Sakeji School, and its surroundings, is a special place and the students that go on the tour have a wonderful, action packed weekend, with lots of challenges. It is impossible to do the tour justice, here, but what I have done is give you a report (which doesn't necessarily flow very well with tense changes and thought jumps) made up from all the students' reports to give a flavour of the activities and especially the emotions of what the children experienced in 5 days. Needless to say this cannot be brief as the kids did so much that was new and had a lot to say about it all. I hope you enjoy reading.
I am very grateful to Sakeji for hosting us so perfectly, staff and students, to Mrs Kirk and Miss Clara for their exceptional care and involvement and to the school leadership for letting us go. It is such a great opportunity to take the kids to a completely new environment, totally out of their comfort zones and let them deal with the individual experiences as they come, thick and fast. The most exciting element is to observe the spiritual impact that this place, its people and God's Word has on some of the children. Thank you,
Mr Grove
Day 1
On Friday the 3rd of July 20 students from Amano Christian School went to Sakeji Mission School. Fourteen of them were grade 6-7 and the rest were secondary. Our drive was supposed to be 8 – 9 hours but due to our [broken] roof rack it cost us much time. The bus ride, I hated the bus ride, it was bumpy and there were lots of problems with the roof rack, for example the bags fell out from the sides.
Then we reached at 19.00 we prayed and had supper. We had pizza which is my favourite food. We ate supper and went to the hall. I struggled with the table manners here because Amano is different, Amano isn’t as strict as Sakeji.
Now we went to the hall, I found people sitting with an empty chair beside them and then the headmaster [Mr Ronald] said, “You’ll have to make friends at Sakeji, go and pick a partner to become a friend of them.” I sat next to a girl and I liked her because she was really kind and also we had a lot of things in common. Her name was Watela. After we talked with each other and introduced each other they brought around a snack which was a very sweet, sticky chocolate snack and we had some juice. While we were eating we could get to know the same person more or meet others. Mr Ronald showed us the time table and talked a bit about the activities and made sure we understood everything and after he went through everything Mr Towse talked to us about making the most of everything.
Day 2
We woke up and went to have breakfast of porridge, rice cakes and toast. We then went for a tour of the school grounds while the Sakeji students went to have their sports day. Mr Grove showed us the memorial pond of the founders of Sakeji, Dr and Mrs Walter Fisher, who founded the school in 1925. I liked going around the school and seeing the dorms, especially liked seeing the grave yard and was particularly moved by a story Mr Grove told us about a boy that died (at just the age of ten) of rabies during his time at Sakeji. This boy was famous for his strong faith and at the end of his life when he had been afflicted with rabies he told the school nurse at the time that he was not afraid to die. This was one of the situations that really helped me to grow in my relationship with God during my time at Sakeji.
After the tour of the school we went to the power station [1 hour drive away] which uses hydro-electricity to supply power to all the surrounding areas. We then had a tour of the power plant [by Mr Silva] and we saw the big machines that are used to create power. This was new for I have never seen a dam before, well I have in photographs but this was different you can only appreciate the scale of it if you go and see it in person. The noise was deafening as I approached the generator room, I remember thinking, “How can our country ever have a power crisis if we built more of these?”
Mr Silva showed us the control room and the turbine. After that we asked him questions. The tour was amazing and we went for a swim in the Zambezi river, the current was really strong. We could go and explore so we went through the trees walking then we went in the rapids and explored for a bit. Me, Freddy, Dali, Keysha, Caitlin, Tinash, Taonga and Mwaya went on an exploring mission and came back then it was time to go. The funniest and scariest incident when we were climbing up the rapids was when Tinashe slipped and got carried away by the current and started reciting his will. The rock we were sliding on had the texture of sandpaper. No-one left the rapids without some scratch or bruise. This was an unforgettable experience and one I shall remember as long as I shall live. I enjoyed our trip to the hydro so much I was reluctant to leave.
When we got back to Sakeji we went to play in the pool and in the river. The pool’s colour wasn’t the most appealing because it was black and cold. The pool is fed by the Sakeji River that runs next to it. I didn’t go in until the last few minutes and I didn’t stay in long because it was ICE COLD. The swim time is late afternoon at this time the water is cold enough to turn you purple. This is daytime, I now dread the early morning swim. As I write my nose still drips and I am tired of the sound of my own sniffing. Day two was not bad though. I would gladly freeze again to relive my experiences at the rapids.
Then we went for supper and watched junior half term video. And then we went to play bench ball in their hall and after that we went to bed.
Day 3
The next day [Sunday] it was a sleep in and after that it was breakfast. After breakfast it was free time and we played on the helicopter and the tree house. You could also ride on a unicycle, play basketball or jump on the trampoline. Then it was senior Bible class, that speech really spoke to me that you can change your family’s future and it doesn’t matter if your ancestors are bad, you can change it. Mr Grove was speaking about Ahaz [and Hezekiah]. After that Amano students went for a walk in the bush right up to the airstrip. The walk wasn’t too long but we were still tired. The airstrip was huge and clear with short grass. We walked all the way down to the dust road. I really enjoyed when we went up a road off the back of the airstrip where the sand was really warm, soft and nice to walk in bare feet. Along the way we also saw some more of Frederick’s “buffaloes”. From here we saw animals [Sable] and a chameleon. We hid the chameleon behind our backs and went to Miss Clara and showed her and she SCREAMED and ran away!
After free time I had one of the best roasts I have ever had. After the first course we had ice cream and fudge for dessert. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! We had beef and gravy, potatoes and vegetables.
Then we had a Bible quiz called 'Jeopardy', Amano and Sakeji together but Sakeji [students] had an advantage because they had studied the topics in school before hand.
Then the grades 5 – 7 went to have some more 'river time' and grade 8 – 9 went to play volleyball. I found this one of the biggest challenges of the trip because I have never played volleyball in my life. Afterwards we had a great time trying to catch crabs [at the river]. Some of us wanted to hold them so I went to try but it took quite a lot of time as it was scary and freaky. Finally I held one, but it was small, but I don’t care, at least I held it and even let it crawl on my hand. The boys found this really cool, but weird crab, that had one pincer really big and one small. We tried an experiment and put a tadpole in with the crab and the crab chased the tadpole. Some of us went to the river where I built a dam. We went to what they call “Snake Island” and the teacher caught us!
For supper we had pancakes and chocolate or syrup sauce (yummy). After free time we went to the main sitting room and a man talked about being 'born again'. There was a piano, guitar, violin and bass guitar so we also did some singing and I really enjoyed Sunday night. Today was a much needed rest time as tomorrow we shall be having sport, games, and other things, which I look forward to with anticipation and worry.
Day 4
Monday started with the early morning swim at 06.10. The water looked too cold and the expressions on people’s faces didn’t help. I eventually got in and I was freezing. This was not as bad as I had expected, the water was cold though, cold enough to numb your feet. For this reason I did not feel the cold at all. This was really not bad at all. Although when you cannot move, let alone feel your feet, it is time to get out. After that we had some hot chocolate and a big fire to comfort us.
We had breakfast and then warmed up for capture the flag or ride bicycles with Mr Poidevin. The two teams were team Canada and team England. After capture the flag I was tired but we did have a break to rest. In break we got changed for football and basketball. In football we played well but our goal keeper was a bit sloppy. Sakeji played well and beat us 4 – 0. Next was basketball. We hadn’t really practiced so we were very weak. They ended up beating us 50 – 4. We lost both games but we had lots of fun. [Girls played Netball and Football] When we started we weren’t doing so well, as Sakeji were just scoring one after the other. After half time we did better, but still didn’t score, so it was 12 – 0. We did lose but I still had fun. In football we started the game and were doing very badly at first cause we were just blank, we hadn’t played in a long time and we had forgotten most of the rules. We didn’t score and we did better in the second half but still lost 8 – 0. We had lunch at river that day. For lunch we had rice, a kind of beef stew, squash and green beans. It was delicious. Afterwards we went to have a quiet time down by the river in which me and Kunda went to go and make a sand castle. After lunch we had a rest hour but really it was rest half hour. I was with Zozo, Mweetwa and Niomi. After rest hour we had swim time to relax. Next we came to my favourite activity on Monday. We went on the 'flying fox' that went from the top of an anthill all the way to the deep end of the swimming pool at which point you jump off into ice cold water. I was terrified at first and even considered not doing it but I am very, very glad I did because it was SO FUN! There was no time for second jumps as we were off to play ultimate Frisbee. It was students against staff and staff stuffed us.
We sat outside for supper and had a hotdog with a thin pie like thing, salad, packet of crisps and a bar one. It was really nice. In the evening we finished off Toy Story 2 and then we had to say goodbye to all our Sakeji friends. We all had a turn at saying what we enjoyed about our time there and then hugged each other goodbye. I made a lot of good friends there which I will REALLY miss. And then it was a good bye section and Mr Towse asked us what we enjoyed the most together and there was lots of things said. I will never forget the Sakeji trip, especially making new friends.
Day 5
On Tuesday we woke up really early and for breakfast we had normal cereal, toast and rice cakes. We went back to the rooms and checked everything and got on the bus and left Sakeji. The trip home was shorter and this trip to Sakeji was the best ever. Anyone who didn’t go missed out on a lot of fun things.
This was my second trip to Sakeji but I was still mind blown and in awe of the school and its beautiful but remote location. My favourite part was the zip line into the pool because I loved every second of that little ride.
There is not much to write about today (5) except this reminds me of the Amborski’s song ‘Bumpy Roads’. Like the trip on our arrival only worse as I finished my book and have nothing left to do. We are making good time and expect to arrive at Chingola around 16.45. I really loved this trip to Sakeji and rather than lounge around all day this is the best use for a long weekend anybody could think of. I shall cherish the memories forever.
When we got back I felt like the Hobbit coming home after a long adventure in distant lands, though mine only lasted for four days.
Once again I would like to thank everyone for this trip. THANK YOU.
Photo gallery....
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| Still enjoying the 12 hour ride? |
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| Zengamina Tour - the stock pen |
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| Zengamina Visitors Centre |
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| The Turbine House |
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| Turbine (orange), Gearbox (white) and Generator (green) |
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| The rock with 'sand paper' texture |
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| Exploring the rapids |
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| Tubing and swimming |
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| Swimming in the Zambezi? |
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| Chebo on the pool slide |
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| Bench ball in the hall |
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| Bible Quiz - Jeopardy |
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| Grade 8 + 9's volleyball |
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| Sakeji 'river time' |
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| Crab catcher Caitlin |
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| Mr Ronald and Sakeji boys |
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| Mr J and P Towse on the early morning swim |
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| Recovering with hot chocolate |
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| River 'rest hour' |
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| Samuel on the water slide |
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| Tinashe on the Flying Fox |
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| Keysha on the Flying Fox |
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| Goodbyes in the main sitting room |
