Sylvia's Journal

Ten of us have converged on Zanzibar from a few corners of the world. There are two Ashoka fellows, one from Delhi and the other from Dhaka. They are the kind of people who get showcased on the Stream, Al Jazeera’s must see program about what Millenials are up to. I only watch the Stream when I am on the road. I marvel about the intensity of their social activism and the cleverness of their inventions, often combined into a successful venture. I bet there is a relatively large proportion of social entrepreneurs in this age group. One of our two fellows, I turned out, was indeed featured on the Stream, some years ago.

We started the day with introductions, questions about ‘What does your name mean and/or who were you named after?’ ‘Who are your people and what values did they instill in you?’ and ‘What is one novel and refreshing idea you have heard recently?’ The stories made us laugh and inspired us.

I am the insider/outsider in this group – insider because I am a member of the project team and outsider because I am only facilitating the work of this group of people (I am not a member of this nascent Advisory Council). But also because the world of behavior change (for health) communication is a parallel world to the one I inhibit that features management and leadership. Of course, when you think of it, we are all engaged in behavior change, our own. That is particularly true for me as I am learning to be a coach.

The work of the group is to form itself into a Council that will advise the formation of a Marketplace for organizations and people involved in ‘communication for health.’ We mindmapped the accomplishments and challenges in the field and looked at examples of effective communities of practice. Today we will put these together as we sketch a first vision of what this ‘thing’ we are calling into being might look like. We worked long and hard – beyond the planned ending time – because we had run into a challenging set of questions. The group wrestled with these for a bit until we got some traction and then we called it a day.

We had our dinner last night at Freddy Mercury’s restaurant. I had to be reminded that Freddy was a member of the band Queen. He was born on this island, destined for musical greatness according to the intro on the menu. There were pictures everywhere of Freddy and his band and the women’s bathroom was labeled Queen (men’s was Kings of course). Despite our multiple requests for Bohemian Rhapsody we were fed Brittney Spears and the likes alongside our meal. The food wasn’t quite in the same league. Sitting next to the ocean you cannot go all that wrong with skewered prawns, but I counted more heads than tails.

The restaurant offered cocktails with names designed to get foreigners to buy overpriced drinks that are in the ‘meh’ category – who could decline a ‘Romney’ or an ‘Obama,’ There were adjectives attached to those but I can’t remember. I stuck to South African white wine.

The restaurant was a 30 minute (slow) walk from the hotel and did little for my ankle. Before the operation I could not have walked both ways. Now I had trouble with the return trip only – only a small comfort. The icepack I brought, which in the hospital seemed reusable, doesn’t want to close anymore. I will have to fumble with plastic bags with ice cubes again. The operation does not appear to have improved the situation as much as I had hoped. My ankle (tibia/talus) joint has gotten stuck a few times again and the pain radiates out into my ankle bones. But right now I don’t want to think about what next as such thoughts are even more painful.