Let's stay positive and celebrate life!

 

Yes, he survived! I mean the rooster... Nevertheless, I broke my vegetarian diet for my last dinner in Kongo. Everybody told me I should try guinea fowl before I leave as it is local and special. It was tasty. But it tasted very similar to chicken... So I could also have eaten the rooster instead, as revenge :)

However, living in cities for my whole life I'm not used to see an animal alive before eating it. Hiding in the house while the animal was being prepared for cooking I felt a little bit like a coward. I think it's good I stick with my vegetarian diet.

As I'm leaving Kongo I feel excited to see my family and friends but I'm also feeling sad because I'm leaving those people behind who welcomed me heartily in Kongo and who made me feel comfortable during my stay.

I'm finishing my deployment earlier than planned because my body is not able to cope with the heat in Northern Ghana. I didn't expect it to be that challenging for me but unfortunately I felt sick and weak too often. I'm also very sad that I had to make the decision to leave but it also taught me a lesson. Because I usually don't like to "give up" and I try to push through even if I'm stressed and not okay. However, this time I had to accept that there are limitations to my resilience. Feeling sick and weak all the time affected my resilience too much.

And I have to admit that I felt very helpless when I fell sick with pneumonia three weeks before leaving. Even though everyone cared a lot about me and helped me finding my way to the doctor and getting all the necessary medicine, I was missing having my family and friends around.

Nevertheless, I'm happy that I was able to finish the three projects I've started. In the end, I had to shorten some sessions and worked until the morning I left Kongo but somehow it worked out, even though it's not perfect.

Besides all the challenges, I'm leaving Kongo being very grateful for the opportunities I had and lessons I learned. I'm grateful that I was given the chance to discover a new unique place with it's culture and lots of positivity! One of the best experiences was visiting a local funeral. When old people die here they are celebrated for the life they had. I truly like the idea of celebrating life. The funeral is like a huge gathering with drumming and dancing. The people are celebrating better than at any usual party back home in Germany. As I mentioned in my first post, it's the positivity I see in the people here I wish I could bring with me to Germany... It would be the best gift I can imagine... It's not only there during funerals of course, but in general in everyday life...

Last update regarding the projects.

Project 2:

Here are some samples of the photos taken by the students for the photo competition:

Unfortunately, the boys dropped out of the workshops in the end. Most of the girls were committed and very interested in gender equality and shared duties. Some of them come from communities where the majority still believes that it is not worth to educate girls as they will be married off to another family at some point. However, the girls believe in themselves. As they say, some men are also becoming reasonable. But as everywhere around the globe it is not easy to achieve gender equality in a male dominated environment.

Project 3:

While I was sick and lying in bed the seamstresses were busy sewing sanitary pads and finished fast. In the end it was possible to equip 60 girls with each four pads and one waterproof zipbag. It is not easy to decide who are the girls who need it the most. However, together with KoCDA we decided to distribute the pads among the daughters of the basket weavers and the shea butter ladies as both groups consist mostly of widows who are a vulnerable group in the communities.

As there is some leftover fabric, one of the KoCDA members was introduced into the project so that hopefully some more pads can be sewed in the next months.