Certificates, Christmas dinner, and a lost phone

Finally everything is done and the students' certificates sealed in envelopes with letters telling them whether or not they have gained a place on the intermediate course. I spent about three hours last night sorting out little results slips that tell them their actual score in the tests. It was one of those evenings when you start to believe that computers have minds of their own and are using all their intellectual power to get at you! I delivered everything to the admin office this morning and handed over the first few envelopes to the early arrivals. I feel sad to be saying goodbye to nearly half the students but we have neither time nor money to train them all, so it is inevitable. I do hope that no one is too disappointed. I have a bit of a dilemma as a couple of students have found me on facebook and sent friend requests. I have never agreed to be 'friends' with students while I have still been teaching them before and I guess that is the best plan.

Yesterday I spent most of the day printing certificates. Beehive has a complicated design on their certificates and they are made still harder to reproduce by being stamped with an embossing seal. They all had to be individually signed by me as Course Leader and Peter as Director of Beehive. Each certificate had to be individually numbered and the names typed in by hand. I am sure it must be possible to do it all using a mail merge but Maston the IT guy who helped didn't seem to think so, so we did it the old fashioned way. They certainly look nice now they are done. The day was broken up by the first of the Beehive Christmas lunches. All the admin staff from all the Beehive businesses ate yesterday and today it is the turn of the construction staff. Charles was drafted in to help with the cooking and the team certainly did us proud. There was rice as well as nsima, two sorts of potatoes, salad and spiced, fried chicken, stewed chicken, beefy, pumpkin leaves, beans and carrots. There was soup to begin with, then an address from the Managing Director, then the main course and then fresh fruit drenched in thick, warm sugar syrup. It was quite a formal occasion although held in the same church hall where we normally eat lunch. I was the only mzungu present and was placed at Peter's right on the top table. I was interested to note that I did not notice this fact until about half way through dinner, I was busy spotting people I know from all the other parts of Beehive. I was the only Child Care person there though. It was a very hierarchical event which I thought was a bit unnecessary. We had proper glasses and bottled water on the top table. The next tables had plastic beakers and bottled water and the tables at the far end of the room had plastic beakers and jugs of tap water. It didn't feel very Christmassy to me, mainly I think because it was so hot. The Malawians don't seem to go in for Christmas decorations in a big way. The only ones I have seen were in Ryall's Hotel and therefore were I think for the benefit of azungus. The music was cheerful, loud and African, but not particularly Christmassy in theme. However a good time was had by all I think, although I missed the party part of the event as I had to go back to my certificates!

This afternoon I came back to Mitsidi and had a swim before the hot sun gave way to heavy rain for an hour or so. We had a Chichewa lesson on the khonde which was mostly revision and very helpful to me. I find that the lessons go a bit too quickly for me and I have found it difficult to find time for practice between lessons as I have been so busy. However the next few weeks should not be quite so intensive so perhaps I will get on better then. I gave Paul, the Chichewa teacher a lift home and left my phone on the khonde table by mistake. When I got back it had disappeared, much to my disgust. I don't suppose I will be able to get another one on Christmas Eve, so that means no Christmas phone calls, which is sad.