She began working at Manta Air just a month and a half ago, with work now being the fulcrum that dictates her life.
Zaina used to work at Finland International School (FIS) as an Assistant Executive before her transition into the aviation industry. After her switch, her regular work times turned into shift work, throwing a proverbial wedge into her daily routine.
Life Before Aviation
When she was at FIS, she gave herself a two and half hour period of grace before her work would begin, with a proper meal, exercise and time spent with her cat, Steve, being the marker of a good day. Once a creature of consistency, Zaina would do weekly meal preparation with a focus on fitness and three meals a day for the 8 months she was at FIS.
She was carrying on with this lifestyle amidst a diabetes diagnosis in the beginning of 2025 and an ongoing divorce before that. The diagnosis already dampened what was already a trying time in her life, but she trucked on with the discipline she had built up due to the consistency and results she had fostered.
Life during Ramadan before the divorce was quite the cake-walk, spent with her mum, dad and husband. Food was made in abundance, to suit the individual tastes of everyone living in the house. Spicy rihaakuru and roshi was a must for her dad, finger food was her brother’s favourite, Zaina goes with the motions for what to eat and other food encompassing the table for her mum and husband when it was time to break their fast.
Ramadan and Life Therein
“I hate apples.”
A woman of varying tastes, Zaina loves everything leafy and green but cannot handle green apples, even though she adores everything sour, such as mangoes, lemons, gooseberry, bilimbi, etc.
She has gotten back into the habit of meal prepping during Ramadan, with a basic salad consisting of cucumber, tomato, greek yoghurt, salt, pepper, lemon and a simple salad dressing being her go to for Ramadan. Add on the tuna that she got for the fasting month, she has begun counting calories and her nutritional intake, a level of consistency she is trying to grasp once more.
Since the divorce, she lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment with her cat, a life she has grown to love. Her mornings and evenings have a focus on her faith, with prayer and reading the Quran taking up most of her time during Ramadan. Preferring the distance that comes with independence, Zaina is currently experiencing a 180-degree flip with her job at Manta Air.
She is at the mercy of her shift work, which has shown a reduction in time spent with family, especially during Ramadan. Breaking her fast with family has become a less-than weekly affair, but this gives her time to truly find herself and solidify her footing as an individual with the trials and tribulations she has been enduring in the last year.
An Artist Within the Fold, with Cloud-laden Dreams
“I want to become the person I once was, the person I envision.”
She wants to get back into drawing and painting, with a special interest in pottery having taken root. Baking courses, sewing courses and even more. She wants to learn French because she loves the way it sounds. She wants to become a disciplined, consistent and routine-based individual no matter how long it takes.
While she is proud of how far she has come, there is still more work to be done in her eyes. The solitude she currently has aided in that pursuit, with Ramadan this year being of building oneself back up brick by brick. And looking to the future, she wants to establish herself as a powerhouse in the aviation industry, with her shift duties being what saved her from the excuses she has been telling herself and taking that crucial first step.
