movie and papas cool trophy and now here
is ending my polish because my polish is
not good enough to do this presentation
in Polish so I’m switching to english
but I want to say thank you to my polish
teacher casa who is also here in the
polish is a wonderful language but it’s
the biggest challenge in my life so far
so I hope that a lot of you understand
English and so let’s do it in English so
you will wonder why a German guy is
ending up in bed gosh like with the most
foreigners important for sure it’s
because of a girl of a wonderful girl
it’s because of my wonderful wife to
after an odyssey through Germany South
Africa then we decided to our daughter
that’s time to learn polish and to get
to know Poland and that’s how I ended up
here and fortunately I found a job here
at Otto’s international company so thank
you also are those people for putting
your trust in me and but now let’s do
some time warp and let’s go ten years
back ten years back this is now we were
not all the time looking like this is
was our goodbye party or forties
birthday party and so ten years back it
happened that I met the rotor on a party
in Riga in Latvia are very soon we fall
in love we did some climbing in Italy
and she decided to come to Germany and
she found a job and in a good
relationship you should think about what
common dreams you have and very soon we
discovered that we both dreamt our whole
life about Africa and we said oh we
should go to Africa but we didn’t want
to go to Kenya to do some Safari or
honest of like a booking some tours and
just being there as a tourist so we were
always traveling both with couchsurfing
and hitchhiking and so on so we didn’t
wanted to do now discover Africa in this
way so we decided if we go to Africa
let’s do something let’s make a
difference let’s try to volunteer there
let’s do a gap year make a break from
the job and to do something where you
can even help maybe some people so we
started our planning and first saving
some money yeah because as a volunteer
normally on it’s very rare that you get
some volunteer options where you really
can earn something so we were saving
some money then we were searching for
charity and volunteer options in the
internet and we found a lot of different
things and then finally
found this we enter time slot then you
have to book your plane tickets we were
selling our furniture and other
belongings so some stuff we were
bringing to my sister’s farm but it’s
also very good i can tell you it’s very
good to see what in some years you all
gathering it’s a very cleaning process
to just get rid of all stuff and then
finally organizing the visas we got them
vaccinations so in South Africa this is
most important is hepatitis and then
cancelling all the contracts fled
electricity and the most relieving point
it’s like we quit our jobs so we decided
we had two options the to stay in our
Jobson to come back but we said no we
want to take this chance also to quit
the jobs and to have the chance after
Africa to start something completely new
so we thought okay we made the plan yeah
this was our plan we had a great extra
cheat on Google Docs and we were
starting to execute this and I just can
give you one one good tip don’t stop
just with planning for a lot of people
which we know they have a plan and then
they are planning it and planning and
planning it and a good friend of ours
Pavel from Krakoff was just a few days
ago saying you know this is mental
masturbation and it’s nothing bad with
this yeah because it can give you
satisfaction just to see I could if I
vote yea I have the ability to do it but
if you really want to realize the dream
yeah don’t stop with planning start
doing it so we did it we start doing it
and we start telling our friends and our
family from this and surprise surprise
yeah obstacles the funny thing is these
obstacles we didn’t had so much they
were not worrying us so much but our
family and our friends of here people
yeah we’re saying
are you insane yeah you will get sick
you will get beaten up you will get
robbed yeah they will murder you and
then we got pregnant and okay so things
changed a little bit so we said yeah so
subtracting woman it’s maybe not so good
to volunteer in Africa it’s possible no
problem yeah but we set into our but our
family was not very happy about this
idea either so then we started to talk
with the children doctor and assuring
doctor said you know Stefan Dorota when
the child is three years old you can go
already with when it’s one year old but
when it’s three years old there’s barely
any risk here it’s already has all these
is he moon against the most bacterias so
it will be strong enough your daughter
that she can face the new environment
and i have to say when we were there
first shared throat infections because
it’s a lot of new bacterias but it was
really it was no risk so if you do your
research do you replant yeah no problem
when it comes hepatitis okay we have to
do some vaccinations yeah violence crime
everybody’s in South Africa everybody’s
killing everybody all the time yeah it’s
not true yes they have the highest
murder rate maybe but it’s mostly in big
cities it’s mostly under influence from
alcohol in families or own parties it’s
mostly black on black violence yeah and
if you have some common sense so I don’t
know if you want to go with an expensive
camera and having your money in your
hand and you go in the night in three
o’clock through Prada in Russia yeah so
how is the chance that you’re getting
robbed quite high so there are some
comments and things yeah which you have
to have to know and you have to look in
the statistics and there was one
accident where the tourists were
involved they came in there was a
shooting between blacks and then
tourists were accidentally killed but in
the last 10 years there was no killing
in South Africa you have from tourists
but a lot of stealing sure if you have
something they have nothing yeah so be
aware HIV now it came we had people who
say I will not
longer your friend you are risking the
life of your daughter why we decided to
go to a children home our child would
grow up with all the Zulu kids and they
said you know and then they are playing
and they will have a scratch your
daughter has a scratch blood will mix
and she will die and it’s
because HIV we made a research there is
no known case you know that any air that
the child ever got infected by an HIV
infected child by playing and by
exchanging blood because the virus is
dying very quick when it’s under oxygen
so you need an infusion you need
unprotected sex so our three-year-old
daughter was not vision on the risk yeah
so that’s we try to explain but the
people a lot some friend said yeah I
don’t I’m not your friend any longer
because you are irresponsible but ok
that’s a risk we have to take and we
mitigated this risk and we went Nelson
Mandela one reason why we should sauce
Africa is because the Nelson Mandela was
and is one of our biggest role models in
our life because he overcame hate racism
and he United a lot of people from
different cultures yeah in one rainbow
nation this is a vision we have and so
he said something very important I
learned that courage was not the absence
of fear yes we had fears but the triumph
over it the brave man is not he who does
not feel a threat but he who conquers
that fear and this is something we are
very proud about because yes we listen
to these people but we did common sense
we did our research and we took the risk
yeah and we are still alive so the brave
moment is not if he wouldn’t be afraid
then we would be bad parents and we
would be idiots now it comes to
something which is very touching for me
because this woman which you see here
yes he is quite a big woman button
and the Zulu woman also but it’s a now
it’s a wrong angle yes they are not
really so fat in real but Heather
Reynolds for example is she’s one of my
role models one of my other role models
like Nelson Mandela she was a white
woman in South Africa and in the middle
of the apartheid and about all this up
roaring after his a apartheid fall down
she was here to farm she had a very good
income she had a great job and then she
saw some children digital children who
were orphans because they lost their
their parents and the grown-ups in the
biggest HIV epidemic had a straw in men
and humankind yeah millions of people in
the aged between 20 and 40 died and the
children were there nobody took care so
she decided to take them on her farm
without having any plan she just said I
have to do that I cannot leave them so
she did this and then she started the
children home and this was one of the
first class stepchildren home like this
SOS yeah in South Africa and she decided
also that is good if she will get some
volunteers involved to help but also to
let the children can learn English that
the children see who are growing up with
white people and that they see that
there is no color so and this was our
opportunity to come there and Heather is
still a good friend of us he was
visiting because here she was coming to
visit us and she’s just a fantastic
human being so we were very happy to
work there with her in her thing you see
here is Yulia with your friends three
years old and now something happened we
thought that we are going there to teach
them the children but the opposite
happened they teach us how I have to
give a citation of an Hunter Pollock who
was doing some research in in Africa and
there is something like Ubuntu know for
the artist people it’s not the operating
system
yeah but ubuntu is a philosophy in
southern africa and i want to explain
you how these words he gave he bought a
big bucket of fruit he put it hundred
meters from the children from a group of
children and he said to the children
look who of you is you make a
competition who of you is reaching first
bucket of fruits yeah who can have all
the bucket for himself and this is all
great and then they took each other on
the hand they run all together to the
bucket yeah they touched it all together
and that they were sharing all the fruit
and we’re very happy and the
entrepreneur said why one of you could
have all yeah so why are you doing this
and they said you know yeah how can I
enjoy the fruit yeah and be happy yeah
when all the others are set and this is
what means ubuntu yeah what one is doing
is affecting all the others in the
positive and in the negative way and
then the children told as you know
sharing is caring and that became our
new life motto sharing is caring and
it’s not only about material things yeah
it’s about everything it’s about sharing
happiness yeah like for example children
with trisomy 21 they are sharing their
sadness they are sharing their happiness
yeah they are not they don’t care if you
are now set or happy if they are happy
they are happy they are just laughing
they are sharing this with everyone and
this is something which became also a
motor for mation to people who know me
from the audience you know that I’m
exactly like that you can always see how
i’m feeling because i don’t have to hide
anything anymore so we did but we also
worked hard so I became for example the
coordinator for the food Hunter’s who’d
program in two thousand in the valley of
Thousand Hills as you can see the
conditions are not very luxury but the
people are very happy people they’re
very optimistic people the rota was
first working in the preschool with
where our daughter was going
hundreds who look it’s the only white
girl later she was taking was ahead of
the clinic clinic sounds great but it’s
more or less she took care that HIV
children have the medication when
somebody has a scratch or something yeah
that they are getting treatment oh no it
happens okay so we made friendship with
the locals this is a teacher on the Left
top is a teacher familiar and we were
visiting then also the family so this
woman gave birth to 15 children you know
anthem and you see the demand a husband
has a it’s a little bit different role
than in modern Poland maybe you’ll still
notice from your grandfather here but he
was very proud we also took part on
traditional ceremonies and see some of
the frontiers to rota behind the teacher
from familiar yeah and so we learned a
lot about traditions about community and
we are very thankful for that but we
also decided already earlier that we
wanted to travel so first we wanted to
travel in the end of the one year but
then it happened that we could travel in
the middle of this one year and we
started the trip we bought a
four-by-four car because the normal guy
you would not come far and so we started
our trip and we went towards South
Africa Namibia Botswana Zimbabwe awesome
big and this was one of the greatest
experience in my life because I we had
very quality time is our daughter 23
months 24 hours together we could
discover the nature the animals and the
local people this was our car yeah we
had a tent a gas cooker some butter and
we were just driving so we had like a
rough idea where to go but we were just
so this is but for us was also important
that we didn’t want to do travel as a
tourist so we were doing out of
couchsurfing we were staying with locals
I hit some old study friends in Namibia
and we could learn something there about
about Namibian culture and we were
staying with people in Mozambique with
people in South Africa and a lot of them
are still our good friends so we are on
Facebook all the time exchanging
messages and we are sharing what’s going
on and so on and also I could realize an
other dream when I was a child we had a
television program which was showing
always about the Kalahari and about the
Serengeti and it was in black and white
and I said one day I want to go there so
Serengeti is still open kalahari I did
now and it’s just fascinating it’s a
park which is big like France and you
are only 100 cars are allowed there and
you are sleeping there with you tend you
have no fences in the night you here’s
Alliance you hear the leopards you heat
the hyenas and the next day we found
some from leopard cine our tent we
had two other funds closing the night
and then also people said how can you do
this which is three year old daughter
it’s very easy yeah it’s don’t put foot
in the tent in the evening when it’s
getting dark have a fire when the fires
going out go into tent don’t leave your
tent until its Sun is up yeah it’s the
same like when you’re going north
america yeah don’t put foot in the tent
put it in these metal boxes on the
camping ground you know because yeah
it’s easy so there’s not known any case
of incident with white animals and
humans yeah and the ones when humans got
killed it was because of stupidity yeah
because they were not following the
rules so this was also great for us
because in Poland in Europe we don’t
have so much possibilities to encounter
the wild animals and also we saw him /
woman this is a nomad fork in north of
Namibia and this woman with her baby was
hitchhiking we had a car with leather
seats and the Himba people they are
putting
a fet from the gold and some mud to
protect them from the Sun and we said
okay then we will have dirty seats no
problem we stopped and then the half of
the tribe came and was giving us
instruction we didn’t understood the
ward yeah and we had done in the car it
was very nice we had like 3-4 hours
drive and we had a really nice
conversation without words because there
was a mother with her baby a little bit
bigger and did a mother with her baby
and we were speaking trying with hence
she didn’t spoke English we didn’t spoke
Himba and but it was great it was just
great and it’s you know to have such an
encounter where you just speak as human
beings with a universal language and you
don’t need words and now become of the
time is up this is my favorite word my
favorite motto it’s always seems
impossible until it’s done this is what
we saw that is what we encountered this
is how we are living our life but I also
want to say something to sharing is
caring sharing it’s not only giving some
money to this one percent from your text
deduction here to some fun dirtier
sharing is not buying some stuff or
making some donations yeah you can share
a lot a lot of people saying ever chair
something but I don’t have anything I
don’t my way she’s not high enough and
how should I do it now sharing is share
time with your children time is the most
precious thing you can share with any
other human being this is what we
learned and you can do it by call your
mother more often you can get active as
a volunteer in a sports club you can get
active like doing TEDx yeah there are so
many possibilities be there when your
friend needs you and take time for your
partner to talk share your time with
others this is my message this is what I
want to encourage you sharing is caring
and you can do it like we did it thank
you drink we above [Applause]