International Students’ Association Handover Dinner

This is Africa, so this was done with much pomp and circumstance, and in good time – it took three hours, and that’s because we started two hours late.  But praise God – we still ended at 10.  When I saw that we were schedule to go until 10, I immediately requested that the theologians get first dibs on the first transport back to campus.  The transport to the Rest Gardens only left 30 minutes late, so we did really well on that count. 

The Rest Gardens is where we go for our retreats, and it’s a lovely place.  With fabulous food.  YUM.  The turnout for the fellowships (Association meetings – all the regional fellowships meet on Sunday nights) is pretty abysmal, so I didn’t think that many people would turn up.  I severely underestimated the draw of food.  We had planned for 150, and I suppose close to 100 came, which is great.

Someone had printed out the flags of all the countries represented, which was the best decoration, and greeted us as we entered the meeting space.  Except all the flags hadn’t been posted yet – the oldest and newest countries weren’t represented (US and South Sudan).  Someone brought the rest of the print outs, and the situation was rectified.

Since this is Africa, there were speeches.  And speeches.  I’m amazed that we still ended on time, but some of the speakers did very well with their time.  Perhaps they knew that we wouldn’t be fed until all the speeches were over.

Like last year, we sang the first verse of everyone’s national anthem.  Last year it was a capella, which was fine.  This year, someone had gone to the trouble to find the music for everyone’s anthem.  That’s Botswana, DRC Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, the US, Burundi, and I’m not sure who else.  And the Star Spangled Banner was in a wicked high key.  I hit all the notes, but I’m sure it was abject torture for everyone there.  When the MC asked if there were any Kenyans in the house, about half the group went forward to sing.  South Sudan doesn’t yet have an official anthem, so they played a patriotic song that was used to mobilize people to vote in the referendum.  It was a really catchy tune, and lots of people started dancing.

Of course, there were presents and certificates for the outgoing committee.  And cake, which was scheduled to be served before dinner.  African cakes (at least in Uganda) are generally spice cakes, with a hard icing, and tend to be on the dry side (comparatively).  The cakes aren’t served in slices; the cake is hacked, I mean, cut into cubes a little bigger than a petit four, then those pieces are put on plates that are distributed. 

I have long been a staunch believer that cake only exists to hold up icing, and when I scored a corner piece, that was fabulous.  Everyone around was a bit appalled that I’m only in it for the icing, and when there was extra, the server brought me some more pieces of icing.  I’m sure my body was in overload trying to digest everything.  When I was sick I really didn’t eat much, and then I capped off the week with a fabulous dinner and cake.  Oy vey!

Please click here if you’d like to see other/more/different pictures with longer captions.