Normans

For the daughter of a master electrician and a kindergarten teacher, raised in Essen, the heart of coal and steel mining, I have come a long way. When I was 15 years old, after graduating from secondary school, my parents wanted me to go into banking or insurance but I wanted to become a nurse. My father categorically denied my wish so we compromised and I apprenticed in the largest private travel agency in Germany. I hated being cooped up in the office so I amused myself by throwing handfuls of paperclips out of the 9th floor building and watching the resulting confusion and anger of the pedestrians below. After my 3 ½ years of training I was offered a job in the travel office of the Ford Motor Company in Cologne. There I arranged trips for important industrialists and high ranking corporate officers as well as organizing secret test drives for new vehicles on the arctic circle and the desert of North Africa.

In 1976 I moved to Washington, D.C. where I was married to an American journalist but our union was not successful. Against the odds I decided to remain in the U.S. and eventually lived in various areas of the East, MidWest and Western areas of the U.S. 1984 found me living in Pacific Beach, California, a great suburb of San Diego, driving a candy apple red Karman Ghia convertible, boogie boarding in the waves of the Pacific and loving my profession of teaching adults the exciting and often complicated business of being a travel agent. I attended a United Methodist Church, sang in the fantastic choir and enjoyed fellowship with friends. I was quite poor but happy.

It was during this time that I had the opportunity to go to the Olympics Track and Field in Los Angeles and watch such athletes as Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses win, among others in the thrilling and exciting atmosphere of the Qlympic Stadium. At the same time as the Olympics were taking place, US News began broadcasting the horror of the Ethiopian famine. The contrast between the victory and excitement of the games and the devastation of the famine made me realized how fortunate I had been even though life had been rough at times. I made a promise to my students that I would someday work in Africa in order to give something back to God for all the grace He had poured out on me.

In the winter of 1984 I left California and went back to Germany. My parents where happy their daughter had returned. I began looking for a job, even trying to complete my nursing degree, but without success. I was ready to go back to San Diego when I found an ad in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. An International organization was looking for an assistant to the Director. I read the ad and applied and was interviewed by Mr. Bocker. My first impression of CBM was very favorable because I was warmly welcomed (something unusual for me as my professional experience was purely big business - Ford Motor Company, Thomas Cook, American Express, Bayer Foundation). Meeting the Wiesingers was a superb experience and I am truly grateful for having had the chance to meet them as I felt free to talk with them about myself and my dreams.

I was hired and began working with Mr. Weiland, the Overseas Director, who had just returned from his posting in Haiti. I wanted to be knowledgeable about CBM so I began reading all the publications, data, and countless files and reports that I could find and it was easy for me to know where CBM supported projects were located because of my travel agent experience. Because of my teaching experience, Mr. Weiland had me put together a concept for a seminar for prospective co-workers and so from the fall of 1985 on I was involved in organizing the then 3 week seminars which took place twice a year. Mr. Weiland was very supportive of my professional development and I told him if he ever went overseas I would like to go as well. I loved my work so when he asked me if I was serious about serving overseas, I enthusiastically confirmed and moved to Nairobi, Kenya to work in the Continental Africa Office from 1987 until 1996.

In 1990, while still in Nairobi, I met Ishmael Norman, an American lawyer born in Ghana who was posted to Kenya by a large international company. It was a coup de foudre for both of us. We were married and then in 1996 when the Continental Office was transferred to Germany, I was asked by Mr. Carl Becker if I wanted to move to Lome, Togo to serve as his Assistant in the West Africa Regional Office. Although it is the most difficult location of all my overseas experiences, I still love my profession because it is an expression of my gifts and talents and I still look forward to the challenge of whatever the future holds.