Couple baking for cancer device
"When the doctor told Andrè that he had cancer, I started to cry. I lost my father to cancer a year before. Andrè was very upset because he thought it was a death knell."Today he has many complications and it is not always easy, but he lives and the man works. He doesn't sit still for a moment. When he's not making deliveries, he's buying new baking supplies. Or he is in his garden growing vegetables that we then pickle or make jam from," said Ansie Hulme of Andrè and Ansie Gebak.
"I just can't sit still. You must work positively with the Lord. You have to keep going and not sit back and feel sorry for yourself and think that everything is for naught now. Then you get sicker and sicker and you will die. Sitting with outstretched hands and waiting for something to fall in is not going to work either. I get up and work for what I need," Andrè added.
Andrè was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2018. In 2021, he and Ansie lost their jobs because the business went bankrupt due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"After we lost our jobs, the doctors decided to cut out some of the cancer with a laser. They cut his cartilage and it became inflamed. He lay in the room for three weeks and could not speak or eat," said Ansie.
"I thought that was the end. I wanted to give up because I didn't feel like the pain anymore. Before that, I received radiation that burned my entire neck and wanted to give up, but I'm a believer and that was not an option," Andrè said.
Six months after the laser treatment, the doctors decided to remove his larynx, which means Andrè will not be able to speak without an electric device. In its place, there is now a plastic valve and a membrane that vibrates when air passes through it so that Andrè can speak.
"The valve comes from Sweden and needs to be replaced every six months for N$8 000. I don't have a medical degree and I'm not going to be a baker, so my wife and I expanded our hobby and started baking seriously."
Love for baking
Both are very fond of baking and cooking. Before Covid, they already baked biscuits at home and sold them at work.
"After we lost our jobs, we had to do something to earn money and with the help of friends we got bigger and more ovens, expanded our product range and started baking," said Ansie.
Today, the couple bakes buttermilk, health and anise rusks as well as health biscuits for diabetics to pay for the device. They also bake custard, ginger, coffee, oatmeal and Romany Cream cookies.
"At the beginning, we baked a wider variety of cookies. The problem is, now someone orders 10 of one and 15 of the other and the rest lie around and get old. We can't sell old cookies, so we just kept the five most popular ones and baked them. This time of year we also make Christmas cookies."
For the festive season, the couple bakes colorfully decorated butter cookies, which are included in the Christmas box.
A Christmas box of 2.8 kg costs N$400 and consists of 2 kg of the top five cookies and 800 g (between 40 and 50) of the special butter cookies. The small box is the same only for about 1 kg which costs N$150.
Violine Flermuis has been a baker at Andrè and Ansie Gebak for the past three years and also decorates the Christmas cookies.
"The buttermilk rusks are my favourite to bake and the Christmas cookies my favourite to eat because they taste like butter.
"I enjoy baking because I do it with a lot of love. When you are angry, the dough will not rise. You have to bake with love and peace in your heart and people will taste it," she said.
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