Effort, technology keep girls connected

Members of Girls Time strain to see the tablet screen where their friend, Emily Bronstein, appears at the other end of a Skype call. With a nine-hour time difference, lunch break at school in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe coincides with Emily’s school bus ride in Atlanta, Ga.

Thanks to a hard-won WiFi connection from the grounds of Lulu Educational Academy — courtesy of the Giving Circle’s Smokey Dube — girls 8,000 miles apart reaffirmed human connections made in November 2017, when Emily and her family visited Southern Africa and the Girls Time club.

The classroom is illuminated only by sunlight through the windows. But once Smokey gets the technology working right, the girls’ delight is obvious.

Do you want to see my route to school, Emily, 14, asks that late March morning. She holds her phone to the bus window so the girls in Victoria Falls – population 33,600 – can see Atlanta – a metropolis of 5.8 million.

On both continents, school children were about to go on vacation, so the girls compared notes. Who’s staying put? Who’s going to see family? Most Vic Falls girls were staying home. The bus is usually the only transportation option, but it’s arduous and sometimes not affordable. Emily’s family is moving, she said, so she will explore her new neighborhood.

Later in the virtual visit, the Girls Time members gather even more tightly around Smokey’s tablet to see a video Emily made of her visit and sent to Smokey to share with her friends at Girls Time.

Many had never seen themselves in a photo.

Auntie Procedure and the girls are all smiles.

A couple of club members then circle back to Emily, confirming their friendship.

How are you, they ask again. When are you coming back?

I don’t know, Emily replies. Soon, I hope.