Get very excited!  Alison and I have selected S4Si’s 8 new scholars!  We have told them the good news, which were three incredible moment of elated squeals as we traveled to each of the schools yesterday.  The night after we completed all the home visits, Alison and I were up until 2am discussing who of the twelve should be the “deserving” eight (of course they all deserve it!).  I don’t think I can express to you how difficult that night was, though it wasn’t nearly as emotional as having to deliver the bad news to the fifty girls who we could not help (four of which invited us into their homes mere days ago)…my eyes are glossing just typing these words.

I’d love to introduce you to the new scholars!  I’ll ask you to first get official introductions via the S4Si blog, and then to move below for my personal words on each.

Mirfat: Without a doubt super brilliant! Her English is superb, and she speaks it so quickly!  Her sister, Mulhat, is also an S4Si scholar (in Form III); but she definitely needs the scholarship since her father died last fall…and her mother has no job.  She has an adorable laugh is  very nasal “ennnh!”

Maryam: This is the girl I mentioned a few weeks ago, who cried near the end of her interview and then called me to apologize later that day.  She is super sweet.  She lives with her mother, 2 aunts, grandmother, and several siblings…her father is gone fishing at least a third of the year.  She showed us the small board she teaches younger students on, and it had some basic algebra principles on it.  Alison loves the fact she most admires George W. Bush (and not President Karume like 75% of the applicants); even though Alison is almost as liberal as I am!  Also, today is Maryam’s sixteenth birthday!!!!!!

Rahma: I will always remember her because of a few interview moments.  When asked why she wanted to become a doctor, she told us, “We know, mother is mother, there is no one like mother; that is why I have to help mother.”  Even now I think it is the most awesome sentence I’ve ever heard (and I can’t help respectfully cracking up at the wording!)!  I will also remember her because she told us that she cannot see well, and her glasses are expired but she cannot afford new lenses.  Finally, she told us near the end of the interview that she could not remember our names: “I have met you, but all I hear is: ‘I’m nisa, hansen, enhhh!’” (as went down the interviewer line and pointed to Nida, me, and ALISON!!  It was hilarious: apparently Alison’s new name is Enhhh!

Hadia: She is extremely sweet!  I love her because she wants to be an engineer to defy gender norms and be independent from her family and her husband!  She also loves to draw!  After interviews and narrowing down to the finalists, we returned to Lumumba to schedule home visits and she had a gift wrapped for us!  As we walked away from the school we opened it up to find five brilliantly colorful drawings!  One was a card saying Thank You to S4Si (even though no decision had been made yet)!  It was so touching, and it was obvious that she really loves to draw!  She wants to have her own career established, with financial security, so that she can open up a place to teach jobless people how to be artists so that they can lift themselves out of poverty.

Wasila: She absolutely needs this scholarship!  Her father died eight years ago, and things in her family were fine until last year.  Her home does not have working electricity, so in the evenings she goes to a neighbor’s house to eat dinner and study until she falls asleep…the kerosene lamp that she was using at home was hurting her eyes.

Nargis: She speaks pretty good English, but when she has to think of what to say she squints her face sideways and makes an “Err” thinking noise…very precious!  Her father just moved to Norway and did not say why or how long her would be gone…based on the information we have, it doesn’t look good.  Her application mentioned the problem of early marriage in her community, and she made it clear that she understands both the contributing factors AND potential solutions to this issue.

Saida: She smiles a lot a lot, but she also gets super nervous too!  Her home is above her father’s shop, which is on this market alley I had never been down before that reminded me of a cool urban central, especially since it was PACKED with people!  Actually, she doesn’t spend the night there, but at her maternal grandparents’ house farther out of town (and from school) in order to help her mom take care of them.

Asha: She is a bit more reserved, but is very smart!  Since she is the only new scholar at Mombassa, I don’t get to see her as much…but I am determined to get to hang out with her before my trip is up!  I’m hoping she’ll attend an event that we are holding this weekend, which I am SUPER excited about, and will have news of early next week!!

The fact that I have completed the major task that I came here for is still surreal to me at times.  The thing that excites me most is: this is only the beginning!  For the next four years these girls will be working through secondary school, and in early 2015 they will be graduating!!  In 2015 I’ll be twenty-six and I have no idea what I will be doing in life (or where I will be doing it!)!  Maybe I will be as lucky as Katherine, and return to Zanzibar in a few years from now!  For now, I am dedicated to enjoying my final twelve days on this island…and spending as much time with the scholars as is possible, considering the other work Alison and I still have left!

*sigh*

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