Taylor House Opening/Handover

Although the staff house, built with funds provided by the Taylor Team who were here in May, is not totally complete we had set today as the day for an opening/handover ceremony as it was the last day of school before a four-week break and our last opportunity to have such an event with all the staff and pupils as we leave before school opens again. We also felt that it would be good for our final Canadian team here to participate.

It turned into quite the event with virtually the whole community being invited out for the festivities which started in the late morning and continued on for several hours !

Entertainment by the school Cultural Club (above) doing traditional dancing and the Drama Club (below) doing skits - several performances each throughout the afternoon

Women from the community also did displays of traditional dancing - above and below

Grade 9 students present dramatical poems and dialogue (above) and the school choir (below)sang beautifully throughout the afternoon

Several speeches were made to the assembled audience and invited guests

The school head, Kerby (above) and senior headman, Jackson (below) address the gathering

Guest of honour and keynote speaker the District Commissioner (equivalent of county reeve/mayor) for Kapiri Mposhi presents his speech

Jenny and vice-head, Stellah, (above) wait for special guests to complete their tour of the house before the ribbon cutting and then Jenny and the DC cut the ribbon (below)

A framed inscription was presented to Kerby to eventually be hung in the house when occupied. The text reads :

"Funding for this House was provided by Taylor University College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
and handed over to Sungula Basic School on August 1st, 2008 by The Simon Poultney Foundation.

May God bless this home and everyone who passes through it."

The event was a wonderful ocasion with excellent perfomances and speeches and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.