Thunderstorms, Power Outages, and Heated Debates

The rainy season announced its arrival with a raucous thunderstorm and tremendous rain shower that had everyone running for cover. My family was busy filling every available bucket with rain water and avoiding the occasional drop from up above as we sat and ate dinner. My room is not yet finished and in the meantime I am enjoying the intermittent quiet that comes between meals and class at the guest house. We had an excellent debate in the Diploma class around the question "Islam vs. Christianity". There was some heated discussion between the two teams and several moments of great laughter as one side tried to extol the benefits of polygamy vs. monogamy. It is wonderful to hear my students become so engaged and utilising the English they have to explain their position. Something to keep in mind for future classes...

This Sunday, I looked around the church and, for the second time this weekend, realized I was the only 'mzungu' in the room. I'd had this experience on Friday at Neema and Paschal's Primary School Graduation. The invitation said it started at 11am but when we arrived at 11:45, we were among the first guests. The staff were milling about with the younger students and the graduates were wandering in and out of the building. The DJ had set-up two speakers from which music was blaring and the microphone was giving off feedback throughout the entire program. The only way to describe it was organized chaos. Once things got started, the kids lined up and walked in singing a song. Each of the younger grades performed a skit or songs or both while their teachers pulled and pushed them into some sort of line. Then we were treated to a 40 minute speech about various types of loans by the local banking manager - most people were dozing off or completely bored halfway through. It didn't seem to bother anyone though.

What i found interesting was that parents were still walking in until just before the end of the ceremony and during the entire proceedings, people would simply get up and walk out and back in as they chose - I'm learning that this is acceptable behaviour. Once the official program was over, chaos ensued as parents and friends went up to congratulate the graduates and give them fake flowers or put leis over their heads, moments that were captured by three entrepreneurial photographers armed with ancient film roll cameras. If anything, this special event gave me greater insight into the culture I am surrounded by.