When trains are on strike

One thing that has fascinated me about Germany is the country’s public transport system. It is so efficient that you can barely manage to be on time for every appointment–there are no minibuses to blame for coming to work late as is the case back home. I am just hoping that some day Africa will experience the same development.

But wait a minute! I was almost late for class today, well, not really late but I got stuck because of transport problems. I know what you thinking, you think I am contradicting myself. I can’t blame you for that, and I won’t retract my statement that public transport in Germany, particularly in Berlin where I am, is efficient either. Today, though, is  different case because workers for the train company are on a go-slow. Apparently, they want a salary increment of 7 percent. Thus, during part of the morning, the S band trains were not running and you can imagine what that meant. They targeted the pick hour when people would be rushing for school, work etc. I wasn’t spared, as you could imagine.

I and my Zimbabwean collegue happened to get off an underground train to connect with another one when we noticed that the S band trains were not ‘moving’. You can imagine what that meant, we had to find someone who speaks English to tell us what was going on. I must say I am still finding the language too difficult to learn. Perhaps, It has to do with my attitude. I don’t know but I also had the same problem when I tried to learn French. In fact, and I am ashamed to say this, I dropped out of  a French class because I thought it was an unnecessary burden. Though I must confess, I will take it again as soon as possible.

Anyway, back to our story. We did find someone who told us we had to wait for atleast 50 minutes for the trains to start running again. By that time, I had to be in class.

To cut short the long story, we did manage to go into another underground train to get to one station ahead and we had to walk the rest of the trip to class. You can imagine when we came out of the station and had to discover that we had no clue as to where our training premises were. But we didn’t have to panick as God sorted our problem. In front of us were some colleagues from our class. Ee decided to follow them and that is how I found myself in class today–on time.

Home away from home

That is what Germany has become for the past six weeks. I am so blessed to have new friends who have made Germany a home away from home. We laugh together, have fun together, encourage one another and most of all, we are there for each other. We are like a family, we take care of each other. And talking about laughing together, one of my friends (and I won’t tell you her name) did something wonderful. We were coming out of a train when she turned back in a move to close the door behind her. Immediately, something reminded her of the reality. She started laughing and i joined her. This has become a joke among us–we tell each other to close elevator doors etc.

Germany experiences

Six weeks have passed since I touched the soils of Germany and I am still learning new things everyday. One thing that has surprised me about Germans is their love for dogs. This is one country where a dog is a king. We get on the train together and sometimes, we pray with them in churches. I mean dogs are everywhere.

Germany in first 24 hours

My idea of Germany before I visited the country was that the people are rough and unfriendly. So, as I jetted in at Frankfurt Airport on Sunday, May 20, 2007, I was looking for these particular traits in officials at the airport. Well, I couldn’t trust the airline staff”s smiles, after all, they are paid to be friendly, aren’t they?

But the airport was my first ‘testing’ point. I was disappointed, I must say. I just went through every checkpoint with ease. Well, except at one point when an airport official at a security checkpoint took my face products and threw them in the bin because the laws of the land do not allow a certain amount of liquid products into the country. The details are sketchy, as you have rightly observed, which means I wasn’t listening to her explanation but rather I was thinking I had finally met a German.
I tried to negotiate. The explanation that my skin is sensitive and it only tolerates certain products–hence the justification that I had to have these products–fell on a deaf ear. Well, who could blame her, a rule is a rule and you don’t bend it for one desperate African lady. But somehow I thought she would understand and give me back my stuff.
Your guess is as good as mine, she did not. “I am sorry” were her last words. She must have been truly sorry for me, if her facial expression was anything to go by.
An hour later, I was aboard Lufthansa 172, heading for the capital city–Berlin. In another hour, I was at Tegel Aiport. Guess what I found, two ladies–Sabine and Rita– and one man–Christoff, were waiting for course participants to the IIJ/InWEnt Multimedia and Online Journalism course. I happened to be one of them. Their friendliness was so captivating and somehow infectious. But wait a minute! I thought this is Germany where people are not supposed to be friendly? Well, the three gave me another impression of Germany and made me look forward to the days ahead.

But one man nearly spoiled all this. Few hours later–in a supermarket–we met this German guy who, I thought, was mean. I and two collegues happened to be at a tomato section when this man walked by. Some tomatoes were on the floor and my assumption was that he thought we were responsible for the mess. He was not amused and said “You Africans, and Asians, you think you can do whatever you do in your countries here?” Not the exact words, but the meaning remains intact, of course add to it a serious face and harsh voice.

I asked my colleague from India what the man had said but, probably not wanting to repeat what the man had said, told me to ‘forget about it’ which I did. What with an exciting first day in class. The organisers, facilitors were so nice, they made Germany a home outside home. So, it is not surprising now to see Germans smiling at us and offering to help, people are different after all.

I am yet to get used to the public transport system–the trains, the buses. The idea of building a friendship with a ‘map’ and relying on it almost day in and day out seems to be an exciting experience, especially considering that I and geography do not ‘speak’ the same language. But I am learning.

The language is another problem. I barely have to ask for me to find a product I want in a supermarket as almost all of them are in German language. If I have to get by, the German-English dictionary has to be my friend from now on.

Overall, I can feel that I will enjoy the two months in the country. The weather is warm and nice. The training is super. The participants are great. And of course the food! Perhaps, let’s talk about the food later because I am getting hungry already.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!