Preparations for Graduation

The class of 2013 is graduating this Saturday and with David holding two titles here at Gideon Theological College, namely Operations Manager and Chief Financial Officer, he is quite busy putting in 10-12 hour days. The preparations started in Kenya during our R&R in August (!), where he went running around printing invitations and degrees, and getting an official seal made for the college. David did all the design for the invitations and degrees!

The invitations

The Bachelor of Arts degrees (Photo credit: Amie Cross)

David also spent some time during our recent trip to Malakal, buying various odds and ends for graduation (banner fabric, bottled water, cans of Coke for VIP guests, candy etc).  David and our friend Joyce (the GTC secretary) have also spent a lot of their time walking and driving to hand out invitations to the Commisioner of Melut county, the director of the Melut hospital, and other local government reps.  The graduation committee, which David is a part of, has been meeting twice a week to discuss details of the day. 

Sometimes there were 3 people in the graduation committee meetings.
Sometimes there were as many as 8 people.

Our friend Joyce has also been very busy!  She delegated the baking of cookies to the women leaders of the local church and these cookies will be served on the day of graduation to the 400+ people that will be present. 

2 weeks ago David presented a detailed schedule to the college of all the preparations that need to happen until the big day on Saturday November 30. 

I’ve also been amazed at the pride that the students are taking in keeping the college campus clean and the many hours they have put into slashing grass to make the campus look nice for graduation.The children of the campus have been practicing two songs that they will perform during the ceremony. On Friday David led a graduation rehearsal and on Monday he went around to all of the student housing doing an inventory of all of the GTC owned items (chairs, tables, desks, beds, etc). 

Other tasks David has been busy with is helping students format their final thesis papers and organizing a honeysucker to come from the UN to clean out all the pit latrines. 

Helping a student with his thesis paper

The honeysucker from the UN cleaning out our pit latrine

The next two days, David will be busy participating in a very important Board Meeting for the college as a new Principal is appointed and future strategic decisions for the college are made.