Shortly before Covid-19, project manager Rihards Janmer gave up on everything else and implemented his personal life project – “A year in New Zealand to become a better version of yourself”. During the year, he managed to get to know New Zealand, its people and cuisine, to work both as a poultry farmer and as a builder of a spa center. Rihards was also a herald of Latvian cuisine. New Zealanders were delighted with the cucumber and cream salad, but Richard’s baked sourdough bread caused a small storm among New Zealanders. The local bikers wanted him as their personal baker, but the townspeople offered to stay and open their own bakery.
Rihard is my colleague – the youngest creative project manager of “Delfi Brand Studio”. Short greetings, bon appetit wishes – this is our daily communication. Everything changed when another colleague, knowing that I was looking for recipes on “Tasty.lv” and that I prefer real recipes from real people, announced: “Rihards bakes his own bread at home! Extremely tasty! He raises it himself, kneads it himself, bakes it himself!” I looked for Rihards in the hand and asked for the recipe. However, listening to how Rihard pleasantly shocked the New Zealanders with this bread, I realized that there is a whole story here that everyone deserves to hear, not just me!
It is the story of a young man who decides to spend a year of his life outside his homeland, not knowing what each day of his new life will bring. It is a story about overcoming fears, about human studies, about getting to know a foreign culture and introducing it to one’s own.
One of 150 Latvians
Richard himself is fond of Seneca’s saying “Courage grows when challenged!”. Before his trip to New Zealand, he had studied in both Denmark and the Netherlands, managed to live in China during his internship, and realized that he wanted to go to New Zealand – to get out of his comfort zone.
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