South West Tanganyika News
July 2015
Bala Teenagers Milo Bound
Iwan Edwards and Katie Williams, from Bala, are looking forward with excitement to joining Adrian and Hilary
Murray on their September visit to the mountain top community of Milo, Bala’s twin parish in SW Tanganyika.
Iwan and Katie had to raise the cost of their visit and there is also a fund of
about £500 for use in projects while we prepare for the trip and for while we
are there. The group have lightweight cabin baggage for their personal
possessions leaving 30 kg each, 120 kg in total, for the things they intend to
leave in Milo including carpentry tools, books and CDs, craft materials,
embroidery sets, lesson plans and materials, books for the school, three
laptops, two sewing machines, a knitting machine and several sets of football
kit! A kind donor has promised to help if they go over the luggage allowance
and Emirates airline has a special charity rate for extra luggage.
Fund raising in full costume
Hilary expresses her thanks to many the generous donors, including many individuals, the Diocese, Bala Rotary
Club, Bala Football Club, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor in Dolgellau.
Iwan is learning carpentry at Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and his tutors have
been very supportive of him. He recently gave two
presentations to students at the college, gaining
hugely in confidence for the second one! Adrian is
currently joining him two days a week in college as,
with the support of the tutors, they have designed
and made a workbench here so that problems are
ironed out before they arrive in Milo. The church in
The workshop where Iwan and Adrian
Milo intends to set up a carpentry workshop for
will be working in Milo
AIDS orphan boys and Iwan and Adrian will be
building a workbench for them and leaving tools, books and a carpentry course on DVD. The Milo church hopes
to expand this to include a sewing workshop for orphaned girls, which is why we are hoping to take the sewing
and knitting machines.
Katie and Hilary, will be working in the local school. Hilary has just received her TEFL
certificate and will teach an English lesson each
day to Standards 5 and 6. Primary School
education is in Swahili and Secondary School
education is through the medium of English, a
huge jump for the students. Katie is busy
making flashcards and other visual aids.
One of the large Milo classes Katie and
Hilary will be teaching
In the longer term, they hope to teach the
teachers rather than the pupils. Not all the
teachers are qualified or have anything other
than elementary English.
Katie at work in Subway
The headmaster of Ysgol y Berwyn, where both teenagers studied, expressed his delight at knowing what his expupils were doing, so there will be plenty of opportunities for them to speak about their experiences once they
return.
Building School Links
Music Teacher Kathryn Mann will join Mike & Roz Harrison on
their visits to Njombe and Manda in September.
Dosbarth 3 at Ysgol Bodafon pupils have been studying Tanzania
with Mrs Mann for several months. Kathryn hopes to bring back
lots of new music from SW Tanganyika to be part of the schools
autumn programme.
Kathryn will be teaching in St. Mary’s School, Njombe, and Sister
Aneth Mwani has said everyone in St. Mary’s is waiting excitedly
for her visit.
Mike and Roz will be getting to know the new Bishop of SW Tanganyika, Rt. Revd Matthew Mhagama, and exploring
how the two diocese can work together. Bishop Matthew, a native of Zanzibar, has recently completed
postgraduate studies in Islamic Studies in Ethiopia in the hope that better understandings can be achieved between
the different faith communities in East Africa.
New Fishing Boats
Over the past two years, St. Paul’s, Colwyn Bay, have
raised over £2000 to assist the fishermen of Ilela parish on
Lake Nyasa to purchase modern boats with outboard
motors.
The rural parishes of Mathrafal Deanery have also made a
huge effort as have friends in St. Leonard’s parish in the
Dicoese of Gloucester.
Together with a donation
from a private donor and a
grant from the St.Asaph
DBF, a total of £8,500 has
been raised to furnish the
four lakeside communities
with four new fishing
Fishermen at work on the shores
boats to replace the
of Lake Nyasa
dugouts in current use.
Link Parishes
A number of St. Asaph parishes have started to
make links with parishes in SW Tanganyika.
Trees have been planted in Kibena as a result of
support from Gwersyllt.
Tree planters in Kibena
There are beehives
(below), of a slightly
different design, in
Mafinga after a gift
from Llanfyllin.
School Support
St. Mary’s School, Njombe, is building new classrooms
after support from schools in Llanfynydd and Nercwys.
And a thriving
chicken project in
Lunyanwi linked
with Llangollen.