Another year, another graduation. These graduation ceremonies seem to run into each in such a way that none of them seem particularly memorable ... either that or I am losing my memory. Each year, it seems, a similar routine of songs and dances gets presented to the parents and, much like once you've been to one funeral you've been to them all, there seems to be very little that distinguishes one graduation ceremony from another.
However, there was something, perhaps no more than a feeling, that made this year's ceremony different. It certainly went far smoother and was far more entertaining than any previous ceremonies I have attended. The children seemed far cuter, the different performances less tedious, and the time it took far shorter!
The show started with the formal, obligatory, introduction of the graduating students, and the speeches by the Prinicipal, one of the senior class Chinese teachers and one of the senior class English teachers (which was me giving my speech in Chinese!). But after all that came the colour and the fun, starting with the junior class who acted out a song called "Jump like a Kangaroo", during which they called out the numbers 1 to 10 and were supposed to do the appropriate number of jumps, but despite their teachers' best efforts, just ended up jumping whenever the mood took hold of them! "Jump like a kangaroo ... one (JUMP ... JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP ...) ... two (JUMP JUMP ... JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP ...) ... three (JUMP JUMP JUMP ... JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP ...)" and so on. Get the picture?
In other acts, children dressed as fruit, cheerleaders, characters from Arabian Nights going to a Persian market to buy Hello Kitty toys, various international cultural costumes (including Zulus) and greeting the audience in the languages of their costumes (including Afrikaans), a thumping-clanging-tingling orchestral performance, a dance to "Lord of the Dance" music and a show about 7 foolish fishermen who take turns counting their group, but keep forgetting to count themselves, so always end up with only 6 and are distraught about their missing friend who must have drowned! The show ended with the senior students singing three songs that I conducted (two English songs and a Chinese song that I didn't understand, but that I taught them to sing as a group anyway).
I hope the pictures convey the fun!
Dion Marc Delport
22 August 2006