How school assembly made me cry (a bit)

I went along to the whole school assembly and sat cross legged at the back of the gym behind the rows and rows of little kids. All trying to distract the person in front of them without the teacher seeing - surreptitiously tugging a shirt or whispering something in an ear.

 It is a school which is in one of the poorest areas around Hobart - so many of the kids have such complex needs and many are living in poverty.

The assembly today was a celebration.

These kids had been engaged in all kinds of commuity (local, national and international community) building activities and heaps of charity sort of work - from raising money so an orphanage in Cambodia could set up a fish farm to 'save the bandicoot' and so much in between. The teacher coordinating all of this had entered this small school into a competition to win a whole bunch of money that could help the school continue this kind of project work with the kids.

We were gathered and the waiting. The teacher told a suspensful story of sending off this form and waiting and waiting and hoping and hoping and all the kids were listening,  and waiting and hoping - and finally  "we won!!" and everyone - the teachers and the kids and the community representatives who sat up the front - cheered and beamed and clapped and whistled and the man from the bank awkwardly said his part and handed over one of those oversized cheques and 'oooohs' and 'aaaahs' sounded from the crowd - $50,000! for THIS SCHOOL!.. and the teacher unveiled this MASSIVE cake decorated in school colours, that sat grandly upon a trolley and all of the kids, despite knowing they should be sitting and listening quietly sprung up and looked and talked excitedly about how it was the biggest cake they had ever seen. the cake was to be cut up and shared with everyone, to celebrate what the school together had achieved.

It was just beautiful. It was all this beaming and laughter - watching the bank man and the teacher pose weirdly in mid-handshake holding oversized cheque while some photos were taken.

It felt like a community and it felt amazing to simply bear witness to such celebration