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!

TUJATANE TALES

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

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TUJATANE TALES

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Tongabezi Trust School

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Tongabezi Trust School