238 | OH LORD, WON'T YOU GIVE ME A MERCEDES SPARE PART

238

Art. # 238

OH LORD, WON’T YOU GIVE ME A MERCEDES SPARE PART

Mercedes Benz oldtimer spare part brings joy to Africa’s children and birds

Photos and text by Stefan Rust

2014

(In terms of the Geneva Convention the copyright of these texts belongs to Stefan Rust)

An old Mercedes wheel hub cap, found alongside a far hidden gravel road in the Namib Desert, reawakens as a birdbath.

                                   What if this Mercedes wheel hub cap could talk and tell us its life story?

While traveling through one of the world’s oldest and driest desert, the Namib Desert in Namibia, with a group of guests from Germany, the BirdsConTour tour guide found a wheel hub cap alongside a remote gravel road. Being a passionate Mercedes Benz supporter, although not being able to afford a Mercedes vehicle, picked up this well-preserved spare part with the Mercedes star on it and took it along. During the course of the tour an idea came to him.

   

Also being a passionate wild bird supporter and owning the company BirdsConTour, he decided to, together with his darling daughter Leni, use the wheel hub cap to construct a bird bath for the wild garden birds of the Irmis Kinderecke Kindergarten in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital. BirdsConTour (Birds Conservation and Tourism) deals with various conservation and tourism projects and can be viewed under the Birds in Words blogspot, www.birdscontour.blogspot.com.

Combined with a brief talk about bird conservation, BirdsConTour handed over this Mercedes Benz bird bath to the children of Irmis Kinderecke. Together with the Young Birders this bird conservation product was attached to a tree in the bird friendly garden not only to support the wild garden birds but also to bring joy to these African children.

With this event BirdsConTour in a combined effort of seven projects (BirdsConTOUR, Bird & Birder Friendly Habitat, BirdsConTour for a cleaner Bird Habitat, Birdequip, Young Birders, Birds in Words, and Birding Training) proved once again that with a small item, in this case the Mercedes Benz wheel hub cap, big things can be achieved.