All posts authored by Santino Zhakata
The need for change: How it all began. My passion for community development and humanitarian aid related work came when I moved from Zimbabwe to Mozambique. It was the most spontaneous act I have ever done in my life. After years of doing fantastic work in the classroom, my soul was screaming for something else. The four walls of a classroom had begun to bring claustrophobia in my psyche. At the first signs of this claustrophobic feeling, I resolved to begin to study something exciting. I flippad through the catalogues and found it, a bachelors degree in Media studies. Even better was the fact that I could study it via distance education through Zimbabwe open university (ZOU), a distance learning institute, while I continue to work as a teacher. The degree and course outline was fantastic and it renewed my interest in having a profession I could love once more. I felt then that this would be my fall back plan when I finally threw in the towel on teaching. I would become a journalist or some sort of media professional. This definitely opened my mind and exposed me to the value of communication and its essential role in community development. Listening to the voice within. As months passed by, and the working conditions of school teachers worstened in Zimbabwe after 2006, my teaching job became less and less enjoyable. Due to the increase in brain-drain that the nation faced, with professionals leaving in truckloads and seeking greener pastures, new laws were put in place. Any school teacher who left the workplace for longer than 14 days would loose their job and not be eligible to re-apply for it before the end of five years. The situation had become uncomfortable. A voice deep in me screamed for change .It could not and would not be kept at bay for many years longer until I would finish my media degree, (rightfully so because due to the roller coaster my life was going to go through and the unprecedented changes in policy and economy in Zimbabwe after 2007, I never would have imagined I would endup completing the degree 6 more years later and graduating it from Sweden for that matter). This something in me was big, deep and sure of itself, like an ostrich`s egg about to hatch, or even a dinosaur egg. It was something so big I could not suppress it, no matter how hard I try, and I did try. I tried to do what all my peers were doing...suck it up and take the blows of a failing national economy silently. I tried to be `ordinary`. But this thing in me would not have it. It was a restless feeling, I think it was what some people would call, the call of destiny. It is only now that I understand it and it´s only since a few years ago that I realized that it was a force bigger than me. It was the need to be purposeful and to make a change in society and the lives of those I could reach. Considering leaving my teaching job was insane according to my friends, irresponsible according to my father and rebelliousness and troublesome according to my employers, the government I worked for and the principal at the school I was stationed. To me it was answering to a voice so strong that I think it came from the deepest fountain inside me. Whatever it was it caused me to make a few trips to Mozambique during my school /work holiday and began to gather information about how the Mozambican system worked. It made me save up my meager salary and device a plan to move forward towards change. It was spontaneous and it was strengthened by a news bulletin that I heard one day reporting that the Mozambican government had passed a law that all public schools will officially begin the teaching of English as a school subject , starting with the 6th grade. A little about Mozambique. . Mozambique is a Portuguese speaking country and that is its official language. In Africa south of the Saharan there are only 5 countries that have Portuguese as the sole official or one of its official languages and in Southern Africa, Mozambique and Angola are the only two countries out of 14 who have Portuguese as the official language. In addition Mozambique had just got a ceasefire in 1992 from a 10 year long civil war that had resulted in shutting down and destruction of schools, hospitals, industries and the social system as we know it. So now the country was starting a building up process, and language and communication is a key part of community development. So this scenario poses a communication challenge of course to Mozambique as far as relations with its neighbors and the international world are concerned. I was inspired to try out how it feels to actually teach English from the very start to someone who had no previous exposure to it. To teach English in a land where other dozens of languages had ruled long. In Zimbabwe working as a high school English teacher felt more like polishing, correcting and making the final touches on the students English language competence. Zimbabweans begin to learn English at age 5 in Pre-school and then learn all other school subjects and all education in English for many years on, so `everyone` is exposed and can communicate in English. It was a good call for the then Mozambican president to pass the`English for all`policy, the country needed it in order to broaden the level of interaction between its citizens/institutions and the English competent world outside its boarders. This new policy became a good cue for me to prepare my exit and it also shed light on where I should go. I`m Leaving, but not on a Jetplane. So it came to pass that on one fateful morning, a few days after recovering from yet another severe but common bout of malaria, I grabbed my lightly packed bag and got on the bus out of my supposedly comfort zone into my presumed future, driven by fate, destiny and the need to make a difference, make a change and be the change. I I ventured into Mozambique with nothing but my backpack and the will to make a contribution and work on something magnificent while I improve my economic status of course....but most importantly I was too young to start to fade away or become a relic, barely 5 years after graduating from my teacher training. I embraced my uncertain future with courage, vision, self confidence and inspiration from within. The Landing
Within the first 24 hours of my arrival in Chimoio city, Mozambique, I found a room and paid a month´s rent and thus began re- establishing myself in a new environment with no knowledge of a single word in Portuguese. I used my mother language, Shona, to communicate. It was no coincidence that the Zimbabwean province I had lived and worked in all my life is called Manicaland and the Mozambican province I had moved to is called Manica, roughly 4 hrs apart by bus and divided by a national boundary, a slight dialect difference and an entirely different world because of British and Portuguese colonial influence. It was more or less the exact point where two colonial powers had put up a border dividing a village into two. I hung onto the little of what remained of the local culture for comfort, at least until the day when my Portuguese and general Mozambican experience would come of age. It was not much. Colonialism carved deep marks that could not easily be smoothed. As different as the Portuguese and British ideologies, culture and societies are, so is Manicaland and Manica. That and also the tribal, cultural and local differences that had existed centuries before colonialism and were passed on from one generation to the next, weakening by time and impacted by years of colonial dominance. To cut a long story short, I was close to home and yet far into another world. The slow turning of big wheels: A test of endurance, creativity & innovation The bubble did not take long to burst and I was exposed to the reality that my move had meant that I was starting my life all over again, but this time in an entirely new setting. it was exciting but challenging. It was stressful but it also taught me to discover hope, vision, strength, endurance and toughness. I submitted my Teacher training documents at the education ministry offices in Chimoio and began to wait for them to be validated so I could begin to work as a teacher, according to the existing education regulations and policies. The results from the validation process finally reached me after an entire year and a half. By then, I had no need for them , frankly, I had established myself as a private tutor and I had begun to work voluntarily as a communicator with a community based theater group called Shikisa. That is how my passion for community development and humanitarian aid work began, I learned that in life, it is the things that you do for others, with your full passion, will-power and exerting your full abilities without expecting to be compensated, (it is such work), that makes life fulfilling and meaningful. © Santino Zhakata 2011
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AUTHORI am Santino Zhakata, born in Zimbabwe, living in Sweden. I do a lot of writing, photography , blogging and website creation for fun and for profit. My fields of expertise include teaching and tutoring English via distance or face to face. I also specialise in communication for development. Welcome to my blog, feel free to share your thoughts.
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