doctor

WHO I AM?

I was born in Zanzibar but my roots are in the Comoros which is the origin of my mother and my father’s family. My father’s two generations were born in Zanzibar. I am a mother. I have one daughter who now has two children. I am happy and thankful for who I am.

Be close to people, have contact with each other

It is important to be close to people to have contact with people. Really, I feel that everyone needs contact with another human being.

Family

I really feel that family is the most important thing. You need to take care of your family and be close to each other. When you feel that you have a happy family, then you can be stable and do a lot in life. You can do a lot of different things for the world. For me, a family is the most important thing and a priority. You must have a foundation on which you can build yourself. Even if you are doing something for yourself, you should also think about the family.

Work for myself and for others

For me it is important to work as best as you can, according to your best knowledge and experience. It brings joy to you, your family and the community you work for, regardless of what your profession is and what you do. It is difficult to find happiness if the community around you is not happy and is suffering from poverty. It also affects you, regardless of what you have. Your environment has a great impact on your life. If there are many negative things around, such as suffering, violence, rape, theft, it will not give you peace. You cannot have peace in your mind or in life. The question then arises: “Why did this happiness come only to me?” It is very difficult and a great challenge. I can really feel very happy when people around me are also happy.

Taking care of yourself

When it comes to Zanzibar people, they now care less about themselves than they used to. In the past, the body, the hair, the clothes were taken care of. Even old people were used to going to a traditional spa. It was part of culture to go for traditional massages, hennas. Now people are busy, too busy. They are looking for a goal in life, struggling for survival. They work excessively, wanting more and more, without caring for themselves. 

Do not lose love

Generally, currently there is less love. Maybe not everywhere in the world, but for example, in the past Zanzibar people were closer and cared for each other more. There was a lot of harmony and trust. People trusted each other irrespective of political or religious differences. Now political differences are a source of hostility. There is a feeling that one religion is better than another. Before people did not argue with one another, there weren’t so many differences. This is disappointing. Now, the harmony that was before, and that should be, isn’t here anymore. That’s how I feel.

– What happened?

I do not know. Maybe it is related with the situation of the family. Now the communities live separately while in the past, everyone knew everyone, and cared for everyone as in a large family. It was about trust, about relationships between people. Now if a neighbour is in trouble, the neighbour next door does not care. The “spine” has been broken … I do not know exactly how to describe it. Now people are more divided than linked, there is more discussion about differences than about love and being together. If we keep on going this way – that is underscoring political and religious differences – it will have a bad effect on us. I think that there should be more and more information and education about, for example, feminism, which is not well understood here.

Stop wanting more and more

Nowadays people develop and want more than before. They work, earn money and they care about this more than about taking care of their family and relations. They work more to earn extra income. What I feel is that people are more focused on the possibilities of earning more than on the family or the community. Although some work hard to meet their basic needs but many just want extra income to live a sophisticated way of life by comparing with others. For me the important thing is to live a normal life which will sustain my basic needs and sometimes being able to relax in nice place where you don’t have to buy expensive food or drinks. Just good food and favourite glass of juice can be enough for me. I would also like an opportunity to travel with my family once in a while. These are the basic things I want and are enough for me. Comparing with others should not point us to the need to keep climbing up. Everyone should be able to meet their basic needs and be satisfied. I am looking for a good word. What I mean is that no matter how much we have, we still want more and more. 

Dreams

If you fall into a routine, you do not let your life grow. To live means to be able to do what you want to do. Be able to realize what is important to you, pursue your dreams. Whatever gives you happiness keeps you alive. Dreams, willingness to meet them is important. Because it generates development, pushes people forward. We should have dreams. Some poor people are happy because they are satisfied with who they are and what they have. Some remain at the level of satisfaction with what they have, home, family, a meal. They say, “I am happy, I have food, my family is with me.” Some have dreams and pursue them. The people who have dreams and achieve them,  help develop the community in which they live. But if your dreams are very lofty then that can be challenging. Of course, that is all right, but … I want to say that happiness depends on our inner sense of what we think is giving us happiness.