Conclusion

Our adventure is already over and we are back home with our family. Christmas and New Year’s Eve are over – Happy new year! Nevertheless, in our eighth and last blog, we would like to describe the last days in South Africa.

Farewell Bühler

Before we flew back, we thought about what we should do as a farewell to BJHB (Bühler Johannesburg). We came up with the idea of baking our own cakes to bring back to the company and eat with our staff. We decided on two lemon cakes as well as two courgette cakes and got to work. As Andy has a large garden, we only had to buy the baking powder, flour and some small ingredients. As there were three of us, we finished very quickly. We got the recipe for the lemon cake from Michelle and Michaela (the previous former apprentices who were there four years ago) and the recipe for the courgette cake from Urs‘ mother. When we had mixed everything and put it in the tin, we left it to bake in the oven for about one hour. After that we took it out and covered it – so we could take it with us the next day.
On Wednesday 7 December we gave an invitation to all the staff we worked with so that we could meet and eat the cakes in the late afternoon. Since Rouven has school on Thursday and Urs on Friday, this was the last day we were together at the company. We took the last week of our stay off, as we flew to Cape Town to complete our holidays there. Unfortunately, not everyone was there – but only three staff members were missing altogether.
When the people finally arrived and we had already pre-cut the cakes, we explained to them that they could just help themselves. While we were eating, we all exchanged our last words together, thanked each other, discussed and, of course, laughed. What a great group! We will miss you all. It was a great pleasure to work with you and to get to know you better! A special thanks also goes to Mondli, who always had lunch with us and showed us so much. Thank you all!
After lunch we said goodbye to those we will not see again, cleaned up and went home. On our last day of work we went back to all these staff members, said goodbye and thanked them for their time and help. As mentioned in previous blogs: Buhler Johannesburg is not a company, it is a family!

From top left to top right: Marco, Phelelani, Oliver, Marcus, Phillip, Prince, Lusanda, Mondli, Sandro, Chuma, Daniel, Nosipho, Khaya
From bottom left to bottom right: Vhutshilo, Johan, Urs, Rouven, Maduna, Malibongwe

Cape Town

To round off our adventure together, we took a holiday in Cape Town from Saturday 10 December to Wednesday 14 December. It is mainly a very touristy city and known for its beautiful surroundings and sights. During these five days we were able to see a lot:
First, we took the sightseeing bus through the whole city to get a rough overview. Then we took a cable car, which is built by a Swiss company and tested every year, up to Table Mountain and enjoyed the wonderful view. During these days we also took special time to buy Christmas presents, which we found perfectly in Waterfront (Wild Thing Africa-Store). And to finish off the whole holiday, we booked a day trip to „Cape of Good Hope“. On the way there, we stopped in Boulders Beach to see the penguins that live there. We liked this very much, as we had never seen penguins before and assumed that there were none in South Africa. After the tour we had lunch and then drove to Cape Point. This was the highest point of „Cape of Good Hope“ and we had a fantastic view. The sun was shining on us, it was never cloudy and everything looked exactly as it did on the internet. How beautiful nature can be! Then we walked down towards the coast with our group, who had also booked this trip. We took pictures there too and when we reached the bottom, we took a final picture. Finally, we drove back to our hotel at about 16:00.
It was an unforgettable holiday and we felt together that our stay was slowly but surely coming to an end.

Goodbye Südafrika – Goodbye Andy & Sandy

When we arrived from the Cape Town holidays on Wednesday evening, we used the next two days for school and packing. Urs packed on Thursday as he had school on Friday and for Rouven it was logically the other way round. On Thursday evening we invited Mark, Sandra and Andy to a restaurant and paid for all the meals. When it was Friday evening, we knew that it was time to say goodbye. We first said goodbye to Mark and Catherine (the „neighbours“ who also live at Andy’s property in another cottage), whom we saw often, especially in the last weeks. Then we went to the airport with Andy and Sandra. They helped us find the right gate and were there when we dropped off the heavy luggage. After that it was goodbye. We hugged them both tightly and thanked them for this wonderful time. Andy and Sandy: You were more than normal people who gave us a place to stay. You were like a father and a mother to us. We became our own „South African“ family who got along extremely well. You have grown very close to our hearts and are now part of our family. Thank you again!
After saying goodbye, we walked to the gate, turned around one last time and looked into the faces of Andy and Sandy. Faces we won’t see again for a while. However, they will emigrate to Italy in 1.5-2 years, which in turn means that we will see them again and do something.
Now we had to „wait“ again at the airport and go through all the security rooms. Everything went smoothly and when the plane arrived a little late, we were able to board directly without any problems. When we sat in the plane and took off, we were a little sad – but we could hardly wait to see our home, friends and family. But first we had to get through this 10.5-hour flight – which we did of course ;).

Hello Switzerland

When the plane finally landed and we got off the plane at 06:10 on Saturday 17 December, we first got a temperature shock. In South Africa it had been about 28 degrees the day before. In Switzerland we were shivering at -5 degrees. We went on to the exit and had no problems there either. Just as we were at the exit, to our surprise, two people ran towards us. It was Rouven’s sister and colleague. Of course we had to laugh and were surprised, because our plan was to go home alone by train. Well then, we all greeted each other of course and were already on our way to the parked car. On the way home, we realised how pitch black it is here again. Already in the car we had lots of things to talk about and so the drive didn’t feel like 40 minutes at all. Urs was invited to have breakfast at Rouven’s and then either be picked up by his parents or be transported home by public transport. But this was a lie – our parents had secretly planned and Urs‘ family was already at Rouven’s house and wanted to surprise Urs. We did not laugh badly when we arrived at Rouven’s house and saw both families at 07:30. We were very happy about this surprise and then ate breakfast together. We exchanged stories and adventures with each other. At the end we took a photo together. This was the perfect farewell to South Africa and the best welcome we could have imagined!

Acknowledgements

Now the chapter „South Africa“ is closed for us for the time being. But who knows, maybe one day we will go there on holiday, or even fly to this fascinating country again because of our job.
We enjoyed the time very much and are extremely grateful to everyone who made it possible in the first place. Thanks to Andy and Sandra for this incredible hospitality. Thanks to Johan, Lourens and Bernadette who were responsible for us in South Africa on a professional level and made a great contribution to the whole. Thanks to Rouven’s family and relatives for coming to visit us. Thanks to Mondli, who always looked after us and was like a brother to us and hopefully still is. And thanks also to Stefanie and Antonia who organized everything from Switzerland and also carried a big responsibility. Without all of you this would never have been possible!
Finally, we would like to thank you readers. Thank you for following our reports so diligently and for your comments. We were always so positively surprised when we saw that some of you had left another comment.
These had been by far the three most formative months for both of us. We had experienced and seen so much. However, it has to be mentioned that we didn’t know each other before we went abroad, and this gives the whole stay another perspective. Therefore, we are all the more pleased that we got along so well and were able to take a friendship from South Africa back to Switzerland. We will never forget this adventure!

With very friendly and upbeat greetings:

Urs Manser & Rouven Schönenberger