Party the Kenyan way

Make sure you’ll be here at January 19th, our neighbors told us a few weeks ago. Every year the school celebrates the graduation of the former students from class 8, which is the final year of primary school. And what a celebration! We started the day in the school kitchen, helping out by chopping garlic. It doesn’t sound like much of a job, but when making pilau to 300 people you need a lot of garlic. The party was supposed to take place outside, but due to rain coming in they moved the party indoors. The program of the day included speeches by the headmaster, the director and various teachers of the school, singing and reciting by the pupils, a sermon, a lot of food, and awards given to the top pupils at the school. Oh, and Ingeborg and I performed a song (“Eg veit i himmerik ei borg”). I sang and Inga played the saxophone. Yes, of course, we left an everlasting impression on the audience. The program lasted so long that it was perfectly accepted to leave for an hour or so (we went home and had lunch) and then return. By 5 pm it was all over. Nothing finishes later than 6 o’clock here (except supper, which they eat at around 8 pm), because everybody needs to get home before dark, which is at 7 o’clock.

Thie top pictures shows the pupils waiting for the program to begin, before they had decided to move it indoors. The bottom one shows the pupils moving all the benches inside. We offered to help, but were not allowed.