The Unexpected but Appreciated and Celebrated!

It was never a dream of mine to stay in any other country apart from my motherland Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is where the heart is, where the umbilical cord is, where family and friends are. Sometimes the unexpected happens, it happened to me in 2016 when I received an opportunity to cross over the ocean and further my studies. I thought twice about applying, I pondered on the idea, finally I completed the application form. The process was long, but I never gave up, I gave it my all until the end when I was finally awarded a scholarship by Irish Aid to pursue a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Ireland.

During the application process, I did not think the day will come when I will have to leave Zimbabwe to pursue my dream course. I had applied in Zimbabwe for this course, paid for many application forms but nothing came of it. The day finally came in 2017 when an email came informing me of my successful application, it said I had been chosen, I had been successful, I was to leave Zimbabwe in a few weeks. I did not know how to react, do I smile, do I scream, or do I cry. I was with a colleague from work at that moment, she hugged me and said I knew you would make it, let’s go celebrate. We ate ice cream and waffles reminiscing about how it all began. The colleague had also applied for a scholarship to go study in the UK same time and so we talked about how it will be in a foreign land.

It was an emotional time for me, surely God had remembered me, my mind went back to where I came from. A small girl from Chitomborwizi, a rural area in Mashonaland West, a cattle herder. Who would have thought that in my life time, I would be one of those to leave the rural area later on leave Zimbabwe to go and pursue a Masters degree. I shared the news with family and friends, they were happy, and we celebrated.

September 2017 came, I had to leave my family and friends behind to go where was to be my home for the coming year. I left it all behind, got on a plane and the following day I was in Ireland. It was my first time being in this part of the world. It was raining, it was cold, and I did not know my way around but thanks to technology you can always read and google yourself out of any situation. I was to stay in Cork, a town in Ireland and learn at University College Cork. I did not know what to expect, whether I was going to understand the accent of lectures, all I knew was I had to learn and leave this country with my MPH. I had two options, either to pass or pass very well. As fate will have it, I understood and coped very well, in fact I was always being asked why I speak so much good English. Thanks to Irish Aid, life was not difficult because everything was taken care of. All I had to do was attend lectures and make sure I pass. As expected I experienced some culture shock, the food tasted differently, and the rainy cold weather made it even harder.

Being in Ireland for a year made me realize that yes, we can cope in foreign lands, pose for photos and post them on Facebook but home is best. I am grateful for the opportunity, I came, saw, learnt and even experienced snow for the first time. Now I will leave a better person proud to be me. Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed my time in Cork, I made knew friends and got to interact with people from around the world. The girl from Chitomborwizi will from now on stand up and say, “hie, I am Nyasha Sanie and I studied my Master of Public Health in Ireland”.

Let me leave it here, I hope this will give you an update of what I have been up to since it had been a minute without me writing!