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:06:58 +0000

After a very long flight taking me from Berlin to Munich – over the white Alpes, through whole African continent to Johannesburg in South Africa and I finally arrived on Tuesday after almost a day of travelling to beautiful Gaborone in Botswana. It was great flying in over a totally green Kalahari-desert, as it was raining and it´s autumn here now. It felt a bit like coming back as I was here for the research of my diploma-thesis a year ago and will now work for German Development Cooperation/GTZ in their SADC transboundary water-management program. Everything was perfect, until I found out at the tiny airport of Gaborone that one of my bags was missing and I was already afraid, that the Johannesburg-airport crews will soon have their own tennis-team playing with my stuff, but fortunately the next day also the third bag with my rackets arrived.

As I live again in a small room at a friend´s house, where I staid also last time it seems as I only left the country some weeks ago as it looks and feels all very familiar to me. But the GTZ office changed a lot, as more staff from Danemark, Canada and Germany joined the team and we are nowadays more than ten people working together with the SADC Water-Division and the fifteen water-ministries in Southern Africa. The team is amazing and on the first day I was already able meeting our SADC colleagues, second day was already project-planning and Friday I wrote the first PR concept. That is fast speed as I like it and I am quite exiting what the future brings. Besides work I am currently looking into car-buying and I hope finding one soon, as busses ar not very effective and walking produces a lot of sweet as we have over 30 degrees here. As I had my last car almost ten years ago and life in Singapore and Berlin do not needed one, that is quite funny situation but let´s see how I get ripped off by the car-shops.

Between Carnival and Northsea

bjoern — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:28:23 +0000

Before I join my new job on 1st of March in Botswana I am currently on preparation-courses in Eschborn (near Frankfurt/Main) with around 30 other GTZ co-workers, who will join projects all over the world. For the first time in my professional job I receive professional preparation with management-skills, financial-explainations and of course strategic elements and I am very happy to exchange with all these experienced people from German development cooperation and get introduced to the GTZ with its almost 15.000 co-workers. As some of them worked already in Southern Africa I gain a lot of new informations and impressions – what to do and what to avoid and can hardly await my start in Gaborone.

As Eschborn is more an industrial-park then an ancient and beautiful city I use my weekends for some get-aways, last weekend to carnival-celebrations to the “Kölsch-Fest” in Cologne and this weekend to Aalborg in Nothern Denmark to visit some friends, whom I haven´t seen for ages. The last two weekends are dedicated for my hometown and maybe Berlin and afterwards I join a friend in Romania, before my flight leaves from Berlin on 1st of March to Gaborone. And it´s great having a girlfriend, who is traveling even more crazy than me, as Susi is currently backpacking in Latin America. You can follow her crazy adventures in magnificient mountains with pinguins and lamas here. So I have to day, that it´s great to be back in wonderful snowy Germany and to feel home with friends in Europe – hope seeing you all in Gaborone once a day.

Back to Botswana/SADC in March

bjoern — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:14:03 +0000

After some waiting I received last week the final approval for my new challenge in Africa. From March on I will move back for at least one year to Gaborone (Botswana) and start working for the GTZ in their water-programme in the SADC region. As I wrote my thesis about this topic I am familiar with that topic and will be responsible for establishing a monitoring and evaluation system in close cooperation with the SADC secretariat. Working with that great team, for GTZ and in this challenging environment with fifteen African countries is really my dream-job and I cannot wait to start.

From 1st February until 1st March I will be in Eschborn, near Frankfurt (Main) for my preparation in the GTZ headquarter. Afterwards IÂ´ll leave icy Germany (currently minus 15 degrees in Berlin) for sunny Botswana. And I am very happy that also Susi, who is currently travelling for some months in Latin America, will join this adventure in June. So I have the noble task to find something to life in for us two: Maybe we can improve ourselves from our small fourteen square-meters room in Singapore – as a lot of guest already agree to visit. :)

Warm welcome back in snowy Germany

bjoern — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:12:43 +0000

After twelve months living in the tropical island Singapore it was quite a huge change arriving back in “good old Germany”. Snow covered Munich, which I landed and during the last two weeks I experienced temperature between -15 and -5 degrees each day with beautiful snow, frost patterns and many cold fingers. After some days in great Bavarian family-athmosphere I visited my home-town and my beloved Baltic Sea, Hamburg und welcomed the New Year with good friends in Cologne. Afterwards I went back to the Alpes and managed to learn the snowboarding so good, that I will come back this season to experience the blue sky, fresh air and great feeling while sliding down soon.

If everything goes right I will stay in “the greatest city of Europe: Berlin” until end of January and will leave after some preparations in March for Africa. I will keep you posted and hope to see good friends over the next weeks and invite them all for World Cup to South Africa. :) Looking back to Singapore I have to say it was an amazing year and I want to thank all friends to let me experience Asia in such a great and smooth way! I will be back!

Goodbye Singapore: It’s time for continent-change

bjoern — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:40:30 +0000

After some amazing months working in Asia and experiencing the Asian way of living, working and having fun life speeds up again. Last week I was offered a great job-opportunity at the German Development Cooperation/GTZ in the SADC-region, that I was writing my diploma-thesis about, and I decided taking this chance immediatly. It was a great time working for the FES in Asia but as Susi left for her trip to Latin-America I was able to get back to my beloved continent Africa and after this dream-offer it was very easy to decide.

Of course it’s amazing fast – as I decided this week to take the job, I will leave Singapore forever on 22nd December and will start the new challenge after a great christmas and ski-holiday from 1st February and most probably move to Botswana in March. I hope everything goes like planned, as no contract is signed so far, but the opportunity is extraordinary amazing and of course I took this small risk – as always. :) Life is great and I am awaiting the time in Africa a lot.