Reception at the City Hall
Mr. Boris Palmer - Mayor of Tübingen

Report: "Meeting with the Mayor" by Kelly Bailey

Since my arrival in Tübingen two weeks ago, I have had the pleasure of experiencing so many wonderful things and creating memories that would surely last a lifetime. One of these was the meeting with the Mayor of Tübingen, Mr Boris Palmer.

All of us arrived at the City Hall on Thursday, 14 January feeling very keyed up to meet the mayor, who is considered to be a celebrity in the small, cosy town of Tübingen. This excitement was clear as the room where we waited for the mayor to arrive in was buzzing with excited conversations of what would be expected when we meet the Mayor.

All of these expectations were exceeded. The mayor was so warm and friendly. Mr Palmer started by sincerely welcoming us to Tübingen and expressed his excitement for having us with them. He then went on to give us a short explanation of how he got involved in being the Mayor of Tübingen and also spoke briefly about the Green Party he belonged to, and then was kind enough to allow all of us to ask him some questions, which many of us were eager to do. After all of those formalities we presented the Mayor with some authentic gifts from South Africa, one of which was some traditional songs from back home.

We sang our national anthem Nkosi Sikelel'iAfrika, a traditional German song we learnt the previous week and a famous African song. Afterwards we had some refreshments, which were locally produced, and were given an opportunity to take photos with the Mayor.

The cherry on top of this whole experience…was when the mayor allowed us to stand on the balcony overlooking the town centre and we sang Nkosi Sikelel'I Africa. It was a hair raising experience for all of us, as we felt so proud to be South African as we shouted our anthem at the top of our lungs for everyone to hear.Mbekummandi!!!(It was great).

Therefore I wish to thank our sponsors for allowing all of us to take part in this life changing experience…

By Kelly Bailey