My first week volunteering at Assalam has been a mix of emotions. Upon arrival, the beauty of the place and the warmth of the people made me feel very welcome. It was amazing to be surrounded by palm trees, white beaches, the sea, and the peaceful rhythm of the community centre. Meeting the other volunteers in the program was also lovely — though I must admit, the first few days felt a bit overwhelming.

Settling in took some time. The expectations around volunteering were

quite different from what I had imagined based on the interview, which

threw me off at first. Things also moved more slowly than I expected. I

got to understand the concept of pole pole on a whole new level.

Volunteering Experience in Tanzania

With no immediate tasks assigned, we had a lot of freedom to explore — the nearby village, the beach, a few local resorts where we could do yoga or grab a drink, and meet new

people. In hindsight, the slow start was actually a blessing. It gave me space to breathe, observe, and really arrive — both physically and mentally — in a different continent.

One of the hands-on activities I really enjoyed was trying out ecoprinting. We used leaves and flowers to create our own prints. The final results weren’t exactly what we expected, but the process was fun, and I’d definitely like to experiment more with it.

Later in the week, I started helping out with the marketing of a local soap brand, which is part of Assalam Centre’s broader goal to become more self-sufficient. I’ve never done marketing before, so it’s been exciting (and a little daunting) to dive into something completely new — especially with such a beautiful product.

Over the weekend, a few of us took a trip to Dar es Salaam. The ferry ride there took about two hours, and for the first time in my life, I got seasick — and I wasn’t the only one. It hit everyone’s stomach pretty hard. That aside, we really enjoyed the capital. We visited two museums, had great food at seaside restaurants, and had a great time overall. We did get scammed for being muzungu, but most people were friendly and curious. We took a plane to come back which was much smoother.

It’s taken a few days, but I’m finally finding my rhythm — let’s see what next week will bring!

This past week, things have slowly started falling into place. Mornings began with permaculture, and it felt like such a relief to have my hands back in the soil. We brewed worm tea — a natural fertiliser made from composting worm castings — and sprayed it on the plants to help them grow and keep insects away. We also plucked tomatoes and cared for the chickens (kuku), all while trying to keep the sweat out of our eyes. Milking a cow and having her calf lick some milk off my hand with his surprisingly rough tongue was so cute.

Most of the remaining working hours were spent creating brochures for local handcrafted products aimed at promoting self-sufficiency. One was for the beautiful Hamamni Soaps, a product I genuinely admire. After that came the Zanzibar Stories Eco Tours brochure, which features about fifteen different tours for visitors. That part is still very much in progress.

Evenings often offered a chance to unwind with a swim in the sea and some reading. Just finished a third book here and will soon need to hunt for more lol. Over the weekend, there was time to recharge: fresh coconuts and juices, catching up with friends and family back home, a really fun board game night, good talks, laughs and a much needed sunday yoga session — the perfect way to close the week.

A special highlight was when my roommate Maricica cut my hair. It turned out beautifully! Always loved short hair, and it’s such a relief to have it back at a length that feels right again. In the small pockets of free time, Swahili lessons are gradually sinking in. It’s surprising how quickly we’re picking it up — thanks in large part to the amazing teachers.

All in all, it’s been a good week, and it’s hard to believe we’ve already been here for three.

Week Three at Assalam

It is nice to be here — the days are starting to flow more naturally. I’m enjoying getting to know people on a deeper level and exploring the island. My working hours were split between permaculture and the catalogue for tourist tours. In the mornings, we harvested tomatoes, helped take care of the chickens (including cleaning theircoop), and planted aubergines and green peppers in the plant nursery. I also learned about the chickens’ two main protein sources: the azolla fern, a plant-based protein, and maggots produced through insect farming. A particular highlight was seeing how they try to grow shiitake mushrooms in plastic bags filled with compost that had been prepared specifically for this purpose. I’m curious to see next week if it worked!

The catalogue work was definitely more challenging this week. The Wi-Fi was unreliable, and after staring at the same layout for hours without creating something satisfying, I felt stuck. Midweek, I unexpectedly got a massage — someone had invited a masseuse to the centre, and there was still a free slot. I’ve always loved massages; I practically grew up with them, so it was absolutely wonderful and exactly what I needed. After that, and with some helpful input from my mum (who is amazing), I managed to make progress and finish part of the catalogue. The rest will continue next week, hopefully with a better connection and a fresher mind. Swahili classes are evolving quickly. At times, the pace has felt a bit overwhelming, but next week we’ll get a full break from lessons due to the elections and a sort of self-imposed ‘mini- lockdown.’ This should give me some time to catch up. It’s pretty cool to already be able to form basic sentences! I also rejoined the after-school clubs this week. I started in chess club but ended up learning checkers from the kids, which was so much fun—especially when they started breaking the rules and insisting, with very serious faces, that that’s how the game was supposed to be played. Outside of work, we went for drinks at different resorts and took a quick dip in the sea while watching the sunset. One evening we played volleyball, which was pure comedy since most of us couldn’t keep the ball in the air for long. My arms ended up bruised, but it was totally worth it. I also tried pottery for the first time and learned how to handmake a cup from start to finish. It was fascinating to see the whole pottery process and watch the professionals at work — especially when comparing their pieces to my own creation. Still, I was pretty proud of mine!

The weekend was one of the highlights of my time here so far. We went kayaking through a beautiful mangrove forest and were treated to sweet, fresh fruits to restock our energy. When the sun started to set, the guide took us to a very dense part of the forest where hundreds of birds were flying and nesting. It honestly felt like a Disney movie. Sadly, we also saw the damage caused by deforestation, though local communities are working hard to replant the trees. Along the way, we learned about traditional plant medicine and even discovered a seed that can be used as natural soap. On the walk back, I saw fireflies for the first time in my life. I didn’t know they were so beautiful — tiny sparks of light floating in the dark. It felt like the perfect ending to the day.

The next day brought a slightly less magical adventure. The morning was still amazing, as we went on a dolphin tour and I got to see these intelligent animals up close. After that, we went ATM hunting. We followed the GPS through a tiny village and got lost until some kids showed us the way — only to find out, after 30 minutes in the scorching heat, that the ATM was out of service for the day. We turned around, took a far-too-expensive daladala, and went to a gas station where the ATM did worked. I got my PIN wrong, my card got blocked... but thankfully, I had another one. Crisis averted, lesson learned. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through. I’m learning so much, and I already know that I’ll really miss this place when it’s time to go.

Week Four at Assalam

This week started like most others: mornings spent in the permaculture garden and afternoons dedicated to the brochure project — but somehow, everything felt heavier. With the brochure deadline approaching and trying to learn all of last week’s Swahili lessons, my brain felt overloaded. Every day was spent in front of the computer, pushing to make progress, and I could feel my energy slowly draining. It was one of those weeks where everything just piles up, and you can’t quite explain why you feel overwhelmed — you just do.

Then Tuesday evening brought a much-needed shift. I went to unwind at Fahari, a beautiful seaside café. Watching the sunset with a cold drink in hand and chatting with Paul, another volunteer, helped me reset. We even decided to go for an early (6:30!) morning walk the next day to move a little. It took us a while to get going, though, because one of the dogs decided to follow us off campus. When I turned back to bring him in, I somehow ended up with two dogs following me instead! Eventually, we managed to set off, and it turned into a lovely start to the day.

That same afternoon, I downloaded Secret Cat Forest, an offline game. Right on time, too — two hours later, the internet went down completely because of the upcoming elections. Suddenly, I had all the time in the world and no way to reach anyone. I even missed a job interview because of it, though thankfully that got sorted out later. With the world quieter and slower, I turned to books and found four great reads in the local library. I also started writing a lot more, and my little digital cats kept me company in between pages and paragraphs.

Work at Assalam quieted down as well. With the political tensions and elections, movement has been limited and internet access nonexistent. We’ve been more or less stranded here. It’s strange — we’re on this beautiful island, surrounded by sea and nature, while in other parts of the country, people are being shot. This should not be happening. So many realities and layers existing side by side every day.

Then, on Sunday, everything changed pace. A group from Germany organized a full day of activities for around a hundred local kids, and the whole centre turned into one big celebration. There was face painting, balloon art, origami, eco-printing, and bead jewellery making. In the afternoon, everyone gathered in the arts centre for games, competitions, and gifts. The energy was infectious — music playing, kids cheering, jumping up and down, laughing as competitions went sideways. By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted and asleep by nine o’clock.

When I can upload this, we’ll have internet back, and I’ll be very happy to be able to contact my family again. I’ve never really missed my family and friends much while traveling, but not being able to contact them at all was harder than I expected.

Week Five at Assalam

Last week went by in a blur. On Monday evening we went to a live music session at the Chameleon Blue resort nearby. Samie was playing the Ngoma drums in the band. It started off easy — a cold juice in hand, music rolling softly in the background, but before long we were all up dancing and singing along to songs we knew by heart. The energy was great.

The walk back through the dark was beautiful — the moon and stars lighting the way, the sea calm beside us, boats resting on the shore. We even stopped for ice cream. We got home later than we were supposed to, but luckily the gates were still open, so no drama.

Also — the internet is back!! It felt amazing to finally talk to family and friends again. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed them. Having internet also meant we could properly get back to work.

I finally wrapped up the catalogue — or at least tried to. Every time I thought it was done, someone asked for another logo or a tiny layout change. I’ll be happy to tick it off for good soon; it’s been taking up a lot of mental space.

The permaculture side of things was really lovely this week, a much-needed contrast to all the computer work. We planted seeds, spread compost around all the spinach plants throughout the permaculture gardens, and worked a bit on the irrigation system. The work wasn’t too heavy, which was a relief since the days are getting hotter. I really enjoyed chatting with Tina while we worked — she knows so much.

Swahili classes started up again too, though I didn’t have much time to study. Even when I was tired or not in the mood, our teacher somehow made the lessons fun and lifted everyone’s spirits. We’ve started building little stories and using full sentences now. Sometimes I can even catch the general meaning of conversations happening around me, which is pretty cool.

In the middle of the week we had a goodbye party for Feirouz and Yasmina. They always brought such good energy, and it’s strange to imagine the place without them. Everyone sang karaoke; it was fun hearing everyone’s music taste, and I even saved a few songs to my Spotify playlist. Afterwards there was cake, laughter, and heartfelt goodbyes.

The weekend was intense. We went to Stone Town on Saturday and a full moon party on Sunday. Nagla, who lives in Stonetown showed us around. I’m so grateful to her — she took us to some amazing spots. I got to see the city in a completely new way, bought spices and a beautiful dress, and had some really interesting conversations. One guy I shared a room with

was a retired linguist from Djibouti who spoke ten languages. He talked until midnight about the world, hope and optimism. Exhausting? Yes. Fascinating? Definitely.

And the transport, the daladalas and taxis were pure chaos. There were a few moments when I genuinely thought we might not make it, but somehow we did — alive and mostly unscathed.

The full moon party itself was… fine. The music wasn’t really my vibe, but the place was stunning. We danced a bit, rested a bit, met some interesting people. Maybe not the best party ever, but it felt good to get away for the weekend and slip into a different rhythm for a while. The hostel was lovely too — and the breakfast? Honestly, one of the best I’ve had in a while.

Now, onto the next week. Hopefully with a bit more sleep — after that weekend, I really need it.

Week Six at Assalam

Before I begin, I should mention that the past two weeks have been so full and fast-paced that the exact order of events has become a little fuzzy. So while some moments might be slightly out of sequence, the experiences themselves remain clear.

We started with Sports Day, where our school faced off against a neighbouring school. Early in the morning we headed to a nearby field and spent several hours moving through different competitions: sprints, sack races, javelin throwing, cycling, football, and an especially determined tug of war. The heat was intense, but the students’ excitement never faded. The rival school won the football match, but we balanced the score by taking victory in the tug of war.

Throughout both weeks, my mornings began with permaculture work, which has been getting tougher as temperatures rise. One day we had an issue with chicks being attacked, but fortunately it was handled quickly. Along with some visitors, I also took part in a short compost-making workshop. Besides that, I helped collect fresh greens for the animals outside the campus, removed old tomato vines, and rolled up the ropes so they can be reused next season.

Alongside the practical work, I continued with several graphic design tasks. I created two roll up banners for Assalam’s eco tours and designed a flyer for the pottery workshop.

Our Swahili lessons were fewer these two weeks, mostly because the school year was ending and everyone was preparing for Assalam’s anniversary. The day before the celebration, we had a campus clean-up with students, staff and volunteers. We cleared the entrance area and garden, and at one point a gardener accidentally disturbed some bees while trimming branches. He ran off laughing, and some people even dropped to the ground as a bee flew toward them—which I had never seen before, but apparently it works.

I also prepared a permaculture presentation for the important guests expected on the anniversary day, but in the end it wasn’t used, as the guests arrived late and the formal program was skipped. What we did get to enjoy, though, was the performance by the Art Centre, which they had been rehearsing for an entire month. It was beautiful—full of rhythm, dance, movement and lights.

Toward the end of these two weeks, we visited Jozani Forest, the only national park in Zanzibar. Our guide was the sweetest and we saw plenty of monkeys, mangroves, frogs and insects. I loved walking through very different parts of the forest, it was incredibly relaxing and I had missed forests a lot. We also visited the butterfly sanctuary, which was stunning. They

showed us the larvae and cocoons, which was surprisingly fascinating. At a small conservation area nearby, we also saw chameleons and bushbabies.

Overall, it was a very interesting and diverse couple of weeks—full of activity, learning and memorable moments.

Week Seven at Assalam

The last two weeks have felt noticeably calmer in terms of workload, probably because our time here is slowly coming to an end. With fewer tasks, we could dive into several fun workshops. One of my favourites was learning ecoprinting—using leaves, flowers, and natural pigments to dye fabric. I genuinely didn’t expect the results to turn out so beautifully; the colours and shapes transferred far better than I imagined.

We also joined a soap-making workshop, producing items that will later be sold by the Foundation, and a chapati-making session that ended with a delicious snack… though it definitely confirmed just how much oil and fat are used in daily cooking here.

Mornings continued as usual with permaculture, and a few days brought particularly memorable experiences. One morning, I unexpectedly joined the truck heading to Jozani Forest to cut corn plants for animal feed. I had absolutely no idea we were going there—I left freshly showered, without sunscreen, and wearing non-ideal Crocs. Two hours later, after chopping and loading enormous piles of corn stalks (and watching people ride back on top of the stacks), I returned sunburnt, barefoot because my shoes gave up halfway, covered in dirt, sweating like crazy… but incredibly happy. I really love this type of physical work.

Another highlight was helping care for some sick goats. We first observed their symptoms— runny noses, coughing, and an unfortunate amount of fleas and ticks. Tina gave them injections, and the rest of us washed and sprayed them with anti-flea soap. You could literally see the fleas coming to the surface. It was chaotic, messy, and honestly quite funny because goats have so much personality. I really hope they recover soon.

Some smaller “side quests” also happened somewhere along the way.

At one point, I wrote a LinkedIn article about the women’s empowerment program through permaculture, focusing on how local women learn to raise chicks, grow herbs and trees, produce seedlings, make essential oils, and build small businesses from these skills. We also took part in the “crowning” trend for social media. And one morning I joined Maricica for a dog-training session. She’s great at it, and it was nice to learn how she works with them. The dogs were adorable—Bella especially loved playing fetch. Afterwards, we walked them outside the campus through the green patches, followed by a group of curious kids who, surprisingly, weren’t afraid of the dogs at all. Both the dogs and we enjoyed it so much.

I also created a short video summarising the Assalam 2025 school year for Rumbi, the head teacher. It ended up being a lot of work, because I had only one day to complete it and the footage was very chaotic. Sorting through all the clips, removing unusable parts, and piecing together some kind of coherent storyline was a real challenge. I slept only four hours that

night, but seeing Rumbi’s reaction made every minute worth it. She was genuinely happy with the final video, and that made me really happy too.

During the weekend, we took a trip to Paje, which felt like such a refreshing escape—good food, relaxed vibes, nice weather, meaningful conversations, a bit of shopping, and simply a change of scenery. Paje and the Assalam campus feel worlds apart, so the break did me a lot of good.

Free time was mostly spent at the beach—swimming, relaxing, watching the tides. One day we even had a yoga session by the water with the youth leaders, volunteers and some girls from tailoring, which turned out to be great fun. I also spent more time with Maricica and Mena. Sadly Maricica left yesterday. The end of the project is nearing and people are slowly leaving. It’s nice having the room to myself, but I do miss her company.

A random small memory that still makes me smile: because I’m tall, Sultan asked me to pick some “Erik” fruits from a tree she couldn’t reach. While we were collecting them, a monkey suddenly jumped in and grabbed a handful before we could finish. The fruit tastes ver sour, but I love it. Later the same day, the tailoring girls asked me to pick berries from another tall tree for them. Apparently I have become the resident fruit-picker.

This Sunday I’ll visit a spice farm, and the next days will be dedicated to packing, catching a last bit of sun, and preparing to return home—to zero degrees, a completely different world, and to friends and family I’m excited to see again.

I’m deeply grateful that I came here—for the people I met, the things I learned, and the experiences I never expected to have.