Floating in the air beats being forced to a box

Not all the things tend to go as planned. Not all the attempts end up succeeding. Not all the projects manage to get enough air under their wings to keep flying.

Our project had high potential, worthy reason and motivated eight volunteers full of ideas of how to leave a meaningful impact on women's life here. We were ready to give our everything to achieve a common goal and to work hard for it. We knew that in six weeks it's impossible to change the whole world, or a whole city, but we believed in changing something in one person's whole world; whether it would be one's mindset, attitude or view on things in general.

The problem was, that there wasn't a common goal we would have been heading to. What we faced with all of our excitement was a wall of counterarguments, lots of questions not being answered and lack of willingness to listen genuinely. We were sharing our reasons for choosing this project but never actually got to hear the local committee's reasons for creating the project. We didn't know, what was supposed to be the aim of the things we were asked to do.

We wanted to take ownership of the project but as a response to that we got long procedures to go through in order to get our ideas to the project agenda. The communication felt non-existing, when searching for answers just got you from person to person; there was always someone else who was responsible for this topic, and as we didn't get a proper preparation in the beginnig, we had no clue who that person could have been.

In addition to all of these, the NGO we were supposed to work with, closed after our first week, because of summer. Accommodation issues distracted us from focusing fully to the wanted achievement of the project as a team. Along the way, our group became smaller and smaller, as people left because of the chaotic situation and when finding some more promising opportunities.

Today the last two of us also resigned from working with the local committee. There was nothing more left than a name of the project and continuous discussions about the same issues without any improvement. We don't have a clear plan for the remaining two weeks, but we are sure we don't want to spend them stuck in something which doesn't exist.

Going through all of these, has of course been disappointing. After several days and hopeless conversations, our comments have too many times been type of "this one was the worst ever". As an AIESECer myself experiencing something like this has sometimes made me think if I still do believe in the organisation and want stay working with it after going back home. However, when wondering that out loud, I've also got good comments which speak for it: leaving after seeing problems it's actually about leaving the opportunity to make things better.

As for now, I still want to stay in the country and I still want to work for gender equality. And I still believe in making an impact. The next step is to broaden our working possibilities through our already existing contacts and searching for new ones. We still have two weeks to make all the best out of the experience. Challenge accepted.

2a#

Three weeks in the country haven't passed by without thinking how things would have been done in Finland. As the food is super cheap here and the temperatures semi high, Finnish foods and sauna haven't this time been the first things to miss.

But here is a list of those things which have been missed:

• (How) things work. Organisational level is here a bit different than in Finland. The culture is of course different and that for sure needs to be appreciated. I just have been having hard times understanding all the consequenses of hierarchy based culture; people are used to take things as they are said from higher levels, without questioning anything. Then when someone, all of a sudden would like to give an idea of an improvement, that's taken as an offense.
• Biking. Even though taxis are relatively cheap, it's always taking more effort to look for one, try to explain the destination, after a while getting the driver to admit that he didn't have a clue where he was going, explaining again, realizing that the name you have been reapeating has all the time been a name of a house (the house of --- family), not an address, and finally being too tired to fight for a discount all the detours.
• Toilet paper. It's a lucky day if the toilet happens to have toilet paper. Everywhere you go, it's better to have tissues with. Also to remember not to put the papers in the toilet it's a challenge.
• Card payment possibility. Cash rules the world here and it has been something you really need to get used to.
• Spotify. How great is that application and the possibility it offers for listening to music on the background. As it also has all my playlist I have needed to be creative of thinking what to listen. I truly hope I'll appreciate that big part of my life more when coming back to Finland. And yes, usually you can change the country in the settings so that after spending those two weeks in a foreign country you can start using it as a local, but apparently Tunisia doesn't have the application. Tip: take that into a consideration when deciding your Global Volunteer destination. :D 
• Library. The consept of a free space with nice chairs and proper tables, electricity from a power socket, wifi and maybe airconditioner just doesn't exist. For working you need to go to a café, which kind of means also always the need to buy something, and still usually at least one of the library benefits is still missing.
• Pasta. I didn't know I could miss something so easy but apparently it's possible. After all the soups and breads with souces, well, just an easy pasta carbonara would be amazing. (Yes, they do have pasta here as well, but mostly in restaurants and usually just as a side dish.)
• Yoghurt and muesli. Or maybe just in general to be the boss of your own fridge. And okay, the whole concept of living on your own. The freedom of owning a key and booking your washing machine times. 

All of these are still reasons to travel. It's learning about yourself when you learn about things you'll miss. And it's giving a new perspective for the life when coming back home. And having something to miss is part of having a home.

The wind of Mahdia

What would be a trip far away without spending at least one night vomiting. Reasons for that are unclear but the guesses go rather for rollercoaster feelings than food. Nevertheless, I think I'm never going to drink from the glass water bottles in the parties anymore.

However, as the trip consists only of six weeks (and weekends), not travelling during one doesn't feel like a good option. That's why also after that not-so-refreshing night the morning starts with heading to a place unknown with the louage.

This time the destination was a coast city called Mahdia. The atmosphere there felt more modern with newer generation taxis and the trouser legs which do not reach all the way to the ground so striclty. The best thing about the trip was still the wind, which felt amazing after too many degrees for too long time. Okay, I know I was warned about the temperatures here, but life is about enjoying the little things, like the wind. The possibility to breathe properly was just something I had missed. Also to wake up without being completely sweaty was super nice.

The waves we experienced in there were for sure the biggest ones I have ever swam into. While walking by the coast line everything felt so perfect that non-explanatory sadness filled me: how to catch the moment and remember the beauty of it? I guess the impossibility of that makes the moment. Collecting stones would be easier, but who would like to carry them with on a life journey?


Additional notes: The accommodation wasn't anything too fancy this time; we were cleaning cockroaches before settling in, and the view form the windows was nice but the windows needed to be open to see it from all the dirt. The price of the food is amazing; with 5-6 Dinars (around 2 Euros) you can get an awesome traditional dish with the starter soup, some side pasta, never ending bread with the sauces and water melon for the dessert.

The sewing factory

Loud western music is playing from the radio. Ventilators spin, windows are open, air is still hot and includes a lot of steam produced by ironing. Around 30 women are sitting by the sewing machines, standing by the tables cutting the extra yarns from the clothes, putting the ready costumes to hangers and then to plastic bags. All the work is done step by step and the clothes pass by every woman with a different task allocation; seam for the sleeve, seam for the trouser leg, turn, give for the next person, iron, new peace of fabric. 

Some girls are working only for the summer, some women have already many years' career behind them. The summer employees are in general happy with the experience they can get through this factory. However, working days are long, from 8 am to 5 pm and the word dream job means something else than this. One wants to become a professional handball player, for their daughters the older women wish the possibility and the strong will to continue their studies.

Among all the women there is one man working for repairing the machines. In his opinion it's easier to work with women, there are not so many problems then. At first sight one could have thought that the man was working on a different level, but this time it isn't about the hierarchy. The job description of a man is different, but the highest responsible in the room is a woman.

The clothes will be sold in France. Most likely at a much higher price than which is shown in the salaries. In the conversations many women mentioned the wish to travel to, for example, Paris. In reality, we are the first foreign people they meet. The music keeps playing and for that while different worlds come together.