Settled in India, how a German hockey player baked for Covid warriors in Goa | Off the field News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Nothing puts Andrea Thumshirn down. A former German club hockey player, Andrea came to India looking to educate kids through sport. But ever since her project, Hockey Village India, crashed in two Rajasthan villages and corporate jobs in Pune didn’t work out, Andrea has been earning and ‘baking’ her bread in Benaulim, Goa. And in Covid times, the Good Samaritan in her stepped up.
She baked for the healthcare staff of a local hospital, packed the food warmly and added a tag to each of those packets, which read: “Thank you for being a hero”.
“It has to come from within. I don’t know if it is genetic (laughs) or you are made out of that wood where you are always happy to give,” said Andrea talking to Timesofindia.com
Back in 2017, Andrea’s good intentions with ‘Hockey Village India’ fell prey to alleged fraud and hostility of the locals in Garh Himmat Singh and Jatwara villages in Rajasthan.
So, with her husband, Shivani (a hockey player for whom the couple are the local guardians) and two pet dogs, she made a move to Coorg in Karnataka to run a homestay business. That didn’t work out as well and the family packed its bags for Pune after securing jobs for themselves.
Eventually they left their jobs and moved to Goa.

(Andrea training kids as part of her erstwhile ‘Hockey Village India’ project in Rajasthan – Photo courtesy HVI)
“When we started our Pausenbrot German bakery in November last year, it was already a risky decision because of the pandemic. We had resigned from our jobs in Pune and shifted to Goa, and we had to somehow start earning money,” said Andrea.
Along the way, Andrea and her husband learned online from a young skilled baker in Germany and got help from an expert sent over by the German government to help them set up their business.
“In Germany, there is a government organisation. They send retired people, like a baker, a butcher, etc., to basically developing countries where such retired professionals can help organisations in training people and build businesses,” she explained to TimesofIndia.com.
While their business started well, repeated lockdowns were like body blows.

(Andrea and her husband, right, moved to Goa in November 2020 – Facebook Photo)
“The lockdown hit us quite hard. The delivery or takeaway is a small quantity,” said Andrea. “There was quite a rise in numbers here (Goa). Everybody was flocking in, all the holiday-makers…The locals got very irritated with the (Covid) behaviour of domestic tourists, not respecting the rules.
“We still have to be careful. It’s not over, it’s reduced only because we stayed at home.”
The couple then decided to contribute to India’s fight against Covid-19 in some way.
“We thought these healthcare workers are working so hard, and we are sitting safe at home…we came to the idea that we will bake for them so that they know that people are thinking about them. We wanted to make their life a little sweeter, even if for a while.”

(The couple tagged each of the 50 food packets with a warm ‘thank you’ note – Facebook Photo)
Andrea and her husband knew Dr Jayesh, who heads the Covid-19 department at the Victor Hospital in Margao.
“They had a staff of 50 people, so we thought let’s do it. We baked 50 cinnamon rolls, 50 mango muffins and gave them a voucher as a gift for a cup of coffee once things are better at our bakery,” she said with a sense of fulfillment.
“That was a small contribution we could make from our end.”