Here in Tanzania it is common to have graduation before the final exam for Form IV. The national exam does not start until November 3, but on October 9 we had graduation.
The concept is pretty much the same: a general celebration of the completion of secondary school, family and friends, a guest speaker, awards, leaving certificates... But there are a lot of differences too. The guest speaker is expected to make some donation or give a gift to the school. At this year's graduation even the parents were solicited for money. There is loud music whenever possible. There a lots of skits and performances by all of the classes throughout the ceremony. And there is a ton of food afterwards.
The guest speaker (a professor at a university in Iringa) was late this year so we had to cut out some things from the ceremony including a speech I had written. So much for being prepared this year... But the guest speaker did talk about some of the points I wanted to make. The main idea was to tell the parent how important their role in their children's education is. Maybe I can give the speech another time.
Last year the food was a big issue. The budget set aside for graduation was not big enough and a lot of people left hungry. This year we compensated. We killed a cow (which was stored in big pots in the room adjacent to the toilets...), we bought tons of rice and beans and veggies and there was plenty of food for all.
After the ceremony we ate and I was recruited by a bunch of my students to pose for pictures. After a couple hours, the music started in our main hall and the students had a dance for a few hours. I joined in with a couple other teachers. It's really easy to dance like an idiot when there are four tipsy Tanzanian friends looking like idiots with you. When the students saw I was dancing some of them came over to teach me some of their moves. It was tons of fun but my legs tired quickly.
Last year graduation was the first big school event I attended when I got here and that made me think that this will almost certainly be my last graduation. Sometime between mid-August and mid-October I will be heading back to the states. Everything annual thing I am doing from here on out is likely the last one I will do here. It's a weird feeling... More on that in the 18 month Update in January.
After the dance all of us teachers had a big dinner in the staff room and said a few words about how everything went. Then I headed home and slept hard.
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