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The Grade 7 field trip to the Lower Zambezi was, once again, a successful one despite having to cut it short by one day thanks to the pontoon across the Kafue River being
closed for essential repairs. We were assured by the engineers that the pontoon would only be
out of service from Saturday morning. We arrived at mid-day on Friday with our tired and dusty children to find the pontoon out of the water.
Fortunately, Mr McCarter has a
wonderfully easy to launch boat, and the school busses were waiting on the opposite bank - with our lunch! Mr McCarter ferried Mrs Parsons, Mr Eksteen, Mrs Coleman and
the 26 children across the river in groups, bringing Mrs Parsons back with the lunch. Once we waved our happy
bunch off, the adults turned around and headed for the challenging Leopards Hill Road and a very long detour home
- but that is another story.
Fishing was challenging with the Chongwe River the highest it has been for many years. But on a positive note, the weather was warm and there were sightings of leopard and lion as well as a number of elephant, some with very young calves at foot, as well as,
amongst other game, buffalo, waterbuck, kudu and the ever abundant impala.
Matobo Vet Centre has
provided 8 pairs of binoculars for use on the trip. These made a
huge difference to the childrens interest in bird and animal sightings.
It is so much better when you can see the defining markings clearly!
A lesson in the care and proper use of binoculars should hopefully
protect parental equipment in the future too.
Once again, Musikili Primary
School humbly thanks the entire team as well as the generous people who
donated items and equipment. Thank you!
Click on the picture below to see some of the photographs.
What the children
said:
When we went to Chongwe
everything was lovely but three things I liked the most where the boat
rides especially on the first day we had a ride on the Zambezi with Mr.
McCarter and Mr. Coxe. I also liked getting splashed in the water when we
went for birds and threes and the third thing I liked was doing ecology
and art because it was by the falls!
Mwenzi Banda
Chongwe was fun but there
was can only be one best. During Chongwe the best part was watching all
the skits. Watching Vundu and Chessa was really funny; they did completely
different things but were hilarious. It came to my groups turn the tigers
and was a complete mess up it looked like we had no idea what we were
doing because there are no hobos in the bush. But all in all it was still
a fun night filled with laughter! I hope in the years to come they will
have as much fun as us!!
Namitasha Muma.
My favourite thing about
Chongwe was when we were learning about how to treat an injured person who
has broken their leg or who cannot breathe, but the best part was when we
told Mrs. Danckwerts to go and run for help and she pretended to sprint!
Raoul Patel
Chongwe was very exciting
and I think it was the best school trip at Musikili. My highlight of the
trip was the boat ride with Mr. McCarter. We saw lots of birds and even a
leopard. On the way back we saw elephant right next to the camp. When we
got back nobody believed us. The first night we had a very nice supper, we
had to cook our own steak and sausage I must admit, mine was very nice.
Overall we had a fantastic time.
Sean Hinmers.
Chongwe trip the thing I
liked the most was the game drives with Mr. Taylor and Mr. McDougall with
mammals , I learnt so much on butterflies it was so interesting and on all
sorts of animals. At breakfast at the river it was fun.
Our group, Chessa, went on
another game drive with Mr. and Mrs. Parsons and did birds and trees .We
saw so many birds and learnt where how they live and to tell what the tree
name is also what animal lives off it, it was amazing how many species of
bird you can find in one place. And during the morning we saw three lions
and in the afternoon a big herd of elephant and buffalo.
Christine Lindsay
During Chongwe the thing I
loved the most, although it was extremely difficult to decide, was the
population of elephant and how calm most of them were. Fortunately we came
across impala rams fighting which was truly amazing. One really cool
thing was when we came across a fresh impala being eaten by a massive croc
and an angry herd on the other bank. On the last day we had skits and our
group (Tiger fish) hadn’t practiced!! Unfortunately the other teams were
outstanding, and we didn’t even know what we were doing.
But all in all I had a great
time and hope the guys younger than us have a great time too.
Keean Eksteen
My favourite things at
Chongwe was the awesome food, swimming at the water, seeing the leopard,
watching the crocodile doing a cool death roll to an impala and seeing a
fish eagle snatch meat out the croc’s mouth.
Simon Taylor
I think we all enjoyed
Chongwe very much. When we were there we saw lots of elephants and lots of
baby ones too. It was really nice to see so many elephants. The Chongwe
was really fun for us. The food was really good. The braai was really good
and I enjoyed the steak and the marshmallows.
Gustav du Plessis.
My best thing about Chongwe
was spotting the Leopard and it seems that it was young and it looks like
it had left its mother but never too sure. I also really enjoyed the food.
My other great thing was watching people get duck tape rapped round their
heads for not wearing their hats. We also saw lions, two lionesses and one
male.
Travis Landing
My best thing at Chongwe
was the boat rides. Mr McCarter and Mr Coxe were in charge of the boat
rides. I had so much fun especially with Mr Coxe. The Chessa group went on
a boat ride we were going slowly, and a tsetse fly suddenly stung Mr
Coxe. Before that we all had a small dip, so we were so wet and that same
silly tsetse fly wanted to sting everybody. We were all jumping around.
That was so much fun.
We were all laughing at Mr
Coxe. It was AWESOME.
Faheema Bhagoo
My favourite thing at
Chongwe was trees and birds it was so fun with Mr and Mrs Parsons we
started our trip by boat which Mr McCarter drove us in his wonderful
boat. After that we jumped in the vans and off we went on our way. We
stopped to talk about the baobab which they say is about 1000 to 1700
years we also saw the rain tree which had some wonderful leaves. We saw
the Musikili tree and went for long jump. Thanks Mr and Mrs Parsons it was
a wonderful trip hope next year’s grade sevens have as much fun.
Cheepa Mulendema
My favourite part about
Chongwe? Was seeing a young female Leopard. She was sitting on the edge
water having a drink. The other thing was looking for torch wood fruit in
elephant dung! And having a running race with Mrs Parsons. The food was
BRILLANT.
Christopher Higgins
My favourite part of Chongwe
was learning first aid. It was very interesting. I learnt a lot about how
to help someone when they are hurt, when they are not breathing and when
they are bleeding lots, like something has attacked them or if they have
fallen down and a rock has cut them open. I also learned how to help
someone who has a broken neck, and he/she is not breathing.
Laura Pinkney
My favourite part of Chongwe
was the birds and trees lesson because we saw lots of animals and had lots
of fun on the game drives with Mr. and Mrs. Parsons. We had a long drive
and long day but it was cool. Mr. and Mrs. Parsons taught us a lot and for
you grade sixes that are going to be at Musikili in 2011 enjoy Chongwe and
have fun!!!!
Chisanga Nseluka
My favourite thing about
Chongwe was the awesome food and the wonderful game we saw, I also like
the fun activities and my favourite of all was shooting the dart gun I
really enjoyed myself, another thing I liked was the boat ride up to the
confluence where the Chongwe and the Zambezi join. I also liked the group
activities such as the mammals.
Luke Duckett.
My favourite thing about
Chongwe was when we did art. My team and I made Stonehenge out of big
rocks. It took some time to think of something to do but we finally got an
idea. At first we tried to do the Zambian flag then we tried to do a
village. We decided to do the Stonehenge.
Sibongile Nyirenda
My favourite thing about
Chongwe was the birds and trees drive/talk with doctors Parsons
It was fun, educational and
we learned a lot! We saw some really pretty birds such as the lilac
breasted roller. (That’s one of my favourites).
Angela Selicato
My favourite thing at
Chongwe was seeing the croc eating an impala and then a fish eagle came
down and took it. Breakfast, swimming in the Chongwe, the food, seeing a
huge herd of buffalo. Trees and birds was also fun.
Craig Stow
My favourite thing was
learning Ecology I never knew what it was until going to Chongwe it is the
study of small insects. We went into the river (the part where there no
crocs) to pick up stones and under the stones are small insects we studied
the insects through microscopic readings and identified what type of
insect or larvae it is.
Shreejee Nayee
My favourite time at Chongwe
was when we went on the mammals trip.
I personally love wildlife
and it is wonderful to see them in the bush were they are supposed to be!
We saw some animals, my favourite were the lions and the elephants except
there were elephants all over the place and a lot of impala!
By Savannah v d Heever
My favourite part about
Chongwe was the lessons at the waterfall. In art we could build whatever
we wanted to and the sound of the water was very serene and peaceful. Then
we had ecology and looked at little bugs through microscopes, now I see
where the movies get their aliens and monsters!!!!!!!!
Coralie Richardson
My Favourite thing at
Chongwe was fishing and me about to catch a big one but it escaped. Mr
McCarter is I think the best fisherman ever he teaches you things you will
ever know and with his favourite word BLIM FISH! (Bream fish)
Lawrence Sikutwa
My trip to Chongwe was
really fun and I learned a lot. We were learning about birds and trees
with Mr and Mrs Parsons they were really fun teachers. It was really hot
so they took as to the river and Mr Parsons said we have to wash the car
we all got out and started to wash the car and Mr Parsons wet all of as it
was really fun.
Fareedah Bhagoo
When we got to Chongwe my
best part was seeing a female lion crossing the road it was a fantastic
experience. I personally loved the atmosphere and it was a great feeling
seeing a wild lion. We saw a pride of lion again in the heart of the huge
thicket. I loved Chongwe and hope in future I will be given another chance
to go to the small river by the mighty Zambezi.
Michael Ford |
What is the
Chongwe trip?
The grade 7 trip is the
highlight of many pupils time at Musikili. The children spend 5
nights camping on the banks of the Chongwe River supervised by an
extremely
experienced group of adults. Some of the children have
never been out into the bush, seen elephant or hippo, or felt the
thrill of catching a fish.
Conservation, ecology, science, art, survival skills,
history ... these are just a few of the subjects
covered during this excursion. The children are divided into small
groups and each group spends a morning with the mammal team, the tree and
bird specialists or the fishing experts.
The
afternoons are spent looking down microscopes and discovering the
wonderful world of microscopic creatures, learning the basics of first aid, creating artistic
masterpieces using only what they find on the banks of the river, the list
just goes on and on.
Campfire tales, singalongs and
wonderful food all ensure that a class of very tired children creep into
their tents for the night, perhaps to dream about what they have seen and
what new discovery tomorrow holds.
The Musikili community is very lucky to have a number of dedicated
professionals willing to give up their time to share some of their vast
knowledge as well as generous individuals who uncomplainingly lend trucks
and equipment, donate numerous necessary items, bake biscuits (and
Yorkshire puddings), provide crates of bananas and generally help make
this the wonderful success it has been for over 20 years.
Security is the number one issue in all the supervisors' and teachers'
minds. The camp fence is electrified and there are always adults not
involved in the activity at hand keeping a wary lookout.
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