Birthday Blog
Dear friends
I had a lovely time on the morning of my birthday opening all the cards you had sent. It was a real struggle not to open them sooner as they’d been sitting on my shelf for a while (I only gave in to temptation 3 times!). What a good thing you posted early – we’ve had no mail for ages now so anything posted later has yet to arrive! Visits from friends, a chocolate cake baked by Carol and decorated by Ginny as a piano complete with pianist, then a meal in the relaxed atmosphere of an Indian restaurant in town, made the day a happy and enjoyable one.
The next day it was back to reality with a bump, with ISTELU students sitting their English exams. Now with the exams over, and a staff meeting called for tomorrow morning to assess students’ results and progress, it’s all systems go for the graduation ceremony on Saturday morning. My house is bedecked with navy blue and scarlet academic gowns (30 of them hand washed and ironed), and 30 mortar boards, scrubbed and ironed. A friend has come by to help do some emergency repairs on some of the mortar boards and then we can turn our attention to refreshments which will be served after the ceremony, for around 100 guests. Anni went to the market this morning, coming back with a huge bag of peanuts for roasting and has now gone off in search of a tray of eggs. The wife of one of my colleagues is going to make 10kg of savoury crackers and Pastor John has been collecting up all the empty soft drink bottles so as to buy 6 crates of drinks. The wife of another colleague will make a mountain of doughnuts and that just leaves Ann who’s heading to town this afternoon to buy sandwich fillings – we’ll leave buying bread until early Saturday morning, then the assembly line will kick into action, making sandwiches at top speed.
The graduation ceremony itself will take place in the church this year, which will allow for students to invite many more of their friends and family than was possible last year when the church was booked for a wedding. Each new graduate can then invite 3 folk to the bash afterwards. We don’t lay on a meal as such because usually either their family or church will have organised something for them but it’s good just to relax for an hour after the main ceremony, before everyone scatters.
Thank you for all the messages of support following the sudden death of the college director, Pastor Aaron Kalenga. There will be many challenges ahead as the administrative council looks for a replacement. His years of experience and his expertise in Biblical languages will not be easy to find in another man. In the meantime it has been decided that there will not be a new intake for the degree programme this year. Those in their second year will of course continue. So the long vacation is about to start, with college reopening on 1 November. Entrance exams will be held during the holiday and those students who need to re-take exams will do that in October – they include several retaking English! I will need to leave a new exam prepared as I’ll not be here in October. My flights are booked to come to UK from 12 September to 22 October and I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone and having a break at the same time!
Every blessing
Bridget