Skip to main content

"Gradation"






Today's cultural experience was quite a new one for us. Nursery school graduation (called "gradation"). Like many special events, it was an EVENT!

We hurried to get to the school by 9:00am, but given the gloomy cold rainy weather we figured that we would not be late for the "9:00am" start. On top of that, the head teacher broke his leg a few weeks ago and is still in the hospital in traction, so he was not around to "make things happen." So we helped put up the tent and decorations. I'm not sure when it started, no earlier than 10:00am. There were speeches, a sermon with an altar call (two folks came forward!
Pray for these two souls!), presentations by K1 and K2 (songs and recitations), a full debate by the older children's debate team, a drama and songs by the graduating K3 class... By 3:00pm, lunch hadn' t been served yet and we received the go-ahead to leave. We were grateful since we were exhausted!

The most interesting part was the presentation of the certificates to the young graduates. A name was called, a parent and relatives emerged from the parent's tent, grabbed the child, dragged or carried the mystified child at a near run to the presenter while the women in the escorting group let out a shrill yelping exclamation of joy. (We'll figure out how to get a sound file for you to hear this Acoli sound of joy, also used in church services to praise God or to greet a visitor in a group if the visitor brings particular joy.) The children looked bewildered at the scene but had a quiet sense of pride once they were back on terra firma looking at their certificate.

(One of our two Home of Love graduates with her certificate. It is VERY special that she has her hair braided - usually it is nearly shaved short.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d...
6 comments
Read more

New Stage of Life

Gracie has entered a new developmental stage. She now is active and has been rolling all over the floor. We cleared out a little living room so that she would have room to roll around - she's rolling front to back, both directions. She also has been much easier to get up on all fours - it used to take 3-4 adults to cram her into the crawling position due to her resistance. She now even spontaneously gets into a semi-crawling position on her own. In the crawling position she's been weight bearing even on her right arm (but always in combination with her left arm). She also has been rocking a little in the crawling position as if she gets it that this is a way that you can move! It's been so exciting. But it also makes her much more eager to be down with other kids and moving around. She's in a very active active stage, always moving, and wanting to move. She's also taken, not just a huge interest in other kids, but also interest in toys a bit more. She's so fun!
4 comments
Read more

The Foolishness of God's Calling

A friend shared with me how "strange" (and scary) our decisions appear to those observing our lives. Most people are barely surviving residency and then for me to decide to adopt, to decide to adopt a child with special needs, to decide to adopt this child from the uncertainty of Liberia, to decide to start my Master's of Public Health during residency... it all seems crazy and overwhelming to the observer. But what my friend did not take into account is that God's calling on our lives will not always appear sane. Our choices are neither noble nor insane if they are what God has called us to. These choices are simply obedience to sovereign God! We are not living for life in this world, we are in fact aliens to this world and shouldn't settle down and get too comfortable because our joy is in heaven. God calls each of us to "not waste our lives" but live each day with an eternal focus. With an eternal focus, we should not only adopt a child with disabil...
4 comments
Read more