We are Nuna, Andre and Markus, NUNANMAR.
We are very happy that you are here! 👌🏽😃
Here you will get to know our personal journey, get to know us better and of course we will tell you how it came that from Ecuador, Venezuela and Germany, we have now ended up in Malawi, Africa! 🗺
Andre…
I, Andre, was born and raised in the nest of a family of 5 in Quito – Ecuador, super city girl, I enjoy the city, resilient to traffic 😅, footballer since I was 6 years old, I am proud of my modesty, of parents who let fly and unconditional siblings, I love the mountains, I love being Latina, I am curious to know more lives, more realities. My early dream, to know Africa 🌍 The road to the dream took me to other adventures. I gave up my 15th birthday party to travel, with savings from my parents, life took me to Germany, where I found my second nest, a family of 6, my German parents, my German brothers and sisters. We loved each other and fought with the depth that only family can give you. From there I am connected to those two nests and all that they entail: their country, their culture, their nationality, their reality. A visit to the Ecuadorian Amazon connected me to the social and environmental challenges we have as humans, so I decided to study an international career that would give me the tools to work to overcome these challenges. Just before finishing my scholarship studies in International Cooperation, in both countries, during a university trip in Berlin, in an urban romantic evening, I met….
… and Markus…
…me. I am Markus. Of German parents, I was born among the green mountains and high buildings of Caracas, where I lived until I was 7 years old. Then my family decided to move to a small town in Germany. Despite the change of environment, I remained in close contact with my family in Venezuela and with Latin America 🌎. Although I enjoyed my first studies in translation and interpreting, I felt that my passion was to be ”outside”, in the countryside 🌱 with the plants and trees, to understand nature and its rhythms. I was fascinated by the idea of studying agriculture from a natural and more authentic perspective. While I was making my career transition in Berlin, by a great coincidence of life, I met Andre…
… come together…
And so, on that Berlin night when we met, I asked Markus what his dream in life was. When he started talking, I couldn’t believe that he was describing something very similar to what I longed for. To live and continue to grow on a little piece of land where you can be part of nature and imitate it. I felt that he was the person with whom I could build my ideals. Although we didn’t see each other for 2 months, after that first meeting it was that joint dream that connected us and became our life project, our vision and the reason why we decided to walk together, and also the reason why, even in the most difficult couple crises, it has motivated us to continue.
Together we started a nomadic life 👣🗺 . We have had the great privilege of getting to know our planet. We went to live together for 6 months in Namibia, Africa, for studies, work and in my case, above all to fulfil my early dream of getting to know the origin of humanity. Back in Europe, we decided to start living together in Berlin. While I was working for an international civil society organisation, Markus was doing his second university studies and working in nurseries. We rented a garden on the outskirts of the city, where we went every week to camp and plant, so that we were not far from a natural space.
… and invited Nuna…
Markus longed for us to start a family, I needed my time before such a decision; then after a year of waiting, we embarked on the adventure of becoming parents. Something we planned, but didn’t think would work out so quickly. After a completely relaxed pregnancy, Nuna came into our world, in our flat in East Berlin. We moved to Witzenhausen (central Germany) so that Markus could finish his studies in Agroecology. The sharing of responsibilities as parents was not easy for us at first. There were challenges of all kinds and family support was vital. However, the adventure of parenting is such a profound and transcendental experience that it brings self-discovery and self-reflection at a high level day by day, a new life. We were in Ecuador visiting our family for a few months. Then we came back to Berlin to work and when Markus finished his studies, we decided to make a big change. To work outside our comfort zone, away from our families and in this way, to keep discovering new worlds. To leave the Berlin and European way of life.
… to our adventures!
Convinced that reaching 30 or having children does not mean that you can no longer experience extraordinary cultural and spiritual learning in other places – on the contrary! The journeys become more intense and take you further, both body and soul. We arrived in the Caribbean just before Covid-19 changed the world. There we were living, in part, surviving the reality of one of the most climatically vulnerable areas of the world ☀️💨🌊🌧 and going through a pandemic 🦠 which, although at one point affected our health. But it also made us more resilient. And beyond that, it motivated us to move one step closer to our vision. From Bluefields, Nicaragua, at a distance, we decided to buy a little piece of land in Ecuador, risking our savings. Hoever, we were convinced that it is still possible to believe in people, even if you don’t know them, and to follow your intuition 🌀. We worked in the field of agroecology and climate change. After two years, we left the Nicaraguan Caribbean, taking with us a new perspective on the world. We took with us a new language, new music, new recipes and new friends. Not knowing for sure where the next destination would be, we left for Ecuador. We travelled for two months in Ecuador to visit our family and finally get to know our little piece of land! We continued on to Germany to visit our family and to prepare during 4 months for our next destination, Malawi 🇲🇼 in South East Africa, where, life willing, we will be for the next three years. We are happy and grateful 🙏🏽 to have sought and found opportunities, to enjoy new languages and cultures foreign to ours, to have the energy and conviction to live and discover the diversity of our planet in depth, sure that being where life leads us is where we want to be.
