Graduation at UMU

Yesterday's graduation, while long, was really nice. Having graduation outside reminded me of being in California. It was a beautiful day, a bit warm but considering that it could have rained, I'll take heat over rain any day. It was warm, but not nearly as bad as St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Indiana) in August.

The American Ambassador was the guest speaker. He was good. His talk was about uniting as a country and moving beyond tribalism. It can be a real issue in the country. Unfortunately, the divisions were exacerbated by the colonial rulers who played one groups off against another and played favorites.

He mentioned my name--being the first regular Fulbright lecturer to be at UMU--and he actually pronounced Birgen correctly. That's rare.

More impressive than the ambassador pronouncing my name correctly were the deans pronouncing all the graduates names correctly. There were over 1,000 and all those who received degrees had their names called.

One of my neighbors, Bill (a Peace Corps volunteer who helps at the Gardens--local eating and drinking establishment catering to students and Muzungus) has some good pictures on his blog.