News from Pat about the JTTI!

It has been a while since the last update. That means things have been busy here!

We had three wonderful volunteers with us during the summer- Fabi, Danny and Basil. Fabi and Danny came to us via Brazil and Australia with many countries in between and Basil is from Germany.
Here are a few words from Fabi.

Jambo,

Fabi here.

In the world that we live nowadays specially in the big cities, our lives are a big rush with not much time for thinking about what is happening around the world. I always wanted to make time in my life to come out of my bubble to help people in need and it was one of the most amazing decisions of my life. Continue reading….

In June, we had the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2013 and during the summer we held courses for the new Year 1 students. They studied Math, English and ICT and then had the option to take a language course. French, Spanish and German were offered and now we are starting to see improvement as they can speak any language but KiSwahili in the school! Several students also took Mandarin Chinese with Liu Si from March to June so every day we are greeted in different languages. We also offered several short courses in Local Tour Guide and IT during the summer to outside students.

With us now for the September to December semester are Kenn Scott from Washington State, Claudia Widmann from Germany and Michelle Schulz from Denmark. Kenn brings an enormous amount of training experience with him and is escorting Claudia and Michelle everywhere.  Welcome aboard.

At present, we have the largest Year 1 class we have ever accepted at the JTTI. Sixteen students take up a lot of room in the kitchen and restaurant but they are eager and happy to learn. With ages ranging from 18 to 37 they are bringing some good experiences with them.

The Year 2’s have taken on the role of “senior” students and have all come back from their first, big, outside Work Experience training. They are now studying the higher academic component of their diploma program which includes Bookkeeping/Accounting and Food Cost Control. There is a planned school trip to Chumbe Island off the coast of Zanzibar. As part of the day they will be learning about ecologically sound tourism practices and snorkeling on the reef. Most of them are unable to swim so they will be floating on large rubber tires and having their first experience in the Indian Ocean.

Recent news for the JTTI is that we have received funding from Fig Tree Foundation, a Calgary-based NGO. They are supporting the JTTI with a portion of the funding necessary to complete extra training/accommodation rooms that are presently being built. We are very excited about this new extension of the JTTI and HABS project work here on Zanzibar.  A huge thank you goes out to Paul Gomes, John Moreland, and the Funding Committee and especially to Doug Paslawski who has worked tirelessly on HABS behalf to make this a reality. To see what Fig Tree does visit their site at www.figtree.org  Their principles are based on sustainability, the project being cost effective, working collaboratively in the community where the project is based (and also with Fig Tree) and the organization being transparent in their dealings with everyone

Other news is that we have been given an award by ZATI (Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors) for our contribution to the tourism industry on Zanzibar. The award will be presented tonight at their annual gala dinner. Thank you. It is lovely to be appreciated! To see what ZATI does visit their website at www.zati.org

We are busy and keeping the students busy. We are presently looking for volunteer trainers and teachers for the upcoming years. If you are interested and would like to donate your skills and time, please send me an email at habszanzibar@yahoo.ca

Pat

Here are a couple of pictures of the new diploma students.