A Celebration to Remember

From the moment my eyes adjusted to the large room, I knew that we were in for a “cultural experience.” There was definitely similarities to graduation ceremonies in the States - caps and gowns on the graduates, family members carrying flowers and gifts, and plenty of colorful decoration. But, at the same time, it was definitely still Ethiopia. One side of the stage was occupied with several women performing the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony as elsewhere musicians were playing and singing very traditional Ethiopian music (with the sound system turn up to the MAX!).

The ushers quickly escorted us to our assigned seats – in the “guest of honor” cushy chairs that made up only the first three rows. Apparently, skin color alone earned us such a prestigious place since only one of our group was known by only one quite average graduate. Soon, the other cushy seats were filled in with the procession of respected faculty. It’s one of those times when you wish you could just sit in the back row and take it all in, instead of being front and center. Oh well, not today.

The ceremony itself was very nice - lots of singing (which got the graduates to their feet with hands raised). It also included some northern Ethiopian traditional dances which mainly consisted of shoulder and upper body convulsions. It looked as if the ladies might need a whiplash treatment following the dance. I (Travis) have been practicing it so I’ll have to show you my moves when we get back in the States. After some speeches (of which we understood 5-10%), awards were handed out to the top students. Rolled pieces of paper, medals, wrapped boxes, and the grand prize student received a brand new suit. The young man that won this suit was so noticeably happy that it brought smiles to all of our faces.

By far the funniest part of the whole event was the cameramen. Apparently, it is very normal at special events (like weddings!) to have multiple cameramen completely surround the action. Seriously, at times, within three feet of the speaker’s face were the lenses of three different video cameras with their operators blocking the sightlines of 90% of the audience (the picture here is a bit more conservative). Occasionally, they would turn around to the audience and shine amazing bright halogen lights in our faces as they filmed us. Our role as “honored guests” also earned us specific attention. Several minutes of video tape was spent on these white strangers who decided to show up, with shots close enough that they could count our nose hairs. Our ten-year-old traveling companion, Eli, was not amused and refused to smile when the camera was leveled right in front of his nose. I’d love to see the 30-45 seconds of footage of his aggravated face filling the frame in such a celebratory event. Apparently, capturing the action of the ceremony for future viewing is more important than actually enjoying the event itself.