FITNESS CLASSES SPINNING STUDIO HEALTH CAFE
It was during my travels through South Africa when the dream started to take shape. While driving along the garden route from one town to the next it was always my task to find a good spot for lunch. I made it my mission to take us to some of the best ‘padstalls’ South Africa has to offer, and there are many. It was the ones that made me feel like they were worth the detour and the ones where we sat down and felt so welcome and like we did not want to get up and continue our road trip, that started the desire to create a place where others would also feel this way. A place somewhere pretty, somewhere warm, somewhere with an abundance of healthy produce to cook with and somewhere with a community of people who would share this feeling with me.
In July 2021, after 5 years of working as a yacht chef aboard a sailing catamaran in the Caribbean and Bahamas, I found this little slice of heaven, called ‘Cabarete’. Looking for a place with decent wind in July so I could learn how to kitesurf, I booked a trip to the Dominican Republic. I fell in love with Cabarete, changed my flight 3 times, returned a month later, said goodbye to yachting, and bought a spinning business a month after that.
In a town as healthy and active as Cabarete I quickly managed to collect an impressive array of fitness related class packages. I found myself continuously walking or driving from one side of town to the other to make it to the different classes and stopping along the way to grab a coffee or lunch. I was missing this one stop place where I could start my day with a sweat and stick around after to connect with others or drink a coffee and get some work done on my laptop. This, combined with some of my greatest passions, and the universe throwing this beautiful little spot available for rent my way, has resulted in UBUNTU!
I am so extremely grateful and excited to welcome you to my biggest passion project to date!
UBUNTU
[OOH BOON TOO]
But what does the word Ubuntu mean?
Ubuntu is a South African philosophy that can simply be defined as humanity. The concept originated around the mid 1800s, more than a decade later it became this guiding light in the rise and unity of a nation fighting against apartheid.
Former president of South Africa, anti apartheid revolutionary and philanthropist, Nelson Mandela, describes the African concept as “the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others”. With this, he highlights the importance of community and oneness.
Desmond Tutu, a South African Theologian known for his fight against Apartheid and work as a human rights activist, defined Ubuntu as “I participate, I share”. Tutu was famous for celebrating people’s differences rather than emphasizing them.
Why I decided to name the concept Ubuntu has everything to do with the beautiful meaning behind the Ubuntu philosophy, the desire for a sense of community, my ties and love for South Africa and my vision for the place.
“I am, because we are.”