It is jacaranda season in Arusha! For those of you who don’t know, the jacaranda is a tree that blooms a beautiful shade of purple in October and November. It is my favorite time of year in Arusha because it reminds me of the trees changing from green to hues of orange and crimson during the fall season in America.

In addition to it being jacaranda season, October is also planning season for TFFT! This year it involved a week of team reflection, strategizing, analyzing, budgeting, and program mapping. As much as this process is exhausting, I am always proud to be part of an organization and team that is innovative and focused on solving critical issues strategically.

TFFT is growing and changing, as is the Full Circle program. Full Circle is all about life skills education. This generally falls into the category of “informal education”. This means that it isn’t math or literature and doesn’t generally take place in the classroom. That being said, there is nothing informal about the planning and the strategic process that goes into implementing life skills education programs.

This week, Uswege and I met with the District Education Office to continue work on an exciting new project that has been in the works for months! Full Circle is piloting a project that will enable quality life skills education to be taught in schools in Tanzania. The success of the pilot program will be allow TFFT to impact thousands of primary students across the country!

In trying to remain innovative and improve our strategies to find what works best, we adapt the program to meet the needs of our students, the education needs in Tanzania, and find ways to maximize our resources to reach as many young people as possible. These exciting developments (which you will hear much more about in the coming weeks), are just a sampling of what Full Circle is up too lately! Activities like meeting with education officials, teaching workshops, celebrating graduations, attending club meetings, and planning for the coming year have kept us very busy! We are so excited to finish the year strong and begin again next year…

Just after I finish this coffee and stop staring out my window at the gorgeous view.