Day 5 - First Day of Social Work

Day five in Zanzibar. Today was a special day for the group because it was Friday and that means ‘Social Work Time’. For those who did not follow our project in detail, here is a little explanation: From Monday to Thursday the groups are working on their projects with their entrepreneurs. Every Friday, however, is used for a social project – be it in a hospital, an orphanage or a school. This time the group went to the ‘Khaya Academy’, a little private school in the area of Chukwani not far from our house. In total there are 8 teachers and 45 children from nursery to primary school. As many other schools in Zanzibar the Khaya Academy misses many things that we consider as self-evident: Books, pencils, colours, tables, chairs and toys. From the money we collected with the crowdfunding we were able to provide the school with necessary supplies. A small group of us left early in the morning to the market in Stonetown to buy school books, reading books, pencils, posters, toys and other much more. For those who have been to Stonetown or similar areas before, you can imagine how hard it was comb through all these tiny shops. For the rest of you we have taken some nice pictures. After we found all the things we needed we went to the Khaya Academy. In the meantime the rest of the group went already at the school to play, sing and dance with the kids. Finally arriving at the school, we were greeted warmly and everyone was so excited to see what we brought with us. The teachers, especially, were so thankful to finally have more teaching books and nice school supplies for their students. The kids immediately jumped on the building blocks and balloons. The rest of the time we used to decorate the school rooms, play and to do handicrafts with the kids. It was a very touching day and once more we realized how blessed each of us was and is to enjoy the good education in Europe.
After an energy fuelled lunch back home we all left to Stonetown to amble through the little streets and shops and have some beer at the relaxing beach bars. Stonetown is really famous for its night-food-market where you can get all kinds of fish and meat: Prawns, shrimps, lobster, kingsfish, chicken masala, chicken tandoori, …. Of course every little stand wanted to have us as its customers, so the bargaining started again. So what to do after a diner like this? Of course, have another drink at a beach bar. We were hoping for some nice music to start the weekend, but due to Ramadan we could not go and shake our hips as expected. However, it was a great day and everyone was looking forward for some nice trips at the weekend.