Hayden, John and Anne - Tanzania
Hayden main pagePrayer Update February 2006
Bishop John's February newsletter from Kiteto
Life here in Kiteto is very hard at present. The rains have failed and we are in famine conditions. Next week we hope all the pastors will be able to come and we can give each of them 100,000/- (50UKpounds) that should last them three months. The problem is that food is about five times the normal cost and it is not easily available.
The government is sending some food to favoured villages but it is a drop in the ocean.
The famine has many effects one is that we only have a quarter of our normal student level. No one can afford fees and some not even the bus fare to reach us. We are keeping going but feel for those who are stuck in their villages.
Because there were a couple of showers of rain that contaminated many of the water supplies and now Cholera is around. Yesterday I drove up a mountain track to bring down a man who had been tiling our bathroom last week. The clinic here thought he may have Cholera so he was sent to the place they have put aside for such patients. The problem is that if he does not have it he is likely to get it now and they do not have proper treatment. So far they have not shut down the college as we now have a good system to avoid such problems but our tanks are dry and the students go to the contaminated river for washing water.
In the summer I baptized twins for pastor Amos Sausi. Just before I returned one of them had died. He had taken it to Kongwa where there is a reasonable hospital. Now the other twin is ill. We have been able to give him food and other help through one of our supporters taking a sponsorship up for him and that family. Sadly even extra funds do not always solve the major problem we have here.
It will be impossible to help the vast number around us. Angelina came to the door the other day. She had a two week old child and three others at home. She said she had no food for a long while. As some visitors were here they gave her some maize flour that would see her through the day. The people of Efeso sent to us yesterday a cripple we had helped by providing a wheel chair in the hope we would give help but sadly we had to just give him his fare home.
Once word gets out there is food here we will be bankrupt in a day. That will mean we have to send all students home and stop all other church work. So becoming a feeding centre is just not practical unless we have vast sums of money like a major UN operation.
In spite of the severe living conditions the people here are determined we should keep going forward and use the money as allocated by our donors. So here is an update.
The UK committee allocated UKpounds1,500 towards building of an English medium Keystage 1 (4-7 yrs) at KCC.
This morning we marked out the foundations and it should be finished in about a month. At present we will build one classroom but if we can find the funds we will build two or the complete school, three and a small office.
The KCC board met and decided Rose Chilenge should run this school with the help of John Ndaiga and Kulwa. At present they have only one class but numbers will soon increase.
As the new buildings come into use the present room will become a dormitory and Kulwa will be the matron. Until then any borders can use the girl's dormitory that during the famine has plenty of room.
We thought very hard how we could help the pastors in this time of famine. They are dependent on the church collections which go down to a few pence as people struggle to survive. So we are going to offer to all pastors with children of the above age that they can come and receive education and free board. The funds we have in the Pastor's children account are not enough but we believe they will come in.
By this plan we start the pastors' children on a high education level and also take from them the burden of feeding a very vulnerable age group.
To some it might seem strange young children boarding but life here is different and many children do not live with their parents. The feeling here is that the children will be overjoyed with lots of friends and a lovely place to live. Please pray about this.
Pastors' houses remain a priority. When I see the pastors next week I will work out with them a plan of action so that in the next two years we can have all houses up to a basic standard. A generous gift has come in to enable us to do that and we are ready to go. It will mean that we can give some wages in the villages to those working on the houses and so indirectly help with famine relief.
We have created a team of Dani who build the Cathedral and compound here and Sefuni who has been our cook and supply officer. They will go from place to place carrying out the work. This week they will go to Kijungu to put the roof on a 4-7 yr (keystage 1) school - funding from a church in California, put the windows in the pastors house at Lesoit, put roofs on a keystage 1 school at Leng'atei - help from a school in Meols, and, after five years of waiting for funds promised from Germany, the roof on a church at Olkitikiti. Sefuni has a small motor bike so they can travel from site to site making sure all is well. The last two days have been spent with the hardware store - Seuta - working out exact quantities because when they get there they have to have everything or it is a 140 mile round trip to get even small items like nails.
Help is the house is now being done by Wema Lucas. Her mother is the evangelist/ full time church worker for Kibaya town parish. We were lacking in scholarship money for students - not all ten promised have so far been funded - so Mary Sisanjo asked her to leave the college. Unfortunately Wema - a 16 year old - rebelled and took a job as a hostess in a Muslim bar. Hopefully she has not got into too much trouble and ended up with HIV. We decided that even if we did not have the money she needed to be brought back so now she attends two thirds of the lessons and helps in the house. She seemed keen to return so maybe she has learnt a lesson. The famine and debt are big problems leading to prostitution and HIV spread.
Since we opened the Cathedral the beginning of November the two congregations here in Kibaya have doubled. So the town church has built up to its former level and the Cathedral congregation is growing rapidly. This is a major matter of praise as we did not want the Cathedral to take people away from St Philips. Now they are each serving their catchment area.
Tomorrow I drive for nine hours to Dar es Salaam to pick up an American to lead the Pastors' seminar, see the High Commissioner and staff, enable Peter Mkengi to try and get his UK visa to come in May, Mary to push for the government registration of the College and Anna to get supplies for the needlework department. So we will have a vehicle full and hope to do plenty of useful work before driving back the next day. Such is life here.
Pray for us it is very hard.
John