Slide Presentation

Oh yeah, and I had a few of the more capable computer students put together a slide show for graduation.  All I really did was show them how to use power point and adjusted the timings.  It had pictures from around the school, a few funny remarks (added by me), and a lot of the cheesy hand clapping sound effects.  It went over very well though and now the students are asking for a copy.

Graduation

This weekend we had the very first Form 4 Graduation here at Bakhita.  It was a little strange since they have about a month left school with the government certificate exams they still have to take starting in two weeks.  I was sort of on the Graduation Committee so I had a hand in the planning.  "Sort of" meaning that I had to attend the meetings, but I didn't have to plan or run them so it was easy to find an excuse to duck out early.  After a few bad experiences planning other various feast days at this school, I expected it to be complete chaos, but it went surprisingly well.  I thought graduation ceremonies were long at home, but this one started at 8:30 a.m. with mass and ended somewhere around 4 pm.  In the morning, it was mostly the girls performing dramas, dances, songs, speehes and poems.  An interesting drama was put on by the Form 1's warning the Form 4's not to "break their pot".   It was about a girl who didn't listen to the advise given at her initiation ceremony that she shoudn't run around with boys.  She went out with any boy that was handsome and rich, and then she ended up pregnant and alone.  It was performed very well and the lead actress is much more alive on stage than in math class (always falling asleep).  In the afternoon, there were more songs, a few speeches, and the presentation of awards and diplomas.  Everyone else got to leave, but I was convinced by the students ("but sir") to set up a disco from 4 to 6.  I worked out a system plugging an mp3 equipped laptop into the TV and setting a college girl up as the DJ.  They listened to a some Malawian music, but mostly Hip hop.  I tried to sneak in some decent rock and roll only to get complaints...that is after they got bored of watching me jump around like an idiot.  Again the complete chaos and mass distruction that I expected never happened so I'd say it was a success.

Fashion

In the secondary school, the students are required to where uniforms during school hours.  This includes a maroonish colored skirt, black shoes, and a cream colored blouse.  After classes and on weekends, they are free to where whatever they want.  In the evenings, they just change into casual cloths and many of them where an African Chitenji (wrap).  On the weekends, however, they have the time and motivation to really get themselves pretty.  Some go for the full-on African dress with head wrap.  Others go for designer-looking jeans, skirts, blouses, hats, scarves, sunglasses, and anything else they can get.  It's pretty safe to say that I am fashion retarded so they might be achieving the current standards of fashion, but even if they aren't they are giving it their best.  One Saturday, I passed a group of girls decked out in their finest heading to the boarding so I asked where they were coming from thinking there was a purpose.  They responded with a casual "nowhere" so I asked where they were going in my vain attempt to find meaning and got the same response.  So I don't know why they do it and apparently neither do they. They are just teenager girls in every good and terrifying sense of the word.  The day of parent-teacher meetings I let the girls use the computers while I was doing the parent-teacher thing.  After I was finished, I went in to check on them and was hit by a cloud of perfurm that nearly knocked me on my feet.  Maybe that time it was for their parents.  Who knows?

Vagrants

Coming home from Church on Sunday's, I have found the girls walking with boys or talking to a small group of them hanging outside our gate on several occassions.  Usually, I join in the conversation until the boys feel uncomfortable and leave which usuallly happens immediately after I greet them, but I have even told them directly that they should be moving along.  I realize its not bad, but there is something about the way they are just hovering around that is very vulturish.  I am begining to develop an involuntary reflex response in the arm that many Fathers might have which causes a motion that would be suitable for the cocking of shotgun.  I talked to the girls who don't seem too interested in the vagrants, and they said that when a teacher chases the boys away the boys say they don't care and will "keep the fire burning."  Knowing this might not help the twitch in my arm, but it isn't a problem as long as they keep the fire burning somewhere else.