By Dana from Germany and Carol from India,

For the last two weeks, my German friend Dana and me, we stayed together during this time of isolation because of the corona virus.

I have a German friend named Dana, she lives in Bochum, she was a UEM volunteer, she did her volunteering service at the age of 18 in 2015, for 1 year in a country named Rwanda in Africa. I met her in Essen in a seminar which was organized by UEM in the beginning of December. At that time, I didn’t understand a bit of German and she help me in translating, as the seminar was all in German language and since then we are really good friends.

First I was afraid I might have to stay alone because my former roommates had to leave some days earlier and the arrival of the volunteers to come got delayed due to the virus.

Carolin suggested me to stay at a new host family. But fortunately, Dana and I already spent some time together during Christmas at her family’s place and at her apartment in Bochum. We didn’t even meet for a long time because she was travelling. So, we thought it might be great to finally have quality time to chat, watch movies, take walks in the beautiful fields in Wickede, listen to music, dance, cook and of course – study some German.

Same time we got lots of help by different many kind people from „Referat Ökumene“.

Frauke came to help cleaning from time to time. All of us started doing a real „Frühjahrsputz“. For Easter she even gave us some sweets and eggs to colour, so we could really enjoy traditional German Easter days.

Carolin visited us with some ice cream and a bunch of beautiful flowers. We (Carolin, Dana and me) had a small ice cream picnic in our garden. From time to time Carolin also sends me (Carol), postcards with beautiful words, to keep a check on me.

On 30/3/ 2020, Claudia visited us in volunteers house. She was the one to offer her place to stay due to corona isolation.
Most of the things in the volunteer’s house are from her, she is a very kind lady and she takes care of each and every volunteer without expecting anything in return. Claudia prepared amazing apple cake, gave us some sweet chocolate cookies, self-made Pesto and Pasta. To support our groceries, she even left some money: „So that you can spoil yourselves a bit!“

We were overwhelmed by the kindness of the people, who didn’t even know me (Dana) but still care for both of us like a family.

Thanks for caring for us like a family! It means a lot and is a true sign of solidarity in these days of isolation during corona. DANKESCHÖN!