Graduation Day

Today was the graduation of the children in PP2 at Light Springs Academy, so the 5/6 year olds were all wearing their graduation gowns and hats, which was very cute. We left earlier so we were there in time for the ceremony, which was starting around 10. We sat down in the church, with the parents and teachers, as the ‘distinguished guests’. It started with a song from the older children in which they gave ‘flowers’/tinsel to Mum and Dad, it then moved onto the scores that everyone had scored and put them in order of their scores at the front and the head teacher commented on the changes in position that each for each of the children, something that doesn’t happen in England! All the children had performed very well, with most getting over 50% in their exams. We moved onto speeches from Wycliffe, the head teacher and then parents were able to voice their opinion of the school, it was quite incredible what the school has provided these children with and the parents stories confirmed that, with one student not being able to speak before he went to the school. We handed out lunch to all the children and parents and then we ate lunch ourselves. There were then there was some more songs from the children, one which you have to give money to them as a reward for sing and dancing so well. Dad then presented the certificates to the PP2 students who were graduating, and every certificate that was given got a huge African cheer. We gave out balloons and biscuits to all the children at the end which they absolutely loved and we then went on a walk to Wycliffe’s mum’s house because Wycliffe said ‘if we stayed then the children would never leave!’ We walked down the road to where Wycliffe grew up which meant that he knew everyone! We met his mother and other members of his family, including his 102 year old relative!

We walked back to the church and lots of the children were still there to welcome us back. We couldn’t stay there for long as we were going to visit Tom’s house and business, who is a member of the church we met last time. He lives in the most incredible place, with beautiful views of the hills, we went into his home and met his family- his wife, mother, 3 year old son and his 1 week old son- who were very welcoming and gave us tea. His older son, Hope, wasn’t too sure of the 6 muzungus! He runs a computer business in the town and we visited his business to see it. We went back to the hotel quickly before going to Wycliffe and Mary’s house to cut the cake for Jephtha’s graduation, who entertained us all by feeding us all cake off his fork and singing happy birthday! It was a very short drive to next door to Fred and Esther’s for dinner, which was lovely as always. Back to the hotel for a much needed sleep after a long and busy day!Read more