‘’I would like to bake cookies with the volunteers’’ read the notification in my phone, with excited eyes I read the invitation from Frauke for a traditional cookie baking experience at The Volunteer House. I knew cookie baking was a Christmas tradition in Germany and what I also knew was Frauke was a great baker! Our WhatsApp group was soon filled with messages planning for the day. Back home I always baked cakes with my cousins every Christmas, but it wasn't professional, most of the time we would end up eating burnt cakes with chocolate frosting, but the memories made during those days was priceless!

Ever since my stay at Dortmund, there has not passed a single day without me craving for spicy Indian food. On an average, an authentic Indian cuisine has 6 different spices in one single dish. India produces 70 % of worlds spices therefore rightly named ‘The land of Spices’. What does the land do with so many spices? Cook mouth-watering food indeed! The Indian food culture is heavily influenced by the Persian, Central Asian, Arab and Mediterranean cultures. In no particular order comes Chennai’s most favorite food.

Since 1966, there is a city partnership between the cities of Lünen and Salford in Great Britain. Lünen nowadays is a part of the Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Dortmund (Church of Dortmund). Since the 1980s, there is beside the city partnership also a lively church partnership between both partners.Our This strong church partnership has been determined to exchange common experiences about life in church and society. Ever since 1984, a week-long annual delegation visits take place in Lünen and Salford. This year an energetic group of adults from Salford visited us at The Volunteers House, I was asked to give a small presentation and we had planned small activities for the group. But what happened later that afternoon was just Mind Blowing!

Before I came to Germany, I also had my ideas of an Indian woman. At home in Congo I like to watch Indian movies and series. I love Indian movies. Regularly, my sister and I until 4 o'clock in the night, watch Indian movies on TV. When I heard that Hannah from India, is coming to Germany, I thought she would be draped in a long silk sari. But when I saw her, I was relieved.

"Working at my job site is not so easy with transculturality. I work in the Evangelical Educational Center in the Protestant Church District Dortmund (Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Dortmund) and I am the only employee in my team who does not come from Germany.My colleagues have many questions about life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and they have heard a lot that they want to check. They want to know what I drink in the Congo and at what time. "

Late September at the Aplerbeck church (Aplerbeck is a part of Dortmund with a beautiful church), held a special church event, where the campaign of ‘Bake 5000 breads – bread for the world’ (Brot für die Welt), was executed by the young confirmands of the church, who joined hands with the local bakeries to raise funds for a social cause. The money from these sales of bread were to be donated for the projects of ‘Bread for the World’, the money collected will be used to support youth training centers in El Salvador, India and Ethiopia.

The Aufbaukurs Herbst 2018, what a second part of the JuLeiCa leadership training program 2018 conducted by the Evangelical Youth Dortmund - this time, I was a part of it. Together with Jana Michler and Ariane Buchenau, we stayed at the Evangelische Jugendbildungsstsätte Nordwalde. The first part of JuLeiCa was conducted earlier this year ‘Grundkurs Frühjahr 2018’. Just like the name suggests The Youth Department of the Church are as energetic and enthusiastic, just like the youth,they not only managed to pull off a successful seminar but also knew how to place intense concepts into young minds.