Saying goodbye and wiping tears whilst holding in the excitement from bursting out was the greatest battle I faced at the Kotoka International Airport in Ghana. Within the twinkle of an eye, I was queued together with the three other volunteers of the Norddeutsche Mission from Ghana heading towards the huge piece of perfectly moulded metal which we were scheduled to travel in. I said my final goodbye and a ‚see you soon‘ to my motherland as the aircraft took off and zoomed through the skies, speedily leaving behind the land I call home. My first flight was not at all bad, I wasn’t in the slightest bit scared! The flight attendants were nice and so was the food and the tea and the juice! My experience on the flight wouldn’t have been complete without me watching a few episodes of „Tom and Jerry“ and also playing a few games which I couldn’t actually play because I couldn’t figure out how to play them unfortunately.  I admired the beauty of God in all His perfection as I stared dumbfounded at the magnificent view of the sunrise in all its glory. Indeed, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wasn’t kidding when he said; „nature is God`s living, visible garment“.

„sunrise from my lenses“

I was confronted with my first task as we landed in the grande Amsterdam Airport. Oh boy! The struggle to find our boarding gate was soo intense. Yet little did I know that that was just a tease of the numerous long distance trekking journeys awaiting me in Deutschland! Well, we finally located our gate with an hour to spare for our next flight to Bremen. We passed the time with picture taking sessions and of course phone charging, because we definitely didn’t kill all of our phones‘ batteries with excessive picture taking.

In a moment we were flying above the clouds once again and in the next moment I could feel the hot cool air of Bremen whispering a ‚Herzlichen Willkommen‘ to us. Oh! How wonderful it felt to be given a warm welcome by Mo and Summer, her dog. Well, with that welcome begun my 10 months stay in Deutschland, ‚The Land of Surprises‘ as I love to refer to her. With a new country comes lots of surprises and Bremen, Deutschland, hasn’t failed to live up to that.

We ate our first meal in a restaurant close to the Norddeutsche Mission’s headquarters in Bremen. It was „chinese friedrice“ as I prefer to call it (because it was from an Asien Restaurant and the man looked Chinese). The first two days were wonderful! I mean, what could be better than a welcome tour with Lukas, Ice Cream and a picnic by the river?

  “picnic by the river“

My first day in a Deutsche Kirche was interesting. Heike Jakubeit (the general secretary von der Norddeutsche Mission) went together with myself and the other volunteers to the Bremen Dom in the City Center. Not to lie, we were forewarned about the great difference between the typical Ghanaian church and the German church, but nothing prepared me for the shock that came with experiencing the difference leider. It was soo calm and serene, a great contrast to the energetic services we have back home. Our first struggle to understand the Deutsch language as a team was during the service. Service was wonderful nonetheless. The pastor shortly introduced us to the congregation during what I’m guessing was the announcement session and man! I had no idea she was introducing us till she said „aus Ghana“. The people at church were very nice and sweet to us as they threw „willkommen“ and beautiful smiles our way. There was more ice cream after service as we grabbed lunch together with Heike. We closed the Sunday chapter with supper from a Mexican restaurant in the Friedhofstrasse together with all of the other volunteers from the VEM and the NM.

My year started with a week of Seminar, which was aimed at equipping us and the new volunteers of the VEM with the needed knowledge required to make our stay in Deutschland successful and less stressful. Oh, how wonderful the week was! It was a week of cultural and personality integration as we had volunteers from Tanzania, Namibia and Deutschland joining us for the seminar.

The volunteers of both the NM and the VEM involved in the Einreise-Seminar

The week began on Monday with the ‚introduction and getting to know each other‘ session. Beautiful people with beautiful souls and smiles introduced themselves, and from there commenced a bond of endless laughter and memories creation; wonderful memories that I´m sure to carry with me for the rest of my stay in Deutschland and even the days after. We observed our morning devotions together every morning at the seminar hall with the volunteers taking turns to lead us in Prayer and the Word each day in groups of two.

Tuesday wasn´t a disappoinment either as we had an intense session with Daniel, a former volunteer of the Nord Deutsche Mission (2021/2022). The ‚culture clash‘ is what I`ll call it, as the atmosphere on Tuesday was intense with everyone bringing on board their different unique opinions on the ways of life of humans, both from their personal perspective and their tribal / national perspective. ‚Tolerance and Open mindedness‘ is what stuck with me at the end of that session.

Jana (the VEM coordinator) also took us through a soothing session on ‚Resilience‘. My go home with piece was to ‚always pick myself up when I fall‘. To ‚FAIL‘ as defined by Abigail, (a current volunteer of the Nord Deutsche Mission in Lemgo) is the First Attempt In Life. Meaning, there`s no need to accept defeat when you don`t succeed. Instead, you try again till it works out. And when it doesn’t, you pick yourself up off the floor, dust yourself and try something new! Do everything except giving up!

„kultur session with Daniel (left) and resilience session with Jana (right)“

We wrapped up on Tuesday evening with a „kreatives“ session, where we made lots of bracelets and juggling balls too. Jovin (a VEM volunteer from Tanzania) made me a beautiful bracelet and I also made one for myself which I unfortunately already lost leider.

„kreatives session and the bracelet one of the VEM volunteers made me “

 Wednesday of the seminar week came rolling in with more fun and education as we took a stroll though the Hauptbahnhof and the Nelson-Mandela-Park in Bremen, as Mo lectured us on the ‚Postkoloniale Spuren‘ in Bremen. Later that day, the external lecturer Angelos educated us through a very fun and worth remembering session on the topic of ‚Liebe, Sex und Partnership‘.

Thursday rolled by fast as we engaged in a splendid podcast workshop session with Henning Luehr and Loran of the Evangelischer Kirchenfunk Bremen Niedersachsen. It was the session I enjoyed the most and wished would never end, as I got the opportunity to interview random people on the streets of Berckstraße (ignore the tautology) on the issue of ‚volunteering missions‘. I realized more how truly diverse the world is as I listened to different people share their varying views on the one same issue of ‚volunteering missions‘. Indeed, podcasting is something I`ll love to learn more about! Evening time was marvelous, as we headed to „mommies corner“, an African Restaurant in Bremen to release all the stress on the varying mouth watering african dishes. Of course I took some fufu with Peppersoup and lamp. Oh how I miss the Ghanaian Sunday special fufu. The day couldn’t have ended in any better way J!

„Afrikanisches essen at mommies corner in Bremen“

All but too soon, Friday came running into the party and the time to pack up and say goodbye arrived. It was a fog of emotions as Jason, (a Namibian volunteer of the VEM) gave a heartwarming conclusion speech on that chilly Friday afternoon. A few tears were shed and the ‚Last Lunch‘ was eaten together. Soon, hugs were flying here and there as we parted ways to our separate service centres. Well, I remained here in Bremen and spent the Friday evening strolling through the city centre of Bremen with the selected North-South volunteers of the Norddeutsche Mission who will be flying to Ghana and Togo in a few weeks time.

Yes! Reality is hard. I was left alone in a foreign land and there, I faced my first solo battle with the deutsche Sprache. „Oh how fun it was to get lost in the middle of a deutsche conversation“ (note the sarcasm).

It was not at all bad, as I engaged in a „zusammen kochen“ on the morning of Saturday with the North-South volunteers of the Norddeutsche Mission and Gentil, their Ewe teacher. We prepared jollof; ghanaian jollof to be specific and we had a good time devouring the poor pot of jollof.

All too soon, it was time to once again say goodbye as I had to leave to Neustadt, a Viertel in Bremen, where I´ll be housed with my host mother. I arrived at the home of my host mother on the cool Saturday of the 10th of August, 2024. Beats my imagination how nice she was and still is! The staff of the Norddeutsche Mission, Lukas and Mo, stood out in their characters as they took me on an afternoon and evening stroll respectively through the Viertel of Neustadt, to get me familiarized with the place I`ll call home for the month of August.

My first day in the office of the Norddeutsche Mission was not at all bad, as I did not too many self introductions. I received a warm welcome on my first day too! Flowers and a `Herzlich Wilkommen‘ note on my desk; which is directly by the window, giving me direct access to the sun rays which I soo importantly need!

„Meeting new people in a new place“ should be the motto of the various embassies in their respective countries. As Deutschland is a multiracial land, ‚neues Menschen kennenlernen‘ is an everyday activity. Almost 10 people out of the 15 students in my language Kurs in CASA are international students from 3 different continents of the world. Schön!!

Yes! So all in all, my virgin steps in Deutschland were peaceful. Two weeks already and I`m surviving!! Ohh, how excited I am for the days to come. Why not stay on this page and find out together with me how Deutschland and volunteering will be in the next 9 months and 1 week!!

Ach, übrigens: Ich bin Christabel und das war meine erste Zeit im Deustchland!