German serves up meatballs to community workers
German resident Lothar Sysk (right) gives meatballs to a security guard and a volunteer at the gate of a residential compound in Pudong.
Some front-line public health workers in the Bibo Road Neighborhood of Pudong New Area recently received meatballs from German resident Lothar Sysk and his Chinese wife in appreciation of their hard work.
Sysk told Shanghai Daily that he was deeply impressed by China's medical professionals, community workers and other people working during the epidemic to ensure the safety of local residents.
Sysk, chief representative of the Shanghai office of German company VdS, said his wife is a native of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in China. They had planned to go to Wuhan for a family reunion during the Spring Festival, but relatives in Wuhan who are medical professionals told them not to come.
Sysk said his sister-in-law and her husband are doctors in Wuhan and they were fighting at the front line, while his brother-in-law is an entrepreneur and purchased masks and protective suits for hospitals in the city.
“I was very moved by what other people have done, so I talked to my wife about what can we do,” he said. “I thought about the people in our living place, the security guards, the cleaning staff. I thought about how I could cook for them.”
Sysk spent almost five hours cooking almost 100 meatballs and distributed them to community management and supermarket staff with small notes to thank them for their efforts.
A batch of meatballs cooked by Lothar Sysk.
He and his wife also worked as volunteers to check residents when they enter the compound and take their temperature to make sure they didn't have fever.
Sysk first came to Shanghai in 2001 and began living in the city permanently in 2007.
“I love this city very much. It gives me a place for living, work and family,” he said.
He said his German family and company were worried about him at first and asked him if he wanted to return to Germany.
“But I said no, because here is my family, so I have to support them here,” he said. “The Chinese government has done a very good job with very good measures. I feel, in general, quite safe here.”
“I’m quite impressed how the people work together here to support each other, not only family by family, but all together against the coronavirus,” he added.
As the pandemic develops in the Germany, Sysk is now worried about his family back there.
“We contact via WeChat every day. We talk about what we can do to protect ourselves,” he said. “And the German government follows more or less what the Chinese government has done. They have done a lot of safety and security regulations and most of the people are following the regulations. It’s good. I think every country can learn from each other.”
Sysk hands out meatballs to a cleaner.
Sysk checks the temperature of a woman before she enters the compound.
