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Tujatane Tales
Term 3
September - December 2007 Volume 11.3
The Minister of Tourism came to visit our school and was very impressed with our school and with the children’s talents. The children were given a chance to ask the Minister questions about tourism in Zambia. With their experiences of welcoming tourists to Tujatane, our children were able to really grasp the reality and importance of tourism in Zambia. Our children proudly performed some cultural dances. They also performed the poem on HIV/AIDs. The Minister left some words of wisdom for the children and everyone left feeling motivated.
GRADE 7 SIT NATIONAL EXAMS
 In November our 22 Grade 7 children sat their National exams. These children have to achieve high results in order to gain a place at a good secondary school. Our children had spent many days going through past papers and revising hard so by the time the exams arrived they were all feeling very confident that Tujatane would succeed in getting top results. A number of our children had applied to go to boarding schools which required them getting very high scores in their exams. Out of the 22 children in this class half of these children have either lost one or two parents. The results of the exams were out just before the new term started in early January, and the children did not let us down—their results are even better than our last group! We will give more details on this great success in our next newsletter, but would like to thank the sponsors of these children who are seeing them through their secondary level—it is a fantastic commitment and we are so appreciative.
Farewell Party for Grade 7 children.
It was a sad and also a happy time as we said goodbye to our Grade 7 children and wished them all the best with their next stage as they moved on to various secondary schools. The teachers urged the pupils to always treasure the role of their teachers saying that they must always work so enable them to follow their dreams. Mr Mutambekwa, their teacher, said that he will miss his wonderful class as they have left an indelible mark on his memory and he looks forward to seeing them at Tujatane each
holiday. The party was full of FOOD!!, speeches and dancing. Lots of fun was had by all the children!
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 Rob and Adelaide donated tow months of their time to come and build a music room for our kids. The money for this they had fundraised through their family and friends. I am in total awe of what they succeeded to build in such a short amount of time and cannot thank them enough for this amazing gift. It is a shame they are not here to hear the children sing and play – every time I go past the music room the happy noises make me happy! Thank you to all friends and family who gave us this music room, to Rob and Adelaide for their amazing generosity and to the Frasers, who sponsor our music teacher and therefore make music a reality! By Vanessa
Rob And Adelaide’s Visit to Tujatane – by Adelaide Roberts
We are just at the end of our two month stay – thank you to everyone who has made us feel so at home here! It has been a busy busy time. We arrived just in time to say farewell to Mathew Tema, who was an inspirational music teacher to many of the children here. WE have found a brilliant new teacher, full of creativity and musicianship, in Mike Zulu. Mike is a joy to have around, and I hope his positive songs will keep all the children (and teachers!) singing every hour of the day. The music room has been beautifully built, with bright red floors and golden thatch, a sparkling blackboard, and yellow walls. It is thanks to the hard work of both Rob and his energetic foreman, Mr Phiri that we are able to fill it with instruments, books, and timetables before we leave. It also has a bright new mural outside thanks to the artistic talents of many of the children, in particular Duncan and innocent from grade 4. There is now a full music programme integrated into the school timetable and the music room will afford all instrumental students the opportunity to practise, which h will aid progress. The list of children who are taking instrumental tuition, or who are showing great potential in the band is just too long to write down here – which goes to show that this is Not an exclusive venture – the aim of the Tongabezi music programme is to give every child the opportunity to enjoy and understand music, and to give musical children the opportunity to develop their talents as much as possible during their school life.
We’ve also created a holiday programme, for music scholars from Grade 7 who are laving Tujatane, and taking their talents onwards. The award involves a five-day music workshop at the school every school holiday (funds permitting!). Each workshop will cost £100 to run. If you are at all interested in donating towards the scholarship programme, or to any other part of the music project, you can donate as normal through the UK charity (just state clearly that it is intended for the music project).
 2007’s music scholars are: Matthew Siazibola, Kabeza Cheepa, Pride Nawa and Brian Mowana. Their talent and dedication have been inspirational both to the rest of the school, and also to us – we wish them so much luck in their future, musical and otherwise.
Not just fund-raising, but working to a deadline on one room here and one area of the school timetable really puts into perspective the enormity of Vanessa’s own workload- i.e. the whole school. It really is incredible to see what hard work goes here. By Adelaide Roberts
Tujatane is full of kind, generous staff, and willing bright children. It is a recipe for achievement, spirit and happiness. It has been a pleasure to live and work here, so thank you to everyone, especially Vanessa. We are looking forward to a concert in the new Music Room when we come back!
With lots of love, Adelaide and Rob xxx
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New Music Teacher
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Matthew Tembo, our music teacher, is leaving us to go to Lusaka to continue his university training. It has been wonderful having him at our school giving the children a great enthusiasm in music and with this encouragement, Kabeza and Matthews (Two of our Grade & children) began composing their own music and writing their own songs. It was amazing watching the children find their talents in music. Adelaide fortunately arrived just at the right time for us to advertise for a new music teacher and for her to interview and choose the best!
We are welcoming Mike Zulu, a musician from Livingstone who will be taking over the music programme. All the classes have their own music lessons on Mondays and then the children with a special musical talent chosen by Mike either learn the keyboard, the marimba, the guitar or the drums. WE are getting new members from the younger classes to join our band. It is very exciting watching our younger children learn how to play a musical instrument. We are looking forward to seeing our younger members write their own songs as we say goodbye to our Grade 7 children.
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Phinias Mweetwa writes: In the first week of August the poetry group went to Kasama for the championship level. We started off from Tongabezi to Livingstone at 18:30 hrs and from Livingstone to Lusaka we sued a big bus and we started from Livingstone at 20 hrs and arrived at Lusaka at 01:30 hrs. We stayed in Lusaka for one day and one night. The second night we started off for Kasama at 04:00 hrs and arrived in Kasama at 17 hrs. It is a long journey from Lusaka. We had one night at Hona High School in Kasama and the next day we went to Kasama Girls School where the festivals were being held and we performed our poem. We came out the best school in poetry in the whole of Zambia!
Paul Malamo writes: We also visited the Chishimba Falls which is near Kasana. We saw where the san people used to stay in a big stone near the falls. We learnt a long history that we will not forget in our lives.
All the children would like to thank all our sponsors for giving them this chance to travel and to perform. The cost of the trip was over US$1000 and without all our supporters the children would never have this chance. We thank everyone who made it possible.
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 Caroline from Grade 5 says “We were very happy to hear their National Anthem. They told us about animals that we don’t know and we know them now because they told us. They don’t live with hippos, elephants and zebras.”
In October The Reddish Family (of three generations) from Australia came to visit us. They were 21 in all! The grandparents have been loyal donors since their visit to us in 2003, helping with books and food for the children. They decided to come back to visit with their children and grandchildren and we put on some songs and dances to entertain them, and then they performed songs for us – together with a huge kangaroo that they brought with them! the children were all thrilled to have the performance and hope that they will visit again.
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LAPTOPS
Steve and Holly, sponsors from the UK visited us and on their return they sent
us 6 new laptops by DHL. These even have webcams – We have become
more advanced that schools in the UK! THANK YOU STEVE AND HOLLY.
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HALLOWEEN IN ZAMBIA!
In Zambia,
Halloween is not often celebrated – in fact most people do not know
about it. This year however, Tongabezi invited some of our children
to entertain the guests with some Halloween performances. Mr Himwitta and the children had a
great time preparing for this, and getting dressed up in scary
outfits. The children performed dances, trances, drumming etc and
had the audience entranced! They were all dressed in long black gown
with masks on their faces. They had a fund evening and were fed at
Tongabezi afterwards – so went home feeling very satisfied!
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OUR CLASSES
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NO. & AGES |
US SUPPORTERS can send
their contributions through Cogitare Foundation, in New York.
www.cogitarefoundation.org. They are a tax exempt
foundation which allows your total contribution to be sent through
to Tujatane, avoiding any charges. |
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Preschool & Reception
Grade 2
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 7 |
42 children, 3-7 years
22 children, 7-9 years
20 children, 8-11 years
24 children, 9-12 years
22 children, 11-16 years |
Please note:
Barclays Bank charges us US$30 to process each cheque we
receive. To avoid this and ensure that your entire
donation benefits the children, please send any
donations by bank transfer to the school account or
direct to the UK school charity. If you wish to make a
contribution please contact
vanessa@tongabezi.com for details. Many thanks for
any help.
UK Charity Status
“The Charitable Trust for The Tongabezi Trust School” -
Registration number 1096710 Email
jessopprice@hotmail.co.uk
Newsletters will be
put on our school website under updates and details on
making a donation through the UK charity are also on
www.tongabezitrustschool.com
Comments/feedback
welcomed
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