Dancing to the Drums at Graduation 2012

My recent posts have shown that I have spent a lot of time galavanting around East Africa, and I figured it was time to share a little about the students at KEMPS as they are, after all, the reason I am here.

The past 5 weeks the school has been on holiday so that the national census could take place.  As teachers are well educated, they are expected to run the census, which is why the school has been closed.  However; this past week we have reopened and been busy preparing for Standard 7 Graduation which took place yesterday.

The day was filled with songs and dances from each of the classes from pre-school to Standard 7.  I led Standard 1 in singing Frere Jacques complete with actions and chimes for the bells ding-donging at the end.  They finished by wishing Standard 7 good luck and saying "Au revoir!"  Although not quite in key, they were enthusiastic, remembered all their words and actions, and my three chime players came in right on cue.

Below are several videos from the day which show the pupils drumming, singing and dancing. The first shows two Standard 5 pupils drumming for their class entrance song.  The second is of the Standard 6 exit song.  The third is the school choir.  In many choirs here it is common for one dancer to address the audience.  The pupil who does this is in Standard 4.  The last video shows pupils from different standards dancing a traditional dance called ngoma (which means "drum").  Unfortunately I don't have a video of Standard 1 as I was busy directing.  Enjoy my kids!