Every Friday evening at the school assembly, one student read the school news for five minutes. The school news was a summary of what happened in school during the week, this was done to help the students improve their public speaking.
This Friday it was Maksud’s class giving the news, and Maksud was the news presenter.
With heart pounding and nervous energy Maksud begins, “This week we had our cultural day on Wednesday and the theme was Busia. The grade one to three children learnt and performed simple dances from the Teso cultural festival, grades four and five held a football match and even had vuvuzelas to show how football is celebrated in Busia. Grade six students helped in distributing food during break and lunchtime while grade seven and eight students spent the day writing for the school magazine on Busia.’
After he was finished the students and teachers clapped for him even as he released a big sigh of relief, that it had gone well.
“So, how did you feel about speaking in public?”Mwakitawa asked Maksud when they got to class.
“I was really scared and I thought I would mispronounce the word vuvuzela!” Maksud said.
Just then, they saw their friend Halima running towards them waving an envelope in her hands.
“They are here!” She exclaimed.
Curious, they gathered at the teacher’s table as Halima opened the envelope to reveal photos from the cultural day that Maksud had just reported on.
“Oh these are beautiful,” Mwakitawa says as everyone chipped in excitedly.
On the noticeboard of the class, newspaper cutouts had been pinned showing different activities that occur in Busia.
For each newspaper cut out they were to pin the coinciding picture from their cultural day activities.
“Munene look at you eating chicken!” Maksud pointed.
Taking the photo, Munene walked to the notice board and pinned it next to a newspaper cut out of a family in Busia eating chicken.
Next Mwakitawa pinned a photo of himself as the coxswain in the boat race right next to one of the Busia boat race-winning team on the newspaper. The rest of the students each took their photo and pinned them on the board, before long the exercise was finished and the board was filled with smiling faces.
As they walked back to their desks, Munene chided Maksud, “how could you get pulled over by the grade fives during the tug of war? We were just about to win.”
“In my defense, I told you not to put me on the frontline. My waist almost broke in half from all the pulling.” Maksud replied as they all laughed.
The teacher then entered the class with a cameraman following her.
“Ok class you all performed very well and were awarded the best performances at the cultural day,” the teacher announced.
WHOOOOOO, YEAH! GRADE SIX RULES! They all cried out with others making vuvuzela noises.
They gathered for a class photo to celebrate, as they made funny faces for the cameraman.