Hier ein kleine Bilderreise durch die letzten vier Jahre. Alles begann kurz nach unsere Hochzeit im September 2008. Wohnung ausgeräumt, Koffer gepackt und los ging es. Am Flughafen noch ein kleines Überraschungsverabschiedungskomitee und dann:

Stolze Eltern, Geschwister, Freunde, Ehemänner und Ehefrauen, Kinder, etc. aller Graduierenden fanden sich um 13:00 im Palace of Fine Arts ein um die Abschlussklasse 2012 der Presidio Graduate School unter grossem Applaus zu empfangen.

Nach einigen warmen Worten vom Präsidenten und dann vom Vorstandvorsitzenden der Uni, gab der ehemalige Gouverneur von Vermont Howard Dean eine wirklich gute Commencement Speech mit dem Tenor, dass seine Generation versucht hätte das “System zu verändern“, während Kathrin’s Generation “die Welt verändert und sich dabei nicht vom System aufhalten lässt“. Klingt jetzt sicherlich käsig, fand ich persönlich aber echt gut und inspierierend.

Danach wurde dann jeder der 117 Absolventen – Kathrin an Position 47 – einzeln auf die Bühne gebeten, es wurde eine Schärpe umgelegt, die Urkunde überreicht, zwei Mal Hände geschüttelt, und dann ein Foto gemacht. Dabei wurde im Publikum ordentlich geklatscht und gejohlt. Nach all dem wurde ganz offiziell verkündet, dass alle Graduierenden nun Graduierte sind.

Nach vielen Fotos und einem wirklich schicken Essen sind wir dann noch in die Bar “The View” des Marriott Hotels gegangen um den Tag ausklingen zu lassen.

Wir wurden mit den Worten: “The real hard work starts now” – entlassen. Aber erstmal hatten wir genug davon und haben gefeiert! Am Sonntag gab es traditionsgemäß noch den “Dance-off” – diesmal hat mein Jahrgang gewonnen! Hier gibt es ein Video von meiner “cohort” – ich hab mich dann noch nicht getraut nur in Unterhose und weissem Shirt zu tanzen und hier ist ein Video mit dem Beitrag der Alumni Gruppe (intellektuell etwas ansprechender).

Und zwischendurch waren wir noch bei der Apple Holiday Party im Four Seasons in San Francisco – als wenn ein Ereignis nicht genug wäre für ein Wochenende!

Unser Commencement, die offizielle Graduation Feier (mit Hut und Talar) gibt es leider erst im Mai. Ich bin immer noch zu müde und zu faul viel zu schreiben, deshalb lasse ich Bilder sprechen:

Diese Woche ist endlich die LETZTE Woche an der Uni. Am Sonntag bin ich endgültig fertig. Letzte Woche haben wir vor dem Investor-Panel präsentiert (s. Fotos), sind aber leider nicht ausgewählt worden am Samstag vor der gesamten Schule zu präsentieren. Das heisst aber, ich kann am Freitag Abend die Apple-Weihnachtsfeier geniessen! Thomas hat sich extra einen neuen Anzug gekauft (nachdem wir im letzten Jahr das “business casual” etwas zu casual genommen haben). Hoch die Tassen!

Zum Glück läuft es mit meinem Team sehr gut und wir arbeiten effizient und versuchen uns mit kleinen Freuden für unsere Arbeit zu belohnen. Einmal im Monat treffen wir uns bei Cindy, die in Woodside lebt (etwa 40 Minuten südlich von San Francisco). Ende September konnten wir noch Lernpausen einlegen und in den Pool hüpfen, der zu ihrem Haus gehört, um uns abzukühlen. So lässt es sich arbeiten!

Im Oktober sind 60 Studenten von Presidio zu einer Konferenz nach Portland gefahren! Ich hatte mich einige Monate zuvor beworben, um eine der Konferenz Sessions zu organisieren. Mit ThinkImpact (der Organization mit der ich in Südafrika war) hab ich eine Veranstaltung geleitet: Social Entrepreneurship in Africa -What you need to know. Zum Glück kam die Session sehr gut an und die Veranstalter haben uns das sehr positive Feedback der Teilnehmer ein paar Tage später geschickt! In Portland hab ich auch Susannah wieder getroffen, die ihr vielleicht noch von den Südafrika Bildern kennt.

Jetzt bereiten wir uns auf den letzten Monat in der Uni vor. Am 4. Dezember müssen wir unser finales Projekt (Capstone venture) vor einer Gruppe von Investoren präsentieren. Der “pitch” ist nur 10 Minuten und deshalb kann nicht unser gesamtes Team präsentieren. Nur Karen und ich werden versuchen die Investoren zu überzeugen in unser venture Geld zu stecken. Ich weiss nicht, wie ernst das Ganze ist, aber wahrscheinlich ist unser Projekt nicht so interessant für Investoren (die wollen halt alle etwas Technisches oder das nächste Facebook). Allerdings hatten wir vor einigen Wochen die Möglichkeit uns mit einigen Finance-Gurus zu treffen. Der frühere CFO von Tesla Motors fand unser venture sehr interessant und hat sich mit uns getroffen, um uns mit unseren Finanzen zu helfen (wir brauchen noch ca. $200,000 – irgendwelche Ideen?)

Irgendwie ist es schwer auf Deutsch zu erklären, was wir machen. Ich werd euch einfach unsere nächste Präsentation schicken und ihr könnt euch selbst ein Bild machen. Hier ist schon mal ein Link zu einer Präsentation, die wir im Oktober gemacht haben (ihr müsst unten rechts auf “more” klicken und dann auf “Fullscreen” und schon geht es los). Es ist etwas veraltet und wir werden den Namen ändern, aber ihr habt zumindest einen kleinen Eindruck.

Ansonsten geniessen Thomas und ich wie immer unsere Stadt (der Herbst ist wunderschön, und wenn nächstes Jahr niemand im Oktober kommt, weiss ich es auch nicht mehr…). Sonntags gehen wir jetzt gerne zum Farmers Market im Fort Mason (an der Bay). Erstens kann man sich da mit Probierstückchen satt essen und zweitens gibt es einen Deutschen der leckere Wurst und Frikadellen verkauft!

Am letzten Donnerstag haben wir Thanksgiving gefeiert. Diesmal nur Thomas und ich und anstatt eines riesen-Turkeys gab es ein mittel grosses Hähnchen. Tagsüber haben wir Plätzchen gebacken und einen langen Spaziergang im Golden Gate Park gemacht.

Am Freitag war dann Black Friday! Dieses Jahr haben wir wohl zum ersten Mal verstanden, was das eigentlich ist. Am Tag nach Thanksgiving beginnt der Weihnachte-Rabatt-Verkauf. Besonders die “big box Stores” wie Best Buy, Wal-Mart und Target locken mit Rabatten und öffnen schon um 5 Uhr morgens. Ein Freund von uns arbeitet bei Target und musste am Donnerstag Abend schon um 11 Uhr zur Arbeit, um den Laden vorzubereiten.

Wir haben uns da rausgehalten und (ich) dachte, dass am Freitag Abend der Größte Trubel vorbei ist und man es wagen könnte sich ein paar T-Shirts bei Old Navy zu kaufen (nur $6)!! Falsch gedacht: nachdem wir uns durch riesige Haufen von Shirts gewühlt haben, haben wir festgestellt dass man mindestens eine halbe Stunde an der Kasse anstehen muss. Also haben wir unsere $6-Shirts wieder auf den Haufen geworfen und sind gegangen. Direkt gegebnüber vom Old Navy gibt es das Marriot Hotel, dass hat eine Bar im 39. Stock mit einem wunderbaren Ausblick auf die Skyline und die Stadt. Das war auf jeden Fall entspannter als irgendwelchen Schnäppchen hinterher zu jagen.

Jetzt sind wir wieder mitten drin im Alltag und mein letztes Semester hat am Wochenende begonnen. Meine letzten vier Fächer sind: Capital Markets, Culture, Value & Ethics, Implementation of Sustainable Business Practices, und Capstone. In Capstone starten wir gewissermassen ein neues business (venture) und schreiben einen business plan. Was genau das für mich und mein Team sein wird, steht noch nicht fest, aber ich werde euch auf dem Laufenden halten. Und wenn alles gut geht, kann ich mir dann ab Dezember die drei Buchstaben MBA hinter meinen Namen schreiben.

Es gibt noch eine (weitere) gute Nachricht: In zwei Wochen bekommen wir wieder Besuch! Anja und Chris schauen in Kalifornien vorbei und wir freuen uns schon sehr wieder “unsere” Stadt zeigen zu können.

Today I’m sitting outside in the warm sun of one of the student’s homestay to write the new blog post. My person and probably my nice laptop attracts several of the kids living in this compound and the neighboring ones. They try to read what I’m writing and teach me some words in Xitsonga. The grandmother at my homestay is very pleased with my attempts to speak Xitsonga and today she said her first sentence in English to me: “It is hot.” – it’s never too late to start learning a new language.

We still have one week left in our program and it is too early to conclude, but it is clear that our stay here was a cultural experience for both sides. We have learned what it means to live in a rural South African village and we were able to explain some parts of our culture.

With two big schools Clare is not really a small village: the primary school has about 600 students and the high school about 1000 students. Students don’t have to pay any school fees in South Africa, except for higher education in college and university. Since we are living in homestays and most of us have younger host brothers and sisters we learn a lot about how schools word in Clare. Usually, the students don’t have any books. The teacher has a few books and dictates the homework. In the evening I try to help my host sisters, Akani and Mitchell, with their homework. That’s not always easy since they don’t have any materials that explain, for example, how to calculate the volume of a figure. The pressure to find the right answer is pretty high, students get beaten if they don’t have the right answer.

Some of the teachers of the primary school asked us to come to their classes and help students to practice English. The teachers told us that their students are not doing very well in English and don’t have much confidence to speak. Our group agreed to help out and each morning from 7:30 to 9:30 two students of our group teach English (in addition to their busy schedule with the program). They teach the 7th Grade which will soon be transitioning to high school. The class has 83 students (in one room), which is a difficult learning environment and it can get really loud especially if the teacher leaves the classroom. We have noticed that teachers leave during class time or don’t show up at all. When I get home for lunch I often meet Akani and Mitchell who come home early from school because there was no teacher.

During our time here we heard about many funerals and got invited to some of them. As a pastor my host father has to organize and preach at least at one funeral a week. Two weeks ago his cousin died and after the funeral he told me that she died of AIDS like her husband two years ago. I asked him about the other people that died since we arrived in Clare and he said that they were all infected by HIV. But most people don’t consider to see a doctor or get treatment since HIV is still a stigma. Children learn about HIV/AIDS in school, but there seems to be no opportunity for people to receive counseling or support.

Our work with the women’s group is progressing every day. The women named their group Ti Akeni (Build Yourself). And the students work very hard to help to jumpstart a shop and better connect the women’s businesses. Together with Ti Akeni we developed a constitution that determines membership, leadership and the management system of the group. We are also working on securing a physical space for the shop and met last week with the Community Development Forum (CDF). This group is let by the Induna (head of the village) and several other community members. They informed us that we have to write an application letter and the women might receive a space from the community. Lastly, we are trying to set up a preliminary shop with Ti Akeni on Pension Day - once a month the government pays out pensions and during that day a small market comes to the village. Next time our group will be part of it and use it as a test-run for the shop.

Last Tuesday we got support from the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), a South African Organization that ThinkImpact invited to Clare. All our community members and those of Susannah’s group came together at the church and SEDA gave an introduction about the programs they offer. Next week the women from Ti Akeni will receive 3 days of training and learn basic business skills. We hope that all this will help them to set up a strong and sustainable business.

Besides all that we have to think already about our farewell party. We invited the village for next Saturday to celebrate with us one last time…

Und auch diese Woche wieder ein paar Bilder (ich find’s übrigens echt erstaunlich wie “winterlich” es immer auf den Bilder aussieht – diese Woche sehe ich, glaube ich, zum ersten Mal eine kurze Hose)..

Das Spannendste aus meiner letzten Woche war übrigens eine schmerzerfüllte Mittwoch-Nacht mit darauf folgender spontaner Wurzelkanal-Behandlung. Es tut sich also nicht wirklich viel hier ;) .. Daher geht’s direkt zu Kathrin’s Bericht:

After our trip to Moholoholo, the students continued to work on their business ideas and tried to find community partners. One team was interested in improving nutrition: the less wealthy people, especially, in Clare struggle to find (and pay for) fresh vegetables, eggs and meat. Most people here eat pap. It looks like mashed potato and is made from maize mielie and cooked with only water. Most people eat large portions of it for lunch and dinner. The students had the idea to improve nutrition by adding a variety of milk products to the diet of the people in Clare. They looked into making cheese, which turns out to be relatively easy. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find enough milk cows and people who were interested in starting a cheese business.

The other half of my group focused on existing small, women-owned businesses. During the immersion phase we got to know many small business owners. Since most of them produce their goods only for neighbors or friends, other people in the village don’t even know about their businesses. Many of them also travel to other villages to sell their goods. In that case they have to pay the taxi fare, and if they don’t sell enough they lose money. Finding ways to help these women and improve their businesses became the focus of this student group. Together with these women they developed the idea of a shop in Clare where the women could sell their items. And instead of traveling to other villages and paying taxi fares, our shop would attract customers from outside areas.

Since we couldn’t find supporters for the cheese idea the whole group decided to continue to work with small businesses. We invited the small business owners to an initial meeting to discuss ideas with them. Our team was very excited by the huge turn out: 19 women followed our invitation. Since then, we have had several meetings with the women and found out that all of them think that they need to sell outside the village since most people in Clare have either not enough money to buy their products or don’t need to buy them as often (e.g. straw mats). We also conducted market research to find out what people in Clare buy regularly.

Next we want to find out the outside demand for the products the women are producing, connect them with resorts (which usually sell locally produced goods to tourists) and set up a management system with the women to successfully run the business.

Most of the women are older and did not have the opportunity to go to school. This makes it not only hard for us to communicate with them (our Xitsonga didn’t develop much further), but we also struggle to find the right balance between empowering and overwhelming them. Thankfully, some great people in Claire have helped us by translating at our meetings and understanding how the women think and work!

Last weekend we went on our second excursion – a safari! Our group stayed at Thornybush Lodge, and we were almost overwhelmed by the comfort and luxury. The lodge is in the middle of the game reserve, and the houses where we stayed faced a waterhole so that we could watch animals while hanging out on the balcony. But the best thing was the outdoor shower: getting clean and seeing giraffes and buffalos at the same time! During our stay we had two game drives and saw almost all the big animals. The afternoon/evening drive ended with drinks and snacks under a sky blanketed with beautiful stars.

We have only a little bit less than three weeks left in Clare. We are all getting a bit nervous when we think about all the work we want to do before we leave.

Und, wie jede Woche, hier ein paar neue Bilder:

Erst fleissig lesen, dann unten die Bilder geniessen ;) ..

The third week in Clare is marked by the beginning of the third phase of our curriculum. After getting to know the village and its people (immersion) and learning about ourselves and our strengths and assets (identity), we started developing ideas for social businesses (ideation). For this phase we use IDEO’s human-centered design-thinking.

Since we don’t have any data available and can’t do research on the internet, the people in Clare are our main source of information. Over the last few weeks we asked them many questions, and I’m sure some people are a bit tired of us asking all these questions. Many people here are, especially in the beginning, introverted and almost shy. They would never come up to us and ask us the same questions we asked them. Such as: Where did you go to school? How many children do you have? Do you have any business experience? – But they sit down with us and patiently answer all of our questions.

Only very few people ask questions in return. My guest father, Ezikiel, for example, sits down with me after dinner and wants to interview me. Fair enough! We had already some interesting discussions about religion, unemployment, renting/buying a house – in South Africa, the US, or Germany – dogs, the police, marriage and having children. It’s hard for him to understand why I’m married but don’t have any children yet. “Isn’t that the reason to get married?” he asked me?

Actually the question is not that unfamiliar – Thomas and I heard it pretty often during our last trip to Germany. Ezikiel told me that people in South Africa are having children when they are young (I didn’t mention how old I am…) and then continue with their education or career while family members take care of the children. He and his wife are both still earning degrees and building their careers. Their adorable children (Akani, Mitchell, and Saint) are 12 and 9 years old and the youngest one is only 3 months old.

Ezikiel is also planning on sitting down with my students to ask them questions. He is very interested and likes to learn about our lives and our culture. He traveled a few times to the US (for church meetings), and he is aware that many issues are handled differently in the US or Germany. Whenever we hit a point in our discussion where we have to admit that our cultures are just different, he says, “Is it? Yeah, that is how you do it…”

But we also find similarities between our cultures: He told me that no one in South Africa puts peanut butter on bread! I told him that this is also not very popular in Germany, but Americans love their PB&J (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – our daily lunch). He gave me some of their (homemade) peanut butter, which is actually to hard to spread on bread but tastes great with tea!

In the evening the family usually watches TV (another similarity to families in the US/Germany). The most popular show in South Africa is ‘Generations’, a soap opera that runs since 1994. Every night at 8pm most South Africans turn on the TV, or, if they don’t have a TV, they go over to their neighbors to watch drama, scandals and conspiracies.

Back to my team; After three weeks in the village we decided that it would be nice to take a little break and see more of the area. We spent Thursday and Friday in Moholoholo near the Drakensberg. On Thursday afternoon we visited an animal rehabilitation center. During the introduction at the center we learned that, thanks to us (human beings), the ecological balance is destroyed and that even projects like the Kruger National Park cannot fix the problems we created.

Most of the land in South Africa today is used as farmland or for residential areas. Animals have simply no space and are forced to hunt on farms or in villages. Farmers and residents set up traps to protect their chickens and cattle. If people from the animal center find hyenas or cheetahs trapped and oftentimes horribly injured, they rescue them and take care of them until they can be released into the wild again. Unfortunately, many animals end up again in traps or another animal takes over their hunting area.

After our visit we went back to Ya Mati, a beautiful place between the mountains with several lodges, and we all enjoyed the running water and a warm shower.

Wie letzte Woche gibt’s auch diesmal wieder einen Bericht von Kathrin aus Südafrika; die Studenten sind inzwischen angekommen und starten durch – aber das könnt ihr ja gleich lesen. Falls ihr euch wundert ob’s irgendwas Berichtenswertes von mir gibt muss ich euch enttäuschen, außer Arbeit tut sich bei mir nicht viel. Tja, das Leben ohne Kathrin ist echt langweilig. Aber gut, sind ja nur noch 6 Wochen ;) .. 

Übrigens, weiter unten gibt’s einen Satz Fotos! Aber jetzt erst mal der Bericht:

By Monday we had secured homestays for all student and we were ready to pick up our groups in Nelspruit (a big city 2.5 hours from Clare). On the way we picked up a rental car for me so that we have a car for emergencies. Since Susannah is not used to driving stick shift I will be the only driver. I was a bit nervous driving in South Africa since they drive on the left side of the road! For the first few miles I followed our other driver and had time to get used to the ‘other’ side. Our group stayed one night in Nelspruit and we enjoyed having running water and a warm shower in the morning. The students had some time to do last minute shopping before we loaded a big truck the next morning with their stuff and started our tour back to the village. I had to drive the rental car and asked the driver to look out for my tiny blue car, since they gave me only some very rough directions. The entire way back I was not able to drink a sip of water since the driver was so fast. He didn’t stopp at signs or lights and overturned pretty much every car. I could barely keep up with him. When we arrived in Clare he greeted me with: ‘Not bad for a Yankee!’

Susannah and I were really excited to see how the students would react when they see the village and finally meet their homestay families! We dropped two students at each house and left them with food and water for about a week. Most of them were excited to have a family with children. Kids usually speak English and its easy to connect with them. The three guys in my team, Josh, Paku, and Ahsin are staying with a young men, Conrade, who usually lives alone. But for most houses it is not exactly clear who lives there and who doesn’t: friends and relatives are coming and going (and staying overnight). Fortunately the guys connected immediately with Conrade and he helped them to get settled.

Hannah and Camille, the two girls in my team, are staying with Jester and her kids. I have to say that I’m really impressed with those two girls, they don’t complain and adjust super quickly to the situation in the village. Later that afternoon we picked up our students and went on a first tour through the village. A great opportunity to show our Tsonga language skills. A typical greeting goes like this:

Avuxeni! (Guten Tag!)
Ahee! (Ebenso!)
Mi njani (Wie geht’s?)
Ndzi kona (I’m fine!)
Mi njani?
Ndzi pfukile!
Inkomo. Famba kahle! (Danke. Go well)
Inkomo. Sala kahle! (Danke. Stay well)

For the rest of the week students worked on the first phase of the program: immersion. The goal is to learn as much as possible about the community, their daily life, and their assets and skills. Our team usually meets in the morning and late afternoon to discuss the plan for the day or the results of their research. My role is to explain the curriculum and the exercises for each day, help them with challenges and lead reflection session. So far my team is doing great. They are very open and have no problem to approach people in the village (and be friendly and respectful). In the last three days they gathered already lots of information and are even more excited to work with the community and develop a social enterprise. I hope this excitement lasts for the next weeks and the students learn to deal with the very limited choices of food we are getting, washing their clothes, using the bucket bath, and being cold at night.

Today is Saturday and I finally managed to wash my clothes. This usually means you prepare two large buckets of water and put detergent or soap into one of them. You try to wash out stains and dirt and put the clothes in the next bucket which has only water to clean out the soap. I think I used to much of the detergent since my clothes feel a bit soapy… It’s super windy today so tried to attach it really tight to the line, but unfortunately my two towels fell into the dirt and I had to wash them again…

Weitere Fotos von allen Afrika-Teams gibt’s übrigens hier und den Blog von ThinkImpact hatte ich glaube ich schon letztes Mal verlinkt, oder?