Nairobi

At the closing of the Close-Up project, we had a reunion with Munyao Mutinda.

Munyao Mutinda picked a great winter to leave his African home in Kenya for the first time. The journalist from Nairobi was a guest of the Frankfurter Rundschau for the Goethe-Institut Close-Up project in December, when he for the first time stood on the Feldberg (the highest mountain in Germany outside the Alps) dumbfounded in the snow. “How cold is that!” he repeatedly cried, shocked but well humoured. He was also baffled that a visit to the Taunus is not commonly perilous. “Wild animals live in our forests at home; you don’t just go walking about.” We now enjoyed a reunion with the courageous African at the evaluation of the journalists’ exchange in icy Berlin.

The first thing that Mutinda undertook in the capital city was to buy a woollen cap. Then he enthusiastically reported about Joachim Kamann from the Nussloch goats’ cheese farm. It was like this: First the cheese maker followed the reports by the Rundschau reporter who was on an exchange in Nairobi, then got in touch with her and told her he would soon be travelling to Kenya himself. Then, he read an interview with the Kenyan guest. Next thing, the reporter, back in Germany, got a phone call from a Jeep that was just then rumbling through the Masai Mara nature reserve: Joachim Kamann from Nussloch would like very much to learn how he could reach Munyao Mutinda, as he’d be heading to Nairobi in a few days. “And when he arrived there with his family, they all came and visited me at the newspaper office,” says Mutinda, still quite perplexed, “They wanted to meet me, isn’t that incredible? Me!”

The meeting at the capital office of the Goethe-Institut was primarily dedicated to evaluating the project. A precise evaluation has yet to take place, but it was as plain as day to all of the participants under the grey Berlin skies that the project should be continued because the idea behind it and the experiences to be gained along the way were simply unparalleled. Along with Mutinda, colleagues from Ghana, Israel and Italy had come to Berlin. After a dinner together, the following incident occurred while on the way to a last drink in Berlin-Mitte: Four of the journalists were walking along Kanalufer and discussing the chancellor, who lives there, but was supposed to be in London that day. At precisely that moment, she herself – in fine spirits to judge by her facial expression – got out of a limousine. The chancellor was close enough to tickle, to see her laugh just once. Instead, the quartet, silent and taken aback, walked on – with the exception of Alon from Tel Aviv, who let out a fainthearted “Hallo” under his breath. For Munyao Mutinda it was absolute madness: “What? Our president has who knows how many acres of land surrounding his palace. An encounter like that would be completely unthinkable.” There are also a few other differences between Nairobi and Berlin, but that would be going a bit too far.

The next day, on the walk to the Neue Museum, the German and the Kenyan journalists, arms linked, first had a proper tumble on the icy pavement; Alon, the intrepid Israeli, helped them to their feet – no bruises, just internationally understood laughter. In spite of the many differences between Kenya and the Federal Republic of Germany – starting with the food and not nearly ending with the weather – Munyao Mutinda is enthusiastic about Germany. “See you soon,” he said in farewell. We hope that very much.