Martin on horseback.

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We had a real Martin on horseback when we recently celebrated St. Martin: our principal Martin van Neerven made a distinguished and very much appreciated appearance on a proud horse – wearing a noble roman officer’s uniform from the DSND archives. We started singing – our wonderful and well-known songs with their funny chorus. Our preschool and primary school students surprised us with wonderfully crafted lanterns. Being a light for others – that was the idea! The children had rehearsed with Carmen Hussain and joined as much as they could. After the first songs we prayed the Lord’s Prayer guided by Father Jiji Vattapparambil – making this prayer an example as to how to talk to God. After that I showed how to give a blessing – God’s love to others – by means of the traditional Buddhist blessing gesture with which Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha, is so often depicted. That way, we receive something good and pass it on to others – independent of our religious home and how we call God, our Father. The secondary school students had prepared a St. Martin play – wonderful to experience, very well played and very impressive. Rebecca turned out to be an excellent Martin! All the other actors and actresses impressed us with their story of St. Martin who shared his coat in the cold of Amiens in France. Then our principal showed up on horseback, and after that we all united on the roundabout of the Bulgarian Embassy. Her Excellency, the Bulgarian Ambassador, stayed with us all the time, and later we enjoyed good talks over delicious hot wine punch and the traditional German gingerbread men – even with a real pipe – were served. Our staff together with Anja Shivhare had once again excelled in their preparations and handed out the traditional delicacies: the hot wine punch was great, even the children´s version. Gingerbread men were shared, their pipes happily taken home – a great souvenir of this wonderful day and its motto: sharing! The profits went to the Hope project, which we will neither forget nor tick off. It was wonderful to experience how many of us are so blessed and well off that they can afford to share things, pass something on to others in need. In several school lessons we discussed about St. Martin and his message: how to share, with whom to share and what to share. Together with the primary school students from our climbing study group we recently did this in a very concrete manner – sharing with Indian children who are taught under a busy and loud bridge. Being able to share – that gives us a good feeling. And everybody understands the language of a smile.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the entire team that prepared the event, to the parent´s committee for their generous support, to all the children and parents who so happily celebrated together with us!
Christoph Wildfang