Being pushed to the limit to some extent serves some good, the whole point is that when pushed to the limit you tend to make sound decisions not in all cases but when your life depends on something and you don’t have enough choices to gamble with you tend to think about consequence before making the choice. Imagine someone who is about to detonate a bomb and is down to two wires, every second counts and at the eleventh hour you have to snap one wire it may not require reason anymore to make a choice but whatever you do you know your life depends on it. Time travels so fast, in a moment we are thinking of something and just as we are at it the first initial thoughts are drawn in to history, with each stroke of the clock the present is supped in to history and we have no control over what has passed but have the potential to shape or even redirect some aspects of the future based on the choices and decision’s that we make.

So what if you could change your past? Would you change your color, family, status and the list goes on and on. I have had many people moan over their past as if they did not have a choice to make sober choices then. But think about it, what if we could really change our past, I know it sounds like the fairy movies just like the time machine movie, where someone leaps way back in to the past to change something or correct a wrong or even make good use of a wasted opportunity. Given the choice would you be willing to dig in to your past and straighten some of those crooked choices you made? I don’t think so, I am sure that if that opportunity existed the world would be way back than it is right now.While i don’t believe in predestination i know some of the choices that we made in the past are responsible for our present life, the wasted opportunities, the extravagant and lavish spending the careless words and many more. You have probably had this question before, as a driver what do you do when the lights are just about to turn red, do you stop or do you proceed?

I am sure you have read about the man who became a millionaire just by selling tomatoes, this man goes to look for a job as a bookkeeper, but misses the chance because he has no email address, with his last money in the wallet he buys tomatoes then goes on to sell them and gets profit and this continues and before you know it he is owning franchises and becomes a millionaire. Years later in his quest to find a suitable insurance for his property he is asked to give his email address by the insurance company but still he has no email. So when asked how he has amassed such wealth without Internet and email he responds that if he had an email address he would still be a bookkeeper. Your story may have turned out differently from his but are you sure you want to change the past? Please let me live my present and work hard at shaping tomorrow for if I still have today why should I grieve over yesterday?

It is that time of the year when I really feel homesick, I am not sure if the change in seasons has anything to do with it. One would expect that with my constant nagging over a break I would be at peace and enjoy my short break, but no, there is always something on my sleeves that desires attention and at this moments all my internal biological meters suggest that I am critically homesick. It has become a common thing to find myself wondering in to oblivion, whistling local tunes and reminiscing the great times spent at home with friends and family only to wake up to the present reality.

There are a lot of things that I have wished for while here in Germany, but one thing that I am earnestly wishing and praying for is that I may not fall sick again while being here! I don’t mean to be critical of the system here but the reality is that it can be so frustrating sometimes. Till this moment I don’t exactly know the correct procedure, when one is sick do you go to the hospital or the clinic? Please help me so thatI can understand because when I went to the hospital they told me there is nothing much they can do so I should go to the clinic. Okay, so I go to this clinic and I don’t like the way they receive me, off course I wasn’t expecting a standing ovation, but I won’t moan over it because by now it doesn’t bother me any more. However, despite that the doctor is really friendly and helpful and that finally puts me at ease, the whole exercise goes on so well and finally I am treated and given some medication without an injection and a booking for further checkup.

When all is said and done and I am on my feet once again, I receive this big bill to pay , that’s when the second batch of problems start again. Honestly Idon’t know exactly what the insurance covers, it is all in deutsch and nobody explained to me the articles and clauses contained therein. The whole exercise of filling out forms again, explaining every detail of howI became sick, when and how I felt just doesn’t make sense and telling me to pay part of the bill doesn’t make sense either, but I guess it is how it works. The whole exercise has been long and torturous that recounting it all over again makes me sick and that is exactly what I don’t want to feel again. So I just pray that God will grant me this one wish, Oh Lord I pray that you may grant me good health that I may not fall sick again, but if it be that it is unavoidable then I pray that I fall homesick!

If there is one thing that I am still struggling to practice on, it’s maintaining the eye contact when talking to people. Back at home, I would be considered rude in fact disrespectful to gaze directly in to the eyes of an elder when talking to them or even greeting them. In some communities you were even supposed to bow your head, as sign of humility and in some you were required to bend or kneel just to avoid the direct contact with the eyes. Here in Germany I am required to do the exact opposite, look directly in to the eye of someone when greeting them and when speaking to them, a complete u-turn to what I am used to.

Just last week I had the opportunity to meet my supervisor for a discussion on an oral presentation that I am supposed to present this week. I must confess it was really hard trying to balance between the eye contact and the conversation. It is something that am not used to, yes I believe that it is rude to look away while speaking to someone but its also quiet uncomfortable staring in to someone’s eye ball, more so in Europe where the eye coloration varies. Some have blue eyes and others have green eyes, and its unfortunate our cultures are so different that what is considered a sign of respect in one society is considered utterly rude in the other.

There are only certain cases when an elder or your parents would require you to look directly in to their eyes. It is somehow synonymous to the current lie detector that most of the industrialized countries have adopted, such that you are connected to some cables in specific parts of your body such that when you answer a question it would be transmitted to a screen and based on the waves that your body generates It will be determined if you are telling the truth or not. When an adult or your parent thought that you were not being honest, he or she would require you to look at the eyes and answer to his/her question, its like the eyes would be piercing directly through your heart to decipher whether you are honest or lying. And if you managed to answer while looking in to the eyes then somehow you would be free, if you were lying then you would shamelessly bow your head unable to respond.

However, the current generation has almost adapted to everything, I see young boys and girls back at home staring directly in to their parents eyes and answering back without even fidgeting, in fact its now the parents who are forced to bow their head in shame and sadness unable to put up with such a behavior. Unable to look straight in to people’s eyes can also be considered a sign of weakness or shall I say shyness. Anyway, call it whatever you like, just don’t judge me if I don’t maintain the contact while talking to you, its not that am rude its just that that’s the way I was brought up, I will try to adapt to the trend here but trust me it isn’t easy as you think!

Time is really running fast, just yesterday we were wishing each other happy new year and today we are fast crusing past the month of February. For the chinese collegues and friends let me take this opportunity to wish you a happy new year, it is the year of the Tiger! So for all those born during the year of the rabbit and all years associated with small animals beware because the tiger is going to pounce on you. I honestly don’t know what am talking about so will any chinese friend come to my aid, the only thing I know is that I was born in the year of the dog and how that is to turn out with tigers I don’t know.

I will ignore Valentines day that passed by, lets just say that I have never marked my calendar for that day because I don’t understand why everyone should put pressure on the flower production just to be reminded that he/ she loves somebody. I mean we have 365 days to love, why pretend that on this one day our intensity to love has suddenly peaked. I am not being negative just because I did not receive a gift, but beacuse I am mad at the number of people who are crazy about the day yet they don’t understand the origin nor the main purpose of that day.

At the moment I have no control over my schedule, I am simply at the mercy of the lecturers, can you imagine that each single day I have to sign the attendance list? That’s how serious it is, you miss a single day and you have to explain why failure of which you risk facing serious consequences such as not sitting for exams. That is just to remind you that I have another batch of exams next week yet am still attending lectures. Who invented exams? What was the real intention? In life there are exams, they may not be written and they may not be graded, but they bear serious consequences in our lives. I still remember vividly like it was yesterday, my first ever exams to determine which kindergarten I would join. I was asked to draw a cow, I passed even though I drew something that looks like a car with horns and it was painted blue.

Talk of blue cows! I guess it is one of those days that you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. It must be the winter, it must have finally gotten to me, it feels as if i have lost track of time. I have been advised to take some multivitamins because I may be lacking vitamin D due to lack of sunshine. So many explanations yet so little help, I guess it has something to do with lack of rest, I don’t know but I am certainly feeling funny nothing is painful yet I wake up with this funny feeling that something is wrong, could it have something to do with the year of the Tiger?

I have got news, one is good the other not so good the third one is bad. I will start with the good news which is the completion of the exams. The exams period is not one of my favourite moments as it limits my movement and time. There isn’t much you can do apart from revising and hoping that you don’t miss on anything and while you may comfort yourself that you will only revise on key areas you cannot brush aside the thought that probably 80% of the areas you don’t revise on will come in the exams. Well that torture is behind me at least for the moment and I can let my brain relax as I choke on the thought of the next exam session in two weeks hoping that the results will be good.

That makes my not so good news having to attend lectures and sit for exams while the rest of the student community is on vacation. While it is comforting to know that the library and the halls will be less crowded it feels like going to school on saturday or sunday. That reminds me, as a kid I remember the day I woke up early and dressed up ready to go to school only to be informed that it was saturday. Yeah, it is a contradiction but I loathe silence and empty space I would like to be in crowded lifts and halls having to fight for space in the libarary and having to line up in the mensa and board the crowded bahns, it makes me feel that I am not alone. Why can’t we just all go for the vacation at the same time and reopen at the same time?

The bad news ist that the mensa staff have gone on strike, and that means no lunch, just imagine on a monday! Imagine coming from a lecture room so tired and hungry headed for the mensa only to find that there is no real food, and you have to settle for soup and bread. Others may have no problem with that, but I definetely do, I have never really considered soup as part of food, don’t tell me about the nutritive value blah..blah …blah, I need real food which in many cases comes in a solid form. I am not sure of why the mensa staff have gone on a strike, but if it has to do with anything like salary increasement or better working conditions then I totally support them, all I am asking them is to come to an agreement soon so that I don’t end up starving, not with this winter.

It has been one of the longest weeks of my life, the snow has continued to fall, it is frustratingly cold and to add salt to the injury I have had the flu the whole week with running eyes and running nose and yes I have to attend lectures as I prepare for the second batch of exams. I just realized recently that the gas supply to our hostels is controlled hence during the day it gets so cold and suddenly in the evening it is all warm again, I don’t blame them because I imagine if all the students would have their heaters on during the day the expenses would be much higher.

Anyway, despite my misery with the cold weather and flu, I still had to make it for the practicals. This week we have been focusing on aquaculture that is the cultivation of plants and animals in water. It is really funny to see some of the things that scientist are trying to do to nature in the name of science. Imagine walking out from a temprature of minus 1 degrees to a miniatute tropical room of 30 degrees, oh, it feels great it reminded me of home thinking of the warm sunshine and the white sand beaches. Our course is meant to focus on tropical systems and because we cannot travel to the tropics for all the courses the institute has set up a tropical system within the institution where tropical organisms are cultured for scientific and educational purpose. However, as I said before, it is a pity to see some of the organisms like fish that are adapted to the warm sunshine and temprature in conditioned containers unable to venture out in their natural habitat, science can be so cruel at times.

That incidence with animals cultured in ponds reminded me of how some people behave while away from thier native homes. You see, ever since I came to Germany I have made friends and they keep asking me why I don’t intereact with my fellow country men and women. Well it is true that I rarely intereact with my fellow countrymen but it is all due to the kind of attitude that I get from them. Imagine meeting someone from your country in a foreign land, of course you will be happy unless you are a social freak.

stone fish in an aquarium

However, your desire to maintain contact with this new friend is thwarted because despite exchaning contacts and meeting once in a while you can’t help getting the feeling that you are a bother. If it would have been a single person, I would have simply excused it as nut case, however if this continues not once but more than three times with different personalities then I imagine I am the problem. I don’t want to judge anyone but I can assure you that I fully understand what that fish in the aquarium is going through, I have come to a conclusion, that despite the cold weather and some cold friends life must move on!

Finally, I made it to Bonn to the DAAD headquarters for the second Development-related Postgraduate Course for Young Professionals“(German acronym: AST = Aufbaustudiengänge) meeting. The scheme was established in 1987, currently having over 42 courses offered by different universities in Germany and will be celebrating its 25^th anniversary in 2012. The aim of the first meeting held last year was to better interlink between the 42 different courses and form an active network for a more active exchange of ideas, experiences and a better access to existing subject-related Alumni networks.The second meeting was aimed at furthering the concepts and ideas that the first network meeting had come up with such as strengthening the linkage between the courses by both virtual and face-to-face activities, the vehicle for the virtual interaction was established as a starting point with the Alumniportal Deutschland, an online platform for the AST-Network.

The second network meeting also had representatives from all the courses under the scheme represented and the whole idea was to further the face-to-face interaction and come up with ideas that would be relevant for the 25^th anniversary this could be through workshops or conferences with themes that reflect the development related concept. The meeting was officially opened by Anke Stahl, the Head of section of the scheme who gave a brief summary of last years meeting and challenged us to pick up on where the last participants left and come up with practical and meaningful results that could be pursued in the year and climax at the anniversary celebration. After a brief introduction of the 40 participants, the challenge for the day was how to divide the participants into working groups based on the recurring themes that came up during the round of introduction based on the courses profiles. After much deliberations and several attempts with different ideas the participants finally agreed to divide the groups in to the following core areas, climate change, health, resource management, food security and peace and conflict al discussed under the theme of sustainable development.

with some of the participants

The second day was mainly limited for the various group discussions and presentations on the group’s ideas. The idea behind this was to come up with relevant activities that could be pursued, the courses that would be ideal to participate in such an activity and who would lead the whole process for easier coordination and communication. The results from all the groups were quiet good and by the end of the presentations it was clear that all the participants had put in lots of effort to ensure that the meeting was a success. However, the real work begins with the implementation of the concepts as in the previous year the participants came up with great ideas but the commitment by the participants was not good. The DAAD is committed to ensure that this year the ideas will be pursued and with the selection of the various coordinators its is hope that all the grassroots work with begin but the starting point would be to join and actively participate in the alumni portal part, interesting was the proposal by the food security working group to establish a online workshop where participants would be able to discuss issues that relate to food security. Until then,we can only hope that this is a starting pint for the journey that lies ahead!

This has been one of the greatest winter in Bremen, for a long time Bremen has not had the opportunity to experience some serious snow fall or snow for that matter. Most of the older folks recount  how the temperature’s would even go as low as minus 15 and there would be much snow that would require some shovelling each day, but alas! As years progressed on not much snow fell in-fact I was told to travel to south Germany if I really wanted to  experience snow until the sky´s opened up and let snow fall.  Now they tell me how lucky I am that this winter it has snowed in-fact everyone is happy that it is snowing, what makes me happy is to see nearly all the people woken up and shovelling snow more less at the same time as is there is a rule to that!

A view from outside my room

However, I don’t want to talk about snow, this week  we have been learning about fish and how to catch fish. And as usual there isn´t much fish to see in Bremen so we embarked on a journey to Bremerhaven  to get some first hand experince on  how to process fish and get an insight on some of the fish products. Our vist took us to a fish company called Deutschsee, one of the biggest fish franchise in Germany. Unfortunately they did not allow us to take our cameras with us due to health and food safety requiremnts, infact we had to dress in fully covered attires including  shoe covers so as to minimise any risk of food contamination, you would think we were under quarantine.  In addition, we had to disninfect our hands and shoe covers before finally getting entry in to the processsing chamber.  It is amazing what fish can be transformed to with the power of machine and creativity, apart from the normal smoked fish and raw fish the company has a variety of over 90 fish products that end up in our stomach, I must say that the entire process was a torture as we had to battle with enzymes due to the aroma from the smoked fish and the sight of some of the end products. It took us amlost 4 hours to complet our visit around the company, I was disappointed they did not take us through the tasting chamber.

Our next vist was at the ship museum, where we got a tour on one of the last  fish trawler´s. The captain of the ship has been fishing since the early 1940´s. He has spent half of his life in search of fish, I have had my experience with the sea and one thing that am convinced of is that I don´t want to spend more than six months in the water, don´t get me wrong I love the see the fish and everything about water but am not ready to live on it. Man´s quest for fish comes a long way, when man only used  his hand and simple techniques to catch fish, but its amazing to see that as early as the 40´s there were already technology to locate fish, and the innovations that have been made since then give the fish no chance to escape.  Man indeed has become the top predator in the food chain and with the concern for global warming the number of fish will definately continue to plunder.  The tour around the trawler gave us a glimse of how hard life was in the sea in the past and to date with all the advancements, the sea is still one of the deadliest working enviroment claiming lives mainly due to the sea enviroment and partly due to accidental deaths.

A preview of some of the ships on display

Miniature trawler on display

Our last tour took us to a net assembling factory, a family business that has been in place for over 40 years. The senior partner was a fisherman and so he has first hand experience on what the fishermen needs.  Despite having reached the retirement age, he is still going strong and enjoys what he is doing.  It made me ask myself if I really enjoy my current profession, am convinced I do! I don´t want to get so much in to nets and fishing gears, but the moral of the visit was that, it is better to work on what you enjoy, no matter how long it takes you to get there. This is great beacuse you will have the zeal to wake up each morning with a new determination, you will be glad to discover new things and will be able to fully utilize your potential to ensure that you attain success!

Have you finally made your resolutions? It’s already eleven days in to the New Year and I still get the New Year wishes. With the classes resuming today I expect to get loads of wishes from my classmates coming from the brief break that we have had. I have never been good with resolutions; the only true resolution that I have ever made and possibly achieved was the desire to pursue my master’s course before reaching thirty but whether that is really a resolution or luck leaves a lot to be desired.

I am not a linguist, and so I decided to check the meaning of the word resolution, you may think that its crazy but I did anyway. The oxford online dictionary gives a lot of meaning of what is a resolution but I chose to use two definitions that made sense to me which are “firm decision” and “resolving of a problem or dispute”, in other words I should make a list of things that I purpose to achieve in the year and commit myself to ensure that they come in to realization or solve a problem or dispute that has lingered over me for a long time. Easier said than done, I know of a friend who is committed to get married this year, another is committed to purchase a house the list is endless but wether these are mere wishes or real goals to be achieved depends on the set time allocated a year and the available resources.

Call them what you want, resolutions, goals, visions, dreams etcetera but you have to make a decision on what you really want to achieve this year, the habits you want to drop and set a realistic time frame. It may be two years or more but ensure that within the year you are able to evaluate wether it is working or not. I came across a bible quote that says ‘’ Where there is no vision, the people perish, precisely you need a map to guide you through the year, without one you will be like someone walking in pitch darkness without light, you are bound to stumble and fall many times along the way no matter how steady your steps are.

I am still working on mine, and it’s not easy because there are certain habits that I detest in my life that have only served to draw me back and I would really love to drop them this year. Yet I find myself still revisiting them even though they are in my list of resolutions. However, I have made a decision to forge ahead and try it out and by the end of the day I will be having a list of achievable goals that will help me allocate the most precious resource, time wisely. I don’t know what’s on your list but I wish you well and hope that you achieve them if you feel that you are good and experienced enough I could use a hand! And by the way Cirque du Soleil (circus of the sun) from Montreal Canada is coming to Bremen on the 7-11 of April I purpose to attend, it’s also in my list.

First of all it will be in order to start by wishing all the Daad bloggers and all the readers a happy new year! Despite having crossed over from 2009 there are a number of unfulfilled dreams or desires that still linger in our minds and we probably wish we would be given more time to fulfill those tasks. There is a proverb in Swahili that literally translates “forget the past and focus on the future”. However, there are some important lessons that serve as important landmarks in our lives, which we ought not forget. One thing that I have learnt and would wish to pursue this year is the element of wise time use. Where I come from we say no hurry in Africa to imply that there is no need for keeping time and I have learnt why the wise said “time is money” since I arrived here in Germany, that reminds me of how I spent my new year allow me to recount.

I never made it to the Euro trip as I had earlier accounted, reason being that just at the last minute when we were scheduled to purchase the tickets something pressing came up and I was alerted that I had to look for a room, as there was a problem with my current contract. Therefore, I had to set aside cash for paying deposit and the rent for January, as I had to vacate my room by the end of the year. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that as if I had booked my ticket earlier then despite the small mishap, i would have still gone for the euro trip, my point is precisely plan early for everything!

view from outside my host house

A scenery from garmisch-partenkirchen

Anyway I vowed not to spend my new year in Bremen but venture out and visit my friend in the southwest of Bavaria at a place called Allgäu. But I still did not learn my lesson so instead of purchasing the discounted ticked that would have cost me only 29 Euro I delayed for only five minutes and found the offer gone, I had to part with more money. After travelling for 10 hours due to the delays by the ICE I finally made it to Allgäu, ohh it is a beautiful countryside with lovely friendly people and the scenery is amazing. Since it was the eve to New Year, I was treated to a meal known as fondue; it’s a funny meal originating from the Swiss and involves dipping pieces of flesh in hot oil over a small gas burner. It requires a lot of patience and with the hunger that I had, eating one piece of meat and waiting for the next piece for five minutes was really an uphill task but somehow I managed. For the New Year celebration we had a family day indoors and I had fun playing with the kids just being a kid again and carrying kids on my back felt good.

On the second day of the year we started the day by shoveling some snow as the previous night it had heavily snowed, don’t be surprised when I tell you that my first encounter with snow was here in Germany and am still intrigued by it so shoveling snow is an experience never to be forgotten. We set out for a journey bound for Innsbruck in Austria but could only manage to cross over the boarder and fuel and turn back due to the heavy snowfall and heavy traffic along the way. Most of the people were coming from Austria and there were a number of vehicles stuck along the highway, which coupled with the fact that the main attraction that made us set out the journey, the ski jump had been cancelled due to heavy snow.

Trying out the sledge

Consequently, we decided to enjoy some sledging in Ostallgäu instead of going back without any activity.

On our way back we passed by the Olympia Skistadion, a testimony of how man can be creative, it’s a site to behold. All in all despite having not achieved the objective of the day I can say with certainty that I am enjoying every little bit of my stay hear. And the greatest thing of all is that my lessons start next week so I can extend my stay here for a few more days before finally heading back to Bremen. That reminds me of these things called resolutions, have you made yours or should I say did you fulfill all last years’ resolutions? Please tell me about your experiences with resolutions.