Primary School Visit

Last week we had the wonderful opportunity of visiting a small "private" school that is directly behind the church office building.  We used to look out the window at the school while we were living in the large suite waiting for our small apartment to be repaired.

Here are some pictures out of our window:

President Cletus Martin, who works in our building and is in the Lagos Stake presidency, asked if we would like to attend the school and watch some of the Primary 6 (Grade 6) students "practice teach" their class as one of their requirements. He is the PTA president at the school. What an experience! The pictures really say it all--those of you at home just look closely at the facilities, the surroundings and the supplies you see---but look closer at the cute faces!

The front of the building:

The front door:

Classroom we visited:

3 to a desk:

 

Cute friends!

A picture with the "teachers"

We were then invited to the graduation ceremony that took place the next week where we were invited to sit at the "High Table" and be special guests at the ceremony (we think now that they thought we might give a large donation to the school because we are the "rich" white people).  What we thought would be an hour or so ceremony turned into 4 1/2 hours of celebration for 4 Grade 6 students and 4 younger ones--we were never really sure what the younger ones were graduating from!!  They do know how to party here!  There were many parts of the ceremony that were interesting........

Here is the outgoing Miss Fedamic--

And here is the new Miss Fedamic for the year 2011-2012!

There were many performances of poems, singing and dancing.  We just captured a few moments on video to share.  The first shows the students dancing to a current song--wouldn't you all love to have a teacher like that?  Notice the older man in brown who goes to the front and throws money to the dancers.  That happened all during the day...I guess it is how they raise money.  Just a note--these were only 5, 10 and 20 naira bills--and the largest bill they have is 1000 naira and it is worth $7.00!

Next is a clip of a traditional Yuraba dance as performed by the students:





Just a taste of another Nigerian experience!