Winnie at her Thanksgiving Mass

The start of Winnie’s graduation celebration involved a Thanksgiving Mass and it really gave her a chance to enjoy her favorite activity; singing.  That’s her proud Mom standing behind her in purple.

Winnie’s Graduation!

The happy day finally arrived!  But only after a night of me being angry with Winnie; she had gone out to do her hair, said she’d be back at 8pm, left her phone off (or never answered it for several hours), then came rolling back at 11:40pm.  She has GOT to learn that Dads worry.  But I didn’t go to bed mad, and we had a good talk until 1:30am.
We got up on the Day early, got dressed out (Gawd, how I hate suits!), took a few pictures and, because of various snafus, got going late.  It was a long and rough trip, but our timing was actually perfect: we missed all but the last 30 minutes of boring speeches before they started announcing the names of the graduates.  Winnie’s norm al ‘driver’ Becky (of which much more will be saids later) had gone to get Winnie’s Mom but all the confusion delayed them even worse)
Their graduation process is to only have the First Class students (which Winnie missed by 4 points) come forward, but the others are only announced and stand (or in Winnie’s case, wave).  Seated as far into the friends and family tent as I was , I could see almost nothing of what was going on, but she knew I was there: when they called out Winnie’s name, instead of the undulating call the Ugandans use (which most Americans would recognize from any Arabic movies they’ve seen) there was the loudest ‘Yee-Haw!’ Texas rebel yell that ever broke the skies of Africa.  The friends and family found it hilarious; I’m sure Winnie found it a bit embarrassing.  Sadly, Winnie’s mom was so delayed, we only ran into her later. But the heat was horrible and very little could be seen, so she missed little, other than me telling you that it was her good work that led to this day.
After awhile, I went to find Winnie and found they had placed her right next to the band (made up of prison guards, no less). I sat behind her to talk with her and looked to my right and there was Yousef and the Kika Troupe!  The performance troupe I’ve dealt with every trip.  I got some quick pictures and video and we quickly decided to arrange for them to entertain for Winnie’s party.  Yousef is insisting on only taking costs, but no way.  We’ll pay a decent wage to each performer.
Got to meet many of Winnie’s friends and classmates; she is, naturally, well-loved. Also professors, the priest and the sour-looking (and apparently sour-demeanored) vice chancellor. (Becky just told me he almost got stoned; not hard to believe at all).
We then spent a bunch of time and mileage finding a professional photo studio to take graduation pictures.  After that, we left to find something to eat.  I had warned the driver his gas was too low, and we ran out in an awkward place (though not too far from a station) we had to be push-started (I had also warned him not to run down the battery).  And I let my irritation get the better of me.   I come here to relearn not to do that; I haven’t been here long enough yet.  We did get to a fine restaurant and had a good time, then went home.  A great day, with just a few bumps in the road.

Graduate Winnie and Dad