Berend Lange’s KOMPASS

     “Half a meter of Bratwurst for 3 Euro!”

     The signboard at the foodstall on this German Christmas market refuses to be ignored. The delicious smells of food, Glühwein and sweets mix with seasonal music : sausages are a part of German culture - and I love them, too.

     After 22 years in South Africa, we’ve been back home in Europe for almost a month now - for good, not just visiting.

     Christmas markets are everywhere, and we’ve seen quite a few already. If there was one thing we could never get used to, it was Christmas in summer in the southern hemisphere. It’s just not the same.

     Everyone keeps telling us that it’s mild for this time of the year, but they are all lying : it’s cold! And dark - if the sun shows up at all, it is very low on the horizon. Days are short, but that’s when the Glühwein kicks in.

     OK, there’s no snow yet; that makes it easier to practice driving on the other side of the road again. Traffic is crowded, roads are narrow and the highways have no speed limit. Germans are busy, they don’t waste time - until they look for parking space.

     We had forgotten how pleasant it is to live in a really efficient society : things work here. Plenty of rules and regulations, but bureaucracy is nowhere near as bad as we remember it - we had compulsory registration, new ID docs and drivers licences out of the way in no time. If you stick to the rules they work for, not against you.

     For us, keeping an open mind is important at the moment - we have new eyes and still see Germany from an outside perspective, consciously approach situations and people in a friendly and unbiased way.

     And the Law of Attraction never fails to produce the desired results : we found the car we wanted at the first dealer we approached, for example; other things we need fall into our laps without effort.

     Not without cost, mind you : Europe is expensive if you compare it to living in South Africa, but you get what you pay for - the choices of products and services are absolutely overwhelming! Everything is available in many different varieties, so it takes time to sort the wheat from the chaff and find what you want at a discount.

     Everybody is chasing that ‘Schnäppchen’ - finding the lowest price is a national pastime, especially at this time of the year. Most towns have turned their main shopping districts into pedestrian zones and the crowds shuffle all over the place, interrupted only by foodstalls, beautifully decorated Christmas trees and travelling musicians.

     It is Christmas in Germany, we recognize the spirit - and it feels good. We remember our roots - reconnecting with friends and family is a joyful experience, we treasure the kinship that has survived the separation of life on different continents for such a long time.

     People, not things define what you call ‘home’ but the culture we grow up in provides the common background that remains a special bond for life. As much as we love the people and the country, we have known for a long time that we would never be South African.

     Is it the language? Our mother tongue is an important part of our culture, but I write and even dream in English these days - hearing the latest German idioms is a lot of fun but takes some adjusting on our part.

     We’ll find out soon enough : before this year ends we’ll be in Austria where they speak a very different dialect to our northern German accent. We have our eyes on settling there for the next chapter in our lives and hope that we can ring in the new year with a lot of snow.

     Until then, may I sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007 - may it bring all you expect and dream of for your life : Berend

     Finally, the Sahara.

     We’ve been roughed up a bit over the steaming jungles of the equator, but now the towering clouds have disappeared and 10 kilometers below us, a giant sandbox slowly passes by.

     I can’t help but think how enormously big this continent of Africa is. We have taken off at the southern tip of it in Cape Town early in the morning for a non-stop flight that would take us to Germany almost 12 hours later.

     All our friends think that it takes a lot of courage to uproot our lives of almost 23 years in South Africa and return to Europe. Maybe that’s true, but we are so absolutely sure that this is what we want to do : go back to our own future.

     We’re excited …

     … looking forward to the future, not scared - just creating the environment we want for ourselves. Leaving our comfort zone, yes. We are happy to have that freedom, it’s no big deal really, we’ve done it before; but real courage is something else, and we found a lot of it in Africa.

     I’ll never forget our first Christmas office party in Johannesburg, back in 1984 : just the five of us with spouses, but one of us was black - Peter, our driver. We struggled to find a restaurant that would serve black people in those Apartheid years and it took a lot of persistence to succeed; not a nice memory.

     We considered leaving the country only once, in 1987 when sanctions had isolated South Africa really badly and we had no hope that the situation would improve. But the job in Australia didn’t work out and we made some other changes instead.

     That’s all different now, of course. The dramatic years of transition to democracy were interesting, to say the least - in hindsight I realize how easily things could have ended tragically. A lot of friends had bought one-way tickets just in case when the first democratic elections were held in 1994, on my birthday : 27 April. The only elections we were allowed to take part in as expatriates, not being South African citizens.

     Today, we are on a one-way ticket ourselves.

     Still desert sand down there, the picture-book-dunes-variety now that we always see on the Discovery Channel. Then, abruptly, the incredibly blue Mediterranean at the coast of Algeria in the late afternoon sun. Some white clouds, Europe is almost in sight.

     We look at each other and smile : this is an exciting adventure for me and my wife and we can’t wait to land in about two hours.

     The Cote d’Azure in the south of France now, then the snow-capped mountains of the Alps. This is familiar; we have been homesick - more than we realize, judging by all the joy we feel.

     We’re so lucky. 

     We stayed with good friends in Cape Town until they took us to the airport, and good friends will pick us up in Germany - everyone we know offered unconditional hospitality and helped with all they’ve got when we sold our house and dismantled most of our infrastructure in South Africa; this means a lot to us, and we are very grateful. Thanks to all of you!

     Big Hallos at the airport when we arrive - genuine friendship cannot hide. But it’s cold when we haul our luggage to the cars, and dark : a reminder that we’ve travelled from summer straight into winter. No problem, a good Schnaps will warm us up again later.

     That’s all I wanted when I was younger : live in a world where it was warm and sunny, experience different cultures on an incredibly interesting planet. South Africa was good for us, this vibrant rainbow nation has so much to offer; we’ll be back to visit, stay in touch a lot, but we’ll live in Europe now.