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NEWS FROM TANZANIA
Photos from the May 05 trip (over 300!)
when Christopher Gaster, Dave Duxbury, Bob Simpson, Paul Smith and Graham P. visited
Building progress Girl’s dorm (38pics), New dining room tables and benches (33pics)
The team relaxing (21pics), Groups of Children (18pics), Septic tank (11pics), Various (17pics)
Trip to Bunda/Serengeti (23pics), Individual Children (56pics), Skipping (14pics)
New tiles, shutters, benches and tables for dining room (8pics), Sunrise (109pics)
Cooking and eating outdoors (21pics), Children using new dining room (20pics)
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Photos from the March-April 05 trip (over 100!)
when Graham and Elaine Earnshaw visited with Cathy Riley
Building Progress (8pics), Wigs & hand painting (56pics), Chameleon (87ics)
Schoolwork (16pics) Children singing (13pics), Teamwork (17pics), Water survey (6pics))
Latest groups return: Graham and Elaine Earnshaw together with Cathy Riley returned from their two week trip on Saturday the 2nd April. Cathy had worked with the younger nursery aged children and tasted Bethany for the first time and found the weather a little too hot but never the less intends going on another trip sometime in the future.
Graham and Elaine helped with many different things and also managed to get Bugando hospital in Mwanza to admit Nyangeta for a skin graft. This was due to the fact that the wound where her leg had been amputated was not healing. They also helped the Tanzanian team with numerous issues and visit Bethany again this August.
News from Darwen Moorlands High School: Joanne Davies writes that Rafiki Zetu (the Young Enterprise company - supporting Bethany) has won through to represent Lancashire for the North West competition in June. We wish them well.
(click here for Rafikizetu website)
CHILDREN
New children We now have a total of 76 children and although we are trying hard not to accept any new children at the moment because our accommodation is overflowing and will be until our new dorm is operational two new boys joined in May, Moses and Silas. The local social welfare asked us to take Moses on a temporary basis until they see if they can find somewhere else for him to stay (although this is unlikely). Moses is 16years old (est.) and has never attended school. We have enrolled him at the local primary school and he has joined Standard 3. This means that he will be 20years old before he finishes his primary education (std 7). Silas aged 8years (est) arrived with a local village leader. He told us that he was staying with his grandfather in a village some distance from Bethany (80km) and a neighbour saw how neglected he had become and gave him money to catch a bus to Bethany. The neighbour told him not to say that he was staying with his grandfather but just to mention that his parents were both dead. So far our village leader volunteered to check out his story. We visited the village near Mwanza where his mother and father lived to have his story confirmed (both parents had died and his only relative was his grandfather) by the leaders in the village who formally asked for him to join our family. The Tanzanian team have yet to make a follow up call to visit his grandfather to see if there is a possibility of him returning.
Village Primary School: Over 50 of our children now attend this school which has few resources and although they have received foreign aid to build two new classrooms they don’t appear able to find adequate teaching staff. Some teachers carry a stick with which to beat their pupils some times for very minor offences.
Secondary Education: We now have 9 children attending three different schools. Rehema our oldest girl won a scholarship to attend a government school as did Emmakulata. Both attend different government schools, one local and one some miles away. Our other 7 secondary school children attend a boarding school (for which we have to pay the fees) and we try to bring them home for weekends whenever possible.
Proposed New School: No further developments (no funds!)
Health: We thank God that the children seem extraordinarily well.
Nyangeta: Graham and Elaine had been to the large government hospital in Mwanza to book in Nyangeta for a skin graft to cover her wound (where her leg had been rather badly amputated and left exposed bone which would not heal). Nyangeta was in hospital for over 4 weeks and the hospital decided they would re-amputate the leg several inches higher rather than do a skin graft. Fortunately she is now recovering and the wound is healing. We hope to eventually fix her up with an artificial limb supplied by the same hospital!
(see links at top of page to see pics of the children)
Bethany Choir: The children are as busy as ever practicing their dancing and singing. They are popular with local churches which they visit whenever they can
BUILDING WORK
The new girl’s dormitory: The work continues. The roof is now complete and Dave Duxbury and Bob Simpson helped by Paul Smith have been busy installing the plumbing work for the 6 toilets, 4 hand washbasins and 6 showers. We hope to provide a solar hot water system but so far this refuses to work (we might need to install a small pump to help it circulate). We have also started work on the tiling and the fixing of the ceiling boards. (click here to see the pics)
Septic Tank: The tank is almost complete and is ready for connection. As can be seen from the pictures the tank has concrete reinforced lintels which will hold the 9 concrete reinforced slabs that will cover the top (to stop children from falling in) and also make it very easy to clean out. (click here to see the pics)
Water Tank: Completed
Roof repair dining room extension: Completed
Clothes Washing Area: This has now been completed providing 6 taps, a concrete base and a roof so that washing can be done even when it rains (click here to see the pics).
New Road Sign: Installed
Crop growing: The rainy season is now over and so very little will grow from now on.
Dining room and Kitchen: The floors in both had been very badly laid and needed repairing from time to time. It was decided that in the interests of hygiene it would be better to tile and I am happy to report that the dining room tiling has been completed and the kitchen and food store just need completing. Also the windows had been fitted with the shutters opening inwards which meant they often got in the way of the children sat next to them (when eating their food). They have now been reinstalled with the shutters opening outwards. We also intend to refit the two doors at the end of the dining hall to open outwards to give more room inside and also install two new windows at the end of the hall overlooking the lake to let more natural light in.
(Click here to see the pics)
New Dining Tables and Benches: All those who visited Bethany over recent years will remember the very long tables that had been made for the Bethany dining room. They were far too long to fit in the dining room, very badly made and needed regular repair. As more children joined Bethany we needed tables built and designed to fit the dining hall. The idea was put to Christopher Gaster (carpenter) who had already visited twice before to see if he would be interested in coming for two weeks for this purpose (to make 8 dining tables and 16 benches to fit the dining room - purpose built). Christopher agreed, came and made 8 tables (1 low table for the little children, 3 medium height tables and 4 normal height tables). He also made 16 benches one for each side of the table (different heights to match the tables). Not only that but he repaired all the other tables - cutting some into three and others into two to make them more manageable. All the new tables and benches were made from a teak-like hard wood and cost in total about £400 in timber ( Christopher worked out that the same timber from the UK would have cost about £1,100). Our thanks go out to Christopher who lives in Herefordshire is 40 years old and as yet not married! (Click here to see the pics)
OTHER NEWS
Possible bore hole: Another company has been to do a more scientific survey (as against the man with the divining rods). They have confirmed that there is adequate water around Bethany but they don’t know the quality and the volume available. The cost is over 8million Tanz shillings (£4,000). As yet we have no money for this and are continuing to pump water using our portable petrol pump to our underground tank and them from there to our main water tank through our solar pump. Ideally we would like to drill two bore holes, one by the lake and the other by our storage header tank.
Mains Power: Over the last few years mains power lines have appeared running alongside the road that passes by Bethany. We have pestered the government agency to connect us and we are now told that this may happen within the next three months. This will be a great step forward and hope it will be the start of a new era for Bethany’s development.
Sponsorship - Finance: We are grateful to our faithful supporters who continue to support us. We are pleased to tell you that our monthly income is still about £640 per month. (about a third of the amount we need to maintain the work). We are grateful that other monies come from individuals, schools, churches etc.
Money boxes: You can see from the picture that we have money boxes available.
(click here for more information)
Sponsorship, Supporting Bethany.
Monthly meeting: Our next meeting will be Saturday 9th April 2005. Click here for more details
Tanz staff changes: Eliada has now joined the team
UK team changes: None
Trips planned for 2005:
July- Our next trip is from 19th July to 4th August - those going are:Graham Pountain , Gary Nolan (joinery teacher), Ian Kelly (joinery teacher), Robert Skarratt (joinery student) and David Borland. We are hoping that this team will be able to finish the building work on the new dorm and it will be open by the time they return
August- Graham and Elaine Earnshaw are booked to visit the first two weeks in August and will be there to help organise the use of the new dorm as well as to continue helping the Tanz team with education and health issues
September: A trip by Graham Pountain, Paul Pountain, Rebecca Bell, Stanley and Rhona Burns, David Hitch and Timothy Coles. Still time to join this group if you are considering the possibility of going. The group hope to construct some form of adventure playground and to interact with the children and encourage the use of spoken English.
November trip: Nothing yet planned - please email if you would like to be considered.
Children’s trip to the UK: We are now considering the possibility of a return trip by a group of the children (possibly up to 24) to once again raise the awareness of what is happening at Bethany. We need people who would be prepared to sponsor the visit as the total cost would be approx £27,000. We would not use money donated in the normal way as this is used for the day to day running of Bethany and for specific purposes (e.g. new dorm). If you would like to donate money specifically for the trip please contact me by email for more information.
(click here to email)
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