Graduations in Zambia

Last Saturday we attended another graduation. We arrived at 1400 hours—as the invitation stipulated. We were early! The school boys were trying to set up a tent—for the honoured guests, I suppose. It was comical to watch the tent-setting-up for a few minutes. It's like I try to do when I go camping. I pick up a piece and look at it from all angles and then Richard tells me what to do! Except in this case—there were about twenty school boys looking at many pieces (and no Richard!). Anyway, about an hour and a half later, it was all set up! In the meantime Richard and I went to Seven Fountains Farms and had a visit with Rod.

When we returned, it turned out we were some of the honoured guests and Richard was the one to present the pre-school kids with their certificates. Zambian graduations involve lots of celebration—for little kids and big kids! When each graduate's name is called the mommy, aunty, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends (just about everyone it seems), jump out of their chairs and hoot and whistle and dance to where the graduate is. They present cakes, candies, cookies, gifts of all kinds and pick the wee kid up (and sometimes the big kids) swing them around and then the families dance back to their chairs.

When the grade 9's were receiving their diplomas—it was the same! Such a lot of excitement. Our friend, Mr. Gollie—who is not so well mentally—was there and he was really wound up, singing and dancing. The Administration announced to the audience to not laugh at him. They said if we just ignore him, he'll go away. And he did, eventually. In Canada, security would have been called and I probably would have seen him the following Monday in the hospital. I think I prefer the Zambian way—it works—at least for Mr. Gollie.

Back to the graduation—family members danced to the front for many of the graduates—except for some of our sponsored students, like Samson Hasuulwe. Unfortunately, Samson (He's the tall boy in the photo—how did they know that when they named him!?) has no family (except Isaac who couldn't come). Samson tried to look strong, but I think he was saddened that he had no mom or dad there for him. We brought him home with us and had spaghetti and chocolate cake and presented him with a windup flashlight/radio (thanks Barb and Ed!). He was really excited and we had a real nice visit. Later when Richard took him back to the dorm, he was seen hooting and hollering all the way to the door because he'd had a fun evening and he had a nice gift!

I like the graduations here—except for being in the honoured guest spaces! We are not comfortable at all with that. I took many pictures that I can hopefully send later this week using a different computer!