From Agatha:

Hello friends,

I am Agatha and I am from Tanzania. I have a diploma in Forestry, and graduated in 2017. I always had a dream of having a tourism company someday. My father is a beekeeper and does forestry too. He got an opportunity to study and travel abroad before and after I was born, and he learnt a lot but also made a lot of friends. I grew up seeing foreigners around, and I loved it so much I grew up wishing I could have a life with friends from all over the world. It is my passion. When I got older I figured out that I have to make money to live a good life, but I also want to fulfill my wish of having friends from all over! I thought and thought about what I wanted to do after college and pop! Tourism came up. This would solve two important things; making friends and surviving and having a comfortable life.

How to start and where was a huge challenge to me. I finished my diploma, but got no forestry job. I took the chance to volunteer in a hostel where my cousin used to work while looking for a job. I got a job in a raspberry farm which paid me very little money, but I was happy because I needed to learn how to work with so many people and bosses. But I needed more money to work on my dreams. I asked the office to pay more several times, and eventually they paid me twice as much. First I was paid 150,000 TZS which is about 65$ in today's currency, then I got the raise, but it wasn’t much but better. I started to save and worked for a year again, but I only managed to save 2,000,000 TZS (around 860$). I realized that with this I wouldn’t fulfill my dreams until I am too old so I started talking to my dad, my brother and sisters, convincing them to support me on starting up the hostel. They couldn’t help because it was too expensive. I had to talk to people and I got a family that joined me, but they know nothing about tourism. I did every manual work alone and got to borrow some money from the bank. In April 2019 I started looking for a house, and found the house which we are in now. Then we started renovating and buying and making furniture! It cost so much money on the way, but there was no turning back. Most of the things in the hostel are finished, and I got the very first guests from Norway in August 2019. I connected with them through my father and they are now close friends of mine. Then I got another seven guests from Norway, two guests from Switzerland and another one from Austria. Right before Covid-19 I had nine more guests from Norway that are also close friends of me now.

I have wished for this life for almost 15 years and now I am finally doing it. I worked hard and were happy for some months, but then Covid-19 came out of nowhere and now I am risking losing all of this. My friends are worried for their life, schools, family and their economy, and so do I. I have tried to keep myself up, but the tragedy is too heavy for me and everyone. I have to pay for a house I rented, pay back on the bank loan, taxes, water bills, electricity bills, food and so much more. This is not just me, but our city and country depends so much on tourism. I have tried to do small entrepreneur businesses meanwhile, but it doesn’t work out. There is no employment also. Some friends are helping out a little, helping me survive, but it’s hard for them too. There is so much more to tell about me and my hostel, and I hope to share with you in person some time. Thank you so much for reading.

Best regards, Agatha