Berlin: A historical treasure chest

Berlin is Germany’s biggest city, a vibrant metropolis with a stunning past, an exuberant present and a bright future. The first person to lift off into the air did so in Berlin, pictures learnt motion there and no other city in Europe has as many trees as Berlin (about 400,000 of them). Much to my delight Berlin also has the world’s longest underground rail network and an extensive network of regional trains, city trams and buses which are exceptionally easy to use (even if you don’t speak the language). My husband and I visited Berlin for a Canadian visitor’s visa. Canada has no embassy in the Netherlands and not wanting to mail his passport we decided to go to Berlin in person. I’m very glad that we did!

With the visa out of the way we were free to explore Berlin. What struck me most about the city is it’s extraordinary past and how the layers of that past form a kaleidoscope of art, architecture and culture in the present day city. From spectacular Prussian palaces, to stark holocaust memorials, to murals and graffiti painted on the remaining stretches of the Berlin wall - history is everywhere.

Like most cities, Berlin has its tourist attractions (the TV tower, the enormous KaDeWe department store and its many marvellous museums). We saw these sites from the outside, but tourist attractions are not what makes a city. For me a city is its people, their history and the places they frequent. So Beto and I spent most of our time walking through Berlin’s neighbourhoods and discovering their present and their past. We began at the Hackesche Höfe. During the industrial revolution workers lived in this neighbourhood under horrible conditions. In response, architecturally fascinating courtyard dwellings were built as a way to incorporate living, working and culture. Remarkably, and despite hardships during the various wars of the 20^th century (the two World Wars and the Cold War) the area continues to blend home, work and culture today.

The next day we began in the centre of reunited Berlin at Potsdamer Platz - now a sea of ultra modern buildings and the home of the Canadian Embassy. From there we visited the Holocaust memorial, a series of 2711 grey monoliths designed by American architect Peter Eisenmann. The monoliths form a labyrinth through which visitors can walk and thus experience the confusion and helplessness felt by the Jews during the holocaust. We walked on through the Brandenburg gate, a monument to peace and victory topped by the Quadriga, a roman chariot drawn by four horses and driven by Victoria, the goddess of victory. During the Cold War the gate stood just to the east of the wall and access was denied, but today the gate represents yet another kind of peace and victory, symbolizing the reunified city. From the gate we walked along Unter der Linden Boulevard, marvelling at the amazing history of the street and the wonderful architecture on either side, including the fabulous Berliner Dom. During the walk we were drawn to the Neue Wache, the central memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany. Within a gray stone room sits a statue: ‘Mother mourning her dead son’ by Käthe Kollwitz. Most visitors are drawn to the statue, but I was struck by the emptiness that surrounds her – the emptiness left by war.

 Against our general dispositions we started the next day on Berlin’s 5^th Avenue, the Kurfürstendamm. The glitz and glamour of the modern fashion world was interesting, but I must admit that we quickly moved on to the glitz and glamour of the 1700’s at Schloss Charlottenburg the stunning Hohenzollern summer palace of Sophie Charlotte, wife of Fredrich III. From there we stepped forward in time and visited the Berlin Wall museum gaining insight into what life was like in Berlin during the Cold War. With images of the stark grey Wall fresh in our minds we then headed to the East Side Gallery. This is the longest remaining section of the wall (1.3 km) and was decorated after the turnaround by artists from East and West. Unfortunately, today the murals have been graffitied and are crumbling, but with some imagination one can still feel the hope transferred via paint to wall when the murals were first made. That evening we decided to experience the contemporary local scene in Prenzlauer Berg. The area was a centre for East Berlin’s young political dissidents during the Cold War. Today only a few of the crumbling buildings in which those young people lived remain, nestled between beautifully restored 19^th century facades, but the laid back feel of the neighbourhood lingers.

Our final day began in Potsdam, a small community south west of the city that is famous for its palaces: Schloss Sanssouci and Schloss Cecilienhof. In1740, Frederick II began designing the stunning Schloss Sanssouci (which means ‘without cares’) as a summer residence to which he could escape from the nasty business of being king. He was diametrically opposed to his “Soldier King” father, and although he successfully fought wars (while his father never did) Frederick II was an all-round aesthete who loved art, music and fine wines (even putting statues of Bacchus’ brothers and sisters around his palace). His magnificent Sanssouci palace and its lovely gardens show this artisitc side of Frederick the Great. Schloss Cecilienhof is much younger and was built in the early 1900s for Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie, Cecilienhof was the last palace of the Hohenzollerns but it didn’t really become famous until 1945 when the historic Potsdam Conference was held there in August. This conference between Stalin, Truman and Churchill (later represented by Attlee) concerned the further conduct of the occupying powers in Germany (The Soviet Union, the USA and England). It was in Potsdam, just after the Second World War ended, that the first chill of the Cold War was felt.

Berlin has been altered by the horrors of its past, but the spirit of Berliners (natives and newcomers) and their remarkable ability to rebuild, has made the city today a vibrant metropolis. To capture that feel before leaving we spent our last evening in another of Berlin’s local neighbourhoods – Kreuzberg. Kreuzberg was once West Berlin’s counter culture head quarters – on the fringe and with uniquely cheap housing. Today it retains some of that fringe flair and mixes it with the city’s more recent Turkish nuances. The result is another wonderful mix of East meets West, community and culture – oh and great döners and falafels!

Mauritania Musings Part 2

Our days in Iwik were busy and my time was divided between sanderling work by day and red knot work by night. It was exhausting at times but especially the sanderling work allowed lots of time to observe local life in Iwik. My first impression of Iwik was of houses that looked thrown together from scraps of metal, wood and bits of refuse. Still, the people looked healthy and happy and there were plenty of chickens and goats running around. As soon as they saw me the children asked for “cadeaux” (gifts), thanks to the tourist and researcher tradition of bring gifts in the past. I’m still torn about the idea of handing out money or gifts. I think it encourages begging and I believe that donating to community development (i.e. a school or a fresh water well) might be more useful in the long run.

Our sanderling catching team consisted of four people from four different countries: Canada, Ghana, Mauritania and the Netherlands. It was pretty cool to be sitting in an African fishing village catching birds with such a diverse group. The irony of the whole thing was that we were catching in one of the premier natural areas of the world - on the town’s garage dump. Furthermore, we were attracting birds with rotting fish bits so we were also attracted the town’s chickens and goats! Luckily for us these pests were cheerfully chased away by children who were more than eager to help us.

The child rearing system among the Imraguen struck me as rather more communal than in Canada, Panama or Europe. Many of the children who “helped” us have parents working far away in Nouakchott or Nouadhibou. For this reason the children are taken care of by the community and often stay with adults who are not their parents. Overall, this system seems to work very well and in general the kids are well behaved. It appears as if they run around the town unwatched, but whenever they begin to misbehave an adult appears to take care of them. The children are also extremely tough. To give an example, one of the youngsters picked at a small cut on his foot creating a bleeding wound. Then he ran around barefoot (as usual) among the rusting cans, fish scraps in the garbage. I had alcohol with me to take blood samples and tried to clean his cut. Amazingly, even when I put the alcohol on his wound he didn’t scream or cry, he just flinched a bit then smiled at me. Though he went ahead and ran through the garbage barefoot again later, his cut was healing nicely by the next day.

Daytime sanderling work also occurred at the local “fish delicatessen” where certain types of fish were salted and dried. Of course the term “fish delicatessen” is sarcastic since there is no deli and certainly no cooling facilities, but the processing was interesting to watch. First the fish are gutted and the teenage boys who were performed the task were certainly experts! They could do about two fish a minute, including the time it took to give us the guts for bait. I must admit that being given a handful of steaming fish guts was an entirely novel experience! Next huge amounts of salt were rubbed into the fish leaving them encrusted and then the salted fish were left to dry in pits. Later, half the pit was filled with water and the salt was rinsed off. Finally the fish were taken away by truck for further drying.

There was also time to enjoy the natural setting. In my free time I visited both the outer mudflats and the Baie d’Aoutif by boat, another beautiful bay near the village of Tessot by car. I also walked along stretches of dunes and beach where I could see flamingos, egrets, pelicans, shorebirds, Hoopoe larks and gerbils galore! Working at night also offered a unique natural setting. On calm nights with a sea of stars overhead I could hear birds all around - the trill of dunlins, the piping of redshanks, the honking of flamingos and most impressive the loud beating of huge pelican wings only a few meters away.

On one of our last days we also had the chance to go on the Imraguen’s traditional sailboats for a trip to the sandflat islands of Niroumi and Nair. The best part was sailing through the canals with a literal carpet of shorebirds feeding on the mudflats to either side. The scene became truly spectacular as the tide rose and the birds began to take flight, streaming over our heads in ribbons as they headed to their roosts.

Of course the Imraguen weren’t the only people fishing the waters. Nearly everyday the PNBA coast guard brought in a group of illegal Senegalese fishermen. They were arrested for fishing within the park boundaries, for using a motor on their boats and for using monofilament fishing nets. I was amazed at the size of the Senegalese boats. They are tiny – maybe 6m long with a very small motor. Amazingly a crew of several people lives at sea in this tiny space for days at a time. I am happy that the park is enforcing its laws and apprehending people who break those laws, but at the same time it seems to me that the people I saw arrested are working incredibility hard for the small amount of fish that they catch. And the Banc d’Arguin is threatened by more than “pirate” fishing boats that operate within its boundaries. In my opinion, overfishing by European industrial-scale fleets just outside the Park limits (and the fish know no boundaries) is a much bigger problem. These trawlers are a luxurious contrast to the Senegalese boats and have state-of-the-art catching equipment, freezing facilities and accommodations. They scoop up huge amounts of fish and export the proceeds to Europe while African fishermen are arrested. But the Europeans are not doing anything wrong. They are fishing outside park boundaries and are not breaking the rules … it seems unfair somehow.

Mauritania was an excellent experience for me and was rewarding both in terms of travel experience and in terms of samples for my work. But after spending Christmas away, I was happy to be heading back to my husband at the end of the three weeks. As usual I experienced more culture shock re-entering the “First World” than I ever do the other way around. I’m always taken aback by the excesses of our existence in “the North” whether I am re-entering via the USA, Canada or Europe. Our lives just seem ridiculous after weeks or months of relative simplicity. I usually find the shock worst at the airports: the pervasive advertising (mostly for alcohol which I didn’t see at all in Islamic Mauritania), the glittering buildings, the sterile metal surfaces, and the excessive security. There just seems to be too much of everything! Even the routine procedure of boarding the plane and taking off becomes absurd. To give an example, in Mauritania there was one plane, in the whole airport, one plane. We walked to it, we got on and we took off – immediately. In Paris there were more planes than I could count. We walked to a waiting room and then got onto a mini-bus which idled on the tarmac for half an hour before driving us to the plane. We could have walked to the plane faster, but that wouldn’t have been allowed. Then we idled on the tarmac in the plane for another half hour while waiting our turn to take off. Somehow the simplicity was gone. But my pet peeve, the thing that gets me every time, is the appalling waste of water. I absolutely hate the so called “water-saving” automatic taps and toilets in airports. These things send copious amounts of drinking water down the drain every time someone passes within a meter of them! It is ludicrous and I can’t help thinking, after weeks of getting my water from a well and either boiling it or having to drink expensive bottled water, that we need a happy medium between no running water and water that runs continuously whether we need it or not! But that is another rant :-).

Mauritania Musings Part 1

As the plane flew over the straight of Gibraltar, I got first glimpse of Africa! At first the scenery was mountainous and the valleys were green with irrigation, but as the plane flew further south all signs of mountains and irrigation disappeared and there was nothing but sand dunes as far as the eye could see – the Sahara Desert!

Mauritania is first and foremost a Saharan country with a human population of 2,800,000 and an extremely low density of 2.5 inhabitants per square kilometer (lower than Canada at 8 and way below the Netherlands at 981). Half the population is concentrated in two large coastal cities, Nouadhibou, the economic capital, and Nouakchott, the political capital where the plane landed.

From the plane window Nouakchott seemed to appear out of nowhere – a sea of low buildings spreading out in rows and separated by paved streets half covered with drifting sand. The city was built on a former oasis in 1958 when it was decided that Mauritania needed a political capital. It was designed for 15,000 people, but has ballooned to a population of over 600000 since the devastating droughts of the 1970s.

As we exited the airport we were greeted by representatives from the national park as well as a group of people asking for dollars, euros, pens, chocolate or whatever we had. It was an interesting combination of desperation and humor. They joked with us when one of our party used the excuse “I only have large bills.” to send them away. “That’s even better!” they laughed, “We’ll all share.” But we didn’t.

We spent one night in Nouakchott giving me time to see a bit of the city. My favorite place was the market. There was a wonderful and contagious energy of local people preparing for a celebration (Eid ul-Adha falls close to Christmas this year). I was enthralled by the beautiful scarves of indigo, fuchsia and gold displayed in stalls and hanging from the balconies overhead as well as on the hundreds of women shopping and selling in the market. The effect was an explosion of color that was elegant and fluid. It left me wondering why we in the north can never seem to emulate the colorful energy of the south without looking gaudy. Even what we would consider garbage was made to look elegant and I was amazed (as I always am) at the ability of people to make something from nothing by covering light bulbs with old packaging material to make lamp shades.

Outside the fabric market people were selling vegetables, rice and meat. The meat was not cooled and was covered with flies and there were many people with deformities indicating vitamin and mineral deficiencies in childhood and hinting at the poverty that still exists in Mauritania. But things are changing. This year there was a working elevator and automatic sliding doors in a newly constructed hotel. There were also billboards showing the Nouakchott mosque surrounded by skyscrapers with the caption “Nouakchott of the future”. I waver between happiness and sadness at seeing Mauritania on the cusp of development. I am happy that people’s standard of living will improve, but sad that another part of the world may lose its authenticity and turn into another shopping mall strewn clone of the “First World”. But it hasn’t happened yet and that evening at sunset the sound of the muezzin’s call to prayer emanated from the minarets of the mosque unimpeded by skyscrapers.

The following day we piled into trucks and headed to the Parc National du Banc d’Arguin (PNBA). The Banc d’Arguin is one of Mauritania’s most important national parks and makes up the northern portion of the Mauritanian seaboard. The park was established in 1978 and has the largest winter concentration of wading birds in the world (an estimated seven million shorebirds alone). It is also the most important breeding area for birds on the Atlantic seaboard and the richest fishery off the West African coast. In a nutshell the landscape is wild, desolate and beautiful, made up of sand dunes, coastal swamps, small islands and a wide expanse of shallow coastal waters. Some 1,200 people, the Imraguen, inhabit the park in nine fishing villages along the shoreline and our expedition stayed near to one of those villages – Iwik. Until the droughts of the 1970s the Imraguen (which means fisherman) were nomadic, fishing only from August to February and then moving into the desert where they raised camels and goats for the remainder of the year. After the droughts the Imraguen took to living in permanent villages and fishing year round by following the fish on their migration. Or else, like many other Mauritanians who lost their domestic animals during the droughts, they moved to the cities to look for work.

As we drove out of the city the buildings gave way to tents and then to endless desert. At first the desert was covered with low scrubby vegetation dominated by Euphorbia balsamifera (a native plant used to counteract desertification). But as we entered a hilly area, the vegetation gave way to fine orange sand blown into ever shifting dunes and dotted with the odd acacia tree – the quintessential desert. In places the road was covered with drifting sand, very reminiscent of snow and in fact the sides of the highway had “sand fences” that looked a lot like our “snow fences” in Canada. Just as it was beginning to get dark we turned off the paved road into the desert itself for the last leg of the journey to Iwik. We reached the research station in the dark and could choose between sleeping on bunks inside the concrete buildings and sleeping in a tent. I chose the tent and was delighted by the lovely quilted decorations which covered the interior.

One of the first lessons I learned in the desert was the practicality of head scarves. On our third morning I awoke to the tent flapping wildly, pelted by dust and sand. Visibly was poor and my eyes, nose and hair were filled with dust as soon as I went outside. Although the wind wasn’t strong enough to be a real sand storm, it was very impressive. I now understand completely why people living in hot, dry and windy places (i.e. much of the Arab world) wear head scarves which cover their faces. When walking outside I also wrapped my head and face in the traditional style and it helped immensely. Of course there are religious and social reasons for head scarves as well, but I had a lesson in their practical purpose.