Christmas is a time when we remember the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins, but OUR CORRESPONDENT, instead of observing the day accordingly, went on a mischievous adventure on Christmas eve that nearly cost his life. He now warns his fellow youth to guard against the dangers of immoral conduct. Hear what happened to him…

MY name is Bwechi Kamalata (not real name)  and I come from Mandevu compound in Lusaka. I am a father of two and the fourth born child in a family of nine.
The family I come from is very poor, but I would say I have attained middle class status for my nuclear family.
It was in 1998 while doing my Grade Nine that I almost died due to my carelessness. This happened as we were about to celebrate Christmas. During this Christmas, like any other, celebrations were characterised by the playing of loud music from various stereo musical systems- Sony, Sharp, Tobi-you name it.
Strangely, it was a time when adolescents, like me, felt they could have fun with different kinds of girls. At the time I was living with my father, my step-mother, two uncles  (one was the brother to my step-mother; the other, the last born in my father’s family), three of my young brothers and two sisters.
At this time, sadly, we had already lost my second born brother who died in 1993, while he was doing Grade Seven.
Our first born, a lady, had just eloped with a certain man.
In addition, the third born was taken; I would not say adopted by someone who was renting one of our apartments so that he could be helping with some household chores.
Now all three are late, and now I’m  the ‘first born’ (if you see what I mean) with only young brothers and sisters.
Back to the story; this Christmas eve we were celebrating was no different from the other events of the past. As per tradition, I thought I needed female company on that particular eve.
At our neighbour’s house, there was a girl who had just visited them and that was the one I targeted.
Her name was Tikambenji (not real name) and she had a niece by the name of Temwani (not real name).
Unfortunately, on that particular eve, my dad was broke and it seemed to him unnecessary for us to play music. I tried to convince him to allow us play music even though there was no beer, but he refused, insisting that he wanted to rest so we should rest too.
This did not sit well with us because we had colleagues who would buy us Chibuku beer in 20-litre containers which I reckoned would be enough for the night.
However, our next door neighbour who was accused of being a witch by a cross section of the neighbourhood had a sitting tenant. It was at this tenant’s place where loud music was being played for the occasion. Many boys and girls thronged the place for their Christmas eve.
This turned out to be a very good hunting ground for me. And so, when I ventured out there, I found my target- Tikambenji with the niece.
I enticed both of them to come with me to our house and, luckily, they obliged without any resistance. When we reached the house, my father’s home, we sat outside on the veranda.
There, we started caressing each other and I was touching both of them.
After 01:00 hours, my father was fast asleep and, like a mad person, I sneaked Tikambenji into to the house, leaving the niece outside. We straight away went to my bedroom and we discovered each other intimately.
A shocker was waiting in store. When we just finished the act, I noticed that something bad had happened with my body!
This was the beginning of my problems. I quickly rushed outside to the tap and washed myself with tap water thinking it could solve the problem. The following day I woke up at around 10:00 hours and started going through what just happened.
It was now Christmas day and, for me, it was turning  out to be a nightmare as my reflection on what had happened during the early hours of that day lingered.
After about three days, I started feeling bad as if malaria was about to attack me. I took some chloroquine which was a famous malaria cure. It did not work, I tried panadol, but to no avail either.
By the time we were approaching new year, I was seriously sick. I had stopped eating; the only thing I did was sleeping from morning till dawn. As we entered the new year- 1998-I was completely finished.
My body was no longer the same. I had lost so much weight; in short, emaciated, that people who visited me were shocked at how pale and thin I had become. After about a week into the new year, my immediate elder brother who was taken by the former tenant came to visit.
He was surprised that I was dying and no one was even thinking of taking me to a clinic. It was after his visit that the following day my young uncle took me to Matero reference clinic though I could not walk by myself.
My uncle suggested we borrow a wheelbarrow to help carry me to the clinic, but my dad vehemently refused saying I should just try to walk.
Luckily, a certain friend of mine, Bisalom (not real name) showed up  and that’s how I was taken to the clinic while leaning on the shoulders of two people. The medication administered at the clinic did not, however, help even after I finished the entire course.
Instead of improving, my condition only got worse and I stayed for almost a week just sleeping.
After exhausting all possible avenues to find a cure for my ailment, it was decided that we see a prophet.
And it was this lady who performed wonders. She revealed the source of my illness.  The girl I’d slept with that night was suspected to have just terminated her pregnancy!
This pained me because one day as I was going to the clinic I met the same girl and she was equally very sick. I started my Grade Nine after missing at least two months due to the illness.
I thank God that I am still alive and this should serve as a timely warning and lesson to my fellow youth who indulge themselves in illicit activities during the festive season. I was lucky to be healed.  You may not be lucky.
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