I am often asked what made me stay in South Africa, in particular East London. After all, I am from a beautiful, secure and wealthy first world country. I have traveled the world and lived in a few stunning and exciting places. So why oh why, would I choose a small town in the middle of nowhere which is fondly called "Slummies" or "Pothole City" by many South Africans? I think there is more than one reason. But let me try to explain in a bit more detail.
First of all, I never planned it. I was meant to stay for two years only. But time passes quickly when you are having fun. And I had the time of my life exploring the country and an exciting job setting up a qualification programme and improving problem solving at the Mercedes-Benz plant. So I extended once, I extended twice, and then I did it again. And believe me, contract and visa extensions abroad are everything else than easy. They come with a lot of work, uncertainty and long waiting times. They come with pain and nightmares. And while I was enjoying life and advancing in my career, I also grew tired. I could never plan for more than a year. Because I never knew where I would be. And that had been the case for most of my life even before I arrived in South Africa. I had moved from Germany to the United States to Germany to Australia to Malaysia and back. And back in Germany from Villingen-Schwenningen to Stuttgart to Düsseldorf to Mannheim to Stuttgart. I had enough. I had loved my crazy globetrotter times. I had learned and grown so much. I would not change the experience for a world. But I yearned to have a home base. Not even a "home home", but a base. A base where I could build a cosy nest to return to. A base from which I could still venture out whenever I felt like it.
That is the time when most people decide to return to their home country. But I am often not like most people. I had fallen in love with the country. Its beaches, wide open spaces, natural beauty, animals, and diverse countryside. The sun. The lifestyle. The people and all the different cultures and walks of life they come from. The many languages. The smiles and friendliness. The chaos that always keeps you up on your toes. The potential. The uncertainty what might happen the very next day (I love excitement!). The fact that things can be so much easier (but at times also so much harder) than in Germany. Even the potholes. For me, arriving in South Africa felt like coming home to the place where everything had its beginning, where life is still slower and following a more natural rhythm. In South Africa, I feel like I can breathe. In South Africa - for the very first time in my life - I experienced a deep feeling of happiness. The kind that makes you cry because it feels so good. In South Africa, I had found myself. And I had grown up (I think! :D)
After five years in the country and at the end of my international assignment, the decision to stay was not a light nor a naive one. By then, I had seen both the positive and negative sides. Life was not all travels and fun anymore. I had completely arrived, and I was living a South African routine. I even had my fair share of break-ins (three in total, believe it or not). I was aware of the fact that I would resign from a safe job in Germany to take on a local position and earn less money. None of that could stop me though. I chose my dream over security.
The decision for a place in life is a very personal one. For some, it is the town where they were born (And there have been many times when I admired them and wished I was the same). Some, however, only find it later in life. And we all choose for very different reasons, influenced by our history, circumstances, preferences, experiences, values. Influenced by where we are on our individual life journey. And I am in the perfect place at the perfect time. Right in this very moment.
I want to close with a quote from Nikki Banas that I found on the Internet today (I LOVE quotes! Most of my friends will know that already!!): "Home: Find the people and places that make you feel at home. Find the ones who take care of your soul and make you feel like you can be completely yourself around them. Find the ones who light you up from the inside out and encourage you to be yourself... Find the places where you feel at peace, the places that you could spend forever wandering and exploring. Find the places that make you want to see even more of the world and the ones that make you happy to be alive... And whenever you find one of these people or places, hold on to them so tight. Tell those people you love them often. Visit those places as much as you can. Never let go of those people or places because when you find peace and love and joy in this world, it is worth more than gold... It is where you are meant to be."
