So Friday…more meetings and waiting on the lawyer BUT finally the transaction was completed and we now officially officially have property!! Woot :) With Title Deed in hand we left there VERY happy, 1) that Sanctuary now has a house, and 2) that the whole process is FINALLY over! (ok, this actually isn’t true, there are 2 more pieces of paper that we need to get, and should be getting on Monday, and THEN its over!).
Now, while I am definitely thrilled that we got the all of the paperwork FINALLY complete, oddly it was not the highlight of my day. Today was Speech day at Spire Road (the boys school), which is really just like an end of year assembly back home. All the classes get up and preform for their parents a song or a poem or a dance. While the boys at Sanctuary LOVE football, getting up and preforming for people on stage is a whole other thing, except for Ambrose. Ambrose loves to dance, and he is very good at it! He is the lead boy at the school, and leads the dancing in his group. So Henry and I went down to the school for speech day so that we could see him preform.
I know that he is not my child, and that I haven’t known him very long, but to see him get up on the stage and dance with his peers for all of the parents made me so proud. You can just tell by looking at his face that he loves it! (and the people around him love to see him dance). Let me see if I can set up the scene for you. A very long room (rectangular in shape) with a stage at one end, and then school benches all the way in the rows to the back, some windows, a few doors, and 100s of parents and siblings and students crammed inside (and I was definitely the only white person in the building). Thank goodness we had a window close to us, or I am not sure how we would have survived. Although we also had the speaker right behind us, and for kids that are still learning to hold a microphone a couple of inches from their mouths…lets just say I had a headache by the end. BUT a totally worthwhile one!
It was supposed to start at 2, so about 3 it got going. I should also mention that this was a 3 hour event, including speeches from head mistresses and local government figures, etc. Thankfully Ambrose got to dance 3 times, spread out throughout the entire program, so that made it survivable. Oh, I should mention the theme of the songs/poems was Child Safety/Awareness…which meant the subjects ranged from not walking alone at night, to how parents should treat their children to a whole poem devoted to STD’s. Yep…
Anyways, as the children were singing and dancing, I noticed that parents and other children were going up and handing them coins (for the good job that they were doing). I didn’t catch on fast enough what was going on during the first dance, but by the second one I got it! I guess the one benefit to being mzungu is that people get out of the way for you…but I made my way to the front of the stage and gave Ambrose some money..i’m sure it was quite the sight…but I think that it is in the small things that I can show these boys that I care…AND that I am so proud of them!
I should add that he also got a gift for being the best male entertainer! :) Oh, and guess what the prize was…a basin to wash clothes in…seriously! AND he was so happy to have it! What a different world we live in! So ya, that was the day. I don’t think I can express exactly how I felt…other than pure pride to see one of our boys excelling as a leader and in performance. And not just that, but to see him doing something he loves and is proud makes my heart happy.
I ended the night with going to The Keep and watching some traditional dancing. I cannot even fathom how those people shake their hips like they did…but it was amazing to see. Although I’m not gonna lie, they talked about audience participation..so that WHOLE time I sat terrified that they were going to pull me onto the floor…but they didn’t! lol.. Crisis averted! All in all a very successful day!
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