My trip to Dar Es Salaam_Tanzania
Cheryl Cain (Nursing)

I planned my elective in Zanzibar with two of my friends on my nursing course at university, when we were looking into it we realised how much hard work it was going to be to organise accommodation and the actual placement in another country and then sort how we would get to placement daily when we came across Work the World.

Work the World was perfect for us as they sorted out our accommodation and all of the placement details for us based on our preferences; I chose to work in the Accident and Emergency department as well as the HIV clinic and Female surgical ward. Everything was organised for us so we could relax and get as much from the placement as possible, having our meals taken care of as well was a huge help as it meant we could use our free time to explore stone town and the local culture.

On our arrival day we had an orientation to the house and to Stone Town which included showing us how to use the transport (daladalas - which are a bit of an experience!) into the town and to the hospital, where to buy anything we might need at the local shops and market and where the restaurants were to eat on weekends. We found this orientation really useful as we had an idea of where everything was pretty early. The students who were already at the house when we arrived were also able to pass on a lot of useful information to us which is another benefit of Work the World, although I went with two friends I'd be more than happy to go alone as the environment of the house means there are plenty of people to go on trips with and get to know while you're there.

The staff at Work the World were lovely, Rehema is the best cook ever (and I am the fussiest eater in the world!) and everyone is really helpful and accommodating, it was my 21st birthday while we were in Zanzibar and everyone organised a sunset dhow for the day and then we had thou weekly house barbecue afterwards which was great.

Our first day at the hospital was spent looking around the different departments and meeting the matron who assigned us to our placement areas, although they were really accommodating in letting us change our area if we found there was something interesting we wanted to do, I ended up spending more time at the HIV clinic as there was more to see than what we had thought. The staff on the wards and in the HIV clinic were lovely and translated for us anything we couldn't understand. We were invited by the matron to the international nurses day on May 12th which was brilliant to see as we've never celebrated it back home, the day was about being thankful for everything they had and were able to achieve in the past year and what they hoped for the following year. We raised money to buy the hospital supplies and were able to get all of this within Zanzibar itself so the money went back into their community and we saved on our weight restriction!

The trips we went on during our time in Zanzibar were great and we also went on a Safari on the mainland which was amazing, I would definitely recommend getting the most out of your time to go on the excursions. The beach days we had were great too though!

I loved my placement in Zanzibar and really recommend Work the World, you get all of the benefits of an elective abroad, everything is so well organised for you, you can really gain a lot with your spare time and everyone is so lovely, I got to experience caring for patients with conditions I have never had the chance to see at home including HIV and malaria. I'm now saving so I can revisit Zanzibar soon!