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| Madrina, the graduate and padrino - her older brother. |
The past Friday I was the madrina for my 18-year-old host sister who was graduating with general studies and a degree in computation. My duties officially began on Thursday when we had to go to the high school and wait in line to sign the two official documents as a hired photographer snapped memories of the momentous occasion.
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| The beautiful graduate! |
The grand ceremony was held Friday evening at the local community center. (Gymnasiums or large auditoriums are not part of many, if any, Honduran schools – elementary or high school.) Rather than neat rows of chairs there were tables set up throughout the whole room which had been decorated by each graduate for their family and friends. The important people up on stage weren’t just teachers and the principal. Oh no, also in attendance were the mayor, chief of police and fire chief. Things are serious here!
The ceremony began with a rendition of the Honduran national anthem. Now, this is something that is part of the general curriculum in the Honduran education system. Kids are tested on it at the end of 6th grade, high school AND college! Knowing the national anthem generally holds more importance than other basic fundamentals such as spelling, basic math skills or writing a decent essay. That being said I could not believe how quiet an auditorium full of Hondurans singing their national anthem was. A conversation at normal decibels would have been louder than the singing coming from that room. Later when one student performed a popular song karaoke style, her audience participation was greater than that of the anthem.
Certain members from the “We’re important people” table shared some words and encouragement for the graduates before they took their oath. That’s right, an oath: right hand raised, repeating what the principal says and left hand on the Honduran flag. Oh yes, if you screw up here, you’re failing your country. No pressure, really.
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| Getting ready to take the oath. |
There was a special presentation in memory of a classmate who had recently been kidnapped, raped and murdered. Yep, that’s the truth of it. Just short of graduating this small class of 19 kids had to deal with that kind of loss. I remember how tight knit my senior class of 28 was and couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like losing someone right before graduation. It was quite sad.
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| The special presentation for the fallen classmate. |
Following the oath and special presentation came the handing out of diplomas. Pretty similar to what you’d see in the US. Names are called, hands are shaken, the awkward smile is forced for too long while the photog takes his pictures and everyone goes on their merry way.
To wind down the official ceremony all graduates were sent back to the tables with their family and friends for a champagne toast. There were a few tense moments there as a roomful of people who usually never touch champagne set to the task of uncorking the bottles. To my knowledge there were no cork related injuries that evening. Crisis adverted.
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| An 18-year-old serving champagne! |
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| See what I'm talking about?! |
And of course, no Honduran event would be complete without dancing. The night wound up with dancing to the DJ’s best reggeton compilations and plenty of awkward couple moments and aftermath of the girls who like to dance but are, more or less, prohibited by jealous boyfriends/husbands who don’t like to dance.
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| At least I had a good time dancing! |
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| It was even fun to get 'little sister #2' out on the floor! |
It was a great time, a new cultural experience and I got to see my favorite host family for a few days in one of my favorite Honduran towns. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back in another six years when my other “little sister” graduates!
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| Congratulations to the grad! |
Hasta la proxima vez…
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