A Fond, Final Farewell

When I arrived last September, I was greeted by a principal who had been head of the school for just over 18 years. Quite an accomplishment indeed. But shortly after my service began at the school, I was surprised to hear that the principal would be leaving at the beginning of the following school year and a new principal would be joining us soon after. Her last day was planned for the 31^st of January.

I am not sure why, but it is common practice to have the farewell function (aka goodbye party) for a retiree months and months after s/he has left. The claim that I have heard on more than one occasion is that it takes a bit of time for the school, the teachers, and the parents to save up enough money to throw a proper party. So it was not until this past Thursday, the second to last day of the third term, that our school was able do things up right.

Our freshly painted school.

The tent for the farewell function.

The major planning started a few months back. Teachers and parents had several meetings to discuss the gifts the former principal would be given. After much deliberation, it was decided that the teachers would contribute enough to buy a Laz-Y-Boy recliner and the parents would collect enough to buy a new washing machine. Rather impressive gifts in my opinion. The walls of the school were to be freshly painted so as to look its best. A tent was ordered and a DJ was booked. And of course, the guest of honor was invited to attend. Oddly, it is custom to create a special invitation to invite the honoree to her own function. I thought this bit strange, to be honest, but I was assured it was common practice and it would be an insult if she was not to receive this special notice. I wonder what would have happened if she had responded “no” to being able to attend…

Some of the smaller, but still important details were left until the week of the function. The learners were busy cleaning the classrooms and the school grounds the day before. The teachers planned the menu (although since nearly every Zulu function has nearly an identical menu, that wasn’t that difficult) and did the grocery shopping the day before as well. And at the last minute (and by last minute, I mean the morning of) the program was set and typed up and copied for members of the audience to pass around.

The Girl Guides act as the welcome wagon.

The teachers are busy preparing the meal.

The day of the ceremony started out a bit hectic, but things settled down after the guest of honor arrived. She phoned when she was about 10 minutes away from the school so that she could be properly greeted and welcomed onto the grounds. While she was the principal, she was also a leader of the school’s Girl Guides (like Girl Scouts) and so they played a large part in many aspects of the ceremony that day, starting with her welcome. They actually formed two lines, one on each side of the road, to walk with her car as she neared the school gate. They were singing a typical Girl Guides song to give her a proper greeting. A bit of time was spent taking pictures before she headed into the room where all of the special guests for the day would eventually sit and eat. Not long after her arrival, other guests (mostly friends of the former principal) began to pop in to wish her a happy retirement and see how she was doing. When a fair number of people had arrived, the current principal signaled that it was time to begin. Many, if not most, of the teachers stayed behind in the kitchen to prepare the food for the refreshments, but a few were able to join the crowd of people sitting in the tent to watch the various students speakers and performers pay tribute to the former principal.

Some of the grade 5, 6, and 7 boys
perform at the ceremony.

The principal enjoys her recliner.

The real excitement came when it was time for the gifts. The principal seemed thrilled with the various blankets and other small items given by friends and individual community members. But she was simply ecstatic when she saw the washing machine and the recliner. She sat herself down and spun a round a few times before finally standing back up to give a speech including memories of her time at the school, words of advice for the learners and teachers, and a note of thanks to everyone for making the day such a great success.

For the next day.

Whether we started later than usual or things just took longer than expected, I could not say. But we did not start serving the meal until nearly half past two, which was quite late. People hurried to finish their food and say their goodbyes, and before we knew it there was nothing but piles of dishes left behind. Overall, it was a lovely function to thank the principal for her years and years of service and wish her all the best for a very happy retirement. I hope to have something similar many years down the road.