My accommodation arrangements were made long before i travelled. I filled in the application forms on-line.

On arrival, i was just given the key to my apartment and put on a taxi up to the block where i was staying. There was no one to help me or show me how to go about my stay in the block. I started discovering things through asking on my own e.g. how to open the main door, where to store my food. In a way i feel  some orientations can be done as soon as someone arrives in a strange place. Am sure this would just take a few minutes.

For all the sessions i attended, the teaching was conducted in English. Because many people cannot express themselves very well in English, they howevr sometimes used Swedish. I guese this was in an effort to try and emphasize a point.

Fortunately, i have learnt a few words used in Swedish. This has been very interesting.

There are some cultural differences found when one compares life in Sweden to that in Zambia. Here in Sweden:

• Too many people smoke freely regardless of age and gender.
• Lovers express their feelings anywhere i.e. on the road/bus/train/market place. Again this is done by the young or old.
• Pregnant women are often seen dressed in tight clothes.
• Children from as early as one month or less are seen carried in push chairs. The list may go on!

Yes, we were invited as exchange teachers for dinner at the Head of Division's home. Here we were together with other members of staff. This was a memorable evening.

I know there is the tourist centre here in Stolckholm, where they give all the necessary information. But to get to enjoy all these facilities one needs to have a lot of money.

Getting to know the where abouts of our countrymen and women helped a lot. We spent some of our leisure time visiting the homes of the Zambians who are working here in Sweden and we had some good time with them.

This is a very important program which to my opinion should not come to an end but continue for another term. When we have  more teachers getting exposed then we can together make necessary changes in our University for the betterment of our student's learning.

My earnest hope is that funds will be made available for more teachers and students to come to KI and to Zambia on this exchange program.

Change comes slowly but we will definately make a difference in our teaching and in our practice. We appreciate all that this exchange program has brought to our Institution. 

Week one:

Listened to the exchange students as they presented their research papers to their examiners.

Listened to the examiners' comments and had a discussion with my students after class.

Met with the other members of staff at the division.

Week two:

We visited the ANC at Gamlastan.

Talked to some members of staff about their research work and this was very encouraging.

Spent sometime working on my research paper.

Attended a two (2) hours meeting with AMSAK group working with breast-feeding.

Week three:

Visited the big delivery hospital at Sodersjukhuset.

Spent sometime working on my research paper.

Attended a three (3) hours session as a PhD student presented her research papers. This was very educative.

Had a meeting with the head of division and several isues were discussed.

There will be no teacher or student exchange next  year (2010) but some students from KI may come to Zambia, then they will use their own finances. We hope the program will resume in 2011.  

Information concerning my visit reached me in good time. All the arrangements for travel i.e. visa, air ticket and permission were done in good time.

However i was not told in advance as to what materials i needed to prepare for my presentations. Neverthe less this did not affect my work because the course did not require much search on my part. This is because what we were discussing was similar to what we were teaching back home.

From this teacher exchange experience, i feel so happy and humbled because of the research work i have seen here at KI . I think we  as teaching staff in my University also need to go into other research work apart from just supervising our students. We could also go on and work towards having our works published.

Being involved in research work will help us to be more positive and satisfied in our work. This way we will strengthen our Nursing proffession as a country.

The teaching methods at KI are more or less the same as what we do in our university. Our students also participate very well.

The difference is that we do not have seminars as our staffing levels are very low and we also have limited space. In our University, each member of staff is trained to teach more than one component of the course. We do more of lectures to cover the course contents and at the end of each block we give examinations.

We have warm student /patient relationships as well as teacher/student relationships.

Week one:

Attanded seminar presentation for three (3) hours

Attended the three (3) hours, Zambian/Uganda exchange students' research presentations to their examiners. 

Spent four (4) hours discusing with my two students on their research paper.

Spent four (4) hours preparing my presentation.

Week two:

Attended two seminar presentations each lasting for five (5) hours 

Presented my lecture to a class midwifery students- the five hours were shared by the four of us (presenters). We also had some role plays.

Watched a movie in preparation for the seminar presentation.

Spent four (4) hours discussing with my two students on their research paper.

Spent four (4) hours preparing my next presentation.

Spent sometime working on my research paper.

Week three:

Presented my lectuer to a class of midwifery students, we also had some demonstrations done. The day lasted for five hours and these were shared by the five presenters.

Attanded two seminar presentations that lasted for five hours each (two days).

Spent two (2) hours with my two students.

Spent sometime working on my research paper.

In summary my time in KI was spent as shown below:

•     60% lessons/seminar
•     20% student contact
•     10% Preparation for lecture/report writing
•     10% Own work and meeting people