Hi everyone! Welcome to the "This is Zvakanaka Zimbabwe Volunteer Life" podcast!
I'm Miyu and I started living here in Zimbabwe as part of an official Japanese volunteer program.
Today I want to talk about my daily life in the rural areas of Zimbabwe.
I started working at college about a month ↓ago. Prior to that, I was in the capital city of Zimbabwe, it's called Harare, and then moved here to start working.
Zimbabwean rural life will certainly be interesting for people living outside of Africa.
This college is surrounded by a forest. There are lots of monkeys and other living things, including snakes, baboons, dogs, and something something. I feel the great nature here.
I live in an accommodation for lecturers with my roommate. She is one of the Zimbabwean lecturers. Sometimes we share meals, and other times we have conversations.
And, There are many challenges to our "i"nfrastructure here. The first is the water challenge.
We only have tap water once a week. When tap water arrives, we store it in several buckets and use it. The largest of these buckets can store 100 litres of water in a single container.
In addition to tap water, we use rainwater as well. We use this water to wash our dishes, shower, flush the toilet, and wash our clothes. It's difficult to get a washing machine here in a rural area.
The second is electricity. All over the country, electricity is scarce. My place was not so bad - normally we had electricity. But the transformer was hit by lightning and there was no electricity for last two weeks. Not at all. For two weeks, that meant no Wifi, no network. あーIt was a tough day.
And access to any product is extremely poor.
The nearest supermarket is about 60km away. It takes about one hour to get there.
If we drive 20 minutes, there is a village and there are kind of markets outside. People make stands and sell stuff at that market. The variety of food sold is limited because they don't use the fridge, but the quality of vegetables is better than what you find in supermarkets. They even sell worms! They sell small fish and small worms; people think they are in the same category! It is interesting because they are completely different in our culture.
The local culture and everyday life is interesting and I will have to learn to eat locally during my stay here for two years.
This is my life in zimbabwe up to now. If you have any questions and comment, there is a form in your listening page, I will appreciate for your comment.
Thank you for listening, and see you in the next episode. Tonana!
Hi everyone! Welcome to "This is Zvakanaka Zimbabwe Volunteer Life” podcast!
I'm Miyu and I started this podcast in Zimbabwe! HUUU
By the way, Zvakanaka means good / nice / it's okay in Shona, the local language here.
In this episode, I will talk about why I started this podcast and what I want to talk about.
Before we get started, let me quickly introduce myself and my work here in Zimbabwe.
I'm Miyu from Tokyo, Japan.
I came here as a JOCV, which is a two-year voluntary program. JOCV is a short term for the "Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer," dispatched by a Japanese official agency called JICA.
I will work at one of the teachers' colleges in a rural area in Zimbabwe. The college trains elementary school teachers; it has a three-year curriculum with a total of about 1,600 students. I will work as an ICT specialist using my experience in ICT tech companies. I worked at an IT company in Tokyo for three years before coming to Zimbabwe.
Depending on the college's request, I may also do some teaching work, since their IT literacy tends to be low. Sometimes I have to teach them how to turn on the computer, and sometimes I have to teach them how to use software like Word or Excel properly.
I go into college alone to do these tasks. I live with the locals, and am required to support them from a local perspective. This is a unique feature of JOCV's activities.
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So why did I start this podcast? I have two reasons for this: the first is to improve my English skills. I believe that my speaking skills are intermediate. This means that I can communicate with other people, but I have difficulty having discussions with proper grammar and expressions. Also, I don't feel like I'm very good at abstract or technical discussions. I can talk about my major, but, you know, abstract things like religion or culture or the idea of happiness, I find it difficult to express it how I want it to.
Since all Zimbabweans speak English, this environment will help me improve my English. But to speak more fluently, I have to write a lot and speak a lot. I'd like to learn new vocabulary and expressions, and doing that with a podcast would be a good idea, wouldn't it?
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The second purpose of this podcast is to spread accurate information about Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.
People don't know much about Africa. For instance, I don't think you know much about the sanctions against Zimbabwe. Yes, Zimbabwe has been sanctioned by Western countries for past elections that were considered unjustified, and for which the government has been accused of corruption.
Zimbabwe's economic situation is not improving, partly because of the sanctions.
I want you to know the reality of this country and I hope that one day you will visit Zimbabwe.
Then, I'm planning the topics I will talk about in the following episodes.
I arrived in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, a month ago, and I am used to living here now. So, let's talk about life here. Life with no public transportation, life with high inflation, lives with little electricity, and so on. I learned Zimbabwean history and the local Shona language from my JICA orientation, so I can talk about those things too.
And of course, I'll talk about my job here. I'm going to college next week. There are no other Japanese, no other white people. This will be interesting to everyone because it's a rare experience.
These are my plans.I hope you're looking forward to this podcast.
So, let's end the episode today, and wait for the next one!
Thank you for listening, and see you in the next episode! Tonana, bye!
