Topics & Events

An Introduction

My name is Atsushi Sasaki, a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) from Japan. I have lived in Zimbabwe for 1 year, 4 months from December 2019 to March 2020, and 8 months from April 2021 to November 2021. I was supposed to live in Zimbabwe for 2 years, but the COVID-19 crisis forced me to evacuate to Japan for 1 year. It was unfortunate that I had to return to Japan for that 1 year, otherwise I totally enjoyed my stay in Zimbabwe.

My assignment and assignment place

My assignment was to work at Madziwa Teachers College as an Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Instructor. Madziwa Teachers College is located about 140 km Northeast from Harare, 30 km from Shamva. This college is the only teachers' college which is located in

Me and my colleagues

the Zimbabwean rural area, it is surrounded by great nature and students can concentrate on studying in this quiet place. Over 100 staff live and work together. This place is one of the hottest areas in Zimbabwe, with temperatures reaching more than 34 degrees, even inside a room. Comparing with Japan, Zimbabwe summer climate is more favourable since summer in Japan is not only too hot but also humidity is severely high, we can't live without an air conditioner. We also sometimes faced electricity and water shortages, but we were surviving under such conditions with smile and delight.

Sharing my experience and my passion

At work

As an ICT Technician, I optimized Madziwa's ICT situation from points of hardware, network, and software. ICT in Zimbabwe is 5 - 10 years behind when compared with Japan. I shared my experiences and introduced the latest technology, for example, I introduced RPA (Robotic Process Automation) which is the system that software robots work on computers instead of humans. My efforts were well received and a great experience for my colleagues. Now that all businesses are based on ICT and Digital Transformation (DX) is being promoted, I hope the college can follow this rapid ICT change and expedite their ICT revolution.

Greatest achievements

I visited some other teachers' and technical colleges in Harare and Bulawayo, so that I could compare my workplace with other colleges. I analyzed the differences in ICT investment, and proposed strategies to advance Madziwa's ICT development.

Together with staff and students from Bulawayo Polytechnic College

Overcoming challenges: making lasting impressions

Documentation was my biggest challenge during my work activities. When I started at Madziwa, there were no documents to manage the ICT situation. From my experience, documentation is the most basic and important business tool. I made a lot of documents to control the college's ICT, and I encouraged my colleagues to make requisite documents as well. As a result, they understood the importance of documentation, they even made documents when I was away because of the lockdown.

Zimbabwean culture, food and beverages

I will cherish the smiles & how everyone was always eager to share their hot plate of sadza

During my stay in Zimbabwe, I learned a lot of cultures. Their language (Shona) is somewhat common with Japanese, like "TANAKA" is one of Japanese common family name, and "SEKAI" means "WORLD" in Japanese. As for the food, the Japanese staple is rice, and Zimbabwean is sadza. When I ate sadza for the first time, I was confused because I had never eaten such food. Gradually, I got used to eating sadza, and I like it very much now. In fact, my favourite Zimbabwean food and beverage became sadza and Zambezi beer!

To interesting places in Zimbabwe

Under the COVID-19 situation, I could only visit Harare, Bindura, and Bulawayo, and each city was very attractive to me.

In conclusion

People in Zimbabwe are very friendly and smile very much, which makes me happy. I left Zimbabwe because my contract term had ended, but I will never forget this country and the warmth of the Zimbabwean people. I hope this COVID-19 situation gets better, and wish the Zimbabwean people a cheerful life!