The celebration of the feast of Our Lady if Lourdes was a big deal this past Saturday. The girls practiced all week for the Mass and program.
After Mass, everyone trooped to the hall for speeches by Sister Florence (the principle) and Fr. Chipondeponde (president of the board), and the local member of Parliament.
While speeches are typically cause for dread by those who make up a captive audience, the "two" hour program was filled out by talent performances by the girls: modern dance troupes, an original poem, songs, skits, and traditional dances.
The Bell Flexers Dancers
How they pick their group names, I have no idea. What I really like is that the modern dance groups are a mix of girls from all forms. It is nice to see the younger and older girls mingling.
Grandama Piano Dancers
Rawanda Traditional Dance
All of the girls on this dance group are refugees from different countries: Congo, Burundi, Rawanda. Their families are in camps run by the Jesuits and the Jesuits sponsor their education. Those who are capable typically end up at Jesuit colleges in Canada.
Ngoma Traditional Dance
A dance of the Ngoni people who came to Malawi in the late 1800 fleeing the Zulu in South Africa. The dancers in this group are from Form 1 (freshmen). There was a form 2 group performing traditional dances, but they dropped out, so I told my form ones how disappointed I was since I had yet to see their traditional dances. My plea was heard.
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In above sequence, the girl laying down and clapping is showing respect for her "husband."