Last weeks are always busy and full of things you have to do before you go and so it is now too. This time I will go back to Finland only for a short time and I will do Dzikwa work there as well, so it will be only a change of the physical working place. It means that I am trying to prepare every data I am going to need in Finland as ready as possible.
I have been updating children's infosheets with the Term I results. I have been going through different kind of documents, updating them if needed and so on. Lots of office work, not so much time with the children. It has been ok as I know I can take that time back after spending the summer months in Finland. But nothing can still beat the feeling which you get when you see and hear our children to dance, sing and play.
I have now spent total 3 months in Zimbabwe, helping Dzikwa with many kinds of things. Every skill you have is needed, sometimes you have to be the listening friend, sometimes working hands are the ones in need, sometimes you have to give your hair for the little girls to be braided. The more time you spend here, the easier it gets for you to solve problems and make things happen. You know where to call or go, to whom talk to. You make friends with more and more people. It is good to have a shamwari (=friend) in need.
I can also say that the more time you spend here in Zimbabwe, the more it starts to feel like home and finally you have the feeling that you do not even want to leave this place anymore. Africa bit me first time in early 90's, when I spent time in Tanzania and since then I have felt the drum beat of this continent inside me, calling me back.
Since I already had this African drum beat inside me, it was easy for me to come to Zimbabwe. I knew what to expect, even though you can not say every African country is similar, far from it. But with open mind you can get far. That works in life in general as well.
-Virva
