Fatuma’s in a steel-blue wrap
dress and flip-flops – which are
perfect for the setting. She wears
no sunscreen. Why bother? Her
skin has enough melanin to protect her against sun rays.
Before coming to the African
Leadership University, ALU, she
says, she thought she will “meet very
intelligent students and find myself
with no ideas to contribute when discussing serious topics. It is funny how
normal they are. They eat, play, sleep,
and get challenged just like me.” She
laughs again and covers her face with
her hands.
“As an ambitious student I wanted
something that took me out of my
comfort zone,” she explains. “Just restarting college. It’s not the safest
idea. But I have responsibilities.” Fatuma, of course, has never played it
safe. And at this point in her adventurous life, perhaps the only risk left
is to re-adjust to an unconventional
university, maximize her potential.
And so after receiving admission to
ALU the spring of this year, she packed
her bags and left Kepler to the island
nation of Mauritius, one of the most
beautiful islands on earth, and started
college.
“It is a new life,” she says, with a wideopen smile that expresses all that’s left
unsaid about the highly privileged
carnival that is her life
Her older sister, Tujiza, studies at Kepler Kigali. Her young sister, Fathia,
graduated from high school last month.
And her young brother, Karim, is in
third grade. “We are so close to our
mother and have each other’s backs,”
says Fatuma. “We have been through
so much together and that has tightened our relationship. There was a
time my sisters and I had to figure out
how we can finance education on our
own. We had only one year to break
through. We supported each other,
taught one another, and pushed beyond
out limits to succeed. Tujiza got sponsored by our close Belgium friend, I received sponsorship from my school, and
Fathia was sponsored by Imbuto Foundation. I was only 14.”
When we meet, Ingabire has just
returned from a Peer Group session,
where she was working on her Communication for Impact assignment. .
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