GRS graduations have to be my favorite part of this internship. Today I went to the first graduation of the second school semester and while I sat there watching over thirty kids graduate I couldn’t help but have the goofiest smile on my face. I couldn’t really put my finger on why I love these things so much but I think it has something to do with all the joy and happiness that these kids exude when they accept their GRS certificates. They’re all so pumped to graduate and as soon as they receive their certificate all they want to do is show it off in front of their friends and family. All of the kids are extremely proud (and they should be), it’s really cool to see.
Most of the time the GRS Malawi team rolls pretty deep to these graduations. But this time I had to attend the graduation by myself because Rachel and our program manager were busy getting ready for this Saturday’s VCT event in Area 25. I didn’t think too much of the fact that I was flying solo at first, but as soon as the ceremony got rolling and I looked at the program I understood what being the sole GRS representative meant. I should have put two and two together earlier but for some reason I didn’t. Normally our program manager gives a 10 to 15 minute speech where he congratulates the GRS participants and thanks the school for letting us work with them. With Brian busy with VCT stuff, I realized that I was going to have to perform his duties and speak on behalf of the GRS team. After panicking a bit at first I only settled down when I started convincing myself that they wouldn’t want me to speak. “I don’t speak Chichewa…no one told me I had to speak…they wouldn’t want to hear what I have to say…”
Fortunately all of those useless ramblings in my head turned out to be completely false and the whole school did indeed want me to speak. The person who spoke before me was the regional Primary school advisor to the government and I’m not kidding when he finished his 15 minute speech with the following:
“Thank you so much for your time. The last thing I want you to know is how proud and happy we are for all of you. We hope that you will all continue to use the knowledge that GRS has imparted on you. I don’t have much else to say and I don’t want to take up more of your time because I know you’re all here to here what Eren, our GRS representative has to say. I know he will want to speak for a long time so let me introduce him now…”
As soon as he finished with that last sentence my panick levels started to go back up to code red. Did he just say that he didn’t have much to say?? He just spoke for 15 minutes! Did he just say that he knows that I have a lot to say…Oh no!
I wish you could have seen me stumble up to the center of the room, struggle with my Chichewa greetings, and attempt to make a managerial speech for the kids. In th end I think I held my own, I just focused on the kids and told them that they were all part of the GRS family now. My speech couldn’t have lasted more than five minutes but I gave it everything I had and in the end I think the kids enjoyed it. If nothing else, I’m sure they enjoyed seeing a silly Muzungu (white person) make a fool of himself!
Alright, well I thought I would just share that story with you because I thought it was fairly amusing. I’ll also share a highlight from the day before I sign off:
After the ceremony was finished and the kids starting dispersing to their various crowds I saw one kid, a GRS participant with a brand new certificate with his name on it, turn to his friends and push the certificate in their faces. He was so proud and happy and you could tell that all of his friends were incredibly jealous. I’m hoping that every single one of those kids signs up for GRS intervention next semester and something tells me that they will. I can’t tell you how cool it is to see kids get so excited about an extra curricular activity, especially one about HIV/AIDS.
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