Although most of the work in the bakery has already been done and he is only supposed to devour the pretzels for the photo, Trust Osadolor first gets a kitchen scale. The dough for a strand of pretzel should weigh 70 grams – and when Osadolor does something, he does it right. The 26-year-old has come a long way with his zeal for work: He fled Nigeria to Germany six years ago, in the meantime he has learned German and completed an apprenticeship as a baker in Benediktbeuern – and was awarded a State award honored. Osadolor has a grade point average of 1.41 in his final certificate and he passed the journeyman’s examination with 89 out of 100 possible points. “I am proud of myself and what I have achieved,” says Osadolor. “He is very persistent,” explains his trainer Anton Lugauer.
The fact that Trust Osadolor has come so far in such a short time, as he says, has to do with those who have accompanied him on his way. With master baker Anton Lugauer, who for him is “a bit like a father”, and with the asylum helpers of the Zammlebn association, through which he came into contact with the bakery in the first place. A cousin of Anton Lugauer is involved in the association and established the contact. “Everyone needs help,” says Osadolor. The group of helpers supported him in dealing with authorities, writing e-mails and making appointments.
The Zammlebn association has been involved in Benediktbeuern since 2012. “The name says it all,” says chairman Hubertus Klingebiel. “Our aim is to promote coexistence in the village – where it doesn’t happen by itself.” The projects cover different areas: In addition to asylum helpers, Zammlebn also arranges babysitters and family sponsors, offers help for people in need of care and their relatives, and organizes lunch three times a month in the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Haus. This is currently paused due to the corona, but is one of the club’s figureheads, according to Klingebiel. Because the dishwasher broke down there recently, the association wants a new one from the SZ Advent Calendar Foundation. “In the long run we cannot wash by hand for so many people,” says Klingebiel.
The common table of Zammlebn, otherwise a figurehead of the club, currently has to be canceled due to corona.
(Photo: organizer)
Trust Osadolor also knows the Bonhoeffer house well; after arriving in Benediktbeuern, he lived there for some time. Osadolor left his Nigerian hometown because he saw no more opportunities there: “I finished school, but had no prospects. The people there suffer from corruption – or they are corrupt themselves.” Osadolor fled from Nigeria to Germany via Libya and Italy. He only had a small suitcase full of clothes with him. “I’ve been around by boat, by car, by motorcycle, and sometimes on foot.” He went across the Mediterranean in a rubber dinghy, he says. Four people died in the process – not drowned, but crushed.
Osadolors first stop in Germany was Rosenheim. From there he went to a large refugee accommodation in Munich, after which he lived for some time in the Benediktbeuern monastery and in the Bonhoeffer house. Osadolor now has his own apartment not far from the bakery. “I definitely feel at home here,” he says. When asked whether he was discriminated against in the Upper Bavarian province because of his origin or skin color, he replied: “There are always people who talk about you. I concentrate on the positive things.”
After several internships in other areas, including in a clothing store, with a painter and in a beverage store, Osadolor completed two internships with Anton Lugauer. “He is a man of conviction,” says the master baker of Osadolor. “He wanted to do that from the start.” Osadolor says that the work in the bakery reminds him of his family. His mother sold “Eggrolls” in Nigeria, baked balls filled with a hard-boiled egg in the middle.
Master baker Anton Lugauer is satisfied with his protégé. “He is a man of conviction,” he says of Osadolor. “He wanted to do that from the start.”
Osadolor has not seen his parents for more than seven years. “That is not easy.” He maintains contact with them mainly through Facebook; he has not been to Nigeria since his escape. Osadolor is currently benefiting from the so-called “two-plus-three rule”, which enables refugees to work in their training occupation in Germany for another two years after completing their three-year training. Osadolor has a good chance that his residence permit will be extended beyond that, says his boss Anton Lugauer.
Trust Osadolor seems to have arrived in Benediktbeuern. He plays soccer for the local club, wants to get his driver’s license soon and maybe even a master’s degree at some point. “I always have plans,” he says. “He needs a little more professional experience, but if he has skill and hard work he would definitely have what it takes,” says his boss Anton Lugauer.