Neighbour dream team

Gratitude

Gratitude

Back in the capital of Germany, we are overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude for all the help and support we have received from our friends during our strenuous time in Berlin. From day one of our arrival we moved eight times within five different districts. It was our friends who bedded, fed, and unconditionally supported us in our endeavor to settle. They even left their homes for us at times! It is amazing, a true blessing to be surrounded by such wonderful people. It creates an inner warmth, love, and gratitude impossible to describe in words. It is a deep feeling of belonging, of unconditional love, of unlimited understanding, spiced with pure joy of life. We wish to give great thanks to our dear friends – the B-Team Angela, Simon, Bruno and belly baby, my cousin F., my dear friend Therese, the African connection Heidi and Marius, the pleasure is treasure team Irene, Andreas and Nina, the crazy Leyke street girls Katharina and Denise, my dear friend and knowlegde source Ch., and all the other human beings that coloured our way in Berlin.

Heidenau, we come!

In Leipzig we load our rented Europcar transporter full of my belongings. Turning out pretty much, my mom shows relieve at the sight of emptying shelfs in her apartment. The day of our moving a surprise visit of my brother and his wife to my mom’s enables us to hug with joy after more than two years of our last meeting. Time is running, so we quickly pick up the bed sheets and kitchen tools package from our friend Stephanie, and appear an hour later in Gera. We are loading useful items my sisters still have in storage and we urgently need for our new apartment (i.e. stove). Since we don’t even have a sink, we are grateful for everything we can get. Finally, we are heading to Quohren, a tiny village about 14 km west of Heidenau. Here our lovely friends Lili and Tobi provide us with mattrasses and blankets in order to survive the first nights sleeping on the bare floor. Being only the two of us, we are wondering how to get all our belonging up to our apartment. Tobi can’t help out. He asks our address, recognizing that a dear friend of his lives nearby. That is the moment when magic happens. Tobi calls his friend Tilo, asking to help us move. What a surprise when he figures that Tilo lives in our house!

Golden Times

Precious neighbors

Neighbours

It takes a mere 15 minutes until we appear in front of our house. In the dark we carry all our belongings near the entrance of our house, then park the car. All items but the sink have survived the journey. This 1976 model with porcellan sink stored in my mom’s cellar has outlived its time. We anyway hope for repair, and begin to carry the first items upstairs. Once the items are stored I ring Tilo’s bell. There is an immediate feel of connection between the three us. Tilo joins us with enthusiasm. On the third round our neighbour Lutz joins without a word exchanged. We meet him first on the staircase when being loaded with our stuff. A minute later neighbour Helgo joins in, too. Now we are five in total. With this fantastic team and their unbeatable Saxon humor the moving in is done within half an hour. We give great thanks to our neighbours, close the door, and fall exhausted onto the floor. We can’t believe the beauty of this moment, of all that is evolving since we have decided for this place. We are in total awe, laying there with a huge smile carved into our faces. What an incredible place!

Welcome home!

A mere 5 minutes the door bell squeeks. I creep to the door. Upon opening I forget all tiredness in an instant. A graceful woman with big smile holding a plate full of bread and salt towards us is introducing herself. “Good evening! I’m Pavla, the wife of Lutz. I want to welcome you dearly to your new home, wishing you all the best for your new start over here!” Overwhelmed, we can but smile. This moving tradition of bread and salt upon arrival touches us deeply. Her words even more. Pavla continues speaking. She enters our hearts in a second with her straight, open, and humorful attitude. Short over long, she invites us down to her place. We follow, finding the whole helpers crew gathered around the kitchen table. What a JOY! We chat, we share, we laugh, we care, we eat and drink. Life is so beautiful, so amazingly uncomprehendable and unpredictable, so surprising and uplifting, so divine. We say good bye when our eyes long to close for the day. Satisfied in all ways we snuggle soon thereafter on thermarest mattrasses in our sleeping bags. What is the place we are right now? Ah, right, “We are home!”

Home in Heidenau