sink or swim…

Can’t believe it’s just one day short of three weeks since I left Zanzibar… The majority of this time I have spent in Denmark with family and friends, and as I travel across the many bridges in Denmark to get to my younger sister’s house close to Copenhagen, I finally have a few moments to finish off this post which I started about two weeks ago…

Some ‘big stuff’ happened in the last week before I left Zanzibar – well, probably not big compared to other people’s stuff, but in my little world the last week was full of important and potentially game changing activity.

On the non-work front I managed to squeeze in a snorkelling trip (OK, not very game changing), which was quite unsuccessful in terms of seeing anything under water. I had to take out my contact lenses after 10 mins and the sea was very choppy – yikes. But is was a nice social event nonetheless.

In terms of work, I visited most of the hotels and restaurants where my students were going to do their internship after finishing the classes with me. That was a mixed bag to say the least – some places the people were totally wonderful and I could tell that they would take the responsibility of teaching these young people seriously, other places just wanted free labour! I tried to get the best possible place for each person, but I was not 100% happy in the end… I wish, I had known in the beginning that I was expected to do this work – I would have started networking and sorting this a lot sooner… lesson learnt!

 

All 14 students made it to the last day of class, I was proud of them even though it had been a real challenge at times. And we had a fun graduation celebration after I had given them the last instructions for their placement, including another lesson in the importance of personal hygiene… they received a small hygiene gift from me and I must admit that the lesson took a slight wrong turn when I ended up smelling all of their armpits! The things we do… 😖🤣 

Anyway, everybody were happy about their certificates and reports even though I could feel their nerves about the placement starting the following Monday – they felt quite out of their comfort zone… But they are not doing too bad!! 😊 From the messages and photos I am receiving – most are really enjoying their time learning on the job, and others are struggling a little, which I expected of course. Hospitality is not for everyone… but I hope half of them might still be working when I get back to Zanzibar in December.

And then on the final day before boarding the plane, I met with the lawyer I had decided will look after my business stuff in Zanzibar! (It’s not the guy I complained about in the last post!) I finally took the jump and the business registration is in progress – hopefully he’s one of the good guys!

So yeah, both my students and I entered a kind of ‘sink or swim scenario’ that Monday three weeks ago… Fingers crossed please!