Månedens Spire i april!

Månedes Spire er Serafina, som deltar i en Fredskorpsutveksling med Spire!

Tell us a little bit about yourself! Who are you?
My name is Sarafina Kumwenda, I was born and grew up in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. It was Long ago when my parent went out to search for the greener pastures to sustain the daily life, but originally they are both Malawians and currently the whole family is back home because east or west home is the best!
I come from an average earning family of five, that is three children, two daughters and a son and am the last born. Since  when I was little girl I loved imitating and behaving like my teachers because mostly they inspired me with the way they showed joy on particular subjects and made the lesson fun and I wanted to be just like them.

I grew up living my dream by working hard in school, though it wasn’t easy for me to cope up at times due to the factor of moving out from one country to another which literally affected me psychologically because the education systems isn’t   the similar at all. But I challenged myself to “say am not the only one that has gone through such situations in life” yes my future was twisted and I was down at a certain point, but I tried to put myself together and carry on.

Today! As am sharing this story of mine my little dream has turned into reality, I graduated last year (2017) as a qualified teacher.

Being a primary school Teacher is the step that I made since they say one step at a time and education is the continuous process from birth to death, they define it and am further wishing to upgrading myself at least to the highest level, if I will have chances and opportunities to do so because education in Malawi is not for free and one need to support him or herself to obtain quality education and very few lucky ones are supported by the Government.

Why did you decide to participate in the exchange programme?
My motivation  for going on exchange was to experience another culture, learn new ideas in dealing with challenges  faced by youth, improve my leadership skills and expand interaction with international and local youth networks, because I have always wanted to be one of the change makers in my society by dedicating myself in different volunteering  activities, charity work and at certain point I would always feel that deep empathy that could put myself in a certain conditions to imagine what a young person is feeling or experiencing about his or her particular situation. This is what has pushed me to go on the exchange so that I learn more on how to address different challenges and be an inspiration to other young people and also I believe youth work is essential to building a better today and tomorrow for young and for large world.

What has been you best experience in Norway so far?
As a person who grew up in Africa for the entire life it was so excited to see the other side of the world and experience different culture, language, weather as well as food, and am going to miss the Norwegian traditional food “ TACOS!! “ Which is one of my favorite dish while here, and even meeting new people.

So far so good, it’s obvious that when moving to new country or any new place, the challenge can be how to get to know people? in Norway there’s some rigid norms that form the social behaviors and interactions. And I had to learn the social code and this was interesting experience.

What do you miss most from Malawi?
The first thing that I miss is my family as a great part of me, and times I really feel the gap of not being surrounded by them, though I used to be away from when I was at the college, but used to communicate frequently comparing to this exchange period that I have been using international calls is quite expensive. Additional to that I also miss my friends and the community I used to associate with.

Name one thing you are looking forward to do in Norway before you return to Malawi in June

One thing that I would love to do before I go back to Malawi is to travel to other cities outside Oslo to admire the other side of Norway.

Vil du lese mer om Serafina, og alle de andre Fredskorpsdeltagerne? Sjekk ut bloggen til prosjektet her!

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