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Some events which were of special significance at Chengelo...
CLIMBING UP TO THE CROSS
Chengelo was overlooked by a hill. One easter the school had carried a cross up to the top of the hill and it was left there. If the staff couldn't think of any better activity for a Saturday afternoon then we were likely to walk up to the cross. At one stage Mr Solomon decided it would be a good idea that we made a defined path up the hill so he had pupils getting up early in the morning and going up the hill to beat out the path. There were some great memories from being up by the cross. It was great view and several times we had gone up at 4am and watched the sunrise - an amazing site. When the school farewelled Mr Solomon we all secretly climbed up at night and hid and then surprised him when he got to the top. We had a bonfire and sang all the classic bonfire songs.
FIRE-DRILLS
At the sound of a continous noise (whether it be car horn, banging on plate or siren) all students are to assemble in the roundabout. We had an elaborate system where each student was part of a group of 5. We sat in lines around the circle, if everyone in your group was there then you sat down. If someone was missing then the leader continued standing and reported the missing person. Firedrills took place at any part of the day or night, the worst I remember was 5am. We all piled out in our pyjamas and duvets - but we were slow, we only got there in less than 3 minutes. I seem to remember the goal time being under a minute (and yes we were timed). At least we were pretty sure that no one would be missed in a real fire.
THE RUN
Every Saturday morning the whole school was required to go on a run. We had several different runs ranging in length from 3km - 10km. There was no way to get out of this and some mornings we were timed. A much hated part of the week. One week a fair amount of the pupils had diahorrea and protested that they couldn't go on the run, so instead all those students who had diahorrea had to run around the roundabout for half an hour.
HEROES & UNITY CAMPING
This holiday weekend in May each year had the entire school going camping. This was camping Zambian style. There were few tents, no mattresses, no toilets, no gas burners. We dug our own toilet areas. We built shelter out of old branches. All our food was cooked on campfires. We slept straight on the ground. Oh and there were no showers either. Even so these were great occasions. Camp concerts always produced some great acts - we had some amazingly talented musical students and plenty of comedians. Singing round a bonfire remains one of my great loves. Mr Solomon also enforced a policy which meant we left no effect on where we had been camping. All fireplaces covered over. Leaves scattered etc, no sign we'd been there.
Lantana
This noxious weed with rather pretty flowers was the bane of our life. Sometimes pulling out lantana was reserved as a punishment for those on detention; other times it was something the whole school participated in on a Saturday afternoon. Ironically in New Zealand lantana is actually sold in plant shops, every time I see it though I want to pull it out.
SATURDAY NIGHT VIDEOS
This was our treat for the week. Often the only multimedia we saw at all. All videos were screened by staff before shown and it was unlikely that anything with a rating higher than PGR would be shown. Some of the films I remember seeing were 'Beauty & the Beast', 'Strictly Ballroom', 'Star Wars' amongst others of lesser quality. As the generator went off at 10pm the video normally finished around 9:30pm so we could all get to hostels in before we lost all power.
THE ROAD
To get to Chengelo was a mission. The road was like most Zambian roads, full of potholes! (though I hear it has been resurfaced and is much better now). Consequently there was a back road...which was much longer in kilometers but in time was about the same.
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