Longing and homesickness

"We drive as long as we feel like it and are healthy." In June 2021, we said goodbye to friends and families in Basel. This sentence now catches up with us again and occupies our heads longer than we would like. In the end, we choose love.

Two months ago we wrote to you from the beautiful house of Christian and his family in Abu Dhabi. Today we live in the middle of tea plantations in the south of Sri Lanka. We are happy to tell you about this trip. Anna has created a little film again. Of course, there are also pictures below.

In the Emirates, we live in luxury. It's a stark contrast to our lives last year. Anna notices the expensive cars. Our bike races along on the paved roads. No pothole. No obstacle.

In Dubai we are welcomed by a German family. Anna experiences Halloween and enjoys the luxury of the beautiful house. By bike we continue towards Abu Dhabi. At Love Lake we camp for one night. A family from the Philippines is so touched by our story that they spontaneously pray for us. The heat the next day is stifling. After four hours, a black SUV becomes aware of us and the driver, an influential Emirati, shows us the way to a "sales room". We end up by the sea in a beautiful house that serves as an exhibition and sales center for future residential complexes. The price per villa is about 2.5 million euros. There we can rest for a night and listen to the exciting stories of the employees, who all come from abroad and lovingly take care of us. Chelal from Pakistan tells us about his days in prison due to arguments with his boss. Both had to sit on an ice chair for one hour each every three hours. This led to a quick reconciliation of the two. Soni from India reports that they work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week without holidays. Hossein from Bangladesh earns 1,500 – 2,000 dirhams a month, of which he sends everything home to his family and keeps only 200 dirhams. All rarely see their families. This shows once again how privileged we actually are.

Overall, we find it harder to get in touch with locals. Two families let us look behind the facades of family life. Asma works in a library. She invites us to her mother's house for dinner and introduces us to all family members. We meet Dhabia while walking on the beach, who celebrates her birthday there with a picnic. After a warm conversation, she invites us to her family farm. With both families we spent a nice day and experienced numerous surprises for Anna's 9th birthday. We are touched by the warmth of these families. We learn a lot about UAE: every Emirati receives a house and land from the state upon marriage. A man can marry several women, but most still have only one wife. The country has adapted to guests from abroad and with money no wish remains unfulfilled.

We decided to leave the bike in Abu Dhabi with Christian's family, who lovingly accommodated us during this time. Anna and Katharina want a break from the bike saddle. An invitation from our good friend Rasheed is on the table and we decide to visit him. Let's go to the Maldives! There we first drove to Maalhos, a local island in the Baa Atoll. There we have the opportunity to discover the magnificent underwater world. Even Anna takes her first "Bubble Maker" course and sees her first reef shark. A local, whom everyone calls "Teacher", goes fishing with Carsten and explains the fascinating plant world. All the local islanders are Muslims and the women only go into the water with long swimsuits and headscarves. We were asked if we wanted to participate as extras for the video shoot of a local hostel. Take a boat to one of the numerous sandbanks where birds breed and hide their young in the plant thicket. On the way back we see numerous dolphins in the crystal clear water and can hardly believe our luck. You can view the summary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhNSzElenlE. Back in the capital Male, we visit Rasheed's family in a multi-storey house. Each member of the family lives on a different floor and they meet to watch the World Cup matches together. Nowhere else in the world have we seen more scooters in a pile than in Male.

After the Maldives we fly on to Sri Lanka. Katharina invested in a learning center in Nuwara Eliya before her departure and would like to visit it personally. We are allowed to attend the Bookbridge graduation ceremony as guests of honour for the students and Anna proudly presents the certificates. We work in the Bookbridge Learning Centre and Anna in the Cafe Icy Lounge. She serves the guests and prepares the food. At the end, she is even presented with an award for her support, of which she is very proud. We spend the Christmas season with the team and make friends. In the south of the country we visit Weligama. The roaring waves on the beach invite you to surf and Anna proves her steadfastness. At night, the temple speakers hardly let us sleep due to the Buddhist chants. It's peak season and we sometimes feel like a walking dollar bill and decide to move on. In Yala National Park we discover a sleeping leopard in the distance, observe an elephant cow bathing and numerous other animals. In Kataragama we visit a temple that is a sanctuary for Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims alike. The fact that Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus can coexist peacefully and are friends gives us hope. However, the fact that you marry a person outside your religion is still rare. Anna attends a Buddhist school and we celebrate the Hindu harvest festival Pongal. In a village, Anna and Katharina show off their dancing skills, which they have acquired in several dance lessons. Our dance teacher Sreedhariladihan affectionately calls Anna "Chocolate". Anna refers to herself as milk. If you mix both, you get hot chocolate! A stunning mix.

In Batticaloa in the east of the country we are allowed to spend the night with Kishoth and his family. For the first few days, Anna disappears into the hackertorium of the Dreamspace Academy and builds her first robot. Later, we modify images and videos with the team in the Media Lab. Sri Lanka will be remembered as a wild and colorful bouquet whose fragrance enchants.

In mid-February, the doors are now open to break new ground. Anna and Katharina will fly back to Europe to celebrate their grandfather's 75th birthday.

Carsten takes some time for himself and wants to cycle the last stage with a friend. This is a decision out of love: you are entitled to the other person what he or she needs most. With great gratitude we look back on our time in UAE, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. How we feel internally, you will learn in the individual reflections from us:

Carsten: "I missed the bike incredibly on this section." It has given us structure as well as the possibility to leave whenever you want. I find the journey in local buses and the associated planning tedious. This journey has changed me and it is difficult for me to give up this life with the freedom that comes with it."

Katharina: "It's the right time for me to go back home. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart for all the experiences on the journey, but above all for the people who have opened up to us. It will take me some time to get used to European life again and I have decided not to rush anything. We have experienced so much in the last 20 months that we will live on it for a very long time and I am proud to have mastered this adventure together as a family."

Anna: "Recently I was dancing in a supermarket. A man came to us later and said he thinks it's so great that a white girl tries out other traditions and has so much fun.

In the Maldives I liked the snorkeling and the colorful fish best. I had a lot of fun on the trip and am so looking forward to grandma and grandpa and their good food."

Under https://www.flickr.com/gp/112568600@N03/3f5Yi6 you will find pictures and videos of our adventures. Have fun!

We send you and your loved ones warm greetings from the green tea plantations and hope that you are well. We'd love to hear from you!

Katharina, Anna and Carsten

—-

Our journey in numbers

Kilometers driven by bike: 13,965

Hours in the saddle: 764

Average kilometers per day: 51

Nights in tent: 135

Nights Guests: 386

Nights in hostels: 74

Number of sunny days: 398