17/01/11

Today was opening ceremony day for all of the schools Mozambique. It was scheduled to begin at 8am, so at about 9am everyone settled into their seats for the ceremony to begin. The fabric covering that used to provide shade has deteriorated since the beginning of last year, so everyone prepared to be roasted by the sun. These ceremonies are generally fairly tedious, full of uninteresting facts and people not using the megaphone correctly, so nobody can hear them. A few interesting moments were when our pedagogical director accidentally called our school by the wrong name (he called it by Emma/Erin’s school’s name, the other secondary school in town), when one colleague’s name was couldn’t be recalled during introductions, and when a colleague trying to open a large umbrella to shield the guests of honor from the sun sent one of the spokes straight through it, much to the amusement of the audience. The faculty sat facing the audience and from this angle we could see the dark gray cloud quickly coming toward us. When it began to rain everyone ran away searching for cover, leaving the speaker addressing upwards of 20 people. And despite saying that they would have to cut the ceremony short due to the rain, they kept talking. One soaked colleague remarked that they needed to stop talking, I responded that if we took away the umbrella protecting them, they would be sure to end the ceremony quickly. Generally those ceremonies aren’t too fun—thank goodness for the rain.
Class lists were posted this afternoon and all 9 girls from the orphanage who are in eighth grade discovered they had been put together in the same class. At first they thought it was funny, but then they voiced concern that it might be a bad idea. It is a terrible idea. I assured them that when Irmã Albertina, the school director, returned (she was gone today) she would immediately change that.