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| Typical street in Schwäbisch Hall |
Now, more than four weeks later, I know that we have reconnected to our roots the nicest way I could imagine. We have been welcomed most warmly and nothing seems to have changed. Our friends are still our friends, no reproaches that we have left them behind. Our old local friends from Mainhardt organised a party for us, and we visited more of them at their homes. We visited friends from our former church in Frankfurt and others joined to our surprise. We saw the Oberursel and Hohe Mark, the place of most of my upbringing, and stayed at very good friends there. And we were able to attend the biannual John family meeting at Thomashof in Karlsruhe. We visited the family of my sister in their home, which we never did while we were still in Germany. We saw our tenants in Schwäbisch Hall and found the flat in an excellent condition. We saw the semi-attached where we had been living only from outside but it was OK that way.
Felix (12) has been seeing and enjoying friends whenever possible, while Daniel (10) was too young when we left to really reconnect with people, he had to make new acquaintances. Luis lives his own life here, more than he already did in Thames - we hardly ever see him. Lucas arrived in Germany only 5 days ago and stays at and with friends, like Luis. He had continued working at a sawmill in Thames to join us later. We will pick up Clara the day after tomorrow - exams forced her to stay in NZ even longer.
When trying to get rid of our belongings that remained in Germany in a barn we were only able to part with about 3/4 of the stuff which we sold or paid for the disposal (the latter for the much bigger part).
We are getting around with our old Mitsubishi L300 van which had waited for us in an indoor car park.This car has become so rare on German roads in the meantime (we haven't seen a second "specimen" yet), that we are getting immediately recognised by everyone who knew us in Mainhardt.
So, this has become a very pleasant experience for us, far more so than anticipated. Yet, we know that our home is now in Thames and we are very happy that it will probably be so for many years.
Interestingly, our kids are happy here on the one side but none of our boys has complained about wanting to move back here so far.
How green Germany is! It seems a different green though, although I know that this is not true; it is just the different kind of vegetation - the forests here are so different to NZ bush. And the air here seems heavier, moist - although this cannot be true either.... perhaps it is the heaviness of the atmosphere, the culture, the mood of the people... .
When we came to NZ we were amazed by the friendliness of the people, so much that we expected to find people rude and inconsiderate back here. However, we have experienced this only very occasionally, when we observed behaviour that you would hardly see in NZ.
I am so thankful that we can live in this flat of friends here. However, it is about 30 km away from our former home, which means we have to drive a lot.
Schwäbisch Hall is a treasure! Our hearts want us to enjoy this town for much more than we were able to now and in the past. We will come back, if God permits.
