Meet and greet

We worked the last half year actively on how we can help the entrepreneurs on Zanzibar. We did research, acquisition activities and a lot of meetings to organize our stay. Most of the time we were not really conscious that we actually would stand in front of an entrepreneur on Zanzibar because we were so busy graduating. When the day actually came we all were really excited and nervous what we actually had to expect. The evening before the conference, where we would meet all entrepreneurs and chose who we would help, we had a big meeting with all 15 students. We all were so excited and did not know what to expect from the next day. We had so many questions: How many people are coming?, Is someone coming?, Are we able to help all of them? or, Can they speak English? and many many more. The planning and preparations took so much longer than we expected because every time we thought we planned everything another aspect came to our minds ‘What if they are really late or not coming?’, ‘When to decide which group is taking which case?’ and so on. We prepared administration cards, chose two coordinators for the day and made a ‘to do’ list. At 1 o’clock at night we decided we are set for the next day.

The next morning was super sunny, everyone was eager to finally stand in front of the people, which were the reason we all applied in the first place. All would come together. Bags were packed, everyone knew what to do and we were ready to go. When we all arrived at the little green and beige building, which seemed a little like a sports hall 20 entrepreneurs were already sitting in the green plastic chairs, which were set up in four rows. It was overwhelming since we expected they would be late or not show up at all. Philamoni, Khaya Zanzibar Director, the non- profit organization which is helping us started the conference. 40 really friendly eyes were staring at us with a mix of hope, suspicion and excitement. It felt so honoring to stand there and welcome them, while a talk were translating every word we said in Swahili. Happily our European tendency to over plan such meetings came really handy- we had to act fast since we didn’t want to let them wait any longer. We came together for a minute adjusted our action plan and off we were. Entrepreneurs got registered and were led to one of us to talk with them to get to know them and see whether we are able to help them. It was a mix between people who speak excellent English and a couple who only speak Swahili. People with different businesses for example a beauty salon, a school head master, a women which has a chicken farm, people from a sea weed farm, a painter and much more. Looking around while everyone were talking to an entrepreneur showed a really good looking mix of cloth, skin color and conversations it felt really ‘gezellig’ (social and comfortable) as the Dutch people would say. Seeing the entrepreneurs opening up to a complete stranger they put their hopes in, was touching. In the conversations they especially asked us for knowledge and skills they were lacking. It was tricky to get to the root of their problems but we all had the feeling we managed that well and had an idea what they were searching for. During a presentation, we prepared already back home, we introduced ourselves. Meanwhile, outside the building the chairmen’s of each group divided the cases according to our experiences and personal connection to the entrepreneurs. In the end each group talked one last time to the entrepreneurs to set up a follow up meeting and get to know each other a little bit more. Everything went so smoothly, we had the time to talk to every entrepreneurs and gave them hope in what they were doing. The congress were topped and ended with a hart warming thank you speech of one of the entrepreneurs, which thanked us that we came all the way to help them and that we took the time to speak to each of them.

Really tired and so fulfilled with warmth and altruism we went to the beach and shared with each other all the amazing stories we heard. This day were so overwhelming with all these new impressions and touching moments. We were looking forward to meet all of them again especially since we got the impression that we really can make a difference in their life’s, which felt amazing.