November 18, 2016
Star High School is one of TFFT’s partner schools, and we have a large group of scholars who go there. It is down a long dusty, bone-rattling road, quite near a Tanzanite mine. Definitely Land Cruiser terrain! Star High is one of the highest achieving schools in Arusha in terms of academics. My Family Cell includes 10 scholars allocated to me because they were the oldest and best speakers of English. I have really enjoyed the chance to get to know these young people so much better.
When starting a Family Cell, it can be an awkward stage getting to know you. I asked many questions and was able to learn quite a lot from not only what they told me, but how they interacted with each other. My plan was to do a getting to know you exercise, but that really was not necessary. I was the only unknown in this little tight knit group.
These young people live and work together, share dorms, eat together, study and have spare time together. They know each other’s business. Often I find one scholar talking on behalf of another, and often one looking after another. One person’s story seems to be owned by everyone. Young Janeth can tell you who doesn’t have a school bag, or who needs a trunk and gives me a list to follow up. When I ask who gets homesick and looks forward to holidays, I get a resounding “me” from just about everyone, but then Rose tells me Nasishivai wants to stay because she would miss her friends. They all certainly know a lot about each other. Julieth told me that Joyce had not been feeling well for three days, and Miriam and Monica are inseparable, and always have their heads inclined towards each other whispering. When there were 9 scholars present to start our session, they all knew who was not present and where they were. This group is a family cell already!
In the back of my mind when I am talking to these young people, I do think of the people that support them who often know so little about who they are, or what type of adults they are becoming. I grasp for antidotes and observations to share. I know Nasishivai is the Dorm Prefect and her biggest problem is dealing with theft. I know that Joachim is trying to get into ICT, and he told me that without his education, he thinks he would have been an agricultural worker. I want to tell people how Ndera is a caring person who looked after a sick friend, and how in a group of 8, three of them stated that they like to counsel fellow students. That surprised me. And do you know the one thing that they all asked me to bring them? Novels! They are valuable commodity in the dorms of Star High…
TFFT always tries to think of ways to build close connections between scholars and sponsors. Information sharing in the form of school reports just does not bring the personalities of our scholars alive. I hope that through the Family Cell meetings, we can all gain a better understanding of the lives of our children.