Losing home a 'push in right direction'

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Not many people would describe their house burning down and losing their possessions as a "fiery push in the right direction", but this is how Heinie Bosman describes it.

Heinie (31), who was born and bred in Mossel Bay, is a tour operator and had been living in the Karatara area near Knysna when disaster struck.

An international photographer, when he heard about the disaster, raised R120 000 from his photograph sales and gave it to Heinie and his wife Chrissy to assist them after the fire.

Heinie tells how his five-year plan suddenly became a reality and he did not have to wait five years.

Where was your home?

Chrissy and I had been renting a two-bedroom house and a barn on a farm called Heartland for four and a half years. It truly was a heart-warming farm with a veggie garden and dam and a small forest.

It is a farm in Hoogekraal, near Barrington. We loved living there with six others on the farm while we were on the constant lookout for a farm of our own. Chrissy and my shared dream was our five-year plan.

The house itself was a simple "glam shack" as we called it - wooden poles and lilac-painted corrugated iron sheets. We did not build it, just loved it for the time we lived there. The contents of the house - furniture, art, appliances, wood for a new house - were all antiques and collected over years and totalled perhaps R180 000 in earthly value.

When did disaster strike?

On 7 June at about 10:00, roughly 18 hours before the fires hit Knysna.

Where did you live after your home burnt down?

We stayed with friends on Lake Pleasant (Groenvlei) for three days, then moved to a house in Sedgefield for five days. Then we were absolutely spoiled with a gift - a holiday house at Myoli Beach in Sedgefield for three months.

When did the photographer visit you and Chrissy? Tell us a bit about that experience.

Richard Ahlstrom came to surprise us after a year of secretly hosting exhibitions and selling his AfrikaBurn (where we met) pictures "in aid of Heinie and Chrissy" in Stockholm.

(AfrikaBurn is described as the result of the creative expression of a community of volunteers who, once a year, gather in the Tankwa Karoo for a festival of art, theme camps, costume, music and performance. AfrikaBurn is wholly owned by Africa Burns Creative Projects Non Profit Company.)

As Richard arrived with a friend, the cameras started rolling, upon which we were thinking: "Why? What's up now?" and then he broke the news of his selfless scheme and the R120 000 donation.

Richard had a whole secret mission for a year. He is an internationally-known photographer from Sweden. After hearing the news about us losing our house, he jumped into gear and sold pictures he had collected over two or three years at AfrikaBurn, which is also where Chrissy and I met each other, five years before.

Richard held an exhibition in Stockholm and sold some pictures online as well. He even set up a website. Obviously we were flabbergasted as we only really knew him from AfrikaBurn. We shared a camp and very special times there, but never knew him that well.

Where are you living now?

We are renting a cottage on an elderly couple's farm about 800m up the road from where we bought land after the fire.

Tell us how your five-year plan was brought into the present.

We had a five-year plan to buy our own piece of land. We scoured the whole Garden Route because we love it here. We already had Chrissy's house on the market - in Woodstock, Cape Town. But we were still hesitant. It was a big move. But when the fires hit, we almost had no choice as housing was a scarce commodity. So we sold the house in Cape Town, at great effort but at a good price for such a short time on the market, and went "all in" and bought an open canvas of land - a stunning 9.6 hectare fynbos koppie with a gum tree forest and incredible, uplifting sunset views - yes please!

If you have a five- or 10-year plan, ask yourself before you start: "Why can't that happen in one year? What stops me from realising the big dream in a fraction of the time?" Because usually one can make up 100 reasons why it can't happen. When actually, if you apply yourself to it, it can be realised in three months, eight months, maybe a year. Get on with it!

What will you do or have you done with the R120 000?

We want to use it for something specific, as opposed to general farm stuff. We plan to use it for a borehole. Quite symbolic, I guess.

The house was razed.