It’s been already two weeks that I am in Zanzibar, getting to know better the island, the campus, the NGO and the activities. As the slogan ‘pole pole’ says, I am taking my time to get to discover the island.

Mainly, during these days, I have been learning about Assalam, the hosting organization, that is working in many departments. The department I got to work the most was the Women Empowerment, more specifically tailoring. There I was helping the women to sew and to make traditional dolls. In the same department, I got to participate in the Eco print design of 2 items, including the selection of leaves and flowers, their treatment, the design of the print and the compression of the material.

At the same time, I am learning more about the business plan for the tailoring shop -called Kanga Africa, and I will try my best to have a positive impact in its branding.

I enjoy living here, the weather is great, the view from the campus is just gorgeous, waking up with the sound of the sea, eating dinner two meters away from the splash of the waves on the cliffs, it’s a very relaxing place.

And to not forget, I am getting Swahili classes everyday and they are intense, I understand why the teacher is saying that in two months I will be fluent 😊.

Volunteering Experience in Tanzania

People were saying: ‘Time’s flying in Zanzibar’. I thought: ‘Why would it be different?’. Now I understand, time here is running out like the sand in an hourglass. And we just play on its rhythm.

It’s been three weeks and there is no time for the ‘settling in’ phase. If you wait for it, you might end up saying goodbye instead of: ‘How great this moment is’.

This week, it was clearer to me what I was working on, I took the lead on my journey and things came naturally. I liked working so much that the working hours were not enough.

As soon as I found out we would be working in permaculture for a few hours a day, my heart started beating joy. So I will start with it. At eight in the morning, Monday, I was already in the garden, meeting the baby chickens. I love animals, without discriminating against any of them, so here I started connecting with them. After that, every morning I was checking on them, giving them water and food.

At permaculture, I learnt something new, how to make worm tea and the benefits it has for the plants and soil. It is a natural fertiliser and repellent, with only natural ingredients. I wish all farmers would apply only eco-friendly methods to their soil and plants. One of the mornings was entirely dedicated to tomato harvesting.

As in the previous week, I kept working in the social enterprise, this week doing a photoshoot for the Kanga Africa shop and making a catalogue of the items the tailoring team has created so far.

One more moment I would like to mention was a wedding I attended on Friday, it was in another city and it was so different from the other weddings I saw. It was the wedding of a staff member and we all got the chance to participate. There were drums, there was noise, there was sun, there was dancing on the streets and we even learnt that two brothers were getting married on the same day. The newest thing for me was that you get to see the bride only for a few seconds. And the groom, I didn’t see at all.

These were my main points of the week, plus a weekend of swimming in the village, wondering why I still haven't tanned 😊

At the beginning of the week, things seemed to go as usual, without any major challenges. But what I was not expecting, was a week without access to the internet, because of the elections that were about to start on Wednesday in Tanzania. Who would think that the internet would be cut off for around one week? I surely didn’t expect it. As we had no choice, I quickly accepted it and, despite missing my beloved ones, I found myself being very involved in the work on campus.

First of all, I managed to finish the catalogue for Kanga Africa, I am very happy with the outcome; all the items of the shop are nicely photographed and arranged in different collections in the catalogue. It’s a 20-page catalogue, with small descriptions of every collection and the main values of Kanga Africa shop. It was a nice task, it involved teamwork too, and of course creativity and digital competencies. After getting the feedback from the team, I hope it will be a useful promotional tool.

Since I finished the catalogue, I had more time to do practical work in the tailoring team. I was working every day with the girls, learning how to use the sewing machines. I could clearly see progress already in the second day of practice. To improve my skills, I decided to repair two of my items. In the end, it worked out good, not perfect, but it was an improvement. A very rewarding activity that I started on Friday, was crocheting. I liked doing it very much as a kid, but I didn’t expect the skills would be imprinted in my body memory. As soon as I took the crochet, the process was flowing. It was so rewarding, because I could finish one kofia for a doll in one day and the team was very happy with it.

I continued working in the permaculture department too, every morning for around two hours. During this week, I helped with installing a dropping irrigation system for the plants, I planted mushrooms for the first time in a special substrate, I harvested tomatoes, planted tomato and pepper seeds in a nursery, fed baby chickens etc.

As for the Swahili class, I am proud to be able to make short sentences and to know some basics. On Sunday, we had a festival for kids. There were many workshops organised for them: face painting, bead jewellery making, origami, ecoprint and balloon making. I was leading one team to each workshop. At times, the kids didn’t speak English and also the facilitators of the workshops didn’t speak Swahili, so I took the opportunity and made use of my Swahili knowledge to help the communication between them. I loved talking to the kids, playing with them, and making sure they all got involved in the activities.

As for my free time, I combined swimming with reading and I had a very nice visit to my new friend from the tailoring team. I visited her place and we went for a walk in her village, reaching the beach right before sunset. I am thankful for that day and for the friendships I am making with the locals. They are welcoming and generous people. Hopefully, in the next weeks, I will manage to spend more time with them.

After the fruitful Sunday with the kids, Monday has come to take its rights - another exciting week of work. I missed speaking with my beloved ones more and more, but luckily, I have many things I am working on in Assalam and I enjoy doing my tasks. And the internet came back towards the middle of the week. With this challenge, I learnt to appreciate more the ease with which we can communicate in daily life, thanks to the internet.

This week I continued with the crocheting, I managed to do three more doll kofias, they are very cute and colourful. It is very relaxing to be crocheting. The girls from the tailoring team also asked for advice on how to make the same design for the little hats.

Permaculture I was joining less this week, because I started a new activity - training the dogs. Here in Assalam are three dogs - Coco, Bella and Junior. Two of them are getting trained by a professional and because she was preparing to leave, she was very happy to see my excitement about learning and practising dog training. On the first day, she was showing me the commands and it felt a bit hard, because the dogs were used to me just playing with them and not telling them what to do. Also, I had to first learn how to communicate the commands. Some days, they were more eager to listen; other days, because of different factors (tiredness, distractions, lack of treats), they were partially ignoring my commands. Due to the training, I can understand their feelings and needs better now.

As for Swahili, the progress is constantly increasing. This week, we were already making little stories and descriptions. And when I get the chance, I am very eager to practice my knowledge with the locals; it feels like a memory game. The locals are patient with me and I think they find it very funny to see me speaking a little Swahili. It’s satisfying.

In the weekend, I decided to join the other volunteers for a Full moon party in the north of the island - Kendwa. We left first for Stone Town, there I explored a little bit the town at night and the day after I headed to the north, where the beaches are just magnificent. The sand is perfectly white, the water turquoise, the beach large, with tropical trees on the edges. As someone said: “It’s paradise”. The party was interesting too, but my body was asking for sleep, unfortunately. I really liked the places we stayed in, their breakfast and the friendliness of the host, willing so much to make our stay as comfortable as possible.

But I am ready for a new week of work.

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