Winter Plan

Third email 20.10.2024

Hello Franz and Sonja,

Long time no see, I often think about the hardships and beauty of life in the countryside. Animals need to be fed every day, and it is difficult for you to rest for several days in a row in winter.

In the past few days, I have been thinking about whether I might come to your farm as a helper again and take on some work for you. This idea is based on the following practical reasons.

bureaucracy

2 years ago I got a job contract with a local e-commerce company and I have even been interning for a few months and they are waiting for me to go to work but the employment bureau has not given me a reply yet and they keep making me wait so I always Can't go to formal work.

This limits my income so currently I can only do some part-time or volunteer work.

Of course, the Aliens Administration has granted me the right to work. I can work as a volunteer, intern, apprentice, or have a formal job, but I am not allowed to start a company or be self-employed.

In order to solve employment problems, I used to go back and forth to different government departments more than 20 times, including the Employment Bureau, the Foreigners Administration, the Civic Center, and the counseling center of a non-profit organization. They seemed not to cooperate well, so I still haven’t. Officially employed, but they all recognized my right to work.

Finally, I gave up looking for them.

Residence Conditions

I currently live in Heidelberg. It is difficult to find suitable accommodation here. There are many houses for less than 600 euros. Although it is cheap, it also means having to live with refugees or students as neighbors.

More than half of them fail to maintain environmental sanitation and litter, and many people are noisy and live in disorder. So I moved twice because I couldn't stand the bad living habits of my neighbors.

For the past month I have been living in a tent in a friend's garden where I volunteer for an organic farming education project, but the wooden hut there is too crude to survive the winter.

##learn

I estimate that the only hope for the future is to earn a better income through remote online work, so I now spend half a day every day continuing to train my programming skills. Currently, I have passed the exams in several courses and obtained to the qualification certificate.

But studying requires a stable place to live, so I long for the good living environment in your home two years ago.

I found that you can earn no more than 1,500 euros per month by working part-time in the city, but the quality of life in the city is so poor, the living environment and food are very poor. In this case, it is better to go to the farm to volunteer, the farm is It's a better way to live.

##Health

I cannot spend more than 10 hours a day in front of the computer doing full-time IT work or studying, as that is not good for my health.

Many of my Internet company colleagues have suffered from various IT occupational diseases, such as lumbar and cervical spondylosis, obesity, gastrointestinal and digestive diseases, heart and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, etc.

Last year, a former colleague who worked with me suddenly passed away from a heart attack. I deeply reflected on this. We used to earn very good income from Internet companies, but our bodies were ruined.

So I had to change my survival strategy!

Therefore, a healthy lifestyle should be that we should engage in a certain degree of physical activity every day. Of course, it is also good to go to the gym to exercise, but physical exercise not only consumes time, but also consumes additional money.

Especially every breath in a gym costs money. I don’t understand why people go to a gym with dirty air?

Working on a farm can create wealth. Although being a farmer may not necessarily make a lot of money, it can at least produce high-quality food. Eating high-quality food is also a basic condition for ensuring health.

My constitution is naturally too thin, so I need more physical labor, which is what I have told you before.

Optimistic future

Although my current situation is difficult, I remain optimistic about my future.

I have had a successful career in China and believe I can be very successful in the near future, either in a commercial company or a non-profit organization.

I like the countryside, and running a farm is an important life goal for me in the future. Recently, I am preparing to create a website document for agriculture and gardening, starting with a virtual online farm.

If I'm lucky, hopefully I can volunteer again at your family's farm or another farm nearby, which is expected to last 3-6 months, and then I may leave Germany next spring or summer.

Wherever the future may take me, my experience on the farm will leave me with great memories.

Best regards,

Atom