Student Exchange 2019: Student Reflections on Week Eight
This week, students across both Academies have spent time with each other in a social setting. The Aga Khan Academy Mombasa held a cultural night. Chanakya Basupally and Nazar Mohommad Amiri will share how learning Egyptian dancing gave them a deeper appreciation of Africa.
In Hyderabad, the students were celebrating Halloween. Faith Kasi and Brandon Kanyerezi enjoyed trick or treating and visiting a haunted house.
Mombasa Blog: Chanakya Basupally & Nazar Mohommad Amiri
On 2 November, Cultural Night was celebrated at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, in which each residential house was given different countries or regions across Africa to represent. Cultures from all over Africa were being showcased using different forms of art such as drama, dance and music. This event led us all to come together and appreciate the beauty of Africa and learn more about different countries. We both participated in our residential house’s performance, which was assigned to represent a country in North East Africa, so our house chose Egypt. Our house decided to perform two types of dances; one classical Egyptian and one western. There was a mix of group dances by each residential house as well as solo performances. The most unexpected part of the night was a fashion show and from this, you could see that everyone was filled with happiness and joy.
An interesting thing about the Cultural Night in Mombasa was that it was solely focused on Africa, which was the topic of a student’s MYP Personal Project. At the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad, we thought that the Personal Projects are mainly about a product or creating something that responds to the needs of a community outside of the Academy, but this Personal project was connected to the Exchange Programme. From this experience, we learned that there is more to African cultures than we thought.
One struggle we faced was with the attire for the event, which had to be African clothing. We didn’t have this, but our friends within our residential house helped us to find clothes. Overall, Cultural Night at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa was a fun experience that involved a lot of dancing, acting and smiles.
Hyderabad Blog: Faith Kasi & Brandon Kanyerezi
We were pleasantly surprised to find Halloween celebrated in such a grand style here at the Academy in Hyderabad. At first, we thought that it was not a tradition to celebrate Halloween here as we had school on 31st October. But then came the weekend and that was when the celebrations kicked-in!
Our Saturday morning was largely spent in planning and deciding our Halloween characters. Some of us wanted to depict a movie character while others wanted to stick with the typical Halloween characters of a werewolf and vampire. By the time we decided, it was nearly evening, but we were happy with our choices.
Then came the most fun part of all - visiting the residential blocks for trick or treat! The Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad has a very large campus and there was one point where it was very dark and we were unsure of where we were going – the perfect setting for Halloween! Once we eventually finished with all the residential blocks, we moved on to the Commons, where all the arrangements for Halloween were made.
The Commons had a face painting booth which was great especially for students who needed help with their Halloween make-up. It was bustling with people in costumes - some scary, some funny and some looked like celebrities! Some painted their faces, some opted for face masks. The Halloween carnival had lots of treats for us to eat. We watched a Halloween themed film and there was also a haunted house which was very popular.
Overall, we had an amazing experience celebrating Halloween especially in school. We hope to do something similar in Mombasa next year!
Stay Informed
The students have certainly had a busy week! Stay tuned over the coming weeks to see how the students are getting on with out weekly student blog posts and galleries – and be sure to check our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram!
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