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Little lucky Choolwe
Article by Teresa Shelleni, Grade 3 teaching assistant.
 Hi, my name is Teresa. The name of the baby I am holding is Choolwe. The meaning of her name is ‘Lucky’. I named her after the experience of giving birth to her here in Zambia. This is my story.
On the night of the 13th August 2009 I was taken to the hospital to deliver my twins. When I reached the hospital there was no help available. I was examined quickly and told to wait in the maternity ward. When it was time for the delivery I went to go and look for the nurses on duty. When I reached the nurses room I found that they were all asleep. I knocked and knocked but there was no answer. I knew the babies were really coming by this time (I already have 5 children) so I rushed myself to the delivery room and gave birth to the first baby by myself. Then the nurses were woken by the cry of the baby. They entered the delivery room, not concerned at all about what was going on and proceeded to examine me. They then told me the remaining baby was breech and that they were going to do a forced labour. They made me try to push but I didn’t want them too, I knew it was wrong and that I needed to have the baby taken by C section. But I felt forced, the baby only showed one little hand. I was told I would now have to go to theatre to deliver the baby but I had to wait for the surgeon and it was a long time, over an hour. My second baby died. I was told she was just too tired.
 I was admitted for 6 days. During my stay I saw many mothers delivering babies being treated badly. Three babies including my one died during that stay and all due to nurse’s negligence. One night a lady was admitted to the delivery ward and given the bed next to mine, we were the only two in the ward. When it was her time she went to look for the nurses on duty. They came and examined her and told her to go back to bed as she was still some way off. When she came back I asked her how she was feeling and she said the baby is coming now. I had no choice but to help her deliver, something I had never done before. After we had delivered her baby the nurses came. Her baby survived but everyday our babies are dying unnecessarily due to negligence in hospitals.
Thank you for listening to my story.
Unfortunately Teresa’s story is not uncommon. Basic health care can be very hard to come by; childbirth is always risky and twin deliveries even more so. At the school we have a medical fund to help the students and staff with emergency situations. Sadly, sometimes the treatments necessary are out of our grasp. If you would like to help and donate to the medical fund,
please
click here or to find out more please
contact us.
Everisto
heads to South Africa
 One of our Grade 7 students, Everisto Chabalanda, started an amazing new adventure in September, moving to South Africa to study at Kingswood College. Having always been top of his class by quite some distance and being an award winning actor in National competitions it was clear that Everisto had something quite special. Starting school at the age of 9 and excelling in all his subjects we didn’t want him to end up at a secondary school that wouldn’t push him and help him explore his incredible potential. It was then that we took him to visit Kingswood College in South Africa to see if he liked the idea of a boarding school outside of Zambia and also to have some tests to asses his academic and emotional ability to cope with such a move.
 Everisto did fantastically and it was decided that he should start Kingswood in Grade 9! Quickly moving into G10 in January! We were obviously very concerned about his ability to catch up but 4 months later, he is back at home for the holidays and doing amazingly well at school. In his first term alone he has managed to start the huge task of making up 2 years of school, won a silver medal in his first cross country race ever, got three wickets in his first cricket match and came no.1 in his in-house Pop-Idol competition.
Everisto would like to thank his sponsors (The Graham Beck Foundation and Susan Sarandon) for all the amazing support they have shown him and he promises to work incredibly hard.
If you would like to know more about Everisto,
his family and home, just click
here where you can download the brilliant 10 minute documentary
'A day in 3 lives'.
“I would run out of words to thank you for all you've done for my life. I shall utilize your efforts and your time you've dedicated to helping me. I will do to the best of my ability not to waste all that you've done for me.”
Everisto
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dancers and drummers performed and welcomed all our very important guests to their seats. Senior Chief Makuni was amongst the special guests present as were the television and radio people! It was very exc
iting for us all. Mr Ben Parker, director of Tongabezi and his wife Vanessa, Director of Tujatane, both made fantastic speeches explaining how the School was started just as a Pre-School and never meant to get much bigger. Well look at us now! Happy anniversary Tongabezi! Bring on the next 20 years.
"On the day we enjoyed the Happy Anniversary for Tongabezi Lodge we were dancing and singing songs like 'I have a dream' and 'We can make this world a better place' and 'Mama, Papa, Give me chance'. It was so great. There were so many people and we were playing instruments like the guitar, keyboard and drums. Happy birthday Tongabezi."
Amulet G6 
This term we so very sadly lost an amazing young
lady from our community. A delightful student,
caring sister, daughter and kind hearted soul. Kenty
was just 14 years old and studying hard for her
Grade 9 exams. Unfortunately she had been struggling
to control her epilepsy for some years and during
times of stress it could become quite unmanageable.
After a two week stint in the hospital we were
confident that Kenty would get strong again but
there were complications and though we are not able
to determine the exact cause of death, Kenty lost
her battle on Monday morning, 16th November. 
This year's Christmas party at school was, as
always, one of the highlights of the term. All the
children participated in games and each grade gave
performances. Tongabezi hosted the party for us as
usual with Father Christmas coming to visit,
presents for everyone and as a special treat, a
bouncy castle! 
Zambia. The competition is tough and the results will be out in January! Fingers crossed that the majority of our kids will make the grade and continue on their paths to a brighter future.
Albino crocodiles are normally yellow. The digestion starts from the mouth. They move fast in water and they are very dangerous. A local crocodile at the farm called Maramba is the biggest male crocodile and is said to be 30-50 years old. Th
e Nile crocodile is the second biggest crocodile and it lives in fresh water. The males are 6m, females 3.5m. Once they go under water they can stay for 45 minutes without breathing. Their normal body heart rate is 72 beats per minute. The females lay 20-80 eggs at a time. The incubation period is 3 months. The oldest crocodile locally called Nagana is said to be 80!
