Today I met Olga. Sitting on a bench overlooking the Amsterdammer Bos, eating ice cream on one of the last summer days in northern Europe, I smiled at a woman that was waiting for the ferry to arrive. She sat down and we started chatting shortly after. Olga asked me where I am from as “people usually don’t smile much at strangers over here” she stated, laughing.
I explained that I am German, currently here in Amsterdam, but that I’ve spend a lot of time in South Africa, a place that feels like my second home. “Ah, that must be why” and we both laughed a little more. Olga is a teacher at a school close by, she told me that her grandfather was German and that he came to Suriname, and explained further that many Germans came ‘out of religious reasons’. She was born in the Netherlands, but went there twice, unfortunately not more, as it is quiet expensive. On Suriname it’s more ‘mixed’, as slave master and slaves had relationships and that’s her ancestry, she explains to me. Olga still remembers the stories of her grandfather who emphasised how diverse the island was, so she went to go see for herself. During the 80s she joined the boycott against apartheid, marched on the street and didn’t buy oranges. Even then her brother boycotted the Zwarte Piet already and got threats from the community he was staying in afterwards. Olga gave up on it. “Most of the population takes tax raises and lesser salaries on without a word, but when you say something about Zwarte Piet, the rage is big”. It’s not worth her time anymore. She is not of that ‘facebook-generation’ she claims.
She asked me how much South Africa has changed, is everyone equal now? My response was rather sad for her to hear. The ferry arrived and Olga gave me her number, if I am ever up for company I can call her, I certainly will and I gonna keep smiling at strangers.