6/1/08

Graduation was excellent. Everything went smoothly. The only real issue was that the kids were handed empty frames because their diplomas had not yet arrived from Jostens. There really isn’t very much to describe – it was a fairly standard graduation. The valedictorian gave an impressive speech that had everyone in tears, including herself. The staff all had matching lime green aloha shirts and mumus. The “dignitaries” were all invited to the library afterwards to eat a cow out of a cooler - no idea where that came from. There were reporters from Kwaj. The buses ran back and forth all day to carry the 400 or so people out.
After graduation, we thought we were done. We were not. The juniors ask the bus driver to take everyone out to the school for them to throw the seniors and departing staff a farewell party two days later. It was mostly an excuse for the seniors to come out unsupervised to Gugeegue and drink at the school. The average age of the seniors is about 20 though, so it was hard to get too upset.
Then, the day after that, the PTA decided to throw a farewell party at the school for the departing staff. The 6 of us that are leaving sat up on the stage, got to stand in line to get meat out of various coolers first, and then stood in a receiving line while all of the students and parents shook our hands, thanked us and said goodbye, and gave us shell necklaces.

Since I am flying out tomorrow, this is my last post. If you have made it this far, thanks for reading, and I hope I have managed to describe my experience here in a meaningful and entertaining way. See you all stateside.

-Mr. Matt