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Some pics for the "fare well, see you" party, at Arsheen's (my host supervisor) house

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I'm home btw

Ive been home for one week now! It's nice, but I actually miss the wonderful people that I met in Zanzibar. I've learned so much, about Zanzibar, Zanzibarians, Islam, the way of working, myself and much much more! Actually The internship has been an experience that has an impact on me for sure. I want to thank ZL4LF and Daraja Foundation for making my internship great, I also want to thank Runa, my supervisor from my school, for answering all my questions etc, I wanna thank World Unite for arranging my trip, and especially Abdi, who was my coordinator and did an amazing job! Power cuts, water cuts, creeps and I could continue - he was ready to help with it all. I am so thankful for getting the opportunity to do my internship there, and Zanzibar is MUCH MORE than beautiful beaches and vacation! But one has to go there to work in order to experience it! I can for sure recommend future interns to travel with World Unite! One just have to be prepared (at least if u go to Zanzibar)for waiting .. and waiting ... and waiting! Until the day u get used to people being late, and then it's cool! I had lots of boring days, days I wanted to go home, days I wanted to hide so that people didn't stare all the time! But I got through it all, and I'm very certain that it has made me stronger! Thanks for reading and following me on this journey!

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Chakula Hai Village Event

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The internship is running to an end

Now I only have 5 days left of my internship, and on Sunday we had a little goodbye party! It was so so nice and I am so thankful for the people I've had the pleasure of spending time with here. They're so friendly and welcoming. Sunday, we started the day at 12, where we met at a village. We were going to try out a Chakula Hai village event, and it went very good. 2 girls cooked bread with eggs, and others discussed cultural zanzibar culture aspects, and I prepared a short nutritional presentation of the lunch, together with 2 Chakula Hai members. Then we had our lunch and we talked about pros and cons with village events.

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Chakula HAI meeting on top Computer work and ... yeah a monkey came to visit

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Time is Running Out Today is the 18th, and on 28th my internship is officially finished! That means I only have 10 days left, but that is okay! I am really looking forward to returning to Denmark and Copenhagen where everything is not so “small”. As nice as Stonetown is – it is also VERY small, and some days I just want to be able to take a walk ALONE and without strangers trying to walk with me, or talking to me all the time! Anyways, soon it is over, and I just want to enjoy the last days – AND it has been an amazing experience being here and getting to know all the wonderful people of Zanzibar Learning for Live Foundation. Now I am working on finishing my interviews. As I mentioned I wanted to go to Daraja Bovu to do individual qualitative interviews, but the plan changed – as it does so often! I went to Daraja Bovu with Feisal, who agreed to do the interviews in Swahili, and Seif, who is working as a cook in ZL4LF, and who comes from Daraja Bovu. They told me, that in order for me to do interviews, I need to have contacts. I cannot just go to the street and ask random people if they would like to participate in interviews! So we went there, and we went to Seif’s family house, where his anti had cooked Pilau for us. It was so delicious, and it was so sweet of her. After that, we went outside, and took a big mat with us, so that the women, who would come to participate in the interviews, had a place to sit. Before we know it, there were around 10 women and even more kids! And there was so so much noise! BUT we handed out the informed consent forms, so the women could read them through. Feisal also read it through and answered questions. Especially one woman had a lot of questions, and Feisal listened to what she said in Swahili (I understood a little bit), and then he asked me in English. Among other things she asked were going to see the photos, if she allowed her photo to be taken. I had already written it in the Informed Consent Form, but she asked anyways. And I explained to her that it will be me, Feisal, Seif and my Professors and maybe some of my classmates. Then she explained that she is married and it is not good if her husband see her photo somewhere. So I told her that that will not happen, and everything was fine, and she seemed happy with the answer. After going through the Informed Consent form, and making sure to have replied all questions, 8 of the women signed (because I didn’t have more forms (I was expecting 3 women to show up)), we could start. Because time was running late, and the area is not a safe place to be at after sunset, I decided to make it a focus group interview. I told them that I would start my phone, and Feisal translated. We did approximately 2min, which was only introduction, and I had to disrupt the interview, because the noise was too disturbing! Babies crying, children laughing, women talking, other women replying, neighbors coming to see etc.! It was a TRUE experience, and when I think about it now, it is actually pretty funny! Everyone seemed so happy and honored to participate, and it just raised the level of noise to the maximum! So I told Feisal that it didn’t work out, because I wouldn’t be able to hear the recording and transcribe afterwards. So Feisal asked if it was possible to find a place inside to do the interviews, and one woman offered that we could do it in her home. So we moved the mat into her house, and I told the women that we could divide them into 2 groups, and thereby do 2 group interviews. So first 5 women came into the house and we did the interview – which was really nice. Afterwards a group of 3 women came in, and the success was repeated. I thanked them very much for participating, and they thanked me very much for coming. Apart from that, we have had one other Girls Club Meeting, where we did yoga and talked about the future for girls club. They really enjoy the physical activity, and then we talked about starting to learn how to do henna, how to sew and other things. There has also been a Chakula Hai Club Meeting that same Sunday as Girls Club, and it went well. We agreed to meet on Sunday, and go to a village and cook lunch and rehearse Chakula Hai Village Events. Even more members have joined Chakula Hai and the Club is developing so fast and it is such a pleasure to be part of it. Keyrah, who was voted to be the president, has really taken a big responsibility, and he is doing such a great job organizing the meetings and making sure that all members feel comfortable and welcome. After the lunch on Sunday, we will go to Arsheen’s (my supervisor) house and I will try to teach some of the girls how to swim, and then we will do paddle boarding which is SO FUNNY! Yeah,.. so I think that’s pretty much it for now! My Swahili classes are going great btw! But I had my last class yesterday, but my teacher said he will give me bonus classes where I don’t have to pay! Lucky me! Tutaongea baadaye! Asante kwa kusoma!

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Time for Learning Objevtive Updates

Now I have been here for a loooong time, and today I actually have exactly 3 weeks left of my stay here in Zanzibar. It has been interesting and I have learned so much, but I also feel that I am ready to go back home now!

So let’s look at my learning objectives and how far I am:

1.       Participating & Managing Girls Club

Yesterday, we had a very successful Girls Club meeting. It was the first time we had a meeting since I came, and I was the one organizing and managing it. I was added to a Girls Club whatsapp group, where 5 members were already in. The plan was to have a meeting together with girls from another school, but they were not able to come anyways. BUT, the meeting was AMAZING and we had such a good time. I had planned to tell about Physical Activity, benefits, risks, mode, intensity, duration etc. But since the meeting started 1 hour later (very typical Zanzibar time! But I am getting more and more used to it), we only had 1 hour, so we did a physical activity session instead. The girls changed clothes, we covered the door so no one could see us (religious reasons), and then I put on music and lead the session. And we laughed, sweat, enjoyed and it was so much fun. I don’t have any photos, because it would be extremely disrespectful of me to take photos of the girls and post them, when they were not wearing their scarfs.

So, for next Sunday, we plan to meet again, and then we want to talk about goals and visions for the Girls Club, and I will educate them in the topics that we didn’t have time to go through yesterday!

2.       Work on the Nutritional Manual

I have worked using the nutritional manual which had already been developed by two previous interns. But I found some few mistakes that I have corrected, and I have taught nutrition classes to Chakula Hai group based on the Nutritional Manual. I have not used Supertracker, or investigated nutritional improvements fro growing children, since that was not part of what my internship placement wanted me to do. On the other hand, I am in the process of developing a Nutritional Dinner Service Manual, which is going to be a tool from which Chakula Hai Educational Team members, can educate dinner guests in the nutrition of the meal that will be served at the Chakula Hai events. I have also done a little bit of work on the marketing of Chakula Hai, and I have developed a Facebook page with information, and I update it with photos etc.

I have not exactly arranged a cooking class, but we did have a little pancake session at my house on Saturday, when I invited 6 of the boys from the school to my home, because they really wanted to visit. We had such a great time, and they were very thankful and happy to be invited. I taught one of them how to make pancakes, and we all enjoyed them together. After that we went to Forodhani, where there is a habour, where they swam.

3.       Participating in Women’s Group

Since this Group is not excisting, I haven’t done this. BUT I have educated in health and talked about health related topics in Chakula Hai group, which was very interesting. It was also a great experience for me to be the teacher, and not the student as I am used to. I found out how much preparation that is necessary, I found out one have to be very patient, and I also found out that it is much more fun to teach motivated students than students who are not motivated!

4.       Field Work

I have been developing, editing re-editing etc. my interview guide, for approximately 2 months now, but now I am finally satisfied, and I got help from my Swahili Teacher, a staff from the school, and a Form 4 student, to translate and edit my interview guide into Kiswahili. I have also developed a form for Infromed Consent, which they also helped me translating into Kiswahili. So now I need to print it, and then the plan is that I and Feisal (who is a form 4 student and is very good in English AND Kiswahili), will go to a place called Darajabovu, where there have been cholera cases. There he will do the interviews by following the Swahili interview guide, and I will observe and take notes.

 So that is  how it is going. I am very satisfied with what I have gained from my experiences so far, now I am just looking forward to having the interviews done! Because I know the transcription and translation will be VERY timeconsuming!

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Different tasks makes it fun!

There are many different things to do here at ZL4LF, the other day we had an english class, I help 2 with learning computer skills, I attend different meetings, enjoy time with the students here and arrange contracts and certificates - and those are some tasks. Apart from that I am also attending Kiswahili classes - which is actually very VERY difficult - so I am kind of struggling, but I know it will be worth it!

The other day, some of the students here, asked me to teach them some english, so we did a little english class, which was so much fun and also kind of challenging!

For Chakula HAI, things are developing slowly, but it is going in the right direction. On monday 1st august, we had a big meeting, where we talked about the importance of commitment in order to be able to get micro finance loans for future education or business development. So now, on sunday, we want all the members - who still wish to be in the club - to sign contracts. We also edited the contract at the meeting, so I have to do the editions these days, and then print the contracts, so that they can be ready for sunday. 

Also, finally the Girls Group will start up (i mentioned it in my Learning Objectives), and we are planning to start this weekend where I will tell the girls about physical activity and exercise, and we will also do an exercise session! The girls seems to be very excited, and I am too.

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SPORTS DAY (on 18th! better late than never!!)

Okay, So I am a bit late with this post, but here it comes:

Sports Day on Tuesday 18th

On 18th I woke up earlier than usual because ZL4LF had their annual sports day in Amaani Stadium. We had to be there at around 8-12. The day was very nice! There were supposed to be many different sports activities, but there were some organizational difficulties, so it ended up with only a football match and some kite running! It was fun anyways and everyone was so happy! The football match went on, and small kids got kites and ran around with them! I reeaallly felt like running, because the stadium was so cool, so we got a little group of runners, and we went for 2 laps, which was very nice! After that we went outside where there was music, but actually we came to see that no one was dancing, but just listening to the music! Which was funny… because the music was so nice! But anyways, we listened to some music and then it was time to go home. But we enjoyed the day very much, and we got some exercise after all!

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SPORTS DAY

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Chakula HAI event on Monday 17th

Actually a lot has happened since i posted last time!

First of all, on Monday 17th there was a Chakula HAI event, where I was participating as a guest, and also I helped developing the script for a nutritional guideline for the students to tell the dinner guests.

All guests were invited to come at 6pm, and we were 8 guests. First, Zahra, who is in Chakula HAI group, welcomed us, and told us what we will be served during the evening. Thereafter, we got our starter which was garlic bread and salad, and Zahra told us the benefits of eating vegetables. Then we got our main dish which was chicken curry with spinach and rice. It was so delisious! Zahra also told us a little bit about the nutrition in this meal. Finally we got our desert which was apple pie, and Zahra and Arshi (also a chakula hai club member) told us why it is good to think about how much desert one eats, because deserts very often contain a great deal of sugar and fat.

The event went so well and we all enjoyed a lot. Also the Chakula Hai club members did a great job in cooking, serving and explaining. Now we are going to plan for when we can have a Village event, and I am continuously working on the Dinner Service Manual, so that we can have a complete document for the Chakula HAI members to follow during dinner events, and also so it can make it clear for guests what they get by booking a dinner event.

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The Graduation Ceremony

The Graduation Ceremony was on Thursday last week, and it was absolutely amazing. The events started at 2pm, where guests arrived to the venue (which is walking distance from ZL4LF). Here a bus was waiting and we went on a little tour (by "we" I mean me and my friend (from world unite) and other guests for the graduation). We started going the they ZL4LF Chicken farm, where Abdulling told us about the chicken business, sustainability and education. Thereafter we went the ZL4LF bikeshop, where we were told about how that business functions and they get bikes in containers from Canada - thanks to Daraja Foundations collaboration with ZL4LF. Finally we went to ZL4LF school. When the tour was over, we all went back to the venue, where much more people had already arrived. I made sure to give Gasica the "sponsor appreciation certificates" and "teacher of the year certificate" that I had made, and also I helped in making sure that the students certificates were signed by the right sponsors. Then Gasica and Arsheen went to the stage and introduced the ceremony and have the certificates to the sponsors and teacher of the year - which was Sadiq! And he really deserves it! Then some students from ZL4LF did a karate show (they are in karate training at the International School I zanzibar), and then some sponsors had some speeches, a lady from the ministry of education, and then finally ZL4LF students and some staff told their "success stories". That is stories about how they got to ZL4LF - and it is incredible. Some of them really had a hard time, lost family etc., so it is amazing what a difference ZL4LF has made in their life's. While the success stories went on, I and Sadiq made sure that all the students got their certificates, then after that all students were told to go to the stage and a group photo was taken. After that was music and everyone was taking photos and the mood was so so so nice! So the event went great and the day was amazing!

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Photos from the Graduation Ceremony

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Still going strong

I just want to give you a little update of the work I am doing!

Yesterday I had a very long day! I (finally) got all the student names who need certificates for the graduation party tomorrow, and I could make their individual certificates. I had photos of all, the clubs that everyone had attended, and then I had to put it into the certificate templates that I had made. It took a long time, but I think they look nice now!  After I had done all that, I went with 3 staff members to a place where we could print the certificates. In the morning I went to buy some special paper to print on, and then in the afternoon we went and “put our order” for the around 54 certificates to be printed.

So today we are going to pick them up, and then we need 4 signatures on each certificate! I am not sure if we will get all 4 today, but otherwise we will get them tomorrow at the graduation party! I think it will be huge with a lot of people! But I will take photos tomorrow and post them here!

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Work is done with a little help from a friend