BETINA IN AFRICA

Over the past week, I have started and then deleted a blogpost every other day… I just haven’t been able to express my thoughts and feelings in a concise manner. This one has also taken me some time, mainly because the mosquitoes are eating me alive, though.

Yes, I’m back in Tanzania. Sitting in a rooftop bar in Stone Town, Zanzibar, where from I enjoyed the sunset and now waiting for dinner to arrive under the starry sky. I am due to start work in the bush again on Friday, but took a detour here to see my lawyer… big sigh! He has really been causing me some headaches this past week or two. Not giving me all the information I need – planning is a foreign concept to him, so he seems to think it’s OK just to drip feed me information and requests. Jeez, I got so angry with him! His behaviour is costing me a lot of money in extra flights and is delaying the process of being able to actually do business here in Zanzibar… He could certainly feel my anger and told his colleagues that they had to work harder so “Betina doesn’t shout at me” haha – did make me laugh!

That lawyer palava came on top of a busy week in London where I did a certification in assessing thinking preferences. It’s called HBDI and can show each person which part of the brain they prefer to use. It’s not about competency but solely about how we think… for example, do you think ‘let’s be cautious’ or let’s take a risk’ as a default? It’s difficult to explain it all on here, but my thinking profile really made me think…

The quadrant which is the ‘weakest’ for me is the ‘yellow’ one. The one which says “let’s risk it”, “let’s do something new”, “I want to be creative”, “I have vision after vision”, “I need adventure” – and that was no surprise to me at all because I’ve always been very risk averse! But it did make me wonder when the facilitator pointed out that my entire life is currently coming from that quadrant! So in short, I have chosen to live my life as far out of my comfort zone as I possibly could! No wonder I feel under pressure most of the time… under pressure because I have no home, the uncertainty of life in Africa, the financial situation, the constant travel, that ‘unsafe’ feeling.

So this and the lawyer issues really did make me question my life choice. Is it worth it? Should I throw in the towel? I’ve had some real soul searching moments and thank you to everyone who have listened, supported and advised me during this process. I’ve decided that I don’t want to give up. I’m just going to take one year at a time – so here goes another year of living in the ‘yellow zone’! Another big sigh! But let’s do it! What I keep coming back to is how much I love my work… I cannot imagine a job where I would get more enjoyment, more reward or more fun! I know that I go on about it, but it is my dream job and I cannot give up – not yet anyway!

So it also made me wonder how you all think? Are you preferences in the analytical and logical quadrant (blue), the organised planner quadrant (green), the interpersonal, emotional quadrant (red) or the imaginative and creative quadrant (yellow)? Actually, it’s very likely that you have preference in more than one of those… If you’d like me to do your profile, I’ve got very reasonable rates – haha! 😉 

Right, here’s my dinner. Freshly caught, grilled king fish & chips! (the 7 kgs I gained back in Europe are not going to disappear that easy this time, I think – haha!)

The end of 2019 and the end of a decade, which was full of mixed emotions, a lot of very low moments but also some incredible highs. It’s actually a little tricky to remember back to all that has happened in ten years and sometimes we tend to focus on the negative only, so I’ve tried to think of the things that have been most exciting and wonderful for me in the 2010s…

• being at the London Olympics with my family
• getting my Learning & Development qualification
• buying a house in London
• getting to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro
• the birth of my two nieces
• my Africa sabbatical; the inspiration that made me change my life
• starting my new business and living my dream in Tanzania

I guess that’s not too bad! ☺️ But still hope that this new decade will be even better! Is that greedy?

2020 will definitely be a busy year for me. Trying to build on the work done in 2019, trying to do better financially and trying to juggle work, family & friend time.

The main goal is of course to get the Zanzibar business up and running and then get some work on the island. But this year I also want to set out a few new year resolutions and there is one in particular that I’d like to focus on.

Being better at staying in touch with people in a genuine way!

I have realised that my more frequent feeling of being alone or being lonely is because I am not staying in touch with people regularly and then when I am, I’m probably not asking the right questions or sharing the most important information. 

Maybe it’s because I often find it difficult to share my own feelings – even with people who are close to me… I sometimes hide behind ‘all is good’ even when it’s not; very British! And others might do exactly that as well and then it all becomes so superficial. 

So my New Year’s Resolution is to contact my friends and family more often when I’m away and ask them how they feel instead of how they are. Because ultimately when I ask ‘how’s it going?’, ‘how are things your end?’ ‘how are you?’ I am not asking how many things are on your to-do list or how busy you are at work… I am actually asking how your heart is, what your emotions & feelings are and why! Because that is also how we can support each other through difficult times and celebrate the good times together! 

So that’s it! Thanks for 2019… Cannot wait to see what 2020 brings.
Happy New Year!

65 days of incredibly hard, but satisfying work at Singita has come to an end and I have spent the last 4 days in Zanzibar for a little R&R but also for a few meetings with prospective clients and my lawyer of course!

It has also been few days for reflecting on my first full year of trying to work and somehow live in Tanzania…

Am I living the life I never knew that I always needed and wanted? Hell yeah! The joy, reward and excitement I get from educating, training, guiding and supporting young people here in Tanzania so that they have the best opportunity to succeed in their lives, is the stuff dreams are made of. And I am proud and happy that I made the decision to change my life.

But it doesn’t come without sacrifices… being away from close friends and family for so many months of the year is tough, not having a real home or base is also really difficult and there seems to a distinct issue with finding love when not spending more than a few weeks or months in the place at a time. Haha. I often get asked… ‘have you met someone?’ And the answer is always ‘no’. And I say that I don’t mind right now, but I have found that I am starting to mind more and more.

I guess my life is not really conducive to finding that special someone right now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss having someone to share my life with, though… but we can’t have it all, right?! And I have decided that doing work that I absolutely love is the priority for me right now.

And how can I not love experiences like these; my first ever cheetah in the wild, a giraffe coming to say hi and a wonderful end of 2019 programme celebration.

But later today I will be Europe-bound. A quick stop in London to re-pack before spending Christmas with family in Denmark. Quite looking forward to some cooler weather, but do remind me of that when I start complaining about it in a week or so!

Hope to see a lot of you over the next few weeks. 👋🏼

Where did this year go? Cannot actually believe that we’ve reached December. Maybe also because there’s no Christmas reminders here, there and everywhere… haven’t heard a festive song yet and the only reminders of the time of year are the steady stream of Xmas films on Netflix and the fact that I got to open my first Advent present this morning. Thanks mum! 😘

In fact, I have found it quite peaceful and at times a relief to be somewhat isolated here in the bush, hiding away from the UK general election palava, the never-ending Christmas hype and the frustration of yet another terrorist incident in London. However, it’s tough being here when there’s sad news from home and there’s been a fair share of that in the past few weeks unfortunately. That’s when I can feel a little alone and start doubting my decisions and life choices.

But then something amazing or encouraging happens to remind me that I’m doing the right thing. Yesterday was such a moment… a chef and a waiter here, that I am not doing training with, pulled me aside asking very intently to become my students next year because they can see I am a good teacher and a good person… bless!

And I know now that I will be back at Singita next year. As soon as February even. I’m so happy that the management here think I can continue to add value as part of their succession development plan. And I feel fortunate for all the people I am able to connect with and build relationships with as part of this job as well. This year would have been a very different story without this opportunity… am so lucky!

In addition to the 2x two month contracts at Singita, I have put forward a couple of other proposals for 2020. Please keep your fingers crossed that they both come through for me… have a 2019 loss that I need to recover – haha!

Oh and still no news on the business registration in Zanzibar. My lawyer is not really prioritising me it seems, but will try to get a meeting with him when I get to ZNZ in December. Cannot wait for a few days there actually… a bit of beach time, restaurant visits and quality time with Carelynn, who will join me there. Joy!

Finally, just remembering that it’s World AIDS day today. Still such a taboo subject to talk about here in East Africa… and even though the numbers of people living with HIV here in Tanzania are going down, 5% of the population still live with it, and more than double the new HIV cases in 2018 were found in young women! Condoms are not widely used in young people it seems and when I speak to people about it, they are more concerned about pregnancies than diseases. Still a lot of education and awareness needed on this! Sorry, didn’t actually mean to end this post on such a sad note, but it’s the reality of life here and something I think is worth highlighting…

 

Just realised that it’s been a while since my last post… maybe because not a lot of different stuff has happened or maybe because too much has happened! Lots of coaching, on-the-job training and a lovely STEP UP workshop with 16 new ‘students’ – was a lot of fun and great to see the next level of talent in action.

Oh I must also mention that in the middle of it all I had bedbugs! It was not pretty, in fact it was pretty horrendous and incredibly itchy! Will spare you any photos – and it was pretty ironic that after we did the body language session where I was warning them not to fidget etc, all I was doing was scratching my arms and back for two days straight. Eek!

And then, all of a sudden I was asked to join the Tanzanian senior management team in Rwanda for a strategic workshop for three days. I was very honoured to be asked to facilitate this for them and I have never designed a workshop faster than that; just had a couple of days to pull it all together. The workshop was being held at the new Singita property in Rwanda – Kwitonda Lodge. A really beautiful place and even though it was pretty intense with the workshop, I did manage an hour of relaxation one afternoon with a local Virunga beer before the last dinner!

Some of the managers went to see the gorillas, but I did not have $1,500 to spare right now, and since I already saw them I thought it was better to skip that. Instead, a few of us went to visit a group of bamboo-eating Golden Monkeys. They were very cute and I can now tick another primate off the list! Am in particular in love with their uni-brow and fabulous cheeks! Hehe

For the past couple of weeks, I have travelled from camp to camp. From Faru Faru with the beautiful scandi-themed design and elephants at the watering hole every day… to Sabora with the most lion activity I have ever seen in a camp – they came really close to the tents, a little scary, but pretty cool also… to Sasakwa, the main lodge where ‘all’ the celebrities stay – met a couple ‘A-listers’ this week, but am not allowed to say who… to Mara River – my absolute favourite camp, where I am now.

I’m currently sitting in my tent, listening to the river rapids, the usual hippo grunts and crickets. It is such bliss and I am feeling calm and very content!

Am actually quite surprised about how calm I am, since there is a lot going on. Of course I am busy with the 1-2-1 coaching with three managers here at the camp, but also the design of the STEP UP workshop for 19 people, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. To help me with that, I have subscribed to LinkedIn Learning – some good videos on there which I think will break up the 3 days, so it’s not just me talking all the time! Anyway, I guess I must be getting used to the work… and the fact that the schedule changes pretty much every day since I am not panicking in the slightest.

So for now I will just continue to enjoy my time here at the river!

The other day we had a lunch get-together with the whole team here at the camp, there were no guests in camp so it was nice for the team to socialise all together with a special meal. I loved it – great food and a lot of laughs. It was clear that the team really valued having lunch with managers; they normally eat separately – and even have different food – which causes such an unfortunate ‘them & us’ situation. I hope they continue with this initiative once a month to enhance teamwork & collaboration.

Evening, 18th October 2019

Listening to the rain on my tent canvas and some generator noise… not really the usual sounds in the African bush… but it’s been raining for two days now so the solar batteries have run out. Last night had much more exciting sounds including roaring lions and buffalo and wildebeest ‘grunts’… is that a real term??

It’s Friday night… I’m a couple of weeks into this contract and have so enjoyed being back. It was great to see my ‘old’ students again, we had a really good and fun kick-off workshop. I remember the very first one we had back in January, when they didn’t really know me, they were all shy and quiet… this time I couldn’t shut them up – it was so great! And we were lucky to also go on a short game drive up to the Kenyan border. 

After those first couple of days, it was time to meet my two new students who will join the programme this visit. Really lovely to meet them, but I must admit that I was even more excited to see all the familiar faces at the lodges. No matter which department everyone have been so welcoming and seemingly happy to see me again. They all call me mwalimu [teacher) even though I am not their teacher at all… it’s so nice to be more familiar instead of feeling like ‘the newbie’ all the time.

So what’s going on otherwise…? Well, I’m trying to get a police check done in the UK so I can get my permits applications underway here in TZ. Have just heard that my UK settled status has been approved – yay! And have been in contact with a hotel in Stone Town, Zanzibar for a possible job early next year but am still struggling to get organised on everything else!

However, I am healthy and very happy to be back! The Serengeti is truly the best office I could ever wish for. I am so lucky and have renewed energy to really fight to make my new life work!

In just a few hours it’s time for me to leave London again. Once again, Lisa and Richard have so generously opened their home to me (and my mess) whilst I’ve been trying to see as many friends as possible, do personal admin and prepare for the next contract in Tanzania at the same time.

I even managed to make some sense of the Brexit mess and what it means for me… I have applied for ‘settled status’, which would give me indefinite right to live and work in the UK… so the same as I have now with the UK in the EU. Hoping to hear back soon!

Before London I had three weeks with family and friends in Denmark… incl. holiday with parents, quality time with sisters, nieces & nephews, seeing friend’s new baby, catching up with old college mate, granny’s 85th birthday… it was full on! Of course I also ate loads of pork and really enjoyed some great danish food which means I’ve now gained all the weight I lost in Zanzibar… haha, it’s like a yo-yo!

And even though I absolutely love coming back to both Denmark and London, I also often feel a little stressed to fit everything and everyone in. And managing my time between work and pleasure can be tricky – it’s tempting to just see it as a holiday, but that really doesn’t work when self employed – so it’s been some long days this past week. But I’ve really enjoyed it and I’m ready to get started on full time, paid work!

I’ll be going back to the Singita lodges in the Grumeti game reserve in northern Tanzania for a 9 week contract. Even though I’ve been in touch with my middle management group over the past six months, I’m very excited to see them all again and see how they are doing!

I’m working with this same group, although 10 have become 7, so have some new guys and girls joining on the current programme, but we have also planned some extra workshops for other audiences to start a succession planning process. It’s very exciting!

Meanwhile back in Zanzibar, my lawyer is definitely working on the business registration of ‘Safi Hospitality – Tanzania’ (more excitement)! And my students are still doing their placements… I’m in touch with about half of them – some don’t have smart phones – one person has disappeared but otherwise all seems to be going OK. I’ll be going to Zanzibar after the Singita contract finishes to check in with lawyer and students before coming back to Denmark for Xmas.

So here goes! Off for the next adventure… Enjoy autumn in Europe 😉

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!

I know that ‘hate’ is a strong word, but I cannot express in any other way how I feel about people being late for appointments or class or anything else for that matter! And it’s not once in a while, it’s all the time! And it is just accepted with a grin, a shrug of the shoulders and the normal frustrating words ‘it’s Africa time’. It’s so incredibly frustrating- as if their time is more important than my time!?!

This rant is because I am sitting on the side of the road waiting for a lawyer to come to his office for an appointment that was supposed to start 20 minutes ago. He did not tell me that he was late until I told him I was waiting outside his office gate!

It is by far the most annoying thing about being here! The wasted time… day in and day out there is always much inefficiency because people cannot manage time here! Argh!