Mareike Aufderheide and Clemens Voigts

From now on, the path ran parallel and is easier to tell. From the very first week, life in Witzenhausen was as social, friendly and stimulating as many reading this text probably remember it. At the beginning of my studies, this was the main focus and statistics, physics and inorganic chemistry were more a means to an end. But the more the subjects had to do with actual agriculture and the more interconnected the relationships became, the more interested the studies became and our choice of subjects showed that the topics of the tropics and subtropics were the focus for both of us. Very formative for us during our studies was a trip to South Africa, where we worked on the big project with a group of four other students. For me, Mareike, the subsequent trip to Namibia with the whole group was the first time we got to know this country. For the bachelor thesis at DITSL, the two of us set off to Kenya in September 2010, where we spent ten weeks at three locations interviewing pastoralists and employed shepherds and getting to know their attitudes towards their work. This time was also really formative for us. Living in pastoral villages, in pairs, as a couple, without cell phone network, running water, with heat and dust, with a completely new culture and people who welcomed us very kindly and described and explained to us many things that we could not imagine.

We didn't quite fulfill the cliché of Witzenhausen "after the third semester you have a dog and after the fifth semester you have a child". The dog came after the 5th semester and the child after the bachelor. So we could still experience the family-friendly studying in Witzenhausen. First I started my Master's degree (SIA) and Clemens the extra-occupational training as a Waldorf teacher in Kassel. Later Clemens also did his Master's degree (Ecological Agriculture). During the whole time we worked as HiWis at DITSL - again the relation to the tropics and subtropics.

After my Master's degree, I started working for CERES in the field of organic certification. First as an evaluator, as a desk worker, later also as a controller for different standards.

After the birth of our second child, however, life drew us away from Witzenhausen. It was really hard to say goodbye to many very dear people and the place we had grown fond of. But the opportunity to join the farming community Krumhuk in Namibia, to apply and expand what we had learned and to make a contribution to ecological agriculture in a country like Namibia, where this is still largely a foreign word, drew us away.

Thus began a new phase in our lives. Clemens got fully involved in farming. Takes care of the cattle herd, which is herded with us, in contrast to almost all commercial cattle farmers. He also takes care of marketing and educational projects on the farm. After the upcoming generation change, he and three colleagues will take over from the beginning of 2021. And I, too, can give free rein to my penchant for animal husbandry here. I take care of a flock of chickens, have integrated pigs into vegetable production and coordinate vegetable production. I have continued to work as an evaluator for CERES and on and off organic inspections in South Africa and Namibia. I also got on the board of the Namibian Organic Association (NOA). In Namibia, the organic farming movement is still very much in its infancy. But it's great for both of us to be involved in a place where our backgrounds can really help people think in new directions. By the time this is printed, I will have taken over as project director for a BMZ project to strengthen organic agriculture in community and commercial areas. So, life is in constant change. We now live on Krumhuk Farm with our three children, actively practice organic farming and try to contribute our knowledge and skills here in the country.

But during our rare but regular trips to Germany, a visit to Witzenhausen, to our dear friends, the DITSL and the university must never be missing!