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„There was a time when I loved roses, the same as here in Germany. Then I learned that rose plantations in Africa need a lot of water, which people lack for their fields and for growing food. Some say that roses are a reason for the poverty of Africa for Europe. That they are a reason that we can no longer live there. Since then, I see roses in a very different way.”\r\n\r\nAnna from Ghana (45 years)\r\n\r\nPicture credits: Pixabay CC

„In Syria we have so many roses which have a wonderful smell. I wonder why the roses in Germany often don’t smell at all. Maybe I have to wait until I can smell them.”\r\n\r\n(Sophia from Syria, 35 years old)\r\n\r\nPicture credits: Pixabay CC

Zola says: \"I can\u0027t paint, I can only scribble. But I am also a flower!\" (Zola, 19 years old, from Ghana)

Abena recognized on a picture in the Würth 2 museum in Künzelsau a flower which is very common in her mother country Ghana and is cultivated in many gardens and parks. She did not know the name and was laughing about the latin name which is \"Agapanthus\" - \"It sounds like an African dialect\", she said. The German name sounds even stranger to her: \"Schmucklilie\" (\"lily like a jeweel\").

Dari from Afghanistan says that she really likes the flower meadows in Germany. At the moment the red poppy is in bloom. \"It also blooms in Afghanistan, sometimes even on the roofs of the mud houses in the country. Can you imagine what they look like, houses with red blooming roofs?\"

In the gardens the last tulips of spring are in bloom. Dari from Afghanistan asks: \"Are there actually fields of tulips in Germany? In Afghanistan there are many fields with colourful tulips, not just a few like here in the gardens. I really miss the tulip fields. Here in Germany the tulips are lonely in the gardens.\"

Dari from Afghanistan loves flowering meadows. They remind her of her lost home. \"These flowering meadows are so similar to those in Afghanistan\", she says, but the sky with the many clouds always seems different to her in Germany. \"When the sky is very blue, the clouds are so very white. I don\u0027t remember that from Afghanistan, but probably I did not have much time there to watch the sky. In the end, it must be the same sky here and there, mustn\u0027t it?\"

In one of the gardens we find this incredible rose with two coulours and really a big blossom. \"This is a real power rose\", says Elayla, our friend from Syria. Elayla, who was a farmer in Syria, is convinced: \"Only chicken manure can do that.\" We all have to laugh, because you won\u0027t see a chicken in this housing estate for miles around. But Elayla will not be swayed by this: \"There\u0027s chickens around here somewhere,\" she insists.

There are leaves that feel wonderful, that are very soft. Anna from Ghana finds this plant with soft round leaves in the park. The small flowers are yellow and hang down in large clusters. One of the park gardeners tells us the name of the plant: \"Frauenmantel - Lady\u0027s coat\". Anna is thrilled! What a strange and yet quite harmonious name, because a coat is fluffy and soft.

\"There was a picture with stars in the sky. The sky was not black, it was more of a dark green. It looked very strange to me. I like to see stars, but I can\u0027t see many stars in the German sky at night. So I paint some stars just for me\", said Zola (asylum seeker from Ghana) after a visit to the regional museum.

\"Actually, green is the colour of Africa\", says Mandika looking at a landscape picture of an artist of the expressionism period of the 20th century. \r\n\r\nGreen is Africa? No, Africa is yellow and light brown because the savannah is burned and full of thorny undergrowth. And there is a lot of desert...\r\n\r\n\"Nonsense\", says Mandika. \"Our African colour is green because green stands for the fertility of our native soil.\"\r\n\r\nAnd she makes a pictures in order to show us the deep green of her African homeland.

\"I would love to be able to paint,\" says Zola. \"I like brushes and the smell of paint. Someday I\u0027ll have a place where I can paint. I\u0027ll buy lots of brushes and lots of different colours and then I\u0027ll get started. There are so many pictures in my head that I\u0027d like to paint. Or which I would like to get out of my head.\"\r\n\r\nWe search for pictures which could illustrate her wish and she finds one at the Pixabay platform.\r\n\r\n(Picture credit: Pixabay CC)

We are talking about different kinds of art - paintings, sculptures, objects. Elisa from Syria asks, if mosaics belong to art as well? She tells about a friend in her former country who is an artist and creates mosaic pictures. \"I was never so much enthusiastic about her pictures, but I always liked the colour of the mosaics and how it is possible to create of broken peaces a whole picture.\"\r\n\r\nWe search on the Pixabay platform for a mosaic and we really find a very nice one in Elisa\u0027s opinion: \"I love the colours!\".\r\n\r\n(Picture credits: Pixabay CC)

\"I was in Afghanistan in the museum, at least whenever I was in Kabul, but that wasn\u0027t often\", says Dana. She always liked the silence there, \"also because the city with the many cars and motorcycles is terribly loud.\" Her grandfather gave her the tip to go to the museum when she needs peace and quiet. She likes to look at pictures for a long time and with concentration. \"If you look at pictures long enough, you can always find new things in them.\"

During our visit to the museum we come across exhibits of antique ceramics, which are processed in a sculpture. Dana says: \"I would love to do something with my hands again, like we do at home in Afghanistan, where many people in the villages can still make their own tableware. It\u0027s nice to make something with your hands that you can use and that you can decorate yourself.

It is always about colours and what moods they can trigger. Yellow is best because it reminds of sun and warmth. \"For months I hardly saw any sunshine in Germany,\" says Zola, \"that puts even more pressure on your mood when you\u0027re not feeling well anyway.\"

In the museum shop there is a huge old globe. It can be turned and shows the world 150 years ago. The continents can be easily traced. Dana and Elisa show the paths they took from Syria and Afghanistan, from east to west. Mandika and Zola from Ghana show their way from Africa to Europe, from south to north. Unbelievable thousands of kilometres. From Ghana to Germany it is about 7000 km, which is 2500 km more than from Afghanistan to Germany. \"I can hardly believe I\u0027ve made it,\" says Mandika, \"but I don\u0027t want to think about it any more either.\"

May be our group of asylum seekers has created a new format that could be added to all the many online meetings which are currently taking place: the Artistic Break. During our (so-called) \"Multiplier Event\" on August 7th, 2020, we offered a hybrid session with online and face-to-face access to the D-CULT material. As we had to take longer breaks for the online participants in order to refresh concentration, our face-to-face attendants in the office of Association Culture \u0026 Work were asked to be creative. There was paper, watercolors, and many brushes available. So they started painting. In the end, they arranged all the single sheets together and shot one photo with all of them. The outcome is a most colourful artistic item liked by everyone. In a way, it is the symbol of the whole session and it was much applauded also by the online participants at the end of the session.

\"I love the many fountains in the old German cities\", says Anda from Syria. She is fascinated by flowing water. \"I love it so much to listen to the flowing water, especially during the night.\"

Dana from Afghanistan was laughing about this scenery: The sign indicates that you need a parking ticket for parking at this point. But what about flowers parked there? Do they also need a parking ticket?

Elayla, coming from Aleppo in Syria, does not understand a painting on a house wall which shows a scenery of the city\u0027s history with men in uniforms and wigs, canons and landscape. She is told that the men are soldiers in 18th century uniforms, but the painting is much younger, probably from the middle of the 20th century. \"Soldiers and canons as a decoration on a house wall but the painter missed to paint the dead men, women and children as well. I don\u0027t like that painting at all!\"\r\n\r\nWell, if you come from a war zone and experienced a terrible war, it is really difficult to understand such a wall painting.

Normally, graffiti are regarded as smearings rather than artistic expressions, at least in Germany. However, graffiti has changed over the years. Like any other form of art, it can transcend boundaries and remains a powerful form of artistic expression. Maybe in future times people will appreciate griffiti as they meanwhile do with the scribblings at the former Berlin wall? As long as it not an act of vandalism, it is a constructive art form.\r\n\r\nDuring the photo walk, Zola from Ghana saw this graffito of a face at a lamppost. She liked it very much! Overall, it is a very small one, about 10 cm x 20 cm. And it certainly has an artistic quality, no doubt. Hopefully, the unknown \"artist\" has found another way to express him/herself...

Zeynep from Iran recognized all over the city stickers with pictures of a bus, a walking couple and an arrow. She is asked on her opinion on that. She wonders what it could be: an artistic project? A secret code? Guidance to the bus station? She is explained that these are stickers for a special guided tour which should be done walking by foot. The bus symbol indicates that the tour starts at a bus stop and that no car is needed.\r\n\r\nWalking around for fun and recreation is very strange for her. She knows that Europeans go for walks and many love to hike in their leisure time. Walking for her is a nightmare since she walked great parts of her journey to Europe. \r\n\r\n\"We only wore sneakers, some of us only had sandals. After the first hundred miles the shoes were hardly usable and our feet were full of blisters\", she explains. She wrapped old newspapers around her feet so that the torn material of the sneakers did not make the blisters worse. When she arrived in Germany, her feet received medical treatment, but the scars remained. Hiking as recreation? Not for her. \"My feet hurt far too often to find pleasure in it,\" she says.

We visited a small town called Marktbreit in Franconia. The center is a kind of role model for small historic cities in Germany. Our women migrants\u0027 group are facinated by the fact that buildings from 8 centuries - the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque and modern times - can be depicted on a single picture. \"Quite a lot of history\" is their comment.

On the way we find a resting place under trees - it is a very nice place under an old walnut tree. All the migrants women seem to feel the peace and beauty of the place. But what is it that appeals to them most? \"The green shadow,\" says Zeynap, and the other women nod.